Oh, Dakota

34- Beneath Your Beautiful

“Don’t be nervous.”

“I’m nervous.”

“Stop it.”

“I can’t!”

“You have to. Stop. Being. Nervous.” Nikki demanded with a small laugh as I finished up my makeup.

“You’re supposed to be nervous on first dates, aren’t you?” I defended pathetically.

“Sure, sometimes,” She agreed. “But this is Braeden we’re talking about, so there is no reason to be nervous at all. Just calm down because he’ll be here any second. You can’t be shaking in your cheesecake.”

“How do you know that we’re going to have cheesecake? Did he tell you where he was taking me?”

“No,” Nikki giggled. “It was just an example. He didn’t tell you where he’s taking you?”

I shook my head in the negative. “Nope, and that’s okay, it’s romantic and everything, but it’s also seriously killing me.”

“You’ll be fine,” She giggled.

“I’m freaking out,” I stuttered. “I know it’s hard to tell by how totally cool I’m acting, but on the inside, I’m seriously freaking out.”

“Really? You seem totally cool to me,” She laughed sarcastically. “Look, just be yourself because he obviously already likes you and if you’ve told the story correctly, then he already loves you, so you’re totally good.”

“He did say that,” I breathed. “I mean, I kind of said it first but yeah, he did say that. You’re right, this will be fun.”

“Totally,” Nikki grinned just as I heard the front door opening downstairs. “And that sound means that your date is here.”

“Right,” I croaked, listening to my dad greet Braeden at the door, so I did one last self-conscious look in the mirror before saying goodbye to Nikki and hurrying down the hallway. When I was passing Owen’s room, though, somebody was coming out at the same time that I was going past, and we ran into each other. I was about to teasingly yell at Owen for running into me, but when I looked up, I saw that it was Todd standing there.

“Whoa,” He muttered, looking me up and down in my simple black and gold dress.

“I didn’t know that you were here,” I muttered softly as I started walking away again.

“Where are you going?” He called curiously.

“Out,” I replied vaguely.

“Like out on a date?” He wondered with raised eyebrows. “You look like you’re going on a date.”

“I am,” I sighed loudly. “Is that okay with you?”

“You’re being sarcastic.”

“Was it that obvious?” I wondered.

“Who is it?” Todd asked me.

“A guy named None of Your Business,” I replied snottily. “Have a nice night, Todd.”

 I carefully trotted down the stairs and hoped that my dad wasn’t being completely and totally threatening or scary because I knew how intimidating he could be to the guys when he was being all protective.

“Bring her home by two,” He was saying as I came downstairs where Braeden was standing by the door while my dad berated him, unfortunately.

“Yes sir,” Braeden responded quickly.

“Daddy, we gotta get going, we have reservations,” I lied quickly just to save Braeden the stress of dealing with my overprotective father who I loved very much.