On the Plus Side

I shoved my powder compact and lip gloss back into my little black purse and then patted my hair down one more time. As I walked out behind the counter Shannon turned to me and mouthed, “Oh my God—hot!” I couldn’t help but smile.

That’s when I saw him again.

He was leaning against the counter all sexy looking with a pair of loose fitting jeans that hung from him hips and a black Henley shirt. He turned to look at me and I could swear I saw something in his eyes that said, “Wow.” I blushed and looked down at myself one last time. He held out a single white rose and I took it from him and held it to my nose.

“Thank you…it’s beautiful.” I smiled up at him.

“You’re very welcome.” His eyes dropped to my cleavage.

“If you want, I can put it in some water when I get home. That way you don’t have to leave it to die in the car,” Shannon said.

I handed her the flower and then smiled back at Devin. My very first flower from a guy, you know that bad boy is getting dried and crushed between the pages of my journal.

“I know roses are kind of typical, but I figured you’ve probably gotten like a million lilies in your life,” he said.

I chuckled to myself on that one. If only he knew. No lilies for Lilly!

“You ready to go?” he asked in that creamy, mocha latte sounding voice of his.

I know I know! Stop with the food already!

“Yes, I’m ready.”

I ran over closing with Shannon real quick to make sure she didn’t forget anything and then followed behind him to the door. He held the door open for me and as I was passing by I heard Shannon yell.

“Have fun, kids. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, or better yet do everything that I’d do!” she laughed out loud at that.

I rolled my eyes and felt my face turn red. Devin chuckled softly to himself.

On the walk to his car, he placed his hand on my lower back and I suddenly felt like all my skin was melting off of my body. The heat from his hand went through my shirt and straight into my spine.  It was such a sweet moment in time and I was kind of sad when we finally got to his car. I felt his hand leave my back as he opened the car door for me.

“It’s not much, but it’s mine,” he said apologetically before he closed my door and ran around the front of the car to the driver’s side.

Before he could get into the car, I whispered out loud, “It’s perfect.”

It was perfect to me. It wasn’t a brand new vehicle, but it had character and small touches all over that reminded me of him. I had seen enough flashy cars in my life and this, as far as I was concerned, was a real car. Just like my old Honda, a real car, with scratches and dents—a car that had lived, and if I wasn’t mistaken, it was an older sports car, just like I had said before. Nail on the head baby…nail on the head.

Remembering the day in the café when he had asked me out made me wonder again why he wanted to take me out. I couldn’t for the life of me see this incredibly hot guy being attracted to me. Me! Large Lilly, the fat girl in class, the loser who hid behind mommy and daddy’s money—at least that’s what the kids at school used to say. I had to stop thinking these things. I wasn’t in high school anymore. I wasn’t large Lilly anymore. I just needed to remember that…even repeat it to myself all night if I had to.

After jumping in and starting the car, he turned to me and smiled as he revved the engine. I felt my cheeks heat up, and for a second I worried that maybe this date was bad for my blood pressure. Lord knows I was feeling a little flushed just looking at his sexy smile.

“I believe I was correct about the old Mustang named Bertha,” I said, as I hoped for a sudden change in mood.

“Nope, her name’s Lucy and she’s a Camaro.” He smiled sweetly as he caressed the dash of the car like it was an actual female.

I’d never wanted to be a car more in my life, if that’s what it took to have him softly caress me that way. I silently wished to be a car—I was big enough to be one. I wanted to imagine myself purring every time Devin got inside me and took me for a ride. Unfortunately, all I could see was me drunk with chocolate smeared across my face singing the Transformer’s intro “Robots in Disguise!” into Shannon’s broken box fan.

“So, where do you want to go? I was thinking dinner and a movie, but it’s completely up to you if you wanna do something else instead.”

“A movie sounds fun. I wonder what’s playing.”

We stood out front and looked at all the movies playing. There really wasn’t much to choose from. There was a sappy chick flick, which I’m sure any other girl would choose, but that I had absolutely no desire to see. Then there was the new slasher film that was supposed to be super gross with lots of blood, sex, and action...I was dying to see it.