Crush, No, Crushed

chapter 21

"I remembered why we are here." I told him smiling.

His face brightened and he smiled back at me.

"Good. I thought you had a memory problem or something." He chuckled.

"I don't!" I said offended.

"I was kidding Ruth." He said seriously.

"I know." I grinned.

He rolled his eyes but laughed. We reached the counter and the guy serving asked if we wanted hard or soft ice cream. Nate and I both decided on soft

vanilla in a wafer cone. I thought it was funny that we had the same preference. As I licked the ice cream to make it rounded, Nate led me back over to his car. I thought he was going to get back in it but he surprised me by climbing up sitting on the hood. He sat looking at me while licking the side of his cone to stop it from dripping. I stood there like an idiot not knowing what to do. I didn't want to ruin his car by denting or scratching it. Nate smirked at me and patted the hood next to him.

"Are you just going to stand there or are you coming up?" He asked.

I hesitated. I knew I was going to have trouble getting up there. He sighed and scooted down to the end of the car, he took my ice cream and moved away so I could climb up. After the first failed attempt to get up, Nate laughed and got off the hood. I stopped trying to get up and watched as he went behind me. I turned curious to see what he was doing. I noticed that the ice creams were no longer in his hands and he had his arms outstretched towards me.

"Nate...What are you doing?" I asked a little frightened.

He smirked at me, "I'm helping you up." He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

My face reddened because I knew what he was going to do. Before I could tell him no, he placed his hands on my waist and hoisted me up onto the hood. I looked down in embarrassment as I moved up so he could get on again. I avoided looking at him as he got back on and handed me back my ice cream. We sat in silence eating our ice cream until I had to say something.

"I can't believe you remembered about the rain check." I told him.

He didn't answer so I turned to look at him. He was just eating his ice cream. When he noticed I was looking at him he smiled and said, "I have a good memory."

I laughed and said, "Sure."

"So you're birthday is this weekend." I stated trying to keep up the conversation.

"Yep. What did you get me?" He smirked.

I continued licking my ice cream not sure what to say. I could lie and tell him that I wasn't going to tell him or say that I haven't gotten it yet.

"Well, I actually haven't gotten anything yet." I said truthfully. "Nicole and I are going shopping tomorrow."

He smiled, "You have no idea what to get me do you?"

I blushed, "No...not really."

He laughed, "That's okay. You don't have to get me anything."

"How about I ask you some questions so I can to know you better?" I asked turning my body to face him.

"Okay. Sounds good." He said before finishing his cone.

I smiled and took the last bite of my cone, "So, let's start out easy. Favorite color?"

"Blue." He answered,

"What shade?" I asked.

"Shade? Dark blue."