Show Me The Menu

Angel sat down in front of Alex. Her eyes twitched for a bit before she dared to look back at him. The blushing forced their way through her cheeks that was slightly caked up for him. Well, just in case— in case if he liked girls this way.

Alex calmly placed two sets of silverware for them both. He then placed the napkins, and finished his glass of water, before raising his hand and circled the rim of the vessel with his finger when the arm came down. The glass was swiftly taken from him.

She held the glass with both hands, and slowly sipped it while avoiding to look at him directly. Not much was drank, as the water barely touched her lips and flowed back into the bottom. There was little actual drinking so much as to pretend she's drinking. Angel was still for a few seconds before tipping the glass more to actually pour it into her mouth.

"It's alright." He snapped her out of it.

She lowered her glass away from her face.

"No, keep drinking if it helped you." The glass of water returned. "Thank you."

She wanted to drink just like he did, hence the swift motion and the rather quick emptying shorter after. Alex placed his own glass in front of her.

"Actually," his smile glowed like a small wax candle. "I'm taking you out for lunch because I wanted to discuss. I hope you don't mind."

"Um... no! None at all." Angel dropped whatever she was doing to take her mind off of the severity she had assigned to this current moment. "I— I don't mind."

One of the waiters delivered the platter to the table, and he gestured for her to share it before dipping a nacho into the salsa. He waited for himself to finish chewing before he pressed on.

"I'll just cut to the chase. Do you blush, or beat faster, or sweat profusely at someone you love?" He swirled the directness out of the way.

"Of course, I do." She pushed her hair back to its proper spot. “Yes."

Both of their hearts seemed to stop briefly with the intent of getting the next few lines right.

"Are any of this happening right now?"

Angel lowered her head from slight nervousness and to avoid him seeing any of those from her. She could feel herself warming up as she tried to hold back her answer.

“Tell me.”

“Yes.”

Alex smiled again and took the filled glass to drink again. Then he placed it back in the exact same spot he picked it up from. He noticed that she was still feeling uneasy, as she was still head-down from her nerves.

“Do you want an honest answer, or an answer that you might like?” His voice made her turn her face up.

“I don’t understand.” Angel was surprised with herself when those words streamed out of her in a rather fluent manner. She didn’t even think to practice.

Alex bit into his tongue while his lips are closed to force a thought out of himself. He chuckled to himself internally.

"I do like you. A lot, actually. That’s why I invited you out." He himself was doused slightly by his own anxiety. "But I, don’t, do well under a lot of nerves. The nerves make me shake, and I turn inward, I fall silent, and sometimes I don’t act the most naturally. I hope you understand. I just want to do well, in front of you.”

The verbosity was more of a dampening effect for him. He has his ways of keeping himself from being unnerved.

She did blush, beat faster, and started to sweat profusely. She couldn’t control her smile as she dipped her head again.

“You wanna—?” She looked up to see him standing in front of her.

He held her, and wiped the perspiration off of her forehead. He watched in hidden wonder as she reflexively leaned onto him, closing her eyes briefly before coming to the sudden realization that she was as warm as a heated sheet. The entire time she did not look at him.

“Right. Sorry, I’ll do better, but I hope this is a good enough expression.” He left her alone to herself, herself still wanting to stay in the moment, froze herself in the position she was in just a few seconds ago. It was until Alex asked for a takeaway box before she looked at him with a similarly warm smile on her face.

“It is, it is. Alex. It is!” She slowed down as he showed her an uncharacteristically-wide smile, pursing and twitching his own lips.

“Do you wanna come with me?” He spliced two meanings into this single question. He stood up to indicate his desire to leave, but he stood over his seat in wait for her.

He handed her his jacket, and she grabbed onto it.

Angel’s hands yanked herself up, and she drifted to him.