“I’ll tell you what. I have my address printed on my business card, so, what about you take a picture of it and send it to someone you trust? There’s also a good signal at home, so you can send a message from there letting whomever you want know that you’re safe,” I offer.
“Oh, are you sure?” she asks. “I didn’t want to feel as if I’m intruding.”
Really, how?
“No, but if at any point, you want to leave, I can give you a ride back to town or call a private taxi. I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything,” I add, feeling like I’m saying too much but wanting her to feel safe.
“It’s okay,” Sabrina replies, still smiling and making my heart sore. “I do trust you.”
Still, I give her my card, because I think it’s only fair, and because I want her to have my number if we don’t get to exchange them later. A minute later, we’re in the parking lot, a light pink cardigan over Sabrina’s shoulder as she jumps into my car, the smile never leaving her lips.
“What would you like to listen to?” I ask as I start the engine and turn on the radio.
“What about the night? Nature? I love to enjoy the peace and quiet sometimes,” she says, eyes looking out the window and up to the sky, which is already peppered with stars that seem to be twinkling so brightly than ever before with the bright moon.
It’s as if the stars have aligned for us to meet tonight and as I look over, I knew it had to be more.
Fate.
Destiny.
Whatever it might be.
Though I can’t wait to be home; she’s going to love the view from there.
Sabrina
Ican’t believe I’m doing this.
I can’t believe I’m in a car with someone I barely know, silence sitting between us in complete comfort. It’s not an odd silence, not at all. It’s a lovely one, one of those silences that hold so much meaning, so much peace, and quiet. That holds us.
It’s strange because I’m usually the rather skeptical one when it comes to first dates.
Whenever one of my girlfriends goes home with a stranger they just met, I’m often worried they might harvest her organs. Though as Diana has pointed out, I’ve been watching too many murder-mystery documentaries growing up. She stated, and I quote: “Strangers are just friends you haven’t met.”
Nope, that was not the way I wanted to live by given my terrible luck.
Even on my usual first dates, it’ll be somewhere crowded and I would send Diana or one of my other girlfriends pictures of my date. As my mom has told me before, there’s no such thing as being too cautious.
Hell, I wouldn’t even go home with them, and yet something about him feels right. In fact, this whole night just feels perfect and I can’t stop my brain from wondering and planning a life with him. A beautiful house with our children running around.
It made it so much more because he seemed to be on the same page as me.
Not playing around but wanted something serious.
Alastair drives out of the city, heading towards the mountains, and I watch as the bars of signal go down and down. But, before they disappear for a while, I see that my message has reached its destination. There was no way I was telling Alex I was going to a guy’s place, somewhere I might end up hooking up if I’m lucky.
So I simply told him I got a ride, and that he could go to sleep whenever. Instead, I sent a picture of the card to Diana, telling her to pray for me as tonight might be the lucky night I got rid of the cobwebs growing between my legs.
Maybe I can even get rid of my battery-operated boyfriend.
Just before my signal is gone, I get a message back from Diana, a thousand praying hand emojis along with a meme telling me I’ve got this. I chuckle, and Alastair looks at me briefly, his eyes quickly on the road again.
“Everything good?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.
“Yes, perfect…the road is lovely,” I add.
“Can’t complain at all. There’s not much signal in this bit, but it’ll come back once we’re there.”