Bringing up the family is never a good idea. I wish that I had brought Moony in order to take some of the attention away, but I haven't changed my mind about wanting to be alone with Charlotte.
Before I can think of a topic to change our conversation to, Charlotte speaks up. "Do you maybe want to play volleyball? I don't mind losing." She grins and it's a beautiful thing to witness, especially from so close.
I feel my face scrunch up and her smile fades. "Maybe next time. I'd rather just talk. Maybe while we walk?" I ask her and she perks up again as soon as the words next time leave my mouth.
"That sounds lovely. Do you think it's okay to leave our things?" She asks, looking down at our blanket and I shrug.
"Yeah, just grab your phone. Best not to sweat the little things." I smile and stand, grabbing a ball cap from off the blanket to shield my face from the sun. It's partly cloudy, but the sun is uncovered at the moment and I somehow forgot to bring sunglasses.
We aren't walking for long in comfortable silence before I decide to speak up—running the back of my hand along Charlotte's forearm and dragging it down to intertwine our fingers. "I would love to play a game with you, but I'm extremely competitive, in a completely unattractive way."
She glances up at me and quirks her lips to the side. "I see. Well you did say next time, so I'll hold you to that I'm afraid."
I nod, barely holding back a smile of my own. "I'm a sore loser."
"I've heard."
"R—eed?"
She pauses, looking ahead with her hand covering her plush lips. "You almost just called her Rat, didn't you." She calls me out, noticing my stutter. I can't help but laugh, nodding.
"It stuck, I don't know what to tell you."
"What an awful nickname," She says and I shrug, not disagreeing, but silently loving the way the word awful doesn't sound awful at all when she says it.
"So why our program? Why computer programming and not...I don't know, med school or something? You're way too pretty and way too smart to sit behind a screen at a desk all day.
"I'll most likely be in different classes next year, as the studies become more specific. Hopefully, by then, my first game will be well underway, I'm still working on securing an artist. I also have a lot to learn—"
"Wait what? Like video games? That's so cool, Charlotte." I turn to her, my voice becoming louder with excitement.
"Yeah, console games specifically. Reed cannot wait to test it out and she tells me so every other day," She laughs and I can't take my eyes off of her perfect teeth, smiling at the sight.
"Sign me up for that, Reed and I can battle or face off. What kind of game? Why games?" I rattle off questions, wanting to know everything that there is to know about this girl.
"Well, alright, I can put you on my beta tester list. But it's a single-player RPG, so I'm not sure if it's something you'd be interested in..." She trails off and I bump her arm with my own, our hands still held together and despite the heat and sweat, I still love having her close.
"I'm interested in you," Her head snaps towards me, bright green eyes wide, "Therefore, I'm interested in your game. Genuinely though, I think that's the coolest thing I've ever heard. Let me know if you ever have any code that needs debugging. Happy to lend a hand, or another pair of eyes."
"Thank you, Alexander, I really appreciate that. It's a struggle, especially for something so large. It's not a basic game by any standard. Anyway, I could talk about this all day so let's move on."
"Funny, I could listen to you talk about your passion project all day. You go right ahead." I say, meeting her eyes once again and finding it impossible to look away. She's got an intense stare, especially when I see the gratitude and adoration in them, directed towards me. She doesn't try to hide a thing, wearing her heart on her sleeve.
"Well alright then, where should I start?" She asks, looking straight ahead and smiling.
We walk and talk like that for hours, and I get to hear all about Charlotte's game and her plans for the future regarding it. She asks me a few questions here and there, regarding my approach to our identical course load for this year and how I plan to use it.
The sun starts to set and it's the only reason that I'm aware of the approximate time, as I haven't checked my phone since we arrived. We turn around where we are, having been wandering down the beach aimlessly, going back towards our spot hand in hand.
"I've had a really good time, Alexander," Charlotte says, tucking a few stray hairs that have escaped her braid behind her ear.
I squeeze her hand. "So have I. I meant what I said about next time."
"That we'll play volleyball and you'll be a sore loser?" She laughs.
"That there will be one. That I want to do this again, with you," I admit, letting go of Charlotte's hand and wrapping my arm around her shoulders, suddenly feeling as though the space between us is too expansive. It's hot, but the sun has since hidden behind a large group of clouds, so our skin doesn't melt off as we touch.
Using my left hand, I flip my baseball cap around to the back of my head, keeping the other firmly around her as she speaks up after a moment of comfortable silence. "I want that too." Her voice is quiet, almost hesitant. "I can't quite believe it. If this is all happening a little fast for you, I completely un—"
"Charlotte, stop worrying. We're good. I'm enjoying this, and that includes the pace at which we're moving," I assure her and her shoulders loosen underneath my arm. A slight breeze picks up and suddenly I can smell whatever products she has in her hair and it is heavenly. She looks and smells like an angel, and she wants me.
Her only red flag so far is odd taste in men. Man. Me, at least.
After we've gathered all of our things and trekked back to the vehicle, I open the door for Charlotte before throwing everything into the backseat as she climbs in. I receive a gorgeous grin for that tiny gesture and it somehow makes me nervous.
As much as I've wanted to, the two of us have never so much as kissed, and now we're on our way back to her place after our first official date. Charlotte is this cool, sexy, surprisingly geeky girl and I'm just the guy she seems to want.
I'm not blind enough to think that I look like I've crawled out of a dumpster, but I'm a big nerd with a limited capacity for small talk and very minimal sexual experience, so I worry that the way she looks at me is because of how she feels about what's on the outside. Come for the abs, stay for...what exactly?
"Are you wearing contacts?" Charlotte asks, breaking me out of my reverie as I sit down and turn the car on.
"Uh, yeah," I answer and she just nods, looking extremely comfortable while I'm over here internally freaking out a little bit.
"You remind me of Superman. Obviously the same with our without, but different too. In a good way."
"Thank you," I say and mean it. Her random point draws me out of my head enough to relax in the driver's seat, reverse the car, and drive. "You look like a Disney princess with your big eyes and perfect hair. Imagine the animation they'd have to do to get this—" I reach over to feel her hair in my hands, tugging on her braid teasingly "—perfect. Need a whole team. Like Rapunzel." She smiles
"Wouldn't that be fun? Making the software to create stuff like that. Just the word create gives me goosebumps."
"Nerd." I tease, earning myself a light slap on the arm but what I really wanted was the giggle that sounded throughout the car in addition to it. We lean into the superhero topic, moving on quickly from Dc to Marvel, as Charlotte is apparently very passionate about all things MCU, as she should be.
I find myself disappointed when we pull up to Charlotte's dorm building because I want this to be the perfect end to a perfect first date, and that means that it ends here.
We walk together, hand in hand to the front door where she uses her fob to unlock it, the two of us coming to a halt. Instead of any awkward tension like I was expecting, Charlotte tilts her head to the side, looks up at me, and smiles softly.
"Want to come hang out?" She invites me up and despite the devil on my shoulder screaming for me to say yes, the other one reminds me of my intentions.
"As much as I would love to, my plan is still to walk you to your door, kiss you goodnight, and see you again as soon as you'll let me."
"We'll come back to that second part in a second. But why not tonight? I'll just close the door, turn around, and then it will be next time." She says cheekily, teasing the hell out of me.
"Charlotte..."
"Fine, I'm still taking you up on that kiss though." She grins, wrapping her arms around my neck and standing on her toes to reach me. The two of us stand like that for a minute, eyes locked on each other's and I watch as hers close, leaning in to bridge that gap between us when suddenly the building's fire alarm goes off. Charlotte's eyes open wide and she purses her lips together, fighting a disbelieving smile while I do the same.
Her arms are still around my neck and we quickly realize that we're still in front of the door as loud, grumbling students make their way down to the lower level, exiting the building at the slowest pace I've ever seen someone exit a building that may contain a potential fire.
"It's been happening multiple times a day. Usually, the first one is taken seriously, but by the end of the day, some people even stay in their rooms." Charlotte explains, giggling and pulling me off to the side. "I guess we should say goodnight now. Reed will be out any minute and I should keep her company."
We smile at each other for a minute before I take her hand in mine once more time as I walk backwards, letting it slip from my fingers and fall back to her side.
"See you in class, Rapunzel."
"Goodbye, Alexander." I think she just likes saying my name as much as I like hearing her say it.