Chapter 4

"What does dressing nicely mean?" I rolled my eyes in frustration, glaring at the crumpled piece of paper.

"I don't know, Ione. I mean like boys never know how difficult it is for girls to get ready for dates," Hilary was sprawled on my bed looking intently at her phone and scrolling through her facebook news feed.

"Like, he said nicely, but did he even mean nicely, like nicely nicely?" my voice strained as I paced around the room wearing a white tank top with a floral design on the front and black ripped jeans.

"There's like, formal nicely, relaxed nicely, not nice at all and very very nicely," she ticked off her fingers as she sat up. "I think for a first date for your future husband relaxed nicely would be good.

"I blushed and muttered, "I only just met him and got his name yesterday.

"What's his name again?" she went to go look in my wardrobe, rummaging deep into the collection.

"Theo," a smile danced across my face but faded as soon as it had appeared when she pulled out the fanciest dress I owned.

It was a floor length strapless peach colored dress with a sweetheart neckline and hand sewn patterns above where the skirt flared out and gold beads lining certain areas.

"This dress is freaking amazing, how have I never seen it?" She traced her fingertips over the beading in admiration.

"I hid it right at the back of my closet because I would never wear it," I chuckled, sadly.

"Why not?"I looked up to see her frowning and gave her a pointed look.

"Oh, okay never mind." she pouted, sheepishly.

Taking the dress from her hand I carefully hung it where it rightfully sat in the back of the clothes where it would hopefully never see the daylight ever again.

"So what am I actually going to wear? It's already 5 and he said to meet him at the cafe at 6," I flicked quickly through my dresses passing by the shorter ones since it was autumn.

"How about this," Hilary picked up the clothing choices.

I hesitated, "I guess that would be alright."

***

I stood nervously outside the cafe glancing at my thin silver watch. I liked being early, just by a few minutes. Looking down at my clothes I studied the gray concrete beside my plain black heels. Brushing off a stray hair from the brown woolen cardigan I took a deep breath and smoothed out my white crop top and black maxi skirt. It isn't usually this dark at this time of night.

"Hi," I heard a voice say to my left in the shadows. I turned to look who it was when I saw Theo step out from the darkness.

"Hi," I offered a small smile allowing it to grow when I saw his lips pull into a gentle grin.

"I can't believe you actually came," he shook his head in disbelief. Looking back at me under his lashes with a shy look on her face, he said, "You look... ahem. Very nice."

I giggled, "You expected me to not come? I keep my word." I looked him over.

He was wearing a collared shirt with a dark blue knitted sweater over it and gray jeans. His black hair was casually pushed away from his face as if he couldn't be bothered to do any styling with it. He looked... really hot. I blushed when he caught me staring at him and quickly found myself observing my shoes again.

"Well I wasn't very extremely courteous about it. I don't really think that we should have met like that in the first place since it was pretty terrible circumstances. Can we start over?" He grinned, sheepishly as I frowned at the memory of him making Hilary fall into a coma.

"I'm not going to forget about how we met, but you can try again if it makes you feel better," I laughed, running my fingertips through my long, brown hair.

He took a breath in and out, glancing up at me, "Hi, my name is Theo."

I noticed that he was wearing a black glove on his right hand when he stuck it out for me to shake. I frowned for a second and took it, shaking it his warm hand once.

"I'm Ione, pleasure to meet you... Theo," His vibrant green eyes held mine heatedly for a few seconds with our hands still grasping each other and his lips held a gentle smile before he blinked several times as if he was coming out of a trance, dropping my hand in the process.

He held out his crooked arm for me to hold, "Shall we go?"

I let out a breath and smiled, sliding my hand through the gap, "Yes, my good sir."

We walked a few steps towards where I saw a black Aston Martin.

Theo clicked the remote with shiny silver keys hanging from the ring.

What the actual- it was his car. Why was he working as a waiter if he could afford an Aston Martin? It made no sense, but he didn't give me any time to think as he reached to open the passenger door for, offering me a quick smile.

Grinning, I slipped into the seat, waiting for him to enter the car. I admired the interior when my gaze landed on his eyes locked with mine again. I could feel my heart beat faster as his eyes glinted with something I couldn't identify in the streetlight.

Quickly, I looked from his beautiful green eyes to my lap, a blush dancing across my cheeks.

He fiddled around for a second and started to drive, the smooth engine purring.

"So, where are we going? You better not be kidnapping me, Theo," I said, warningly.

"I promise that I will not kidnap you. As for where we're going," He sent me a sly look.

"That's for me to know, and you to find out."

"I rolled my eyes and playfully flicked his arm, "You're lame."

"You used it yesterday Ai,"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Theo," I thought about whether I liked the fact that he had shortened my name to just, Ai. It had a nice ring to it.

"Nah, you think I'm cool," He smirked.

"Think what you want, sweetheart," I patted his arm as if I was consoling him, shaking my head.

I looked up and caught his eyes again and he froze.

Thank goodness we were at a red light. He held my gaze again and I noticed that he put on the other glove from the pair.

I went to take away my hand again from embarrassment when he grasped it gently with the thing layer of fabric separating our skin.

His jaw clenched as he looked as he was fighting something. He gave it a quick squeeze before dropping it and reaching for the driving stick as the light turned green.

My face flushed red and I attempted to hide it using my long brown hair as a curtain, dipping my head down.

Tonight was going to be a long night and I wasn't sure whether it was going to be good or bad.

Author's Note

The reason that I thought 'Ai' would be a cute nickname was because in Chinese it means 'love' which was a huge coincidence, but hey, it works.

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