Baby Steps {TNS}

Two

"one moment can change everything"

Noah

I'm on my way to pick up Richelle and I'm incredibly nervous. Why am I so nervous? We've been on plenty of dates; after all, we have been dating for the past year and a half. Yet, I'm so nervous my hands are sweating as I grip onto the steering wheel. I just want everything to run smoothly; it's been so long since we have been together, just the two of us, and I know that Richelle has been waiting for us to go on another date. I just want it to be perfect.

I turn into Richelle's driveway, my nerves continuing to build. 6:59 pm. I let out a breath in a poor attempt to rid myself of stress, before reaching over to grab the small bouquet of roses I had bought. I step out my car and wonder over to Richelle's front door, gently knocking to let her know I'm here. The door swings open almost immediately and I'm greeted with Richelle,  my nerves disappearing at the sight of her. She's wearing a black dress with her natural curls framing her face. She has a smile plastered across her face, and she looks stunning.

"You - you look amazing," I stutter, looking her up down, resulting in her smile growing even wider. "Why thank you," she giggles, "you don't look too bad yourself." We both smile, gazing into each other's eyes. I'm broken from my trance when the bouquet of roses starts to slip out of grasp. I quickly catch them before they fall and them to Richelle, a small blush tinting her cheeks. Nothing else needs to be said, and Rich locks her door before making her way to my car.

                                  ~•~

"So are you finally going to tell me where we're going?" Richelle asks as we walk down the street. I had parked further away so as to keep the surprise, and it was easy to tell that Rich was dying to know what we are going to do. I've managed to keep my mouth shut, but I'm bursting to tell her.

"Almost there babe," I whisper and she sighs, causing me to let out a small laugh. We continue to walk down the main street until we've past all of the restaurants, and Richelle pipes up again.

"Okay, Noah, now I'm really confused. We've gone past everywhere I thought we might have been going, and I literally can't think of anything else we could be doing. Can you please, please, please tell me where we are going?" she pleads, but I just chuckle and continue to walk. We turn another corner and we're finally here. I stop walking while Richelle continues, only stopping when she gets pulled backwards from holding my hand.

"What are you doing?" she asks, confusion written all over her face. "We're here," I answer blankly and Richelle turns her head to see where we are. "The science centre?" she questions, her eyebrow raised. I laugh at her expression before practically dragging her up the stairs.

We enter the reception and I approach the woman at the desk. "Hi, I've made a reservation for Noah Green?" "A reservation? What can you reserve in this place?" Richelle exclaims before the receptionist can even take a breath to respond to me. The receptionist and I both breathe a small laugh before she speaks up. "Yes, right this way," she says, walking away from her desk and we follow. We don't walk for long before we come to a stop. "Here you are," the receptionist tells us, unlocking the door. "Have fun," she finishes as she walks back to her desk.

"Noah, what are we doing here," Richelle questions, her confusion still continuing to grow. I chuckle, pointing to the sign on the door and Richelle's eyebrows raise. I laugh again, grabbing her hand and pull her into the planetarium. She gasps, looking around her.

The rounded ceiling is littered with thousands of projected stars, looking exactly like a summer night. There's even a shooting star every now and then. To the left of the door I have a picnic set up.

"Noah, this... this is amazing," Richelle stutters. "How did you pull this off?" I smirk at her, tapping the side of my nose to say I wouldn't tell, causing her to cheekily roll her eyes at me with a smile.

We sit on the picnic blanket I had laid out and I open basket, pulling out two plates of sushi. "I've been craving sushi this past week!" Rich exclaims and I chuckle. I knew she had been craving sushi because she had always asked if we could go buy some whilst we were at Regionals, but we couldn't find time to do so. Richelle reaches into the basket this time, letting out a small laugh as she pulls out a bottle. "Non-alcoholic wine?" she giggles and I shrug. "Well we can't exactly have real wine, can we? I figured that would be close enough," I answer, laughing with her. I reach into the basket again, pulling out Richelle's favourite. "Sugar coated strawberries!" she squeals, snatching them out of my hands. "Oi," I chuckle, taking them off her, "these are for dessert." I smirk at her and she glares at me, yet we both fall into laughter before tucking into our sushi. Tonight is going to be great.

                                  ~•~

"Thank you for tonight," Richelle whispers. "I really needed it." It's 11, and our date has finished. We're standing in a hug at Richelle's front door, not wanting to let go. Richelle has buried her head into my chest while my head is lightly resting on top of hers. We're making small conversation in an attempt to delay me leaving. "How did you come up with that?" she asks, her voice muffled by my chest. "Well, I had been meaning to do a picnic for a while but I never got to it. If it was summer, I definitely would have done it outside. But it's winter, so I came up with an alternative," I reply. "Well you certainly didn't fail to impress," she whispers, tilting her head up to look at me. Her green eyes are bright with happiness, and I get lost in them.

"Rich?" I whisper. "Yeah?" she replies, her eyes still gazing into mine. "I love you. So so much," I say, watching as the smile on her face grows wider and her eyes seem to shine a bit brighter. "I love you too, N," she says softly, happiness bounding off of every syllable. I bend down and kiss her softly, cupping her cheeks with both of my hands. The kiss lasts for a few minutes, though it feels like time has stopped. We pull apart to breathe, but we continue to hold each other close.

"Stay?" Richelle suggests, stepping down from my embrace. "My parents are away, and I don't want to be alone..." she whispers, trailing off. She locks her eyes with mine again, pleading with me. "Of course, baby," I respond, kissing her on the forehead. A small smile appears on her face and she opens her already unlocked door, letting me in and locking it behind her. Tonight was pretty perfect.

Yes, I took the date idea from Friends.
No, I do not care :)

Hope you liked that,
~ T x