First date story extract 1

As she entered the pub, she saw him to her right, leaning on the bar, chatting with the barman.  In the fairly empty bar, it looked like he’d positioned himself somewhere he could watch the door, yet far enough away from it to enable him to not be caught be surprise when she arrived.  Wearing a plain white, round-necked T-shirt, mid blue scruffy jeans and khaki converse trainers that had seen better days, he looked naturally at home as he laughed at something the barman said, eyes and mouth wide open.  Still smiling, he looked over as he noticed her walking towards him.  He briefly halted his chat and gave a smile and the raise of an eyebrow in her direction, acknowledging her presence.  She noticed he took a deep breath, as if to steady himself for the moment when she arrived by his side, then he turned to finish his conversation and the barman moved away to serve another customer, with a look of, ‘That’s who you’re meeting?  Well done, mate,’ on his face.

Her insides were turning themselves in knots and she felt sure he would be able to see her heart beat through her shirt, like in some Tom and Jerry cartoon, as she could feel it pounding ridiculously strongly.  You’d have thought by her age, she’d have got used to this kind of situation, but first dates, of sorts, are always tinged with nerves. 

He remained in the same position, as she approached, bare right forearm on the bar, hand grasping a pint glass, left hand in his jeans pocket, feet crossed over, with his bodyweight balanced between his left foot and his arm on the bar.  She reached out to touch his left arm and gently stroked it as she calmly said hi.  He didn’t flinch at her touch.  She got as close to him as she dare, so her right foot was by the side of his and her knee almost brushed his leg.

Much as she wanted to move in and put her hands either side of his waist, slide her hands under his T-shirt, pull him towards her and kiss him, it was a while since she’d seen him and thought that would be a bit too forward.  This was technically a first date, plus other people surrounded them.  That kind of embrace was best done in private and after some conversation.  So she momentarily closed her eyes to let that thought pass out of her mind, took a deep breath, let her hand move slowly away from his smooth, warm skin and stepped back to take up a position leaning with her back against the bar next him.

“Hey,” he replied.  She could see he was nervous.  There was a slight quiver in his lips as he spoke and his voice was quiet.  This was not a normal first date situation, so he had reason to be apprehensive, but she hoped that her calm outer demeanour would put him at ease.

Before today, he’d only seen her in sports kit, trackie bottoms, T-shirts and hoodies, usually with her hair tied up in a ponytail.  She now stood before him in her favourite purple checked shirt, unbuttoned and opened just enough to show some cleavage, enhanced by a black bra that was just a bit too small for her, the dark blue Levi jeans she bought in Macy’s in New York, under which were her most comfortable, knee length black leather boots with 3 inch heels.  Her long brown hair was down and blow-dried straight, flowing around her shoulders and back.  She’d even put on a touch of make-up - a little mascara and liner to highlight her eyes and a sparkly light pink lip-gloss.  This was topped off with Tommy Girl perfume on her neck, and, as she had always done, on her wrists, even though the days of a man taking a woman’s hand to kiss it in a greeting and smelling said perfume were long gone.

She hoped that he would like what he saw.  She hoped that he would react positively to her in this context.  She hoped that she didn’t look like she’d tried too hard.  Or tried too hard to look young.  She thought she looked OK, casual, but with a hint of effort.

With a huge grin on his face, he timidly looked down at the ground, took a small step forward and leaned in towards her.  He moved his pint in his left hand, slid his other hand along the bar to touch her arm and in a low voice said, “You look amazing.”  She could feel the warmth of his breath in her ear that sent a tingle through her whole body.  At those words, she felt her stomach flip.  He liked the way she looked tonight.  Good start.

She too looked downwards.  She thought that if she looked into his eyes at this point, she might explode, or melt, or just grin like an idiot.  She breathed out and turned to him as he stepped back to his original position.  Trying desperately to not look too delighted by his comment, she scuffed her heel on the floor, flicked her hair backwards and smiled a thank you in his direction.  She’d got an incredible amount of built up passion for him, passion that she’d had to keep under wraps until now.  It was all she could do to stop herself from jumping on him there and then, but she resisted the desire and put her hands into her pockets to keep them away from that kind of trouble.