Obvious enthusiasm

“Sure, I’d love to!” Amanda happily responded, and the way in which her face lit up as she said that was enough to send a tingle running down the length of David’s back.

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind…” Amanda corrected herself in a vain attempt to curb her obvious enthusiasm.

“You do? That’s great, uh, I’ll be sure to be here in time,” David was behaving like a stuttering fool as his mind did its best to fully register the fact that Amanda had reacted so joyously to his question.

“About that,” Amanda placed her glasses on the table in front of them, “I was thinking that it’ll take you an hour to drive from Hope to here…”

“Yeah?” David asked, wondering just where things were heading.

“Uh, well, I’ve got a couch in my apartment, and you already said you’d take me out for dinner after we’re done here.”

The fact that he was absolutely stunned by how good things were going was the main reason why David didn’t say anything, and he suspected that he looked like a pretty big fool standing there in front of Amanda. At least he had had enough sense to close his mouth.

“I mean, this way you’ll be able to maybe have a glass of wine or two with dinner without worrying about how to get back to Hope.” Amanda added as the silence triggered her into saying just about anything in order to break it.

“I don’t drink wine,” David blurted out, instantly deciding that saying the first thing that popped into his head wasn’t precisely what he’d call a great idea, “but sure.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh, I’d love to take you out for dinner.” David found himself hoping that he wasn’t sounding too excited, and decided to cast those fears aside for now.

“About that,” David’s reaction seemed to cause Amanda to grow more confident and more daring with each passing second, “I know of this little Italian place that’s got really amazing food, but they’re mainly take-away and keep prices down by cutting back on the scenery.”

“Oh?”

“So maybe the two of us could eat at my place, to give you a chance to make yourself comfortable?” Amanda stopped talking and bit her lip, wondering if she hadn’t rushed things a little too fast.

“That sounds good,” David smiled at Amanda, hoping and praying that he wasn’t misreading her intentions. He’d be so frustrated if it turned out that she just wanted to be friends.

“Great!” Amanda felt the knot at the pit of her stomach disappear, “I’m pretty much done for the day, so why don’t you wait outside while I tidy things up in here and then we’ll go and get dinner.”

“Fine.”

Ten minutes later, the two of them were travelling in separate cars to her apartment building, where she parked her car and then got into his so that they could go and get dinner.