She gave him a reprimanding look, or at least tried to through her smile. "You already asked me that." Malia tugged a curl on his head. "It may be a little special, but it's also just cause. Wine sounds great! I'll see you later, cutie." Newly filled with excitement for tonight, she kissed Jesse once more as a goodbye, then hurried away.
Malia cleaned her apartment thoroughly and bought fresh flowers to arrange in little bouquets. She took extra time styling her hair so it tumbled over one shoulder in bouncy waves. She lit candles and set up mood lighting. Over text they'd decided to order dinner, which she took upon herself to get ahead of time and plate. She waited until all her tasks were done before she stepped into a dress that hugged her hips and covered her bare feet. The pale pink against deep red roses and her skin tone was perfect. The atmosphere was perfect. All that was left was her boyfriend, who was coming up the elevator. Malia left the door unlocked and sat carefully on the arm of her nearest chair, letting herself be the first thing he saw when he stepped inside.
The final hour at the bookstore passed more quickly than Jesse necessarily wanted it to– as pleasant as the evening they had planned sounded, even after being reassured twice he couldn't quite shake the anticipatory nerves that something was going to happen, or that there was a motivation that Malia for some reason wasn't telling him. Life had been so calm recently, it was hard not to wait for the other shoe to drop. By the time he made it to Malia's apartment, dressed in a nice button-up she had given to him previously, his hands were sweating enough that he had to tuck the bottle of wine under his arm out of fear of dropping it.
As much as he had let the nerves eat away at him on the way there, he could feel the tension ebbing once he made it to the elevator up. This was just a romantic dinner. They had done this a million times before. He needed to get out of his own head.
By the time he laid eyes on Malia, his pulse was racing for a different reason. It still amazed him– he saw her almost every day, had known her since he was a teenager, and there were still times like now where she entirely took his breath away.
"You're– Wow. You're beautiful." Jesse greeted Malia with a full smile, meeting her at the chair so he could lean down and kiss her hello. "Hi, love. How was the rest of your day?" He leaned over to place the bottle of wine down on the coffee table, then returned his full focus to her. "Is that a new dress?"
