Two of Us

Chapter 2

“Stop staring out the window,” Mom commanded me from the living room couch. “Ryan’s going to need to come in to say hello.”

My hopes of sparing Ryan from my parents were quickly dashed. Granted, I probably should’ve been a little more stealth about it instead of having my hand on the doorknob, ready to run out the second I saw his car.

I backed away from the front door right as Ryan’s car pulled up. I sat on the couch, not wanting to appear overly anxious for his arrival.

Dad looked up from his paper. “Do you want me to get the door?”

“No.” I got up and took a deep breath.

Ryan was about to ring the doorbell when I opened the door. “Hey!” He looked at me and smiled.

“Hey!” I replied. I couldn’t help but stare into his blue eyes. I used to have to hide my feelings around him, but now there wasn’t anything standing in our way. Although openly ogling my date in front of my parents probably wasn’t the smartest move on my part. “Come on in.”

I grabbed my coat and quickly put it on, hoping we could leave as soon as I was ready. My parents both got up and made the requisite parental small talk with Ryan.

“So, Ryan,” Mom said as she crossed her arms (that was not a good sign). “I never got a chance to ask you what you thought of that cover band you went to a few weeks back.”

Uh-oh.

There was no way Ryan could win. If he said he liked them, Mom would’ve taken issue with him complimenting a “rip-off band.” But if he said he hated it, she’d take it as a swipe at the music.

I found myself holding my breath as Ryan answered.

He gave Mom a warm smile. “Well, clearly nobody can touch the real thing, but it’s hard to ruin those brilliant songs.”

Wow. He’s good.

Mom was impressed, too.

Before she could grill him any further, I opened up the door. “Well, we should get going. We have, ah —” I stopped myself. I didn’t really know what we’d be doing. I didn’t really care.

“We have dinner reservations,” Ryan explained as he placed his hand at the small of my back and guided me outside.

We got to his car, and he opened the door for me, then walked around to the driver’s side.

We were finally alone.

“What?” Ryan asked with his brow furrowed as he peered at me.

“What?” I asked back, hoping that I didn’t have anything on my face.

He tilted his head with an amused expression. “You’re smiling. I’m simply curious as to why, not that it isn’t one of my favorite sights to see.”

“I am?” I hadn’t realized it, but I was practically beaming. “Oh, well . . .” I looked down, wondering if I should’ve made up some excuse, but I didn’t want to play any more games with Ryan. I turned to face him. “I’m really happy we’re finally doing this.”

“Me, too.” He began to lean toward me, but stopped himself. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, ah, we should get going.” He turned the ignition on and started to pull away. “I guess maybe we should wave good-bye to your parents.”

I looked back at the house to see my parents staring out the front door.

Yeah, that isn’t horrifyingly embarrassing or anything, Mom and Dad.

While I had no idea where we were going, I did know two things for certain: I was going to meet him outside next time we went on a date, and that there would be a next time.