“I promised you that you could hold it all night. Taking it back already?” Larissa asked.
“No, definitely not taking it back. I’m just still getting used to it. We’re on a street, and we’re holding hands. We’re not doing that friend thing where our hands are justjoinedat the elbow or something. We’re very clearlyholdinghands as two people who are on a date or are together, and it’s very, very new. New and good. New and unexpected, but new.”
“Unexpected?” Larissa asked.
Harlow nodded for them to start walking and said, “I really did think you’d say no.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ve never given me any indication that you could feel the same way. I even tried asking you out in college three times, but you didn’t notice or just thought I wanted tohangout, notgoout, and I gave up. I thought I’d get over it eventually, but that eventually never came, and here we are.”
Larissa stopped walking and said, “Wait. You tried to ask me out?”
“Three times specifically, yes. I’m sure I also made a few comments here and there, just trying to gauge any interest, but you never went for it or even looked at me, confused. I got it in my head that you were just so focused on school that dating wasn’t even on your radar, and for a while, I still kept trying, but then, I got it in my head that you just weren’t interested at all and only wanted to be friends, which was why you never addressed the fact that I kept asking you out. I was younger thanyou. Now, three years isn’t a big deal, but it was then. I think I thought that was part of the problem, too.”
“I don’t even remember that. I promise, it wasn’t any of that, Harlow. Well, the me being oblivious part – probably, but not the other parts. I’m so sorry if you thought I didn’t want to address it or bring it up somehow.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t regret trying or anything. And I don’t regret that we’ve been friends. I wanted more, yes, but I don’t regret the fact that we didn’t have it.”
“Until now?”
Harlow smiled at her and said, “Until now.”
“So, where are we going, exactly?”
“Here.”
She pointed to the building with the sign hanging above the door and wide window.
“Make your own pizza?” Larissa said when she read the decal on the front door.
“I thought we could make pizzas together. This place is new. They give you all the ingredients and tell you how to best shape the dough, and you can throw it in the air, if you want, before you bake it in their oven. You can take it home, too, if you want, but they have space to sit and eat. It’s not like one of those places where you tell them what you want andwatchthem make the pizza. You get to make it yourself. Is it okay? I wanted to do something different, but not something fancy because that’s not us.”
“Do they know I can’t cook?” Larissa asked.
“You’re not really cooking; that’s the thing. You’re preparing the pizza, and they help you put it in the oven. They’ll pull it out for you when it’s done, so you can’t mess it up. We can sit here and eat together. They have wine, beer, and other things, too. I thought it would be fun. Was it a bad idea?”
“What? No. Harlow, it’s a great idea. I don’t care what we do tonight, but this is a great idea.”
“Okay. Let’s go,” Harlow said, smiling.
And she smiled even wider on the inside because she’d come up with a good idea for their first date.
It hadn’t taken long. Earlier at work, she’d searched for fun first-date activities, and someone had suggested a cooking class, which had made her laugh, but there had been an ad on the side of the site for a local place, and she’d looked it up. Thinking this was a good way for Larissa to practice making something without too much pressure and giving them a fun activity to do, she’d booked a slot for them.
Inside, there were four long tables where several people stood on one side and an employee stood on the other. On those tables, there were containers of the ingredients like cheese, sauce, meats, and vegetables. The woman at the door asked if they had a reservation, so Harlow gave her her last name, and the woman asked if they wanted to choose a table and eat here after their food was ready. Harlow looked over at Larissa, who nodded.
“Great. I’ll put you at table three. All of our tables have numbers on them, as you can see.” The woman motioned to the space with about twelve tables, each of them having a number on the wood of the table itself, either embossed or printed somehow. “Your table is by the window over there.”
She pointed.
Harlow turned to see that they had a table in the corner that was, indeed, next to the window.
“Have you been with us before? I should’ve asked that first.”
“No, we haven’t,” Larissa volunteered.
“Okay. Great. Well, welcome. First, you’ll choose your dough. We have a few different options on that board over here.”The woman motioned to a big chalkboard. “With the package you booked, you each get to make two pizzas tonight.”
