Is it a...?

    Ellie was in a bit of a daze, as she stared out the window next to her desk. Part of her belived that yesterday's encounter with Theo had been a fever dream. A sound from her phone broke Ellie out of her reverie.

"Is 18:00 good for you? I want to give you a little time after work"

    Nope, definitely not a dream. God, what was she supposed to do? She'd never had a boy show interest in her before. She replied to Theo agreeing on the time. That was a good first step, right? Oh, she was definitely overthinking.

"Whatcha doing?" Sonia asked 

    Ellie almost fell out of her chair. Her friend had a talent for popping in out of nowhere and despite how long they had known eachother, Ellie still wasn't used to Sonia's antics.  

"Sorry, didn't mean to spook you"

"It's fine, I was lost in my own thoughts"

"What's got you so spacey?" Sonia asked 

"I had an interesting day at work yesterday and I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that it actually happened" Ellie replied 

"Did something bad happen?"

"No, no. Just something a little strange. More importantly, how is the show coming along?"

"Glad you asked. We're starting to sound like a real band, even if our guitarist is proving to be unreliable. I don't enjoy having him around, unfortunately he's the only guitarist we could find"

"Sounds like fun" Ellie drawled 

"Doesn't matter. I'm way too excited about finally performing to pay him any mind. We've played at cafés and the likes before, but this will be our first time on an actual stage"

    The sound of the classroom door interrupted Sonia. When she realised it was the teacher, she ran back to her desk. Ellie was glad she had managed to deflect her friend's attention. While she loved Sonia, she wasn't ready to talk to her about Theo, mostly because she wasn't sure what he'd be comfortable with sharing.   

  The rest of the school day, Ellie managed to pay more attention to what was happening around her. While she spaced out during a few of her conversations with friends, she acted mostly normal. Once the usual schedule of classes and work at the bookshop was done, she ran upstairs, to the apartment above their shop.

    Ellie opened the door to her closet and inspected the clothes. She pulled out a red shirt and a pair of black jeans. No, this made her look like she wasn't putting in any effort. She threw them on the bed and pulled out a pink dress. Even if it looked good on her, she really hated that particular shade, so she threw this one as well. With a wrinkle of her nose at the offending garment, she turned back to the wardrobe. This was going to take a while.  

   Theo had been so nervous about seeing Ellie again that he'd arrived twenty minutes early. Now he had the time to sit next to the exterior stairs and overthink. He'd put on a white t-shirt and black jeans. After deciding that it looked like he wasn't trying, he added a flannel shirt in black and dark blue on top. It was an improvement, although now he was worried he was overdressed. After stressing about everything he could think of, he slumped against the wall and down into a crouch.

     Ten minutes after the agreed time, the door upstairs opened and Ellie came running out and down the stairs. She felt mortified to be late on her first date. It was a date, right? In her hurry, she missed one of the steps and felt her stomach drop as her foot found nothing to stand on. In a show of reflexes Theo didn't know he had, he sprung up, grabbed the banister with one hand and pulled Ellie to him with the other.

    She hadn't noticed before, but being this close to him Ellie was struck by how blue Theo's eyes were, especially with his black curls framing them. She'd always thought he was lanky, now she was reconsidering that assessment. On his part, Theo was starting to feel nervous. While he didn't mind having her close, she was looking at him a little too much and from too little distance. 

   As Theo was debating what to do, a voice cut through the awkward moment. 

"Ellie?"

    Well, so much for worrying about Sonia. Whatever Theo's thoughts were on privacy, there was no way to keep it a secret from her friend anymore. Ellie managed to get back on her feet and Theo let her go as soon as he was sure she was steady.

"What brings you here?" Ellie asked 

"I was going to ask you for a bit of help with my stage costume" Sonia replied "The skirt is a bit large and..." she trailed off "Is everything alright here?"

"I was in a hurry and I was about to fall" Ellie fumbled "Theo here caught me, so I didn't hurt myself"

"So you know him? Then I suppose I don't have to worry"

"Oh, no. He was waiting for me. We had plans to meet up, to go..."

    She looked up at Theo. Theo looked back at her with an expression that Ellie found hard to interpret. He pulled out his phone and sent her a text.

"It's fine if you don't want to tell her" the text read

"No, it's not that" she replied out loud "it's just that I..."   

  Ellie's voice became so quiet that Theo didn't manage to understand what she was saying. He leaned in, which only made her more nervous. The blush made her chestnut hair look reddish. Despite her nerves, she managed to repeat herself.

"I'm just not sure if this is... a date or not" 

    Now it was Theo's turn to blush. He fumbled with his phone, before finally managing a reply.

"I don't want to make assumptions, but if you're okay with it. I wanted to make plans to take you on a..."

"We can call it that if you want to"

    Theo typed something on his phone, though this time Ellie didn't receive a text. Sonia, who had been regretting her lack of popcorn, now noticed the tall stranger walking towards her. It would have been intimidating if it wasn't for the fact that he was nervous, his glasses were crooked on his nose and he was blushing hard enough to radiate heat. A phone was extended to Sonia. 

"Ellie and I are going out on a date"

     Theo didn't know what reaction he was expecting from the girl, however it most certainly wasn't the one he got. Sonia's eyes were sparkling, she covered her mouth with both hands and started spinning around. At her squeal, he almost got scared. Theo turned to Ellie. She laughed at the expression on his face.

"She's fine. Well, mostly" 

"Oh my God! This is too precious!" Sonia started "Where did you find him? I thought they only made them like this in novels"

"She'll recover, just don't try to get through to her right now. You have no chance"

    Sonia started to walk backwards."I'll come another time. You two have fun and forget you about me. In fact, pretend I was never here" 

   With that, she disappeared behind the street corner. Not a second later, golden curls popped from behind the building, followed by bright green eyes.

"You HAVE to tell me all about it later" Sonia whispered loudly 

    With a wink at Ellie, she ran away. Theo felt as if a hurricane hand just blown through, while Ellie, who knew her better, just rolled her eyes. Turning back to each other, they stood in silence for a bit.

"Should we... get going?" Ellie asked 

    Theo nodded and waited for Ellie to reach his side. They exited the alley together and she followed him in companionable silence.