It was the first warm day of spring, and after a long cold winter you decided to sit outside at your favorite café with a book and some tea. After getting your usual chai latte, you settle into a quiet table and open your kindle. You had a ton of reading to do for school as finals were just a few weeks away, but you decided to re-read your favorite classic Victorian novel, ‘Wuthering Heights.’ You were so engrossed in the love story between Cathy and Heathcliff that you didn’t noticed a bunch of guys sit down at the table next to yours. They were starting to get loud, laughing and, well, being boys. You tried to ignore them, but they were getting on your nerves.
You were about to leave, tired of their ruckus, when one of them slides his chair around so he’s sitting across the table from you. A couple of his friends snicker, and you look up at him, suddenly realizing he’s pretty cute (and kind of looks familiar?) He glances back at his friends, and they laugh and one of them whispers ‘just do it!’ You roll your eyes and wait for him to continue. “Did you get hurt?” He asks with a grin and his friends laugh even louder. “What?” You ask. “When you, um, fell to Earth?” He said, realizing he’d messed up one of the cheesiest pick-up lines. “Are you trying to hit on me?” You ask after his friends’ laugher quieted down a bit. “No, I don’t know, yes but I’m doing it wrong. Let me try again. Is your phone broken?” he asks, and you glance at your phone on the table next to you. “No, why?” “Because it doesn’t have my name in it,” he says, reaching for your phone. “Okay, you almost got that one right,” you reply and he slides your phone across the table to you. “Call me,” he says with a smirk before getting up to leave with his friends.
You get back to your dorm room and try to focus on studying, but after a few hours you give up. “Why does he look so familiar? Do I have a class with him?” You finally check your phone, not at all excepting to find his number in it, but after scrolling for a minute you find a name in your contacts that wasn’t there before. “Brendan Smith?” You say out loud and try to figure out who that is, and decide to google his name. Your eyes get wide and you stop breathing for a second as you try to comprehend that Brendan Smith of the Detroit Red Wings just gave you his number. “It’s probably not his real number,” you think as you scroll through more pictures of him on Tumblr, ‘but there’s one way to find out.’ You carefully type out a text, reading though it a couple of times before sending it: ‘Hey this is (Y/N) from the café.’
He didn’t respond for a couple of hours. ‘Of course, it was a fake number,’ you sigh and continue studying. You were about to give up for the night and head to bed when you get a text: ‘Hey, sorry I didn’t reply earlier we had a game.’ You stare at the text in shock, and realize how stupid you were. Of course he had a game!
‘How’d you guys do?’
Brendan: ‘Eh, we lost’
‘I’m sorry : (
Brendan: ‘You know what could make me feel better?’
‘What?’
Brendan: ‘If you said yes when I asked you out on a date’
‘Really? What kind of date?’
Brendan: ‘Dinner and a movie’
‘Wow, so original. Just like your pick-up lines…’
Brendan: ‘Sorry about that, some of my teammates thought it would be funny if I tried to hit on you, but I didn’t realize you were so beautiful and I messed it all up’
‘Because that was actually kind of sweet, I’ll say yes to the date’
Three days later, after a couple dozen texts between you and Brendan, you are waiting outside of the movie theater for him. He texts you to say he’s going to be late. So you sit on a bench and pull out your kindle while you wait for him. Fifteen minutes later he arrives, a little out of breath. “Hey, sorry about that, practice ran a little longer than I thought it would,” he explains as you line up to buy your tickets. However, when you get to the ticket window, you see that the movie you were going to watch is sold out. “Captain America is open, and starts in ten minutes,” the ticket sales-person suggests. “I haven’t seen the first one, have you,” Brendan asks and you nod. “Okay, maybe you can fill me in on what happened in the first one in the next ten minutes?” He says while buying the tickets. “I can try,” you laugh and dive into an ultra concentrated recap of Captain America and the Avengers and everything else he might need to know.
After the movie he still had a few questions as you walked to the restaurant. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you every little detail about Steve Roger’s complicated relationship with Bucky Barnes,” you say jokingly after you are seated. “No, it’s fine. I should be apologizing for being late, or for not knowing how to use a pick-up line properly. I should have gotten you flowers, right? I knew I was forgetting something,” he shakes his head. “Maybe you could get me flowers next time?” You suggest and his face lights up. “Next time? So you want to go on another date with me?” He asks incredulously. “Yes, even though you were late and didn’t get me f lowers. I wasn’t expecting flowers anyway,” You laugh and he blushes. “And, maybe we can watch the first Captain America?” You add, and you both smile. “Sounds like a plan,” he says.
-Lila
