The Way Love Changes You; Book One: Love's Firsts

6/VI: Lunch "Date," Part Two

~Indy Serenity~

Friday, August 16, 2019

The lunch was more of a delight than I expected it to be. The many laughs we shared. The wonderful conversations about our interests. All of it. We even shared a few bites. Avella grew kinda fond of the jerk tofu I fed to her. Though, I could barely finish my pizza because the slices were about the size of my head. Avella managed to eat three of her slices, while I was almost done with my second. We both asked for small boxes to store our remaining slices.

As the bill came, I grabbed it quickly before Avella could take a peek. "What?" she said, smiling. "I know you said that you're paying, but I just wanna see how much everything was!"

"Don't even worry about it," I replied. "It's not that bad. Trust me. It was a very smart idea to share a pie over getting two different ones. I wouldn't have minded that since I have more than enough, but I loved sharing it with you."

She was so happy when I said that, but her cheeks flushed a bit. "Likewise. I really enjoyed this. We should do this again sometime."

"I would love that very much..." We both just sat and smiled into each other's eyes until our waitress came back to take my payment. Since I have more money on me than I had intended, I gave her a generous tip. She was so adamant on taking it, but I told her to keep it because we enjoyed her service, and she deserved it.

We exited the pizza place and headed to my car. I didn't want to go back home too soon because I had nothing else to do, and I was sure that Avella didn't, either. So an idea popped into my head before I unlocked the doors.

"Hey, so, there's a park up the street from here. I was wondering if you'd like to just walk around or sit on a bench and talk some more. It's almost 3:30, but like, it's a bit too soon to go back home. Would you like to go to the park and hang for a bit longer?"

Avella's face lit up. "Of course! Anything to continue spending time with you."

I grabbed my thermal tote bag and put our pizzas in it to keep them safe. Then, as we got in and buckled up, I drove up the street to the park and found some parking nearby. I've never been to the park in downtown Greensboro, so I and Avella were taking in the scenery as we started walking. It was big and colorful. There were many food carts nearby, too, which made it exciting for me. I was stimulated by just seeing things that I never really saw in my life before. Avella noticed and smiled.

"You have autism," she pointed out.

I was taken aback. "I do, yes. Asperger's, specifically. How did you detect that?"

"I do the same thing whenever I get stimulated by something that makes me happy, excited, upset, or anxious. It also happens if I get stimulated by loud noises sometimes. I have Asperger's, too! That's how I know!"

My eyes widened. "Oh my god! It really is a small world! Are we meant to be friends or something?"

"We're practically one and the same at this point! I ain't complainin' though!" Avella smiled so big that it got me excited again. She was so beautiful when she smiled like that, especially with how the sunlight was hitting her face. It made her hazel eyes glow so vividly. They'd nearly put me in a trance.

After a few minutes of walking, we found a lemonade stand, but I offered to buy some for both of us to cool off in this heat. Avella insisted that she'd buy her own, but I told her that I didn't mind. It was a day for me to treat her since we have gotten kinda close, plus I really liked her...I just didn't want her to know that just yet because we'd be rushing it. Afterwards, we found a bench under a tree. We sat down so we could enjoy our lemonades but also continue talking to each other. There was one particular thing that I wanted to talk about, and it was something that Avella said back at the restaurant. I hoped that she didn't mind it since right then we weren't surrounded by people. It was just me and her.