Floating

Chapter Nine

The day swiftly came around, kill-or-cure time for your relationship with Bucky.

You tried to reassure yourself that a disastrous date wouldn’t be the end of the world, that if there was nothing meaningful there then the two of you would just move on, but that way of thinking did absolutely nothing to calm your anxiety. For some reason, a real, proper date felt so much more intimate and high-stakes than anything you’d already done together. This was the big time.

Unfortunately, your nervous disposition wasn’t being helped at all by the fact that you hadn’t spoken to Nat since the big blowout. You figured it’d be good to let things cool off a bit, give her time to realise she might’ve overreacted a little, but by this point you were beginning to worry that time might never come.

You resolved to just push Nat out of your mind for the day, your brain could only cope with one calamity at a time.

You paced around the kitchen and tied yourself in nervous knots as you waited for Bucky to arrive, the eventual shrill of the doorbell making you jump out of your skin. Your knees wobbled slightly as you descended and you winced at the idea of your first date starting with you in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.

That’d be so fucking typical.

You just about managed to reach the front door in one piece, timidly swinging it open, your jaw immediately crashing to the floor at the sight that greeted you.

There was Bucky, arms folded across his chest, smugly leaning against the hood of an incredibly expensive-looking sports car.

You just gawked at him. It felt like a good minute passed before you even attempted to speak, but too many conflicting sentences tried to escape at once, so all you could produce was a sort of low mewling.

Bucky pushed himself onto his feet with a chuckle, holding his hands out sideways and walking towards you. ‘Neat, right?’

‘That’s one word for it. What happened to your Jeep?’

‘Nothing,’ he stopped right in front of you, ‘I just thought I’d borrow something a bit more flashy for our date.’

You shot him a suspicious frown. There was still a great deal you didn’t know about this boy, so the possibility that he’d stolen this car to impress you did briefly bubble up in your mind, but you quickly decided it was a risk you were willing to take. Riding in the passenger seat of that thing with Buck at the wheel would finally mean you fulfilling one of your saddest, guilty rom-com fantasies.

You gave a wide smile and brushed past him, pretending not to notice the way he’d begun to lean in. ‘Where are we going?’

‘You’ll see.’

‘Is that code for you have absolutely no idea yet?’

‘Usually, yes,’ he held open the passenger-side door for you before hopping into the driver’s seat, ‘but not this time.’

‘I’ll believe that when I see it.’

With a confident wink, Bucky draped his arm over the back of your seat, the car suddenly roaring into life beneath you and making your heart leap.

You drove for quite a bit longer than expected, the built-up city slowly falling away to rolling countryside. Eventually, much to your confusion, Bucky pulled into the driveway of a grand country manor. You were half-convinced he’d dragged you to some kind of weird cult initiation.

‘The hell are we doing here?’

‘We’re buyin.’

He switched off the engine and pointed out a yard sign you hadn’t noticed yet, which read: