I looked up at the clock again and saw it was five thirty, and I decided I could leave now. My house was a good fifteen minutes from hers, so it wouldn’t be too weird if I showed up a little early. With that decided, I grabbed the bags of groceries I needed, packed them in my car, and headed over to her apartment.
* * *
It was five fifty when I heard a knock on my apartment door. I took one last look in my bedroom mirror to make sure that the navy sweater and khaki pants looked alright. I’d debated wearing a dress, but I thought that would be too fancy for a first date. Then I thought about wearing jeans, but I thought that would be too casual.
Why does going on a first date with him have to be so complicated?
I left my black curly hair down. I seriously hated my hair. Most women wanted to have curly hair, except for all the women who actually had it and had to deal with it. It was so hard for me to brush and had tangles in it all the time.
Leaving my mirror, I headed towards my apartment door. Standing on my tiptoes, I checked the peephole to see Robert standing there, and then I opened the door.
“Hi,” I shyly said. Why do I feel shy now? He saw me naked not twelve hours ago.
“Hello, Juliana. You look lovely tonight.” He adjusted the three bags in his arms, and as he did so, I could see his muscles strain against his dark blue, long sleeve shirt. He was wearing black dress pants as well and I couldn’t help but admire the view.
Shaking my head slightly, I reached for one of the bags. “Let me help you.” I took one and realized it was pretty heavy. “Gosh, what do you have in here, a twenty pound turkey?” I joked, as we walked through my apartment and put all of the bags on my kitchen table.
“No. You just grabbed the bag that had the chicken and wine in it. These are for you, by the way,” he said, handing me a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers.
“Oh, thank you! I love sunflowers!” I said, taking them and admiring them. They were gorgeous. “I’ll get a vase for these.”
As I was looking for a vase, out of the corner of my eye I saw Robert looking around my apartment.
“I like your apartment,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels.
Is he nervous? I filled the vase I had just found with water, then unwrapped the sunflowers from the plastic and placed them in the vase. “Thanks. It’s pretty small, but it’s home. Would you like a tour?”
“Sure.”
Putting the vase down on my counter, I turned towards him. “Okay. Well, as you can see, to the right of the kitchen is the family room. Then, if you follow me through the family room, you’ll see two doors by the couch. The door to the right opens up into my bedroom.”
I walked into my bedroom, showing him the faded yellow walls, the queen size bed that was in the center of the room, and my dresser that was right across from it with the TV on top.
“Very nice,” he said, his eyes scanning my room as if he was trying to memorize exactly how it looked.
“Thanks. Now, through the door on the left side of the family room is my bathroom.”
I lead him out of my bedroom and walked into my bathroom. The bathroom was very small. The shower/bathtub barely fit on the left side and then the toilet and sink were on the other side. The walls in here were also faded, but they were painted a lavender color instead of yellow.
“It’s… cozy in here,” he said and I turned to face him. He was a large man, and he looked very cramped in this room. I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my face as I imagined him trying to take a shower in my bathtub. It would be a tight squeeze.
“It’s okay to say it’s small. I know it is, and that’s the end of the tour,” I chuckled, walking back into the kitchen.
“I like your apartment. Even though it isn’t as big as the White House, it has a homey feeling to it.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling surprisingly happy that he liked my home. I don’t know why it mattered to me, but it did.
“Now, I think it’s time that I start getting dinner ready.”
“Can I help you?” I asked enthusiastically. I loved to cook, I just wasn’t that great at it. I would follow a recipe exactly and my food still didn’t turn out well. I kept trying though, each time thinking that my food would turn out better, but it hadn’t yet.
“Sure. Let’s wash our hands and then we can begin.”
“Okay.” I walked over to my sink and I got my hands wet, put soap in them, and began to scrub them.
“Need help?” Robert asked, coming up behind me and taking my hands in his.
I felt my heart rate start to speed up. I didn’t like to be surrounded like this. It made me feel helpless. It made me realize that Robert was bigger than me and could overpower me if he wanted to, just like Boyle.