The Perfect Gift

The minutes dragged by. By the time class was over, I was shaking and sweating with my own fear. Finally, the professor called things to a close and gave us all our assignments for the next class. Swallowing hard, I stood up and waited awkwardly by the door.

“Hi, Molly,” Dan said. He smiled at me. “Are you okay?”

“Um, yeah,” I said, shifting my weight from one foot to the other and biting my lip. “I was wondering if you’d want to get coffee sometime.”

Dan laughed. It sounded nervous to me. “I don’t drink coffee,” he said.

“Oh.”

“But I like tea.”

“Tea is fine,” I said quickly. I smiled. “Thanks!” Turning on my heel, I started walking away.

“Hey, Molly!”

Turning around, I flushed when I saw Dan with his arms crossed over his chest. “Don’t you want my number?”

“Oh my god, I’m so stupid,” I said, darting back to Dan’s side. “Yeah. I’m sorry. You can just put in my phone and I’ll text you.”

I handed my phone over, cringing internally when Dan chuckled at my bright pink phone case. He carefully typed in his number, then handed it back to me. I slipped it in my pocket.

“Okay,” I said. “Um, Friday works for me. What about you?”

“Friday’s no good,” Dan said. “What about tomorrow? Do you have any classes?”

I nodded. “I’m free at four,” I said. “What about you?”

“Me, too. Let’s meet at the student union,” Dan said. “We can always go to Port City Java.”

“Okay. That sounds good.”

Dan nodded. To my relief, he smiled again. “Yeah,” he said. “See you then.”

As I waited for the bus, I tried to untangle my emotions. I wondered how I should be feeling – happy? Relieved? Excited? Some combination of all three.

When I got home, Rebecca was in the kitchen. “Hey!” She yelled. “How did it go?”

“He said yes,” I said. I couldn’t help breaking into a wide smile. “I can’t believe it, but we’re getting coffee tomorrow!”

Rebecca’s eyes went wide. “Wow, tomorrow? You move fast,” she said. “That’s awesome!”

“I’m just happy he didn’t laugh in my face,” I said, glancing down at my huge curvy body. “I thought for sure he was going to reject me.”

“I’m not surprised he said yes,” Rebecca said firmly. “You’re beautiful, Molly.”

I frowned. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, fake it until you make it,” Rebecca said. “Just act confident, and eventually you really will be!”

I groaned as I flopped into a chair and threw my schoolbag on the floor. “I don’t know,” I said. “I wish I believed that. I feel like I’m just going to be this fat awkward loser for the rest of my life.”

“Mol, you have got to stop calling yourself fat! And a loser, for that matter,” Rebecca said. “You’re only a loser if you act like a loser, and you never do!”

I shrugged. “I guess. It’s something, at least.”

“It’s huge,” Rebecca said kindly. “And this way, I don’t know, it’ll be good. Good for you, I mean. Like, even if things don’t work out…you’ll still have the practice of having talked to this guy, right?”

“I guess,” I said. “You’re probably right.”