Just One Night

I sat in the dimly lit parking lot with my phone in my grasp. 8:06 PM. I was supposed to enter the restaurant six minutes ago. But I was a chicken and instead opted to sit inside of my car, choosing to believe it would somehow make my social anxiety any better. Just get out of the car, Annalise. My phone buzzed. It was a text from Ever. Hey, are you still coming? Three weeks to work up the courage to finally ask her out and I was contemplating standing her up. What kind of monster did that make me? I took a deep breath and shoved my phone inside of my coat pocket. I turned the car off, grabbed a hold of the key and reluctantly threw open the car door, nearly hitting an older gentleman walking by in the process. “Sorry!” I called out. He grunted something and walked away quickly, probably afraid I would somehow hit him accidentally again. Not that I could blame him. I was prone to accidents. I somehow sprained my fingers tripping over nothing on my way into the store once. My phone buzzed again. I didn’t bother to check it this time, though. I knew it would be Ever. I stupidly read the text and didn’t respond, forgetting she’d see that I’d read it. Great. I’d known Ever for years. We were good friends that had met in high school. We’d lost touch after graduation, but thanks to f*******:, we managed to get back in contact and things had been going great between us ever since. As it turned out, I was bisexual and Ever was a lesbian – things we’d kept hidden in high school. We had spent so much of our time in high school projecting these ridiculous images onto ourselves in order to fit in that, once we were finally able to be open about it, the walls seemed to come crashing down. The problem, however, was that Ever lived two hours away. And while I wasn’t necessarily opposed to a long-distance romance, I knew it took work, and we were both incredibly busy as it was. She’d gone into journalism and worked for one of the biggest geek sites online, which often meant flying off to movie premieres last minute or visiting sets all over the world for some of the biggest films. While I remained back home in Fort Lauderdale, stuck at a nine-to-five job that I hated more than anything. The job wasn’t hard, but the people? They were the worst of the worst. So, when I found out Ever would be in town visiting family, I asked her out to dinner. Nowhere fancy. In fact, we’d just decided to go to the local Primanti’s – a favorite of ours when we were in school together, mainly thanks to the massively oversized garlic rolls and delicious pizza. It didn’t hurt that they were on the more affordable side, either. I just wished I still had the courage I’d had when I asked her, I thought. I took a deep breath and forced myself to walk into the restaurant. Unsurprisingly, the place was packed thanks to the weekly buy one, get one offer on pizza, making it easier to hide among the crowd. Or so I thought. Unfortunately for me, my purple hair made me easy to spot, even within a crowd. “Over here, Anna,” Ever yelled. Her voice tore through the chaos around me, which helped to calm my anxiety a bit. Not much, but enough that I no longer felt the need to hurl with each step forward. “I was beginning to think you got cold feet,” she said as I slipped into the booth across from her. “You’ve always been terrible at responding to texts.” “Hey, I have to keep some things consistent,” I said. “Which is why I’m hoping it’s okay that I ordered you a water to drink.” Ever shot me a worried look as the waitress approached with our beverages. “I remembered you weren’t really a fan of soda.” More like my stomach wasn’t a fan, I wanted to say. “That’s fine by me, thank you.” The waitress handed me a menu before walking away. “I’ll be back in a few to get your order, feel free to take a good look at the menu.” “Thank you.” I waited until she walked away to put the menu down on the table. There was no point in looking. I already knew what I would order. I was a creature of habit. I’d order a large cheese pizza and a half-dozen garlic rolls for us to eat, and I’d let Ever take the free pizza home. “Get whatever toppings you’d like on the second pizza.” “In that case, I guess I’ll get a large pepperoni,” she said. “Huh. I’d expected you to get a Hawaiian pizza,” I said. “Did you finally realize that pineapple does not belong on pizza?” Ever smiled as she looked up at me. She reached for a straw off the table and took a long sip of her soda. Her chin-length brown locks hung around her face, highlighting her honey-brown eyes. Her tanned complexion was adorned in tattoos, including a flower sleeve on her right arm. “I’m glad you asked me here,” she said. “I was hoping to see you while I was in town. I just figured you’d be too busy.” “Me? Busy? You know darn well I don’t have a life,” I said with a laugh, “Oh, stop it,” Ever leaned against the back of the booth seat and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m sure your life is a lot more interesting than you let on.” Interesting was one way of putting it. I spent most of my free time curled up on my couch with a book as Criminal Minds played in the background. It was my comfort show, oddly enough. I’d binged through the entire series multiple times, and yet, I couldn’t resist going back. “If only you knew.” It was weird sitting across from Ever again. For the past few months, I often wondered what it would be like to see her again – to get a chance to see how things developed between us. I’d just gotten out of a relationship with Billy, and I wasn’t looking to date again. But life had other plans. The waitress returned to the table with her notepad in hand. “So, what will it be tonight, ladies?” “We’re going to get one large cheese pizza, one large pepperoni pizza, and a half-dozen garlic rolls.” I collected the menus and handed them back to her. “And that’ll be all for tonight.” “Perfect, I’ll go ahead and get your order in,” she said. “I’ll bring out the rolls as soon as they’re ready.” “Thank you,” I said. As the waitress walked into the kitchen, I nervously looked back at Ever. Her eyes were locked on me still and a smile spread wide upon her lips. “What are you smiling at?” “You,” she said. “Did you know that I used to have a huge crush on you in high school? I obviously didn’t act on it because I thought I was straight, or at least, I wanted to believe I was straight because it was easier than accepting who I was. But I was always drawn to you.” “I can’t determine if you have bad taste or not,” I joked. “But thank you for telling me that. I was beginning to think you only agreed to come out tonight because you felt sorry for me.” Ever laughed and took another sip of her drink. “Trust me, I’m here of my own free will. I’ve been looking forward to tonight for the past week. I even had it written down on my calendar, if that tells you anything.” “Well, I’m glad you’re here,” I said. “I’ve been waiting for this night, too.” “Oh, is that so?” I nervously tapped my fingers alongside my glass. “Yeah, I guess I’ve always been attracted to you, and when we reconnected, I was curious if anything could become of it. I mean, I know we’re hours away from one another but…” “What’s a couple hours?” she asked with a chuckle. “Let’s see what happens.” “Okay, I can get behind that.” In that moment, any sense of anxiety I had seemingly went out the door.