I was happy to see her and wasn't going to lie, I was a hell of a lot more excited for this date now that I knew it was with her. But I wished I had gotten to choose, maybe ask her out myself, talk to her first about it because the last thing I wanted was to be sitting with Veronica and not be able to talk to her. She didn't take long in the bathroom.
I pulled her chair out for her and waited till she was sitting before I did again. Neither of us had to say anything because the server appeared and poured us both glasses of water and gave us menus. She fidgeted with the laminated booklet before putting it down on the table.
"I'm sorry about tonight," she said.
"What?"
"You were obviously expecting someone different. I'm sorry Tiffany did this."
"You can't apologize for that. I was just about to leave when I saw you."
"What about now?"
"What about now?"
"Do you still want to leave?" She could have dropped an anvil on my head and it would have been more subtle.
"I want to buy you dinner," I said.
She sighed softly and ran her hands through her hair, leaning her elbows on the table. I was losing her. She was thinking about that door and walking out of it. When the server appeared again to take our orders, she picked her menu up, fumbling to skim through it fast enough to place an order while the guy was still waiting.
"You guys ready to order?" he asked. She apologized, looking at me desperately.
"I'll have the cannelloni," I said. "And, she'll have the baked gnocchi." She looked up from the menu, surprised. The man asked her whether that was what she wanted, and she nodded her head, thanking him.
"You ordered for me," she said once he had left the table.
"I know what you like."
"How do you know what I like hasn't changed?" she challenged.
"One of the first times we went out together, it was for Italian. When you were ordering you got mad that the menu said stuffed ravioli because ravioli's already meant to be stuffed. You ordered the gnocchi and got the same thing both times we went back to that place."
"You were talking shit about that couple sitting next to us," she said, remembering. "You said you thought the woman was his mistress because of how he kept watching the door and nervously checking the time."
"Then you wanted to act cute and pretend you were too full for dessert," I said. She cracked a smile, looking down at her plate shyly.
"I was nervous. I didn't want to be that girl. I was still trying to make you think I was a delicate flower," she said. I laughed.
"How long did that last?"
"I wanted to make sure I had locked you down before you found out I could eat an entire pint of ice cream myself," she said grinning. Her whole body language was calm and she was making jokes as she relaxed. This date wasn't going to be unbearable.
Our food came pretty fast, but that didn't slow us down. Once we had gotten the ball rolling, it was like it had never stopped in the first place. There weren't a lot of people I could feel so free and comfortable around. I had missed this feeling. Being with Ron again. All our beats and rhythms synced up perfectly. She didn't say no to dessert this time.
It was almost like no time had passed, at all. It was like we had never broken up and this was just another date night for us, not some weird scheme that my sister had hatched to get us to spend time together.
I asked her where she had parked, and we started walking slowly towards her car. We were both silent. It was a little breezy, and I had to stop myself from putting an arm around her in case she was cold. She still drove the same car, that red sedan that used to give her hell back in the day, with no functioning seatbelts in the backseat.
"I had fun tonight," I said to her.
"Yeah. I did, too."
"I think we should do it again." She stopped and turned to look at me.
"That can't happen," she said blankly.
"What? Why not?"