Sorry sorry sorry sorry that it's not Saturday!! I was busy all day yesterday and I know I could've updated, but I just never opened the app. But it's here now! So...
Enjoy💜
If This Is Love: 18 | First Date (Part 2)
| Laura Renae |
We didn't even make it out of the driveway before Rydel stopped Ross and I and pretty much forced us to take a picture in front of their garage being all cute and couple like. But I didn't object because I made Rydel send me them and I chose the one where he was kissing my cheek as my new lock screen. And I'm sure she sent them to my mom and Stormie, so all was good.
The drive to Hollywood Boulevard took close to a half hour, but Ross and myself filled the void with singing to songs from his playlist and occasionally pointing out something that we did in the past few weeks we weren't talking. Apparently he was taking me to a laid back Italian restaurant, his words not mine, called THE SIT-DOWN, and then we are going to walk down Hollywood Boulevard and go into the small shops and whatnot afterward for awhile.
Ross and I sat in the back outside in the corner at a small red table of THE SIT-DOWN, mostly to avoid possible fan encounters, but I wasn't too worried about it. Ross was more than worried, saying they'd ruin our night or whatever, which was most likely true, but I didn't care. I couldn't help but smile up at him while he looked over the menu.
"What?" Ross asks, catching me staring.
"Nothin', you're just cute." I tell him, now looking down at my own menu. After a few minutes of deciding, we finally settled on sharing a small chicken toscano pizza, and myself getting a caesar salad because I know Ross will eat most the pizza. We also decided to have only water, nothing fancy.
"Bean." Hearing Ross' voice, I lift my gaze from off my phone, which I was only on because my acting agent sent me an email, and smile the slightest when I noticed he had his phone pointed at me. "Now that's what I call gorgeous." He quietly says, his eyes on his phone. Playfully rolling my eyes, I lock up my phone and set it in my leather jacket pocket that was hanging on the chair, hoping it wouldn't be a distraction. Ross noticed and he slipped his own phone in his jeans pocket.
"No phones." I tell him, holding his eye gaze.
"No phones." He repeats, nodding his head a single time. "Unless I take a picture of you." He adds.
"I don't need pictures of myself." I tell him.
"But I need pictures of you." He replies. "For future references." He adds, causing me to raise an eyebrow.
"And why is that?" I ask. He just shrugs, then licks his lips, which makes my heart beat faster for a few seconds. Damn him and the effects he has on me.
"Haven't figured it out yet, but I know I'll need them one day." He says. Realizing I don't exactly know what people do on first dates when they're practically best friends, I decide to ask him because all of a sudden the nervousness decided to kick in.
"What do people usually do on first dates?" I ask him.
"They get to know each other." He replies, his knees brushing mine. Our table wasn't the biggest, and every time he moved or myself moved, our legs hit each other softly, and each time my heartbeat speeds up.
"But what if they already know everything about each other?" I ask.
"I'm not sure, you're the first person I've ever dated that I know everything about beforehand." He tells me. "But I mean, it's you and me, we usually can't stop talking when we're with each other." He had a point. Whether we bicker with each other or have a genuine conversation, we're always talking. Unless one of us are tired, then we both try and sleep.
"That's true." I mumble. "Guess what." I say, becoming a little excited. When he didn't answer, only raises his eyebrows at me, I speak up again. "My mom bought you your plane ticket." I tell him, watching his smile grow. "Sadly, you aren't sitting with us on the way there because the planes mostly full, but on the way back she managed to snag a spot across the aisle from me and beside my dad."
"Sweet." He replies, a smile on his face. "What are we doing in Wisconsin?" He asks me. "Are we exploring?" And just like that, Ross and I fell into an easy conversation, as expected, and the slight nervousness I was feeling completely vanished. I shouldn't be nervous around him. He's my best friend, he knows everything about me, why should I get nervous? When the food came, Ross and I barely talked and decided to shove our faces with pizza, he even stole a few bites of my salad. When every single slice of pizza and every last bite of salad was finished, Ross decided to order a cannoli to share.
"Dude, I'm stuffed." I tell him, leaning back in my seat.
"Come on, don't wimp out on me now, bean." He says. "It's small and we're sharing, you'll be fine."
"Yeah, but you eat like a mad man, Ross. I'm little." I whisper, patting my stomach.
"Because you don't eat like me." I narrow my eyes at his false statement.
"If I eat like you, I'd be the five hundred pound five foot two girl in the band called R6 with five other fit and fab looking dudes and a chick." Ross raises his eyebrows at me now.
"You know what, no. Give me your hand." He tells me.
"Why?" I ask.
"Bean, just give me your hand." Sighing, I give him my right hand. He flips my hand palm side up, lightly trailing his fingertips along it. What the hell?
"Ross..." I trail off, watching our hands. "What are you doing?" I ask, keeping my voice quiet.
"I'm giving you a palm read for free." He tells me. Before I could reply, Ross closes his eyes and makes a soft humming noise. "Tonight... you will receive a hot and heavy kiss from a sexy blonde-" I couldn't help but laugh. "Excuse me, I'm not done." His face was completely serious, causing me to suck my lips in to keep from laughing. "And you might even gain a boyfriend by tonight." I wait a few seconds to see if Ross has anything else to add, but once he opens his eyes, he lets go of my hand. "Interesting palm, bean." The smile on my face couldn't be contained at this point.
"Yeah, and I don't even know if any of it will come true." I tell him, of course joking the slightest.
"Ah ah ah ah, now don't be a Debbie Downer, Laura. Think positive of this sexy blonde and maybe equally as sexy brunette, maybe." I lightly kick his shin under the table just as the cannoli was placed in between us with two forks. "Eat up, little munchkin." That earned him another light kick to the shin. We finished the cannoli in under five minutes and Ross quickly payed our bill, earning a slight compliant from me, but I still thanked him with a kiss on the cheek. As soon as we walked out of the restaurant, he immediately went for my hand.
"We're gonna hold hands?" I ask, looking up at his face as we walk towards where the the nearest Walk of Fame starts.
"Why not?" He asks, lightly swinging our arms. It never felt this good before when we had our fingers intertwined, but it's legit the best feeling in the world. "If we hear a girly scream or a click of a photo, I'll just yank my hand away." He adds, shrugging his shoulders.
"Hey, I don't necessarily care if we get caught holding hands, Ross." I tell him, keeping my eyes on his face.
"I have a feeling that once multiple photos get out you will be. So I'm gonna try and contain that stuff for as long as possible." Frowning, I look down at our feet. "Come on, I know you. I'm just trying to prevent anything from happening that shouldn't happen to you regarding the past."
"Ross, you can just say you're trying to prevent a panic attack. Avoiding the words is just as bad as saying them." I say, stopping him from walking.
"Can we not talk about this? I want to walk to The Beatles star and the Elvis star before it gets pitch black out." Sighing, I nod my head and start walking again. Not even five steps later, the softness of Ross' lips touch my cheek for a moment before he pulls away. "I'm sorry." He quietly says. I don't reply, just squeeze his hand as we walk down Hollywood Boulevard, not running into a single fan.
Ross and I both got our pictures by The Beatles and Elvis Presley's star, which we didn't do anything with the pictures, just kept them for us. Our walk back consisted of us not holding hands since we had a small little gathering of teenagers walking behind us. So we tried to keep a casual conversation kind of quiet, so the four or five or six teens wouldn't think much of anything. When we reached Ross' car, he opened the door for me, which I thanked him with a smile, and got in. He acknowledged the fans, which we did take pictures with before they started following us, and started up his car.
"Well, the date was going good until those teenagers kinda ruined it." Ross admits, pulling onto the main road. I sigh and nod, hating to admit it myself. "I'm sorry." He quietly says.
"For what?" I ask. "We both knew there was a chance it'd happen, and I still had a ton of fun. You were still a cute date, a sweet date, and you definitely made me laugh, so I'd say this was a pretty dang good date." Ross chuckles the slightest st my words.
"Always looking at the positives and always complimenting." He quietly says. I gently push on his arm. "But thanks, mostly for coming, even though I had a strong feeling you couldn't resist me."
"Alright, Mister Cocky, keep it up and those palm readings won't be coming true anytime soon." I tell him.
"Yeah." He scoffs. "Like you'd wait another week." Laughing, I nudge him harder, loving the grin on his face. I rolled my eyes at him and turn up the music, letting the tow of us battle out songs. By the time we parked in Ross' temporary spot, it was almost nine-thirty, and I had my overnight bag in my hand, ready to change and cuddle with Ross. "Hey, I have a surprise for you." He suddenly says, stopping me in front of the door.
"A surprise?" I ask, looking up at his face.
"I had a feeling something would happen so I did another thing, but even if the fan encounters wasn't necessarily bad, I still really like the surprise and want to still... use it." He tells me. I look up at him a little confused. "Close your eyes." He whispers.
"Really?" I ask, giving him a slight glare.
"I promise it's nothing bad. I just want you to go to our room and change first and put your glasses on before seeing it." He tells me. "And I'll guide you to the hall where you can open your eyes." He explains. "Please, bean?" He asks quietly. Sighing, I give into him and close my eyes. Just as he promised, he kept his hand on my lower back, guiding me through the smallish apartment style home. "You can open now." He tells me.
"Was this really necessary?" I ask him, looking up at his face. He smiles at me, nodding his head. "Are we both changing?" I ask.
"Yup." And just like that, Ross was unbuttoning his shirt. "Do you care if I wear a shirt or not?" He asks me.
"Do I ever care if you wear a shirt or not?" He rolls his eyes at me before chucking his shirt in the hamper. He did end up putting on light pink jogger style pants before telling me to wash my face and meet him in the living room. So, I quickly change out my thing for normal underwear and my jeans for some cotton pajama shorts Rydel packed me, not bothering to take of my bralette or t-shirt. I kept my hair down and found my glasses and contact holders before heading to the bathroom with face wash and a makeup remover wipe in my hand. Before heading to the living room, I head over tot he room Rocky's staying in and lightly knock before opening it. He was on his bed sitting up with his laptop in his lap and the mini keys set beside him with his guitar.
"Hey." He says, shoving off his headphones. "Where's Ross?" He asks.
"In the living room waiting for me." I tell him, stepping into his room completely. "Are you okay with us taking up the living room?" I ask him, feeling a little bad that he had to move the mini studio onto his bed.
"Yeah, of course. I'm the one who told him to do it." I raise my eyebrows at him. "Have you been to the living room yet?" He asks.
"No." I reply, pushing my glasses up. "Thanks."
"For what?" He asks.
"Yesterday." I quietly say. "I'm not use to people telling me that besides Ross, so I'm sorry I snapped at you for something so silly. It's just a hard subject, but your words were very sweet. Thank you."
"You're forgiven and you're welcome." I smile at him. "Now go enjoy your date night. Just don't be too loud because this is a small space." I give him the finger before leaving his room to the sound of his laugh.
• haha.... definitely a part three after this ;) don't have much to say... don't forget to vote, comment something sweet, and follow me! love you, babes💜 •
-rydelly_belly💜