“Dad, wait.”
He stopped and turned to face me.
“No one else will be there, right? Mom’s not having the whole family there or anything?” I asked because if my Uncle Dean, Aunt Melissa, Gran, and Gramps were there, it would be way too much. Danika would tell me to turn around and take her right back home the second we walked through the front door.
“No. It’s just us, kid.”
“Okay. See you Sunday.”
I’d continued spending my time staring at Danika’s number in my cell phone, looking for an excuse to text her. I knew that once I opened that door, there would be no closing it, and I wanted to be better than that, so I held out. No matter how badly I’d wanted to shoot her a message, I had waited and sent my first text when I was heading over to pick her up.
She responded right away.
DANIKA: Who is this? I don’t have this number in my phone.
CHANCE: Very funny.
DANIKA: I thought so. <smiley face>
CHANCE: Be there in 10.
DANIKA: I’ll be out front.
CHANCE: In all black, I bet.
DANIKA: I do own other colors, you know.
CHANCE: Actually, I don’t know.
DANIKA: Well, now, you do.
I’d learned two things in that brief exchange. One: Danika owned something other than black, although I still doubted it. And two: she didn’t want me to come inside her apartment. It was probably for the best, but it still somehow felt like a slap in the face. Even though I tried not to take it personally, when I navigated my dad’s old Bronco into the parking lot and saw her waiting for me on the sidewalk—in all black, mind you—I felt a pang of disappointment rip through me.
This isn’t a date, I reminded myself.
It was supposed to help, but it only seemed to make it worse. In this moment, I realized that I wanted this to be a date.
Pulling myself together, I slowed to a stop next to her. “Nice outfit,” I said, looking at her off-the-shoulder black top, which revealed black bra straps underneath. Her black ripped jeans and dirty black combat boots finished off the ensemble.
This girl could never put on another color in her life, and I wouldn’t give a shit.
“It’s a New York thing, okay?” She shrugged as she hopped into my truck and tossed her bag to the floor.
“I’ve seen plenty of people in New York wear colors other than black,” I argued, but honestly, I couldn’t remember. I’d never paid attention to what people were wearing when I was there. I was too busy being caught up in the cool buildings and hanging out at the baseball stadium, meeting the players. New Yorkers’ attire had been the last thing on my mind.
“They might. I don’t.” She was unapologetic. And she had nothing to be sorry for.
“Hey.” I nudged her arm with my shoulder. “For the record, I always think you look beautiful.”
“Don’t say that,” she said, her normally olive skin tone turning crimson. She liked the compliment, but it also made her uncomfortable.
“I mean it though. You really do,” I pushed, and she squirmed as she buckled her seat belt. “Thanks for coming with me tonight,” I said before putting the car in gear and pulling away.
She never responded, and I turned the radio up.
More than ten minutes passed before Danika reached for the volume control on my stereo and turned it down. Normally, I would slap anyone’s hand who dared to touch my shit but not her. Never her. She could do whatever she wanted, and it didn’t even bother me.
Why did this girl affect me so much? And why couldn’t I control the way I felt when it came to her?
“Is there anything I should know?” she asked, her attention completely focused on me.
“About?” I gave her a quick glance before I refocused on the freeway.
“Your family. Like a heads-up about anything? Are they going to try to embarrass you or me? And who all is going to be there?”
“It’s just my mom, dad, and little sister, Jacey. I’ve never brought anyone home, so I have no idea how they’ll act, but they aren’t the embarrassing type,” I said and prayed to God that it was true.
My dad had given me a lot of crap the other day, but that was the first time that had happened.
“You’ve never brought a girl home before?”
“I mean, once in high school, but I’d known her since I was five, so she wasn’t a stranger.”
“Were you dating?”
“Yeah,” I answered, and Danika looked away. She stared out the passenger window for a little too long. “Did I say something wrong?” It felt like she was upset.
She turned back toward me. “No. How old is Jacey?”
“Fifteen, going on twenty. Her sole mission in life is to give me a heart attack, so if anyone is going to be embarrassing, it’ll be her.”
Danika laughed. “That’s funny. I wish I had a sister.”
“You can have mine.”
“She might like me better than you, and then you’ll be sorry,” Danika said with a smile, and I could tell she was starting to relax, maybe even looking forward to tonight.
“Can I ask you something?” I said, knowing I was about to ruin the mood as I pulled off the freeway and took the exit.
“You know you can.”
“Did you tell Jared you were coming home with me?”
Her relaxed demeanor instantly changed, and I watched as she swallowed hard. “No.”
My hands gripped the steering wheel even tighter as I asked, “You didn’t?”
“I didn’t.”
“So then, what happens if he texts or calls?” I started to get concerned because even though this wasn’t a date, I wanted Danika peacefully to myself tonight, and the fact that Jared had no idea where she was could potentially cause a lot of drama. “Won’t he want to see you? If I were your boyfriend, I’d want to see you,” I added in a matter-of-fact tone.
“I’ll just tell him that I had an extra session with you because you have your first test tomorrow. Which isn’t a lie.”
“Danika,” I started to say.
“I know, okay?” She sounded flustered and upset with herself as she turned toward the passenger window again. “I know.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?” I asked, realizing that I had no idea what their relationship was like. I had always assumed she was happy. I’d refused to let myself think otherwise.
“Because he would have told me I couldn’t come. We would have gotten into a huge fight, and it seemed easier not to tell him,” she admitted before adding, “I know it’s wrong. I know I should have let him know, but I didn’t want to.”
Even though I had very little experience with relationships, I knew that this was a slippery slope of sorts. Part of me loved the fact that she hadn’t told him because if she had, he would have guilted her into not coming home with me, and I wanted her here. I was glad she had come. But the rest of me knew that this was dangerous ground we were on, and if we weren’t careful, it could all come crashing down around us.
We pulled up to the privacy gates in my neighborhood, and I rolled down my window to punch in the code. The gates swung open, and Danika’s eyes lit up.
“This is a beautiful neighborhood,” she said, her head swiveling to each side of the street to look around. “Oh, I love the style and the landscaping. It’s so green here.”