Our first date was far from perfect

“Of course it is…”

I mumble to myself as I let my forehead rest on the window. It’s a spring Saturday morning… and it’s raining. Not a sprinkle, not a few drops here and there, full on rain. The wind is whipping around pretty good as well so, even better, sometimes the rain is going sideways.

“Why today?”

I normally enjoy the rain. In fact, it’s wonderful to fall asleep to at night. Today, however, is a very important day for me. After months of working up the courage, I finally convinced myself to ask out my crush. To the surprise of my pessimistic mind, she actually said yes. Today is the day of our date… and it’s raining.

“Man, it’s really coming down.”

My father spoke as he peaked around me, looking out the window.

“Hopefully no one had any meaningful plans today.”

He smirks at me, takes a sip of coffee, and walks away as I mumble a dreadful “thanks” under my breath. He knows the significance of today. In fact, he’s been teasing me about it the entire week. Asking me questions about my crush like “So is she blind?”, or making comments about my appearance like “You might want to do something with your face before your date.”. All very helpful, meaningful remarks.

“Maybe it’ll clear off by this evening?”

I whisper a silent prayer to myself as I start to go about my day. I try to keep myself busy, but that proves impossible. As impossible, as it seems, that the weather would clear up. I’m showered, dressed, and ready to go pick up my date, and it’s still raining.

The drive to her house is a short one. I pull out an umbrella and go up to the door, as I think that’s the respectable thing to do. I can’t have her walk to the car herself. A ring of the doorbell, and awkward small talk with her father later, and she’s right in front of me, looking as stunning as ever. I do my best to keep us both dry on our way to the car, but that proves impossible.

“This weather is insane!”

She says, letting out a chuckle, as I get into the car. Just that short trip, even with an umbrella, and we are both pretty wet. Our date plan is a simple one; we’re going to get something to eat and then head out to a movie. Classic.

The rain makes driving a bit stressful for me, but we make small talk as the windshield wipers furiously try to do their job. Suddenly, I see something appear right in front of my car. I try to avoid it, but hear the ominous “thunk thunk” as I clearly run it over. For a moment I’m hopeful, but then my stomach drops. As I drive, I feel the gradually increasing wobbling that can only be associated with a flat tire. A minute later, it’s so bad that I have to pull off to the side of the road.

“Dang it. I’m sorry.”

I hang my head in disappointment.

“Don’t be, I didn’t see it either until it was too late. It happens.. do you want me to call my dad?”

“No, I can change a tire.”

I try to sound confident, but if we’re being honest, I’ve only ever changed one tire in my life and that was when I got my license a couple years ago. My dad insisted that I know how to do it for this very situation. I think I remember all of the steps. The problem isn’t the changing of the tire itself, but with the weather. Anyway you slice it, I’m going to get soaked.

“I can hold the umbrella for you, so you don’t get too wet.”

She starts unbuckling her seatbelt and grabbing for the umbrella on the floor when I stop her.

“No. It’s okay, I don’t want you to have to stand out in the rain. I can handle it. Don’t worry. I got this.”

I put on the best smile I can. She looks at me concerningly, but eventually mutters an agreement and relaxes back into her seat. It’s nice of her to want to help, but I can do this. I’m a man, aren’t I? Besides, she looks amazing, I wouldn’t want to ruin her hair and stuff.

I grab the umbrella, take a breath, and step out into the downpour. I immediately panic, because I’m in over my head. I can’t hold the umbrella plus get all the stuff out of the way to get the spare tire out of the trunk, so I abandon the umbrella. By the time I actually get the tire out, and the jack, I’m soaked. How am I supposed to sit in a restaurant, or movie, if I’m soaked?

“It’s fine.. I can fix the tire then go home and change really quick.”

I mutter to myself as I struggle to get the jack extended and in the correct place under the car. I don’t really remember where it’s supposed to go, so I just choose the sturdiest looking spot and pray it works. The rain makes the process take way longer than it should; it’s difficult to keep a handle on anything.

I didn’t even hear the car door. I’m suddenly not getting pelted by the rain. I look up, and I’m mesmerized for a second by the kind smile above me. She’s holding the umbrella, shielding me from the rain. I’m snap back to myself as I realize what this means.

“You’re going to get soaked, don’t worry, I-”

“It’s okay. Stop worrying, I want to help you.”

Her kind smile. Her warm words. Even in this weather, even in this situation, I can’t help feeling my heart flutter with joy. My feelings for her are only becoming more solidified. It’s still a challenge, but I get the spare tire on.

We both sit back in the car, soaked from head to toe. We’re both panting. I don’t know if I was first, or she, but once the giggles started, they didn’t stop. Soon, we are both flat out laughing. I can’t stop, I laugh so much it hurts. I see tears rolling down her cheeks, she can’t stop laughing either.

It takes an enormous effort, but eventually we both compose ourselves. What do we do now, though? We’re both soaked through. We can’t very well continue to our date. I guess we could both go home and change, but then we’d never make the movie.

“We have a nice setup in our basement. Would.. would you want to go back to my place.. and watch a movie?”

She looks down in embarrassment as she asks me. It’s pretty dark in the car, with the storm raging outside, so I can’t tell, but I think she’s blushing. I’m flabbergasted at the question. It takes me a moment before I realize I need to answer.

“Yes!”

I belt out, a little too enthusiastically.

I’m about to apologize when I see the relief on her face, followed by a smile. She seems so genuinely excited that I agreed to her proposal.

Just then, my stomach grumbles.

“Want to grab some food on the way to your place then?”

She agrees. We ponder for a moment what we should get.

“Taco Bell?”

We both say at the same time. Another round of contagious laughter fills the car.

After getting our food, we make our way back to her house. I feel a bit awkward when we walk in and her parents shoot us questioning glances. After she explains the situation, it gets better. Her parents are really nice. Her dad lends me some spare clothes to wear while mine dry. She changes, too.

We sat on the couch in her basement, enjoying our Taco Bell. We never even put on a movie. We talked, and talked, and talked. We talked about all sorts of things. It certainly wasn’t the way I planned for this date to go, but it could not have gone any better.