The Fifth Date

Chapter 22

        I was sipping on my Americano when the door opened and jingled as the cold February wind rushed itself in. I almost choked on my coffee as I burnt my tongue when I saw you there standing, grinning. You threw me a satisfied nod as you slowly walked towards the counter.

What on earth were you doing here?

I haven’t even done my countdown yet.

You were way too early.

        I just sat there, holding my cup, watching you, eyeing you from your red beanie, to your black jacket, to your jeans and down to your shoes. You grabbed a wallet form your back pocket, got out a bill, and placed it back. You glanced at me and I just stared at you. I didn’t know how to react. Maybe because you really looked attractive and charming and affable and totally out of my league. I don’t have to tie my hair up to know that I’m just rubble for a girl and I have to stop this madness before it ruins me or both of us. I tried to place the cup down gently through trembling hands.

“Hey.” You said as you took the seat in front of me, taking your jacket off and hanging it on the chair. You had a v-neck white shirt on.

“What are you doing here?” I tried not to look at your collarbones which seemed really appealing, by the way.

You raised your brows and shrugged, “Weren’t we supposed to –“

“You’re not supposed to be here until 9.” I didn’t know why I was starting to get upset.

        You stared at me, trying to gauge me up. You opened your mouth but closed it again. I noticed you didn’t have your bag with you. You won’t be drawing—sketching the time away, but will probably be spending two freaking hours, trying to engage my sore being into a conversation or something like that.

         I now knew why I was upset. I was panicking because my speech wasn’t supposed to be out til two hours. I was panicking because I might not be able to tell you what I have to tell you if you continue being affably charming for the next two hours and be completely oblivious about it. I was panicking because there’s a big possibility that this will compose of long conversations and not just plain small awkward talks. It’ll be long awkward and face-palming conversations. I was panicking because I couldn’t control but just swoon at your presence. I was panicking because you were smiling, eyes disappearing into slits, perfect white teeth on display, and a hypnotizing smell of cologne whiffed through my nose. I was greatly upset because of all these panicking.

“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t bailing out on me,” You smiled sheepishly as you lightly tapped your forefinger on the table.

Now, I felt guilty because I was really thinking of bailing out without an explanation as an option.

“I know. That’s why I came here early.”

 I flinched and stared at you. I did not just say my thought out loud, once again.