Date?

I had spent much of the rest of the day lounging about watching some of the TV shows Matt had given to me. I was watching Battlestar Galactica when my phone buzzed with a notification. It was a message from Abby, she had added me earlier in the day but not messaged me til now.

[Hey it's Abby, just wanted to say thanks for everything you did for me earlier]

{no worries, couldn't exactly not help a beautiful damsel in distress}

I cringed at my words immediately after seeing the message, but it was too late. Luckily her response didn't seem to mind my overt flirting.

[well I wanted to say thank you, what you up to Monday evening?]

{nothing exciting, why}

[Well you fancy going to grabbing some food at Nando's with me]

Was she asking me on a date or just to return the favour? Once again like so many times since I moved I was in the unknown territory but decided I wanted to meet up with her again either way.

{yeah that sounds nice}

[Great! I'll probably come round your around 7 on Monday then xxx}

{yeah looking forward to it xxx}

I didn't get any further messages from Abby that evening, but my mind was racing through all the possibilities of what this meant. I knew she thought I was cute from the messages between her and her friend, so that was a good sign, wasn't it? Or was cute just a way of describing a nice guy who was destined for the friend zone. Hell, I had no idea, I was just getting myself in a mental knot overthinking it.

Someone knocked on my door.

Me: 'it is open'

Gemma poked her head round with that killer smirk on her face.

Gemma: 'just wanted to make sure you didn't have company, I heard some girl was sighted leaving our flat in one of your jumpers earlier'

Me: 'who told you that?'

Gemma: 'I have my sources'

Me: 'so Gem then'

Gemma: 'haha I will never reveal their true identity'

Gemma wandered over and sat on my deckchair backwards so her legs were straddling either side of the back. Rolling it towards me I could tell I was about to get an integration for all the gossip.

Gemma: 'So who is she?'

Me: 'her name is Abby'

Gemma: 'oh Mike's girl from the party?

Me: 'yeah'

Gemma: 'that not against the bro code or something?'

Me: 'well I don't know if Mike cares about the bro code but no we didn't do anything like that'

Gemma: 'that means your still my virgin boy then'

Me: 'haha shut up but yes I am still a virgin'

Gemma: 'so how come she ended leaving your flat in your clothes then?'

Me: 'kinda a long story'

Gemma: 'I got time'

Clearly, I wasn't going to avoid Gemma's grilling so decided it was best for me just to tell her what had happened. I left out a couple of the details such as the stuff that had happened with room 5 and mentioning me seeing her messages. I had told her pretty much the rest, including the messages I had just received from her and our date/not date thing.

Gemma: 'Come on, that is definitely a date Alex!'

Me: 'you think so?'

Gemma: 'Yes! A girl doesn't just ask a guy out for an evening meal to 'return a favour' unless she actually likes the guy'

I must have looked obviously pleased with Gemma's conclusion cause she gave me a kick.

Gemma: 'looks like virgin boy may actually like this girl haha'

Me: 'oh god I'm gonna regret confiding in you aren't I?

Gemma: 'oh probably. but I'm glad you did'

Gemma stood up from the chair and headed towards my door

Me: 'where are you off to?'

Gemma: 'to work out how to put Mike in his place.'

Me: 'I dunno if that really necessary, Abby didn't seem that upset about the whole thing'

Gemma: 'oh I'm not doing this for her, although he clearly was a prick for kicking her out, but because it's gonna be fun to take him down a peg or two'

Me: 'what you gonna do?'

Gemma: 'not sure yet but I have a couple of ideas'

With that, she left. I had no doubt that women with Gemma's will could achieve anything but Mike was a full-on jock of the highest order, one who had proven to be an absolute douche as well. I just hope Gemma knows what she was doing.