Before We Left, Part Three

Five weeks later…

DIANA

I had spent the longest time since my phone call with my mother not taking her advice. I knew that I should. It was just hard to. I had spent all that time sitting on these feelings for him, and now he was about to go off to college. So if I didn’t tell him soon, I would never get the chance. I decided that today would be the day I finally told him. So I got out of my bed, put on my jean jacket and torn jeans with a blue tank top. It was the same outfit I wore on the first day of freshman year. I walked over to the door to find Bruce standing there with a cup of coffee and a muffin.

“Hey Diana,” he said as he held the coffee out for me

As I took the coffee he gave me his smile, which caused me to blush a bit. I looked at his outfit for a moment. He was wearing a white v-neck and black slacks. No turtleneck or leather jacket, which meant that I could see some of his scars on the lower part of his neck. When I realized how long I had been staring, I moved out of the way.

“Do you wanna come in?” I asked.

He nodded and entered through the door into the blue walled kitchen. We walked  through the house and over to the living room. When we sat down I noticed that there was some kind of determination in his eyes, like he was about to do something. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Wanting to break the silence I reached for the remote and turned on the TV. I started laughing hysterically when Bruce immediately turned his attention to the Spongebob episode playing.

“Don’t judge me,” he said. “Spongebob is an American hero.”

I laughed even harder at that. Bruce had always had an interesting taste in entertainment, but at least we agreed that Spongebob was iconic. Then I decided to join him in watching the children’s cartoon.

After a few minutes Bruce stopped paying attention to the show and started looking at me with the same determination as before.

“Diana,” he said, “would you like to go to dinner with me?”

I am taken aback. I’ve never heard him say anything like that to me before. Was he asking me out? I couldn’t seem to figure out what was going on.

“Yes!” I said.

Bruce smiled at me. His eyes brightened up more than I could even imagine. It was as though his whole world had just changed.

“Great,” he said. “How about tonight at 8?” 

“Sounds good. See you then.”

When I said that he began to walk back down to his house. I ended up thinking about how this could be my opportunity to tell him how I felt.

BRUCE

As I walked down the driveway to my house, I thought, ‘this could finally be my chance to tell her how I feel.’ I had the biggest smile on my face. I needed to just tell her tonight. She deserved to know. When I got down to my house I checked the clock in the living room, 11:45. Looks like I have a while to wait before dinner tonight.

I decided to think about what I was gonna do. I couldn’t think of any good restaurants that I could afford. So I decided that I would just cook something. Now when I thought something, I really meant an enormous 3-course meal that will literally take me several hours to make. So I went into the kitchen and began flipping through the recipe books until I found everything that I wanted.  Then I remembered; nobody really wants a guy to make them a meal with enough calories to last week. So I just flipped through the pages for something simple until I found it. Then came step two, cooking.

DIANA

At 7:55pm…

I decided that tonight I’d wear something simple. I wouldn’t plan the outfit as much. So I just pulled out a black button up shirt and dark blue jeans with a pair of flats. Then once I was completely ready, I got a text from Bruce.

Bruce- Come down to my house when you’re ready

I smiled and began to walk down the driveway to his house. I tried to look through the kitchen window to see what was going on. The curtains were closed. I had no idea what might be happening. I knocked on the door.

“It’s open,” he called.

I entered the house to find that the lights had been dimmed, and I went to the dining room to find a cooked beef wellington. Oh my god. Bruce made me beef wellington and dimmed all the lights. If this wasn’t supposed to be one of those cheesy romantic comedy dates, I don’t know what was.

I take a seat in the chair opposite Bruce. The length of the table had been shortened, so we’d be closer together.

“So,” he asked. “How was your day?”

“It was really good. Kind of boring. How about you?”

“My day was pretty good. It was long though.”

I could tell that part. He had spent the entire day cleaning the house and making sure that this would be nice, and then he cooked my favorite meal. Then I looked at him. He was wearing his maroon dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up a bit, showing off his muscular figure. and black slacks with a black button up vest. He looked almost exactly the way he did at our senior prom. This was somehow better. He even looked more nervous than he did at his senior speech. I never understood why this was, but he always looked cute when he was nervous or if he was stressing about something.

“I have something to tell you,” we said in unison.

We both chuckle as I blush a bit.

“You first,” he said.

I thought carefully about how I was going to do this. I had wanted to say this to him for 8 years. Somehow I’ve never once had the courage. Now I had to. It was now or never. The homestretch. The final countdown. I kept telling myself, ‘If you don’t tell him now you’ll never get the chance. You’ll eventually fall out of touch. You’ll forget about each other. Tell him.’

“I love you Bruce.” I said.

There, I finally just came out and said it, and now that I had I wish I hadn’t. The look on his face seemed to tell me everything. The shocked look on his face. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. I was certain that in telling him now, I had ruined things forever.

Bruce stood up from his chair and walked over to me. He got down on both of his knees. I was certain he would try and shoot me down easy. Instead, he leaned in and gave me a soft gentle kiss. At first I didn’t even know it was happening. Once I figured out what he was doing I kissed him back, and we just stayed like that for a few moments until he pulled away.

He looked at me with a look that did explain everything. I didn’t need to think about it anymore. I didn’t need to guess at things with him anymore. He didn’t even need to say it, but he did.

“I love you too,” he said with the warmest most gentle voice I had ever heard,

When he said that I felt as though my heart would melt. I couldn’t believe he actually said it. I hesitated for just a moment trying to make sure that this was really happening, that it wasn’t a dream. When I stopped waiting, I kissed him back. It was nothing more than a sweet and gentle kiss. There was nothing more I could do in that moment. I still couldn’t believe that it was even happening.

When we pulled away from each other, I watched as Bruce’s face went as red as a tomato. I couldn’t figure it out but I loved the feeling it gave me almost as much as I loved him.

To be continued…