Sadie starts her date with Louis

Friday night I meet up with Sarah for dinner and she tells me that she was unable to reach Dr. Lacy. Like me with Dr. Stevenson, she didn’t want to give too much information, so she didn’t get much information in return. Instead of worrying about it, I suggest she try again on Monday.

Date Night streaming is continuing to prove profitable, and I play right into it. If my Princess BabyDoll persona is played as bimboesque compared to me and real girls everywhere, then my Friday Date Night Princess BabyDoll is a giggling total airheaded bimbo compared to the otherwise regular girl I play on my other streams. And the audience is certainly making the connection between my upcoming date with Louis and me playing this dating game. They have the characters dressing as we said we’d dress, not realizing we changed it up to a costume party, and they have our first date as a picnic in the virtual park. With as much as they clamor for me to tell them about our finalized plans, I have to wonder if it’s worth telling my audience about the date.

Yes, that will just make them clamor for more. More information and more contact and more dates with Louis. But why tamp out a fire that’s paying so well? Thankfully, I have another week to consider my options. My audience doesn’t know my date will occur before our next Friday Night Date Night stream, and that allows me time to tease it out further.

I’m surprised to see the interest pop up in my few interactions on the weekend. I stopped by a chat on Saturday for a gaming group out in California, hoping to get some of their audience to follow me, and out of the blue one of them asks me how the date planning with Louis is going. And then Sunday when I hook up the Nintendo Switch and stream some Princes Peaches, I see random guesses about our upcoming date in the chat. Some even with paid tips to make the questions stand out.

I keep walking the fine line between keeping their interest without committing to any information dumps in order to keep my options open. On Monday, after working out with Marley and finding out that he still hasn’t heard from his investor, I realize that part of the reason I won’t commit to more information to my audience in regard to my date with Louis is that I want to see how the date goes. After all, there’s no reason to hype it up if the date goes badly. And just because we won’t be streaming it and Louis honestly seems like a good guy, doesn’t mean that it can’t go badly.

The big day finally comes, and I take the bus over to the mall to get my hair done. Marci works quickly, chatting along the entire time. I’m surprised to learn that at her age, she watches both Sarah’s and my streams. She’s certainly not a hardcore fan and only peeks in occasionally to ‘keep track of her girls’ but she’s aware enough of my streams to ask me if I’m going to be sharing my costume with Louis. My blushing admission that we’re going out this very afternoon goes perfectly with my rolled bangs and looped hair.

After paying Marci, I have just enough time to get home, eat a snack, get my makeup perfect, and get into my costume before Sarah drives me to the park to meet up with Louis. Looking around I search the crowd for someone near Louis’ size. We agreed on the theme for our costumes, but between the anime, the manga, the video games, and the movies, there are plenty of costumes he could be in. Primarily I look for someone dressed in blue jeans, red sneakers and hat, and a blue jacket with white collar and sleeves as that would be the most classic choice. But by looking for that, I completely miss Louis until he walks up and announces himself two feet in front of me.

“Sadie? That costume is absolutely perfect! Nurse Joy, right?” Louis’ voice clearly identifies him and it takes me a minute to place his costume. When I do, I smile broadly and flaunt my dress skirt out a bit in a small curtsy.

“That’s right Louis! You got it on the first try. And while I expected you to dress as Ash, I can’t tell you how happy I am that you went for something a little more adventurous. With your backpack and vest and of course Mega Steelix, you make a perfect Brock!” I probably shouldn’t be surprised that Louis is into Pokémon, as he did offer it up as a costume idea, but his choice really hits my nerd button pretty hard.

After we catch up a bit, we pick out a nice area for our picnic and Louis shows off that his backpack is playing double duty as both costume accessory and carry all for our picnic. He lays out a classic white and red checkered blanket and adds Tupperware dishes of potato salad, little premade tomato and mozzarella sandwiches, and some peanut butter cookies for dessert. He even has a little bottle of lemonade along with a couple glasses. I’m impressed as he also went above and beyond and included little plates, napkins, and utensils to eat with. I make a fuss over all the effort he put into it and focus primarily on the sandwiches and lemonade as both the potato salad and cookies would blow out my diet in one fell swoop. And as much as I want to enjoy my time with Louis, today isn’t a cheat day.

After we eat, I help Louis clean the dishes up and re-pack it all into his backpack except for the blanket where we sit together, and people watch. I note that Louis moves to sit right next to me, right in my personal space, but doesn’t do the natural date thing of putting his arm around my shoulders. I let my mind wander, knowing I have to thread a tight needle with him. If it were him and me, him and Nick, I’d love for us to be friends. While he has the body of an athletic person and exudes cool in all his actions, he’s just a loveable nerd like me. He likes to play the same type of games I do but is also burned out from having to stream them all the time. He likes sci-fi and action and superhero movies. And most importantly, he sees the value in sitting still and chatting. It can be at the coffee house, a bar, or the arcade. Neither of us need to be ‘doing something’ in order to be having a good time.

Unfortunately, he absolutely cannot know that he’s hanging out with ‘Nick’. As Princess BabyDoll and Price LouisLove, we’re a match made in heaven. His streams go a little more hardcore gamer while mine skew a little more fashion and dating and chatting, but we play similar games. I’m already catching up to him in audience size and will probably pass him before Thanksgiving break. Where I was hitting him up for an audience just a few weeks ago, we now hit each other up for audiences as they don’t naturally cross between our streams. And obviously, both of our audiences like seeing us together. It’s far more overt on my streams and chats, but Louis has admitted that his audience often talks about me.

So, our online personas match up well and both of us are open to mixing it up. But then it comes down to us. Not Nick and Louis, but Sadie and Louis. After our first cringe worthy date, I hated him. If he wasn’t such a nice guy, I probably wouldn’t have ever opened myself back up to him. But where he’s been open and honest and says he’s attracted to me and would like us to be a couple, in our last few hang outs… I still refuse to call them outright dates… he’s admitted that if we can’t be a couple, he’s open to us being friends. And that’s where I’m conflicted. I know that he sees me as Sadie. I know that he sees me as an attractive girl and wants more. He says being a friend is cool and I desperately need friends. More so, I want him as a friend… but not as a friend to Sadie. When I’m out in public, it’s become second nature for me to play up being Princess BabyDoll. I’m online and streaming and chatting and social mediaing and vlogging for more hours than I’m not doing those things if you don’t count sleep. At first it was an effort to be that sexy giggling flirty girl. The one that brought in the boys and kept her audience growing and now keeps her audience tipping and subscribing and paying. But especially in these past few weeks, it’s been easier to just be Princess BabyDoll all the time. I’m still Nick at my core, but there is less and less ‘Sadie’ in this mix of my three personalities. And that’s the problem with Louis. ‘Nick’ wants to be friends, but Louis can’t know ‘Nick’. ‘Princess BabyDoll’ wants to flirt and giggle and otherwise sexually attract men just like Louis. And finally, ‘Sadie’ wants to be just friends, but can’t help being more and more ‘Princess’ and sending mixed signals.

Coming out of my thoughts I look over and up at Louis and have to hide my smile. At a glance, he’s just looking around at all the people in the park. The moms and their kids, the college couples, the old folks feeding the birds. But every other glance is toward me. In the few seconds I’ve been looking at him, I’ve seen his hand twitch twice toward me as I’m sure he’d like to take my hand. And after my thoughts, I figure I need to establish what today is for me and help Louis remember that our relationship is just as friends and not as a couple. Leaning over I knock my shoulder into Louis’ arm and say, “Hey, I really appreciate you going out with me like this. I know our audiences can be needy, but this is honestly fun. Just two friends hanging out. And so long as we have a fun time, I’m going to share about the date with my audience as they really seem to respond to talk about it. But I’m not going to give you mixed signals. Whatever I may say to my audience, you’ll always know where you stand with me.”

As a guy I’d never take another guy’s hand and squeeze it, but as Sadie I feel it’s a safe gesture. The girl equivalent of a playful punch to the upper arm. Taking Louis’ hand in mine I interlace our fingers and give his hand a squeeze. And I only see a momentary look of disappointment cross Louis’ face before he smiles and leans in close saying, “I hear you, Sadie. Friends. I promise, I won’t go any further without more overt signs from you. Not just for our audiences, but because I honestly like and respect you.”

With that out of the way, we chat for a bit longer before packing up the picnic and heading over to the Mini Golf course to sign up for a round. Being Halloween, even in the afternoon, they’re quite busy so we agree to being part of a foursome and getting a discount because we’ll all costumed. We end up paired with a couple, the guy dressed as a red suit wearing devil and the gal dressed as a sexy angel. It’s on the second hole when Louis compares the layout to a map in the game Valiant that the devil realizes who we are. Turning to his angel, he really lets his nerd colors fly. “Oh my God Babe, these are the two streamers I told you about! Princess BabyDoll and Prince LouisLove! It’s so sweet to meet you guys!”

Louis stays his natural friendly self and chats up the devil and angel couple, but hearing a fan call out my online persona pushes me firmly into Princess BabyDoll territory. A part of me cringes at all the extra ‘like’ and ‘um’ and ‘uh’ filler words I start hearing in my own speech, and worse feel myself physically flirting with the devil and Louis together. Bending forward enough to give a good look at my cleavage while I putt putt putt away and bending at the waist dramatically to pick up my ball from the cup. But I see the devil boy eating it up, the angel laughing it off, and Louis winking at me and obviously realizing I’m now playing a part. When we’re done, the devil guy asks if he can get some photos with us. Knowing that if he shares these online, we’re both committing to telling our audience about the date, both Louis and I agree. Any online chatter is good online chatter and a fan gushing about us might draw in new audience members. While the guy has his girl in the photo of him and Louis, he takes a couple with Louis and I together with his girl holding the phone camera. He takes one with me and his girl, Louis counting us down, but then proceeds to take another four or five with me alone. I even toss in a couple with my tried-and-true tossing of a kiss and “Au revoir mes amours!”

By the time we get out of the park and walk over to the bar where the costume party is being thrown it’s well underway. Louis pays our entry fee and we each get a wrist band. The bouncer, a big burly bald guy with a handlebar mustache, tells us that there are both individual and couples costume competitions if we want to sign up.

Walking in I lead Louis over to the bar where we can get a drink. I have absolutely no idea what’s changed in me, but before I became ‘Sadie’ I drank regularly. Not a lot, but I normally had at least a beer a night and would generally get drunk most weekends. It’d take four or five drinks to get me going and seven or eight would lay me out. But since I’ve become Sadie, since my hormones have gotten all shifted around, since I’ve lost almost twenty pounds, since I’ve all but stopped drinking, **** of any type hits me harder. I feel a little dizzy if I drink a single beer too fast and since my first ‘date’ with Louis, I’ve only had three beers. So, while I would absolutely love to go all out and get a festive cocktail… they have some great looking Vampire Martinis… I know I have to stay with something simple like beer that I can nurse through the evening.

The bartender is working fast, but he’s clearly in need of a second guy behind the bar and he’s rushing from customer to customer. Hating that it works so well, I lean up onto the bar, letting my breasts be on full display while I keep my eyes on him. We make eye contact for only a moment before his eyes are drawn down to ‘my girls’ and he heads directly over. I make sure I’m firmly in my Princess BabyDoll persona as I order a couple beers for Louis and me. The bartender only registers a little disappointment as Louis steps forward to pay and I turn around to face the crowd and lean against the bar.

When I see the guy with the Pikachu fluffy toy on his shoulder, along with his red cap I immediately recognize the Ash costume. It’s not as in depth as my Nurse Joy or Louis’ Brock, but it’s still clearly from the Pokémon universe. Just as Louis turns around and I’m getting ready to point out our fellow Pokécostumer my heart stops. The guy in the Ash costume isn’t some random dude.

It’s Todd.