I was definitely in a rush. I had donned my finest white blouse and a fresh pair of jeans and was just barely out of the apartment when I realized that it would be fucking cold outside. So I ran back through the house (with my shoes on, too!) and grabbed one of my sweaters from back in high school. I wasn’t sure how, but I ended up digging it back up from the depths of my closet while trying to figure out what to wear. It was a pretty baby blue like the sky was today, and it held the embroidery of a small pastel pink heart on the top corner, right above my heart. I don’t remember where or when or how I got it, just that it had been the savior of my entire high school. It made me feel safe.

So, with that bit of comfort wrapped around my body, I ran from the apartment, making sure to lock it up behind me, and began to bolt out of the building. At this rate, I might actually be late for once!

As I waited in the elevator, hugely out of breath from having sprinted down the length of the hallway, I pulled out my phone and quickly texted Raven the address of our date. I had offered to drive us both, thought I’d have to borrow Isaac’s car, but she had declined. I rather understood why. She was still scared of being close to anyone. Baby steps. It’s just one date, and we would see from there.

I slipped my phone back into my purse right as the elevator doors opened up to the lobby, and I began to walk as fast as possible for the door. I gave a quick nod and smile to the receptionist before pushing past the doors and continuing my purposeful walk down the streets.

The place of our date was a few blocks away from where I currently lived with my sister and our friend, but it still took at least fifteen minutes to get there while walking, and I had to be there in nearly ten minutes.

“Fuck!” I hissed under my breath as my legs pushed me faster and faster down the block. I knew they’d be burning by the time I was back in bed today, but it was fine. It’d be fine.

But thank the fucking heavens when I saw the sign of Glass Glory from across the street. I practically ran across the street, all the way until I reached the store. I braced myself on my knees for a moment before standing straight and pulling out my phone. I tried to calm my breathing and my heart rate as I checked the time.

Just a few minutes until three in the afternoon. I let out a sigh of relief as I turned and began to look around me. She’d be here soon, wouldn’t she?

After just a few moments, I checked my phone again. It was exactly three, and the doubts began to flood into my head. What if she bailed? What if she decided she didn’t want to give us a try? What if she got into an accident? What if she doesn’t actually like me? What if this was all just a ruse and she used this time to run away? What if-

But right then, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. My head snapped up immediately from where I had been staring dejectedly down at my phone.

I whipped around and saw-

“Raven!” I exclaimed, and I don’t know how, but my arms flew up and around her to bring us together in a hug. And all of a sudden, I was afraid that she’d push me away or flinch or something else, but then I felt her arms wrap around my shoulders, too, pulling me into her as hard as I was pulling her into me. And then her voice was purring, and it was like I could feel it in my brain as I rested my head on her chest.

“Hope I’m not late,” she said as she laughed lightly, and I wish I could have crawled inside her voice and lived in those gentle tones. “Did you wait long?”

“No, not at all!” I told her, prying my arms from around her waist so that I wouldn’t end up stuck there. She loosened her grip on my shoulders, a bit to my dismay, but I shook myself back to reality and asked her, “Ready?”

“Of course,” she said quietly, a beautiful smile on her face. I watched her lips for just a moment, noticing how the corners didn’t lift high enough to pronounce her lopsided mouth. She must still be nervous, which made sense, all things considered.

So I just shined her my most brilliant smile, took her hand firmly in my own, and just about dragged her through the glass doors and into the bright store. It was just as pretty as I remembered it from last year, when Diane and Isaac took me here for my birthday.

The murals weren’t any different, the lights hadn’t changed, and the jars were exactly the same as before. Even the colors of the beads inside of all of the glass hadn’t been altered even a little since I had been here nearly a year ago.

I went up to the kind lady at the counter and checked us in for the reservation I had made on Wednesday night, right after the session we had. She was so nice about it all, but as I made small talk with her as she checked us in, I couldn’t help but become hyper-aware of Raven hovering nervously behind me.

So I quickly dismissed myself and skipped back to my date’s side.

“Okay!” I said happily, hoping that my mood would infect her with excitement, or at least make her less hesitant. “Ready to make bracelets?”

I was glad to see her laugh as she relaxed and told me, “Sure.”

I led her gently over to one of the glass tables and sat us down on the pretty pastel cushions, and we watched as the same lady I had been speaking with come over with our tray of beads, strings, and instructions.

“Enjoy,” she told us with a smile before setting down the tray and leaving.

I picked up the four strings and placed two in front of me and the other two in front of Raven. “What colors are you going to use?” I asked her as I did this.

I glanced up at her and a shiver slipped down my spine at that seductive smile on her face. “You’ll see.”

Well. Shit.

I tried to laugh it off, even though I felt like grabbing her face from across the table and slamming our mouths together in a violent make out session.

But right before my eyes left her face to focus on my bracelet beading, I saw a slight flash of sorrow in the downturning in her lips and the deep softness in her eyes.

I already knew which pattern I was going to use. That is, the simplest pattern, which was the only one I knew how to do and could actually manage to do. So I let Raven take the manual as I began making a bracelet. It would be a simple band that would go around her wrist, made up of gradient colored beads starting from black and gradually getting lighter until it began a bright blood red. Then, to separate the patterns, and to add a bit of bling and glitter, I would add a row of silver before starting with red again and slowly becoming black again.

Then, I’d repeat it.

We sat there for an unknown amount of time, making our bracelets, before we finally finished. It took a little while, especially because she was new at this and it had been forever since I had done this and I assumed that we both made several mistakes as we went along. But then, we were finally done, somehow at the same time.

“So, what’d you make?” I asked her, my bracelet in my hand, hidden from her by the tray as I leaned my chin in the palm of my other hand.

She matched me, leaning her chin in her own palm, smirking with those amazing lopsided lips. “Guess,” she said in that purring voice of hers.

I let my face slightly frown in concentration before my brain came upon the perfectly sarcastic response. “A bracelet?”

She scoffed, lifting her hidden hand as she replied with, “No shit.” Her hand was above the tray, now, and well in my line of sight as she opened her fingers and said with a soft smile, “It’s for you.”

My hand fell from under my chin as my jaw fucking dropped to the fucking floor. She lifted her hand ever so slightly and, on reflex, my hand that had been holding my head up reached out as if to touch it. But it looked to be the most precious, beautiful, amazing thing in the world, and I was scared my dirty fingers would ruin it.

“I-it’s… beautiful…” I whispered so, so quietly that I was surprised if she could even hear me.

But then her other hand was reaching out to gently take my wrist and turn my hand palm up before dropping the beautifully strung beads into my hands. I brought the strings of woven glass closer up to my face to examine it.

It was all sorts of blue, like the ocean and the sky and my sweater, along with white like seafoam and the clouds and my bag, and it had hints of gold like the reflections on water and the shining sun and the gold chain wrapped around my body still.

“Oh… oh my gosh…”

She laughed opposite me, and I was torn on whether to continue to stare at this beautiful piece of handmade jewelry or at her equally beautiful face.

“It’s nothing,” she said, and I wanted to frown, to look up at her face and deny that, to tell her that this was the most precious thing in the world, but…

But I couldn’t because all I could think about was this. She had gone through the effort to make this… for me…

I eventually managed to tear my eyes away from the shining treasure in my hand to look up at her face, and I was sure I looked like a fucking idiot, but I could not give a fuck.

I laughed as I realized that we both made these bracelets for each other, though I guess it made sense because we were on a date together.

“I made mine for you, too!” I told her, still chuckling as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped just like mine had minutes ago.

“What? Really?” she asked me, and I laughed again.

I nodded as I told her, “Yeah, I did!”

I watched her face as I lifted my own hand with my own gift bracelet in it made of what I knew to be her favorite colors.

“Oh my fuck,” she said with another scoff, her eyes wide enough that I could just about see the whites around her entire irises.

I lifted my hand up for her to take the gift, and she copied, her fingers gentle and soft against my hand as she took the woven bracelet.

I watched as she examined it with awe written all over her face, looking like how I assumed I had when she had gifted her bracelet to me.

When she finally glanced back up at me, her eyes tearing up, I felt like I would cry, too. She looked like a child, like a broken little girl who had no idea what she was doing with her life. She looked like she had lost all trust in the world, like she had to support herself with no help from anyone.

And some painful feeling in my stomach told me that this instinct was most likely true.

But then she reached over the tray to take my hand resting on the table, the one that had been holding her bracelet for me. Her gentle fingers wrapped around my wrists and I was reminded just how small and frail I was compared to her as she lifted my hand up. She carefully took the blue and white and gold bracelet from my grasp and I frowned for a moment before she stretched the bracelet out and slipped it over my fist.

It settled around my wrist like it was meant to be there.

“It’s so beautiful,” I told her and myself and the bracelet as we both stared down at it.

“Of course,” she replied. “It’s on you.”

My head snapped up to stare incredulously at her.

She hadn’t actually said that… right?

But she was just smiling at me like a lovesick idiot, so I laughed and took her own bracelet from her loose grip. I slipped it over her own wrist and breathed, “It can’t compare to your beauty, either.”

Our connected skin felt like livewires, buzzing with electricity, and it was as if I could feel it tingling all over my body. Even my lips felt charged with sparks, and I had that urge to grab her face and smash our lips together all over again.

But then she coughed and it shook me from my reverie, and I immediately let go of her hand. We both pulled away from each other and the sparks.

“I-I’m going to make one for my sister,” I awkwardly said to fill up the empty space between us.

“I guess I’ll make one for a friend,” she told me, and I smiled down at the fresh piece of string.

I gathered together the various purple and pink beads to think up a pattern as I tried very very hard not to look at her, because fuck, I felt like I was burning up from the inside out.

And I really couldn’t have that. She was scared of this becoming too real, and if I just let my feelings take control of me, I really had no fucking clue what I might do. I couldn’t risk this precious time with her.

I grabbed one of the two last strings and began the new bracelet for Diane. It would mainly be made up of purple beads growing into light pink before turning purple again. I decided to forgo having the single row of a different color to separate the gradient patterns and just went with the simple two-ish toned design.

It took a little less time to make compared to the red, black, and silver one I had made for Raven. This was because the pattern was becoming more familiar to my fingers once I had already completed a bracelet.

We both had finished the second bracelets just about a half hour later, and we left promptly. It had only been about an hour, but the sky was already darkening due to the nearing of winter.

We said goodbye outside of the store, accompanied by a tight hug and a small kiss. It was as if we both knew that we’d get sucked into each other if we did anything more.

I watched as she turned and began down the road. It was like I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her hair moved with the way she walked because of how fluffy it was. And her ass was like a sacred treasure, and fuck, I had to force myself to turn around and go off in the direction of my own home.

I knew that she was scared of me. She was scared of us becoming a thing. She was afraid of a relationship.

I didn’t think it was because of the commitment, but at the same time, I think that she was terrified of the commitment.

I frowned to myself as I thought about her, my head down as I scoured my feet as if they held answers in the steps they took towards my apartment. But they didn’t, of course, because the only way I could get answers was if I asked Raven and she told the truth, or if I managed to figure it out on my own. Which, of course, was what I was currently trying to do. It honestly wasn’t working very well, so far, but I was trying at least.

I wondered if she’d be open for a second date, but at the same time, I felt like she wouldn’t. The goodbye we had felt a little… distant, almost, like it was a final goodbye instead of a temporary one.

But it didn’t matter. I would still get to see her on Wednesdays, and if that was all the time I got to spend with her, I would make the very, very most of it. And if that meant that I would have to wait patiently, quietly for her to make the next move, I would. I would wait for an eternity for her, though I hoped she would take a lot less time than an eternity.

I was at least hoping that she would ask me out for a second date. I ended up spending the next day worrying about us. If she would text or not. If she would allow a second date or even make an offer for one or if she’d tell us that this was it for us.

But on Saturday morning, I woke up and got ready anxiously while unlocking and locking my phone agin and again, only for a text to finally fucking appear at around nine in the morning from Raven.

Want to go on a second date with me?