Amelia arrived at my place at seven o’clock, sharp, and Lydia shouted from the window that I was on my way down. She hurried me out of the door. I walked downstairs and went to meet Amelia outside the building.

“Wow...” she said. “Hannah, you look fantastic.”

“So do you,” I told her, smiling. It was true. Amelia was wearing high-waisted jeans shorts with a white t-shirt, plus a very gay combination of an unbuttoned flannel shirt and mid-calf boots. I suddenly understood why Lydia had insisted on the whole “showing your legs” thing, because holy shit, Amelia’s legs were sexy.

I took my car’s keys from the purse, and showed them to her. “Shall we?” I said.

“You can drive?” Amelia asked, surprised.

“Yep,” I confirmed. I pressed a button on the key, unlocking the doors of the black Toyota nearby. “I got my license last year. The car is not mine, unfortunately. It’s my sister’s, but she’s on exchange, so she’s letting me borrow it.”

I made a show of opening the door on the passenger side for Amelia to get in, and she giggled at my silly performance. “Thank you,” she said. I walked over to the driver’s side, and as soon as I turned on the ignition, cheesy pop music started playing on the radio.

“Oops, sorry about that,” I told her, turning it off.

“Nah, it’s cool,” Amelia retorted. “You like Abba? That’s sort of unexpected.”

“Not particularly,” I explained. “Lydia is the one who likes them, and she’s always riding with me. Sometimes I feel like her personal driver.”

Amelia chuckled. “So what’s your style, then?”

“Me?”

“Yep. What do you listen to?”

I shifted in my seat, feeling a little awkward. “I don’t know... I don’t think I have a style. For music, at least. I’m more of a books person.”

“I figured,” said Amelia. “You kind of give off that vibe.”

“A vibe? Like what?”

“Like a bookworm, maybe?” she explained. “Take that time we first met, for example. I remember seeing a couple of paperbacks in your handbag, and people don’t usually bring books to parties. So I assume you’re the kind of person who doesn’t leave the house without a book or two.”

I snorted. “You assume correctly. And before you ask, yes, I did bring a book with me today.” Amelia giggled. It warmed my heart a little. “In the name of full disclosure, Lydia actually helped me with my clothes and makeup today. She said I dress like a middle-aged librarian who lives with her cats.”

“Oh, come on, that’s not true,” Amelia protested. “I love your usual clothes, they look cute on you. But then, again, pretty people look good in whatever they wear.”

I snorted. “You’re complimenting me a lot, today, Mel. Do these clothes and makeup really do that much for you?”

“It’s less about the clothes and more about the company,” Amelia retorted, making me smile. A moment later, she added: “But I do have to say you look stunning tonight. It’s... wow...”

I grinned at that reaction. “I’ll have to thank Lydia for that.”

It wasn’t too long after that until we reached the movie theater. I parked outside, and walked in with Amelia. A screen near the entrance listed the next movie screenings for that night. I didn’t know any of those, how was I supposed to pick?

Beside me, Amelia just waited. It stood to reason. Since it was I who had invited her out, common sense would dictate I were supposed to have looked up the movies in advance. Which I didn’t, because I was busy stressing about the whole thing and trying to escape the anxiety by drowning myself in coursework.

“Is there any one you wanna watch?” I asked Amelia.

“I’m fine with whatever you choose,” she told me, to my dismay.

“I don’t know any of those titles,” I confessed. “Maybe we should look them up online, see what people’s opinions on them are.”

“That... or we could just pick one at random and give it a go,” Amelia suggested. I furrowed my brow, and looked at her as if she’d just gone insane, but Amelia was grinning. “Come on! It’ll be an adventure.”

I laughed. “You and your adventures... All right, let’s go with whatever is about to start next. Mind waiting here while I get the tickets?”

“Oh, I’m going to pay for mine,” she tried to argue, but I interrupted her.

“You’ll do no such thing,” I asserted. “I invited you out, so I’ll pay. Don’t try to convince me otherwise. It’s the rules. I don’t make the rules.”

Amelia smirked. “Oh, so it’s the rules? Can I at least pay for the popcorn?”

“You may,” I consented, and we both laughed about it.

---

The movie we ended up seeing turned out to be a complete disaster. Apparently, someone tried to do a sci-fi take on shark movies, while still intending to make it dramatic. But Amelia and I found it simply impossible to take alien sharks seriously. How senseless must a movie producer be to think this sort of set-up is actually a good idea? It was a good thing the theater was nearly empty, because we both laughed a lot at the absurdity of it all.

I know that in movie dates, the film itself is supposed to be just a pretext. It’s really just a dark room where you can go to make out with your beloved. Pretty useful when you’re at that stage in a relationship where you both want some privacy, but aren’t intimate enough yet to go to each other’s place, or to a hotel. But it turned out that we were both too busy laughing at the movie to get in the mood for anything else. We left the theater cackling while joking about some absurd scenes we’d just watched.

“You know, I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much in a movie,” I told Amelia. “And it’s not even a comedy.”

“I beg to differ. It was totally a comedy.” We laughed again.

“So... what do we do now?”

“Are you hungry? I could take you out for dinner,” Amelia offered.

“Oh, movies and dinner? That’s romantic. Got any particular place in mind?”

“There’s a really good one just a couple of blocks down from here. They’ve got a lot of vegan options, so I think you’ll like it.”

That surprised me. I was fairly sure I hadn’t told Amelia about my dietary restrictions yet. “How do you know about that?”

Amelia smirked. “I’ve got my sources,” she joked.

I scoffed. “I’m gonna kill Lydia.”

We stepped outside the building, and started walking down the street together.

“Actually, Lydia is innocent this time,” Amelia explained. “It’s just that you always eat at the same food stall in uni, and it’s the one that sells only vegan products. I just put two and two together.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” I said. “I’m not sure how I feel about you spying on me at uni, though.”

Amelia was mildly outraged at that. “I wasn’t spying!” she complained. “I just... happened to notice you by chance a few times... okay, a lot of times. Because you were always with Lydia, and she’s like, friends with my best friend, you know?”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to explain yourself,” I reassured her. “But now I’m curious. Did you see me at any other places besides that food stall?”

“A few,” Amelia confessed. “You were always sitting on a bench here and there, reading a book. And I’ve seen you studying in the library quite a few times, too. It was fun watching you because you never noticed I was there, so I started learning all sorts of things about you.”

“Such as?”

“Well, for one, you were always so immersed in your readings that a zombie apocalypse could happen around you and you wouldn’t even notice. I thought you were an interesting girl for that. And I did happen to overhear you with Lydia some times, and you were always trying to discourage her from doing something silly or crazy. It made me smile a lot.”

I lightly punched Amelia’s upper arm. I was feeling both annoyed and giddy to hear that. “I wish I had noticed you sooner,” I confessed. “But then, again, I was with Michael back then.” I scrunched my face. I didn’t wanna remember the guy, not while I was on a date with a lovely girl.

“Hey, hey, Hannah, don’t do that,” said Amelia. She stopped walking, forcing me to stop as well.

“Do what?” I asked, confused.

“Don’t start wishing that the past had been different. You see, I used to do that a lot, and, in my experience, it never helps. Things just happened the way they had to, and now we’re here. And to be honest with you, Honey,” she walked closer to me, took one of my hands in hers, and raised it to her lips, to kiss my knuckles. “I kinda like where we are, right now.”

I felt my cheeks grow hot. How could that girl act so suave? Did this come naturally for her? Because I really needed to learn how to do it, too.

“I... like it too,” I confessed. We were so close to each other again, and the mood was so right. If only we hadn’t been in the middle of the street with a lot of people around us, I would probably have tried to kiss her again, then.

“Let’s go,” Amelia told me, barely louder than a whisper. She pulled me by the hand across the street, then into a narrow alley up to a stylish and well-lit restaurant decorated with a few plants outside. Amelia swung the door open, and we walked in together. My first impression of the place was that it looked pretty nice, indeed.

“Mel!” shouted a tall man in uniform, from behind the counter. He came over to greet me. “Whatcha doing here, sis?!”

I stared wide-eyed and surprised. “Wait... ‘sis’? Is he...”

“Hannah, this is my brother Vincent,” said Amelia, introducing us. “He kind of owns the place.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Hannah,” said Amelia’s brother. Now that I looked at him more closely, he did resemble Amelia a little. They were both tall, with red hair and freckles, and the noses were identical. He turned to the girl by my side. “So, Mel, what’s kicking?”

“Same old, Vin,” said Amelia. “Hannah and I are on a date tonight,” she flashed me a smile. “I figured she’d like the food here, so...”

“Say no more, sis,” said the man, ushering us to a table on a more reserved part of the restaurant. He handed us a couple of menus, and asked if we’d like to have anything to drink right away. I told him, as politely as I could, that I’d prefer to take a look at the menu first, and he nodded, before walking back to the front of the restaurant.

I glanced at the prices on the menu, and was a little shocked. That place was definitely above my usual price range. I had to tell Amelia that I wouldn’t be able to afford it.

“So, as it turns out,” said Amelia, “I’m a little biased in choosing this place, since Vin owns it. Oh, don’t worry about the prices, by the way. I know this restaurant is a little on the expensive side for a couple of college students like us, but I’ll sort it out with my brother later.” Amelia rested one of her hands on top of mine. “Besides, I invited you here, so I’m paying, okay?”

“Says who?” I challenged, smirking.

“You,” Amelia retorted. “It’s the rules. I don’t make the rules. Remember?”

I chuckled. “That’s not fair.”

Amelia grinned at me. “I don’t play fair,” she declared, making me smile as well.

I pretended to be inspecting the menu. “Now I kind of feel like asking for whatever’s the most expensive just to knock that smug smile off your face.”

My snide remark made Amelia burst into laughter, and I giggled from her reaction. We placed our orders with one of the waiters and spent the next half-hour chatting amiably with each other, like old friends would do... if old friends had the tendency to slip light flirting and double entendres into casual conversation, that is.