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Chapter 5 - The Date

The next morning, despite having been up late the previous night, I was up and at it early in the morning. Five in the morning, to be exact. When Caz found me awake and humming at eight in the morning, he stared at me, before slowly asking,

"Did you ever sleep last night?"

"I did," I laughed, gently kicking the table, "I just woke up really early. I'm super excited!"

Caz turned on the kettle, before sitting down next to me and gently saying,

"I get your excitement. That moment before going on a big date, it's just... exciting and scary, all at once. Did I get your current state right?"

I nodded excitedly, before adding,

"And I'm also excited because I'm thinking of things that I can get for her as a gift! I'm thinking a book of sapphic poetry, although I think flowers are easier to find, so I'm going with that! Does that sound good? I think it sounds good, but I want reassurance."

"I think it sounds good," Caz replied. We sat in relative silence until the kettle went off, and more silence as Mr. Mesji and Miri came downstairs. It was comfortable, and warm, and I rested in that quiet feeling until I went off to get ready for the date. 

Getting ready clothing-wise was easy. Getting ready emotionally was not. After I was all dressed and ready to go, the existential dread set in, and suddenly Emersyn went from my dream girl, to a potential time bomb of threats and insults.

"What if the things that I get her are cheesy?" I nervously asked Miri for the ninth time in a row, anxiously checking out the outfit that I had chosen, "What if she hates my outfit? What if she never wanted to go on a date with me in the first place and this was a practical joke gone way too far?"

Miri sighed, and said,

"Stella, for the last time, Emersyn is a good person. She won't hate the things you get her. She won't hate what you wear. She most definitely isn't pulling a prank on you. And you really, really, really need to take a few breaths. I don't think I've seen you take one singular breath beyond the purpose of talking during these last five minutes."

At that moment, I let out a long sigh, which I had barely realized I was holding in.

"Thanks for the reminder," I laughed, "That was... definitely something I needed to do."

Caz quickly ran into the room, and asked,

"Hey Stella, you know what else you have to do?"

I laughed, looking at his eager face.

"What? What else do I have to do?"

Caz shoved me towards the door, and exclaimed,

"You have to leave!"

As I was frantically attempting to keep up with his (very fast) pace of pushing me towards the door, I checked the time and replied,

"Caz, my date doesn't start for another hour and a half! I have time, I have time!"

"No you don't!" Caz replied, before dropping his voice and saying, "I ordered you a bouquet for Em. It's at the Haverfield Florist, across the street from Em's bakery. It's daffodils, roses, and violets, I was going to refer to the Sappho poem but I thought that dill might seem to be a weird touch. It's got ribbon in it that's in the pan pride flag colors, and the pickup for that is in an hour, although you might want to be there a little earlier!"

"Why did you-" I began, only to be interrupted with Caz's response of,

"You're young, you're dumb, and you're broke! Go have fun on your date, this was the least I could do to help you out! Have fun!"