Page 19 of Screwed

SIX

Iris

“I thinkthat I should just cancel,” I say as I stare at my reflection in the mirror on the back of my closet door.

“No!”

“Absolutely not,” comes another voice.

I had put the girls on speakerphone as I was getting ready for my big date with Arlo. I was hoping that they would encourage me and help me feel better. They did help me pick out an outfit and decide what to do with my hair, but as the clock ticks closer to seven, I only get more and more nervous. None of their encouraging words are helping.

“I feel like I’m going to throw up,” I tell them.

“That’s a good sign,” Lyla tries to convince me and I roll my eyes.

“It doesn’t feel like a good sign,” I argue.

“It means that you’re nervous because you know that this could be something big,” Sutton says and I sigh.

“What if I mess this all up?”

“You won’t! Arlo is crazy about you,” Madelyn reminds me.

“Plus, he’s a good guy so even if you do something embarrassing, he’s not going to make a big deal about it,” Lyla adds.

I know that they’re right and I take a few deep breaths. I close my eyes and try to imagine what my grandma would say about this.

She was always encouraging me to go out. She used to sigh and say that one day I was going to miss being young and carefree. I think that I’m starting to see what she meant. If I had gone out with more guys when I was younger, maybe I wouldn’t be so nervous right now.

“Okay, I can do this,” I say and my friends cheer.

“Call or text us if you need some more advice!” Sutton says.

“Yeah, let us know if you need anything,” Madelyn says as the alarm that I set for my date goes off.

Arlo wanted to pick me up but I insisted that I drive myself. He had to work earlier today so he would have had to go home from the bar, then come all the way over to my house, and then back into town. I told him that it would be faster and easier if I just met him and he relented but I can tell that it’s going against all of his ingrained manners to not pick me up like a gentleman from my front door.

“I need to get going,” I tell them and they all wish me good luck before we hang up.

We’re meeting at The Blue Plate over in Lilac Harbor. It’s actually one of my favorite restaurants from when I was a kid. I still come here with Madelyn for pretty much every single one of my birthdays and I was surprised that he had picked it.

It doesn’t take me long to get there and when I pull in, Arlo is already there, standing out front with a big bouquet of tulips in his hands.

He looks relieved when I pull in and I wonder if he thought that I would bail at the last minute. Seeing him looking as nervous as I feel helps to put me at ease and I smile as I climb out of my car.

I’m wearing a dark-green,tea-length vintage dress. It has cap sleeves and reminds me of the ’50s, but that’s not why I love it.

It’s the color. It goes perfectly with my red hair and as I stare into Arlo’s eyes, I realize that it matches them almost perfectly too.

“These are for you,” he says after a beat, passing me the bouquet of flowers and I grin.

“They’re beautiful. Thank you.”

I want to tell him that they were my grandma’s favorite flower and became mine. I wonder why he picked them. I swear, sometimes it feels like he knows me already but maybe they were just his favorite flower too.

“Shall we?” He asks, offering me his hand and I nod.

My hand only shakes briefly as I slip it into his and I bite my lip as he leads me into the restaurant.

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