After Nick and I met at the coffee shop, we decided to set up our first date. We settled on dinner and mini-golfing.
When I asked what restaurant to meet him at, Boston Market was his reply. I was a little surprised. Boston Market didn’t really seem like a date-type restaurant to me, and all I could think of was a coworker at the time who talked about how it was good food, but she called it “old people food.”
When the day of the date arrived, I met Nick at Boston Market. He must’ve gotten some heat from his friends or coworkers about his restaurant choice because the first thing he asked was if I wanted to go to Outback Steakhouse (right next door) instead.
Not wanting to make him feel bad, I said no, this was great.
And you know what? It was pretty great. We sat outside at one of their picnic tables, enjoyed some tasty “old people food,” and had a really good conversation.
I just remember feeling at ease with Nick.
After we ate, I drove us over to the mini-golf place. We had a really nice time playing through the course. There was lots of laughter and joking and a lot of movie quotes thrown around.
Once we finished our game – pretty sure he won, but I don’t fully remember – we sat down and had some ice cream. It was around this time I had the biggest urge to lean over and kiss him.
That was a totally new feeling for me.
While I’ve never been a shy person, I was always awkward at dating. I don’t pick up on subtleties all that well, and in past “will they/won’t they” kiss moments, I fled before it became too awkward. (Very mature, I know.)
I’ve also always been one who believes the guy should make the first move at the end of the date. So the fact I really wanted to kiss Nick was big. I didn’t act on it, but I certainly made note of it.
When I dropped him off at his car (still parked at Boston Market), I did my best to avoid the “do you reach over the console or not?” moment, and we said we should meet up again.
Soon after that, we set up a second date (bowling, I think), and he was going to come and pick me up… until I got a text that his car was on the fritz. So I offered to come pick him up. When I arrived, I asked, “Can you drive a stick shift?” I figured I’d let him drive my car so he could be a little more in charge of this date.
He said he could, but it had been a while. It must’ve been a really long while because halfway to the bowling alley, we had to do a Chinese fire drill so I could get us there safely.
In my head I was thinking I’ve probably just emasculated this guy, and he’ll have no desire to see me again, but I was wrong. Nick laughed it off and took it all in stride. (And I should point out that he now can, and does, drive a stick shift – he was just really rusty when we met.)
Once again, the date was filled with good conversation and laughter, and more urges to kiss this handsome guy.
At the end of the date, I parked outside his apartment building, set the parking brake, got out of the car, marched over to his side, walked up to him, and planted one on him. I was not going miss my chance this time, and I wasn’t going to let a console get in the way either.
Nick has since told me he was very confused as to what I was doing, but, luckily, he got out of the car right as I got to his side and then was pleasantly surprised when I kissed him.
I probably should’ve known then that something was different about Nick. In my past dating experiences, I would always get incredibly nervous and be really awkward, and I didn’t have that with Nick.
He just made it easy.
He was easy and fun to talk to and be around, and I never had any doubt about how he felt about me or how I felt about him.
We dated for about a month, and then he asked me to be his girlfriend (in the middle of kissing me goodnight after a date).
“Yes!” Was my immediate answer.
The rest, as they say, is history. ❤️
IVF That 