First Date

(Rita’s POV)

I’m already waiting for John, I’m just standing there embarassedly, trying to avoid people’s stares as they pass by me.

Was I too early? We were supposed to meet at 2pm right?

I look at my phone which displays a distressingly early 1:20pm. Ok, I guess I’m 40 minutes early, I’ve always been bad at arriving on time, but today was more stressful than usual.

I finally have a date with my crush! I’m so happy!

And thanks to Life Quest, I feel like I have a chance. I improved myself a lot in the past two weeks. I hope that’s enough to get there…

Wait where do I want to get with John today? Maybe I’m going too fast, I should lower my expectations. I’d like to hold hands, but we’re not officially dating, so I guess that’s my first step.
Maybe we’ll hold hands if we go through a crowd? And then he’ll tell me he doesn’t want to lose me! And then…

Okay, I’m losing myself again. I don’t know why but, I’ve spent more and more times lost in thought today.
Maybe my Cosplay III perk is acting up? I knew coming to my date in cosplay was a bad idea…
At least, it’s a very stealthy one.

My thinking process was simple.

Cosplay III : When cosplaying, your features will adjust, acting in character becomes easy and you become more proficient in activities the character is known to do.

Since the perk makes acting in character easy, and makes me better at what this character knows how to do, I decided to exploit it.
Instead of getting some flashy cosplay, I instead got a cosplay for an anime character I like which is basically wearing ‘casual clothes’.

The anime girl I’m cosplaying is from a harem anime I saw years ago, she’s the show’s most seductive character, often dressed in a flowy red dress that I thought was very daring, but now that I’m wearing it, it feels right. She also wears a red ribbon on the back of her hair.
The character was shown as confidant and sexy, but she also fantasized about the main character doing lewd things with her, which was always played for laughs, as he missed every hint she layed on him.

However, I think that was the right cosplay choice, she’s beautiful and confident and I doubt someone can be as oblivious as a harem protagonist in real life.

As I look at the time on my phone again, I can see that it’s been more than 15 minutes of me just standing there. Somehow, being looked at by passerbys gets less embarrassing as time goes by. Let them look if they want, why should I care about their judgement?

“Rita? Is that you?” I hear from out of my vision, turning around to see that John has arrived.

“Who else could it be? Hello John. How are you today?” I say as I take a measured step closer, trying to show myself from the best angle. Impressive, it’s like my body knows exactly how to move.

I smile at him but it doesn’t have much effect as he keeps his face unexpressive, I do notice that his ears are getting red though.
As I look him up and down, I’m very happy to see he actually dressed up for me. Even if it’s pretty clumsy, he did try to do better than he does at work.
It’s very cute of him.

“I’m fine, and you? You’re here pretty early.” He says apologetic.

“I’m alright, I just arrived.” I reassure him.

“Okay… Great, shall we go then?” He asks.

“We’re still pretty early, and the author I wanted to meet is famous enough that if we go now we’ll just spend an hour in line. How about strolling around for a while?” I ask, while looking at my phone’s clock.

He agrees, and we start going in a random direction.

---

(John’s POV)

I’m trying to keep my composure, and the Pokerface perk definitely helps a lot, but what the hell happened to Rita this weekend?

She looks so different from her usual look, first of all, she’s a lot thinner than last time I saw her, so I guess she really exploited her S-perk. Second, her body looks a little taller, her face more symmetrical, and she’s generally a little sexier than I ever saw her. I usually would suspect that it’s a perk’s effect, but she didn’t get a new perk since her last quest.

And that’s without talking about her pretty daring clothes. I always thought she was a shy, but she’s actually wearing a flashy red dress, she even has ribbon tied in her hair.

Anyway, we’re currently strolling through the streets while passing by shops. Sometimes stopping for a while at a store window, to talk about it’s content.

We end up talking about many subjects, simply going around and enjoying ourselves.

“Yep, I go out once in a while, but usually I like to go home and relax after work.”

“Do you live alone then?” She asks me.

“No, I don’t. The rent’s too high for that.” I say. And she seems to hold her breath, waiting for me to continue.

“I’m living with my best friend, we came to the city together and he works from home.” I tell her while she nods.

“Is it a big enough apartment?”

“For two, sure. However, someone new is moving in, so it’s going to get tighter.” She seems very curious when she hears that.

“Really? Is it another friend of yours?”

“Well, more like the sibling of a friend. She didn’t find a place to live in alone, rent got very expensive in the last few years.” I say.

Looking on her face, she seemed to lose the smile she had earlier.

“Is everything alright?” I ask, worried I said something wrong.

She seems surprised by the question, and she starts smiling again.

“I’m fine. The food stalls are making me hungry, how about you?”

I look around, and notice we’re not far from a stall selling waffles and crepes, the smell alone is a good advertisement.

“Sure.” I say, as we get closer, and both take a big waffle sprayed with chocolate.

Once we have it, I insist to pay for her. I know my job doesn’t bring me a lot, but I can still do that much.

Once we start walking again, I decide to move the conversation again.

“How about you? Do you live alone?” I ask, and she’s happy to answer.

“Oh, I also have a roommate. But I live in a dorm, it’s a lot cheaper than a normal apartment.”

So Rita has a roommate, it’s pretty surprising, I would think she lived either alone or with her parents.

“Did you move to the city for your studies?” I ask, and she shakes her head.

“I already lived in a pretty big town, but I moved here to get some space away from my family.”
I nod.

“I understand, is your family big?”

“I have a lot of little siblings. They’re kind, but also tiring. I’m just a little sorry for letting my mom handle it alone.” She explains.

“I’m sure everything’s fine, and it’s normal that you want to take some time away from home, especially for studying.”
She nods, before checking her phone.

“Ah, we should head toward the meet if we don’t want to miss it.” She says, as we turn around.

---

Maybe I should’ve asked who this famous author was beforehand. So it is my fault, but I really wasn’t expecting to see Ms.Summers at the end of the bookstore, happily chatting with fans of her as they came from the long queue starting at the store’s entrance.

“Wait, you’re into romance novels? I though you read science fiction?” I ask turning toward Rita.

“I know it’s not my generation… But my mom was a fan, and she lended me the books when she was done with them. So I read most of her books during my childhood.”

“I understand, her books are great.” I say, while remembering the ones I read while writing my own.

We wait in line, and I admit I’m a little embarrassed to be coming to meet my teacher as a fan would. Especially since there seems to only be older women waiting in the queue.

We wait for a pretty long time, and Ms.Summers signs the book of the person in front of us, before looking at us. She then gets stuck for a few seconds trying to understand what she sees.
Rita takes this as her cue and introduces herself.

“H-Hello Miss Summers! I-I’m a big fan of yours! I loved the RedRose trilogy!” She says while handing the first volume she had in her handbag.

“I see… I didn’t expect to have fans that young. What’s your name?” She asks, and then writing ‘For Rita’ in the book, followed by her practiced signature.

She then looks back at me. And pauses for a little while.

“H-Hello Miss Summers.” I tell her awkwardly.

“Well John, I didn’t expect to see you twice in a row.” She says while smiling, seemingly happy I came.

“Y-You know her John?” Rita says in surprise.

“Yes, she was my literature teacher a few years ago.” I explain, and I see that Rita wants to ask more questions, but as people are waiting behind us, she stops herself.

“Okay, I guess we should go, thanks for your time.” Rita tells her.

“Sure, you two have fun on your date then.” She says.

Rita is red as we leave the book store and she avoids looking at me.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you knew her?” Rita asks, and I shrug.

“Well, I didn’t even know who we were meeting.” I say and she seems to accept the logic.

“I guess you’re right.”

“So what are we doing now? Do you want to go home?” I ask her, and she checks her time on her phone.

“It’s still early, how about going to the park a little further ahead?” She asks and I nod.

---

The walk is pretty much silent, as I wonder what I should talk about. Should I make a move? Hold her hands? Does she even like me?
She did agree to meet on a weekend so I guess she must like me as a friend.
I look toward her and she seems lost in thought, before lightly tapping her face like she’s trying to stay awake or clear her mind.

We arrive in the park soon after, the trees are starting to lose most of their leaves as we get deeper closer to the winter season. But the scent of nature, and the faraway sounds of kids playing makes the place serene.

We sit next to each other on an empty bench, quietly waiting for someone to say something.

I guess I have to do it then.

“Today was fun!” I start and she looks at me.

“Y-yes. I had fun too…” She says slowly.

This is more embarrassing than I thought it would be.

“Do you want us to… meet again another time?” I ask, and Rita sighs.

“O-Or maybe not-” I stop as she leans on me and kisses me.

The kiss is soft and I barely have the time to process it before she pulls back.

Before she can say anything, I kiss her back, this time lasting a lot longer as we explore each other. When we finally pull back, we’re both trying to catch our breaths.

I adjust myself to try to hide my growing erection, all while looks into my eyes, her face fully red.

“I waited so long for this.” She tells me before diving into another kiss, as we completely forget the place we’re in.

It’s hard to describe exactly what’s happening as we make out, I can smell the sweet scent of her perfume, moving my hand through her hair while one of hers slowly slide down my chest.

I can feel the colored ribbon in her hair falling as we continue to make out. And as it falls down she pulls back, removing her hands in surprise.

“Did we really just… Are we g-going out?” She asks as her confidence seems to melt in a second.

“We are if you want us to.” I say, as she breathes heavily.

“Can we kiss again?” She asks, as if she didn’t spend minutes doing so.

I nod, and she goes back right in, but this time, she feels less daring, less experienced than she was seconds ago.

I wonder what happened, but that’s not stopping me as I pull her closer. We exchange saliva and body heat for what seems like hours, discovering each other. I caress her back while one of my hands is grabbing her by the waist, and in turn, she has a hand on my chest and one resting my leg.

When we finally stop and look around, we’re both embarrassed we took it this far in a public park, hopefully people weren’t close enough to notice or care about us.

As I look at Rita, I see that she’s now wet everywhere from her sweat, and her hair is messy as well.

“That was good…” She says while trying to adjust herself, and I nod.

She then hears a text coming from her phone, as she checks it she sighs.

“I’m sorry John, but I have to go, June- I mean my roommate forgot her keys inside the room again, and I locked when I left.” She says, clearly used to this happening.

“That’s okay, we’ll see each other next time.” I tell her and she smiles at me, before leaving in a hurry.

I notice and grab the ribbon that fell earlier, but she leaves before I can call out to her. I put it in my pocket and go home, still thinking of her as I leave.

---

Author's Note: Hope you liked the chapter, tell me what you thought, and if I need to change anything about it.