Scenario 1 : The Coffee Shop
I didn’t know what was going to happen when he picked me up. I always thought of impossible scenarios of what could happen, knowing of course that all of them were highly unlikely to happen. I was nervous, but I knew I shouldn’t be. I’ve known him for years and even if I wanted anything to happen between us, I know nothing could. He had a thing with a friend of mine about a year ago and he was friends with my ex. There was just too many factors that prevented anything from happening between us. But the more I told myself no, the more I seemed to want something to happen. A coworker kept telling me that something could happen, but I was always unsure. Even if something did, how would I go about it? I don’t want to upset my best friend, but she might be completely fine with it. No matter what, the answer was always no.
When he finally came, I tried to act casual. Like I hadn’t just spent the last 30 minutes making up impossible scenarios.
“Hey, how are you?” he asked.
The drive was kind of quiet, but the silence wasn’t too awkward. On occasion one of us would say something, and then silence again. If that bothered him, it didn’t show, and he said nothing. It wasn’t awkward. I guess we were both comfortable.
We were just going to get some coffee. They were having a sale at the local coffee shop, so we took advantage. When it came time to pay, we argued at the register for a bit over who was paying, in the end we just paid for ourselves, but even then he was still upset. Once we got our drinks and sat down, he gave a look of disapproval.
“Nothing. It’s just-- you.”
“What umm, what about me?”
“Uhh.. alright?” I was going to just leave it alone because I figured he meant about the paying fiasco.
“It’s just that the whole point of coming was so I could pay for you,” he said.
“But, we never established that. You never said anything. I mean come on, it’s not like were dating or anything,” I answered.
“Wait. Are you-- Was this a date?” I asked, kind of in disbelief.
“I wanted it to be. I just didn’t know how to ask you without you freaking out because I know how you feel about us being something and I really wanted to go out with--”
I cut him off. “Woah, slow down. Okay umm...”
I was pretty much at a loss for words. One of my impossible scenarios was kind of coming true. I thought for sure I was dreaming.
“So, umm... so you like me?” That’s all I could manage.
“Oh umm.. okay.. when did you--” he cut me off this time.
“Start to like you? I don’t know. It just kind of happened. I guess after school ended I found myself thinking about you a lot. I knew I had to see you, but I didn’t want to freak you out because it would’ve felt out-of-the-blue for you-- I just, I’m sorry. This isn’t the way I wanted to tell you.”
“Why didn’t you just start out subtle by like, texting me or something?” By this point I was a little upset. I know it was what I kind of hoped for, but it’s different when you actually live it.
“I know that you don’t really like talking to people all the time. I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do.”