Chapter 5: The First Date That Didn’t Feel Like One
960 Words
The restaurant wasn’t nice. It didn’t pretend to be.
Which was nice.
Becca sat across from him, arms crossed loosely over her chest.
“This is weird.”
Lee nodded. “I figured.”
“You're being very chill about this.”
“I don’t want to screw it up,” he confessed.
She raised her head to look at him. “That’ s honestly something you haven’t done before.”
“I asked you not to expect anything. I didn’t ask you to lie.”
---
They ordered food.
Silence fell over the table between them after.
Becca drummed her fingers lightly against the wood.
Lee watched her. “You always do that.”
“Excuse me?”
“Nibble away at the silence.”
She stopped drumming her fingers. “It isn’t silent,” she argued. “We just… don’t have anything to say yet.”
He leaned forward. “There’ s always something to say.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Like what?”
Lee thought for a moment.
Then spoke. “What do you fear?”
Becca froze for a second.
“Wow,” she replied after. “Jump right into therapy questions with me, huh?”
Lee shrugged. “You told me not to expect anything. I don’t expect you to answer.”
She stared at him for several seconds.
And then looked away. “That’ s a broad question.”
He replied softly, “I know.”
The First Crack in the Armor
Halfway through dinner was when Becca finally said, “I don’t normally do this.”
Lee sat up straighter. “Go on dates?”
“Conversation.”
He nodded. “Why not?”
Becca paused.
She said, “Because people use it against you later.”
Lee didn’t say anything right away.
Instead, he sat silently, watching her intently, like he understood what she meant.
“Has someone done that to you?” he finally asked quietly.
Becca gave a quiet snort of laughter. “Doesn’t everybody?”
He shook his head. “No, like that.”
She looked back down at her food. “You don’t know that.”
“I know,” he said with a soft sigh. “But I’ m asking anyway.”
Silence.
Longer this time.
Before Becca sighed. “It’ s better not to say things.”
Lee nodded slowly. “Because then no one can take them and twist them around.”
Her head shot up to look at him again.
“…Yeah,” she replied softly.
---
Neither of them spoke for a while.
“You don’t have to watch what you say around me.”
She gave a scoff, a small laugh. “Everybody says that.”
Lee looked at her. “I mean it.”
Becca eyed him. “You haven’t even sat across from me long enough to know what watchful means to me.”
Lee scooted back in his chair a little. “Then teach me.”
Wasn’t romantic.
Wasn’t even dramatic.
But it hit Becca, and she felt something she hadn’t before.
Walking Her Home
They walked out into the cool night air after dinner.
Hands shoved firmly in her pockets.
“So,” Becca began. “We just finished, and that’s it?”
Lee regarded her. “You want to end this already?”
“I don’t know what this is yet.”
He sighed and nodded. “Fair enough.”
They walked several feet in comfortable silence.
Until Becca spoke up. “You're different from what I expected you to be.”
Lee quirked a smile. “Good or bad?”
“I don’t know yet.” She repeated his words.
Which made him chuckle.
---
They finally reached for her car.
Becca sighed and stopped walking. “Look. I'm home. Safe. Whatever this was between us… Let's stop talking and go.”
Lee stood there quietly for a few seconds.
He didn’t leave.
Instead, he simply asked, “Can I ask you another question?”
“You used your question credit at dinner.”
He grinned. “True.”
More seriously: “Did you enjoy yourself?”
She began to reply with some words that meant nothing.
Stuff that would dismiss any notions of this being okay.
But she caught herself.
And for once, Becca wasn’t going to lie to Lee Morgan.
“…Yeah,” she said softly. “I did.”
Lee nodded, as if that answered his question. “Good.”
---
She unlocked her car door but didn’t open it yet.
“You're not what I expected either.”
Lee glanced at her. “What did you expect from me?”
She paused.
And then shrugged. “I don’t know. Less caring?”
He cracked a smile again. “I can fix that if you want.”
“No!” She said quickly. Please don’t.
He paused at that. “Why?”
Becca looked at him for a long moment.
Letting small truths settle in around her.
---
She liked that he was patient with her.
She liked that he was kind.
She didn’t know how to explain why everything felt different to him.
But she didn’t say any of that.
“What?” Lee asked gently.
“Everything is complicated,” she murmured, more to herself.
Lee shook his head lightly. “Not everything.”
And with that, he walked away.
Becca sat in her car for long minutes after he left her.
She didn’t smile.
Not really.
But she felt… something.
Like maybe a part of her had finally healed, and she didn’t know how to wrench it back out of place.
And that frightened her.
Not because she felt nothing.
But because she felt something with Lee.
- Writer
