Far Love (Book 1)

7 | First date

August 24th, 2023

I stammer, then shake my head to clear it and say, "Like as a date?.."

He smirks, "Yes... like a date."

"If you leave Saturday that's,"

"Tonight..." he pauses, "If you don't want to go, that's fine, maybe another time."

"No," I almost cut him off, "No, I want to go, I just, I'm in my work clothes." I scratch the back of my neck.

"That's fine, we can just go somewhere around here."

"You just ate," I argue.

"You're making this really hard, you know that?" He tilts his head and smiles down at me, eyes moving all around my face. In the setting sun's light, his hair looks like liquid gold and I almost get lost in it, before he says, "I don't care what you're wearing. And if you'd been looking, I didn't eat a single thing in there."

A weird feeling passes through my stomach and I look away for a second. Had he planned this? I look back up at him, "Okay, where to?"

He laughs curtly and says, "You'll see." He leads me to his sleek-looking car and I turn around when we get to the passenger door.

"Your siblings,"

"Didn't ride with me," he says as he opens the door for me.

I nod and get into the car, and he shuts the door behind me.

I can see him in the windshield as he jogs around the front of the car, and my stomach flips. That's the man I'm going on a date with? I never thought this would happen. My roommates had been obsessed with this man since we were in high school. I never fawned for celebrities the way that Nina and Mara had years ago, but somehow it still felt exciting.

He gets into the car and smiles over at me, "Dinner first?" My stomach growls right on time and I nod my head.

He reverses out of the parking spot and we drive only for a couple of minutes before we are apparently at our destination.

We get out and he opens the door to the restaurant for me. I walk in and clasp my hands in front of me self-consciously. He leads me to the host's desk and says, "For Woods."

The lady nods and leads us to a table. I smirk. Apparently, he did have this planned.

"You planned this didn't you?" I ask to verify.

He smirks, "I might have." After another moment he confesses, "I also put your roommate's numbers in my phone because I knew you probably wouldn't tell me when you worked."

I smile, "You're sly."

He smirks, "All about the element of surprise."

I stare at him for a moment, but it's not weird because he stares back with the same look in his eyes.

A waitress interrupts us and says, "Hello, I'll be your server today, my name is Alison if you need anything. Can I get some drinks started?"

I say, "Could I just get a Coke?"

Dylan nods and says, "Same thing." The waitress nods and walks away. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

I shrug, "You're the one who asked me out, shouldn't you have planned?"

Shrugging he says, "Maybe. How about your book? How's that going?"

I put my elbows on the table and a smile brings my lips up just a hair, "It's fine I guess. Writing a sequel is harder than writing the first book though."