After my birthday party I'd realized that I was essentially telling my family the same lie. I could almost say it was a lie of omission, but I had told them we weren't dating. I had told them many times. But when they invited him to my surprise party, I let that lie guide how we acted in front of everyone.
I explained all that and apologized for the way I'd been acting. I guess since I'd spent so much of my party talking with Candace and Sam and Batel, he felt I was blowing him off. He seemed to be hitting it off with everyone on his own, so I hadn't thought to go to him. The result being though that he thought I might still be mad at him, even as I accepted my families mistaken belief.
So when he had come over yesterday, he started up small talk just to see how we were doing, and we ended up having a fun geeky conversation.
Understandably though, he wanted to know where we stood.
I found myself caught up in the question Candace had asked me and didn't answer him for a long time. It was maybe 5 minutes, max. For Hal it probably felt like an eternity. Once I realized that I was making him nervous, I apologized again, and brought him in on my thought process.
I told him that I wasn't angry that he'd told Tim we were a couple, as much as I was angry that he'd been openly admitting to Tim that we'd been spending time together at all. I was worried that if they knew about me they'd try to kidnap me, even with all of Hal's assurances that wouldn't happen. But having given it some thought, I realized that me being his girlfriend offered a perfect excuse for us to spend time together without the worry of Hal spilling secrets.
Then at the surprise party everyone just automatically treated us as a couple, and I was so exhausted in fighting it that I just gave in. Next thing I know, I'm enjoying pretending to be his girlfriend and the idea of us being a couple starts to grow on me. I didn't realize I'd admitted that much until after I'd said it, and next thing I know I'm blushing the brightest blush anyone could blush.
He asked, "So what if we were? What if we did? Be a couple I mean?" He was blushing as badly as I was I think.
It was ridiculous, it was sweet, it was reassuring, and so many other things besides. I smiled at the thought, and he smiled, and we laughed, and I asked "Just like that?"
We talked about it, and where it felt like a really big step Hal said it didn't have to be. We could figure it out as we went along. We already have dinner together once a week, maybe we could go see a movie or something instead. We can talk shop when we want to talk shop, and if we want to talk about something else, we can talk about something else.
It just seems so easy, and I'm kinda scared about that. But I think about walking down the street with him and just holding his hand, and I get these butterflies in my stomach and start grinning like an idiot.
So I mentioned that Justice League had just come out, and that I still hadn't seen Ragnarok. To be honest, I don't get to the movies that often, I hadn't seen anything since Homecoming. So he said he'd look up movie times for next Saturday.
And like that, it's official. We're dating. Or at least, we'll be going on A date. Max is going to go crazy. I'm going crazy. I must be.
So to stave off any further embarrassment, I asked if there was any shop to talk. Hal said that things seem to have been quiet lately. He's not finding any disturbances in San Francisco where Nephmesu is now, and the city hasn't tried to cut the tree down since last Saturday. He said he'd tried to ask Tim about the weird fireflies that people were seeing and catching on tape, but Tim brushed him off and didn't answer. There weren't much in the way of disappearances, or appearances for that matter. Hal felt that since we were in the winter months people weren't out in the wilderness to get lost as much. And as for DIA, things are progressing mundanely enough and Hal hasn't had any indication on his side that there's anything else going on.
So I brought his attention to Max's video's, which he found fascinating. We discussed them a bit, but I made it a point to let him know that Max was the one finding them. At first he didn't seem to make any connection, but then he remembered that Max was the friend I'd been talking with when he first opened up to me. He turned inward at that, so I'm sure he's thinking it over. I didn't want to push my luck too far. But I'll try to make sure and bring her name up more often from now on.
Which, I have to admit, makes me feel like a shitty girlfriend. And there's that stupid grin again. I really do like the idea of dating him.
So yea, I'm going to go to bed now. Meeting early before my shift tomorrow anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment