The only thing I could think to get around that was to ask her out to dinner, but I felt that we were moving beyond that with our relationship. I didn’t want to be the dinner and a movie dater until the day came when I finally found it easier to put a ring on it than take her out to a restaurant.
No, the way around that was to tell her that I wanted to do something fun with her, but I had to catch her early enough to make sure we had time to go do it, and she wasn’t going to spend the day with her other friend. I had to admit, I was slightly nervous when I sent the text.
I wasn’t sure how she was going to respond to it, and I braced myself for how I would feel if she was going to put that distance in between us. It wasn’t going to be easy, no matter how we went about this, but there was nothing that said this had to be the end of us.
I was sure of that.
So, I sent the text to focus on the things we could do the next day that would be a lot of fun and that wouldn’t keep her dwelling on the fact that I had that job offer lingering in the back of my mind. It didn’t matter how long I took answering it. Until I put in the answer, it was going to be something that was on my mind.
There’s this really cool spot I want to show you. Do you want to hang out tomorrow? It’s really cool in the evening, but I’d love to come over earlier in the day and hang out for a while before I take you out there
I hit send and impatiently waited for her response. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I crossed my fingers, hoping that she didn’t have plans with Raya and she wanted to see me. We didn’t have any kind of fight about that job promotion, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t hurt by it, and she had wanted the space.
She hadn’t said how long she wanted space, or even said the words directly, but I had done what I could to be respectful of her and her needs going through this. I knew this affected both of us majorly, and it was difficult to think about it objectively knowing that.
But, now that a week had passed, I felt it was safe to ask her if she wanted to hang out. I hoped we wouldn’t have to talk about the job offer. I just wanted to spend time with her and hang out, enjoying each other and the time we had together.
Sure, I’m free tomorrow. That sounds like fun – where did you want to go? I haven’t heard you talk about any places like that before and I was pretty sure we talked a lot about the things we liked to do around the city
I was glad I hadn’t told her about this spot before, or the meaning behind it for me, either. That would give me something to keep her interest when I took her to show her the place tomorrow, and it would give us more to bond over, too. It would be the first time I had taken a woman there, and it would be our first time there together.
I wasn’t sure if she would be familiar with the place, but I knew she would like it if this was her first time being there. It was a place I liked to go when I was stressed or overwhelmed, and it always helped.
My dad was dead now, but when he was alive, it was a place where he and I would often spend time together. Though it had been years since he and I had been there together, I still thought of him every single time I was there. And with the way Harper was close to her mom, I knew she would enjoy the sentiment behind my taking her to this place to watch the stars coming out.
Great, I’ll see you late morning, and you’re just going to have to wait and see. This is going to be a surprise.
Feeling proud of myself, I let her pester me for a few minutes about what I could possibly have planned, then I told her I had to get back to work. I knew that would give her something to think about this afternoon that had nothing to do with the job offer I’d received, and it would be something for us to look forward to tomorrow when I arrived at her place, too.
Not to mention it gave me something to keep my mind on things besides the doom and gloom of deciding what to do about the job offer. I could just think about the good time I would have with Harper, and tomorrow, we would do it.
It might be awkward at first, but I didn’t care.
Things like this were bound to happen, and I wasn’t going to let this overshadow what we did with ourselves tomorrow. She would love the place I was taking her, and I looked forward to seeing her reaction to it.
It would be even better if she had never been there before herself.
Then I could surprise her twofold, and I would be okay with that.
Anything to get that smile out of her – to hear her laugh – and my day would be perfect. I didn’t care what else we did. All I wanted to do with my day was to make her laugh.
I spent what free time I had during the afternoon to look up little things I could say or do during our date tomorrow that would be subtle, yet show her that I cared about her, and I was thinking about her in this decision I had to make. It wasn’t something I was doing just for me, and I wanted her to know that she did matter to me in this.
But, I didn’t want to spend the day talking about the stupid decision, either. I just wanted to have fun.
So, I searched for any way I could that would make her smile, and before the afternoon was over, I decided to get her some flowers first thing in the morning and surprise her with those. It would be sweet, and it would be the first time that I bought her flowers.
If anything, that was bound to get a smile out of her, and that would put the day off to a great start.
Not that I was worried we weren’t going to have a good day, but still, it would be nice to start off on a bright and cheery note. The last time I saw her, she was walking away and upset with me. I had to turn that around, and as soon as possible, too.
I hated having that image in my mind, and I felt the best way to erase it was to replace it with something better. Something like flowers or chocolate or coffee. I wanted to spoil her, but I also didn’t want to be too obvious with the note lingering in the back of our minds.
After all, she was smart, but it didn’t take a genius to know that I was doing that because of the note. I didn’t want her to think I was only going to do it because of the fact her feelings were hurt, but because I really wanted her to be happy. I would pick one of those things and show up to her place with a broad smile on my face and my gift in hand.
If anything, she was bound to show appreciation at the time, even if she did see through the reason why I was doing it. Part of the reason anyway.
There was the underlying reason that I just wanted to make her happy, and this was the easiest way I could think to do it in the amount of time I had to work with.