I drive into the crowded parking lot, quite dark even with the four parking lot lights, Richard by my side. I start thinking about how we are about to go on a date, and I feel this warmth in my chest and my heart starts racing. My palms start to get sweaty and I start tapping my finger on the steering wheel.

Richard looks at me and says, “You ok?”

“Yeah, I'm ok,” I say. I continue driving to a parking space and pull up to it, then park the car in the parking space. “Well, we are here” I look at him at smile genuinely. My heart then slows down and I feel normal again, though I still have that warmth in my chest. I want to kiss him but it's too early. Wait, shut up brain, it's too early for that. I think to myself. “Well, let's get going,” I open my door and Richard opens his.

Richard walks around to me on the other side of the car.

I start walking to the restaurant, Richard following behind me. The restaurant is a brown building with a couple of lights going around the near top of the building. There is an outside seating area, string light lining the perimeter of the outside the covering of the seating area and hung from the bottom of it. A sigh in front of the building reading “Dave’s Grill”. I get near the door the Richard rushes in front of me and opens the door for me. “Thank you,” I say

“Of course,” He says.

We walk into the brightly lit restaurant. A guy wearing a company shirt with “Dave’s” on the left-hand side of the shirt behind the front desk welcomes us in. “Welcome to Dave’s, how many are dining with us tonight,” He says

“Just us two,” Richard says.

“Ok,” He reaches his hand below the desk and brings it back up with two menus in his hand. “Follow me” He walks out from behind the desk and starts walking through the restaurant. The inside of the restaurant has a wall dividing the middle of it and booths along that wall, on both sides and more booths lining the walls, light fixtures hanging from the ceiling above the booths, and a big light in the middle of the ceiling. Tables in the middle of both rooms. To the left, right before one of the rooms is a pathway into the kitchen, swinging doors closing it off. The waiter leads up to the right room, to the second booth on the dividing wall. “Here you guys go. There should be someone to get your guy’s orders shortly.” He sets our menus on the table then walks away.

I slide into my seat, Richard does the same. “This is nice,” I say.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Yeah,” Richard says. He grabs one of the menus from the table and looks at it for a couple of seconds “I think I’ll get the pulled pork”

“That sounds good, I might get that too”

A couple of minutes later a tall man walked over to our table, reaches our table, and says “Hey guys, what can I get you to drink” The waiter says.

“Can I get a Pepsi?” Richard askes

“And can I get an, uhh, Dr.Pepper?” I ask

He pulls out a notepad and a pen “So a Pepsi and a Dr.Pepper,” He says while writing something in the notepad “be right back with those” He then walks away.

“So, what’s been going on recently?” Richard askes

“Nothing much, I have to drive Danny to phoenix in a couple of weeks. She has a date with that guy she met on discord, hopefully, she doesn't get kidnapped” I chuckle a little bit

He chuckles too “Sounds fun. Have a good three-hour drive”

“Heh, yeah I will. She talks a lot so it’ll be a short ride, as you know.”

“Yeah. Other than that what do you have planned for the coming weeks?”

“Well, I have that competition and uh, we have homecoming. That's pretty much it. Speaking of homecoming, w-would you go with me?” I stutter a little bit, my face turning red.

His face turns red and he looks down, trying to hide it. He speaks, stuttering a little bit “Y-yeah, I would love to. But don't you have another competition that night?”

“Yeah, but I’d rather spend time with you,” I say, my heart racing again.

The tall waiter walks back over to our table, notepad, and pen in hand. He reaches our table and asks “Are you guys ready to order?”

“Yeah,” I say. “I would like the pulled pork sandwich”

“I would like the same” Richard says.

The waiter writes with haste on his notepad, what I would assume is our orders. “That’ll be out shortly,” He says.

“Ok, thank you,” I say.

Our waiter walks away.

“So,” Richard says, pausing, trying to think of something to talk about “How's your novel going? What's it about?”

“Well, I'm past the fifteen-thousand-word mark, which is a big accomplishment. Well, it's a mystery/horror short novel. The main character, a cop, his son goes missing, and there is a rumor about some tall man, always wearing all black, and when people look at him he disappears. Well, long story short, the tall man takes the boy and takes him to this warehouse and the son’s dad decides to take up the investigation on his own without permission and tries to find his son. Pretty generic, I know but it's like my first real story, and I'm trying to work on other stuff other than just romance.”

“Sounds pretty interesting. I would like to read what you got so far. You know I read a lot, I could help you out with some stuff”

“Yeah, sure, that would be great, I do need a good critic to help out with my story. People online don't help much with that kind of stuff”