Fighting to Be Free (Fighting to Be Free 1)

I stopped and bought a single red rose, she wouldn’t really want a bunch of flowers to be worrying about all night, but a single one should be ok. I mean, that’s romantic, right? Wow, I suck at this so much. I pulled up at seven thirty and sat in the truck, getting more and more nervous by the second.

This was my first actual date, I actually had no idea what to do or say. How the hell was I supposed to treat her nicely, if I didn’t know how?

At quarter to eight I went to stand outside the restaurant. Shit, maybe I should have asked her where she was parking or something to make sure she didn’t have to walk anywhere in the dark. Jeez this whole dating thing is actually harder than it sounds.

A little while later she walked round the corner looking like a freaking goddess. The black leggings she was wearing made her legs look long and perfect, and the belt made the white top she was wearing cling to her tiny waist. I groaned internally. Wow, maybe this wasn’t a good idea meeting her again, it was like torture wanting her and knowing she wasn’t interested. She smiled making me smile too, she looked a little nervous as well, which made me feel better.

“Hey,” she said quietly.

“Err hey, you look, err…..you look….wow. I mean, you just look….. yeah, just….wow,” I stuttered.

Yeah I just made myself look like I first class prick. Oh God Jamie, you are so smooth it’s just unreal. She laughed and blushed, dropping her eyes to the floor. The red on her cheeks made her look even more beautiful, if that was possible.

“Umm thanks, you look good too.” She smiled, biting her lip nervously. I groaned internally again, yeah I was wearing a plain grey t-shirt and she looks like that, seriously I am totally out of my league with this girl.

“Here’s your phone, nice ring tone by the way,” I said, holding it out to her.

She laughed, “Err yeah, I put that on there when I broke up with Mark, thought that song was appropriate,” she said, laughing as she pushed the phone into her purse. I laughed, she didn’t seem to upset about the breakup, which I guess was a good thing, maybe it wouldn’t take her long to get over him.

“I got you this too.” I held out the rose, feeling like a complete clueless idiot.

She looked at it a little shocked, “You did? Thank you.” She looked back at me, smiling gratefully as she traced her fingers over the petals lightly.

Ok, I score one for that. I looked into her eyes, they were the strangest colour eyes I had ever seen in my life. They were a kind of blue-grey colour, just indescribable and beautiful, I could feel my heart beating too fast. Damn it, come on Jamie, get it together!

“Well shall we go in? Are you hungry?” I asked, nodding to the door.

She grinned, “I’m starving.” I pulled the door open and nodded for her to go in first. I couldn’t help but look at her ass as she walked past, it honestly made my mouth water.

We were shown to our table and I was calming down slightly, the nerves easing off as I remembered last night and how easy she was to talk to.

“So what do you do then, Jamie?” she asked, as we looked over the menus.

Crap, now what? “Err… I work with cars. I’m currently fixing up cars for the scrap yard and then they sell them at auctions,” I said smiling. Ok, that’s not a total lie, that was the plan it’s just not definite yet.

“Yeah, you fix cars? Well that’s handy to know, my car’s always breaking down,” she said laughing.

“Lucky you have my number then, huh?” I said, trying to flirt with her, I’m not sure it was really working, I wasn‘t very good at it. “What about you, you’re a senior I guess, right? You wanna go to college?”

She nodded, “Yeah, I’m not sure what I want to do yet though, I’ve never really had a specific thing I’m interested in. My parents are always hounding the crap out of me to pick a major, but I just don’t care. I think I’d rather go travelling.”

I laughed, “Well who wouldn’t rather go travelling than be in school?” I teased.

We chatted easily through the rest of dinner about places we wanted to go and why, books, movies, favourite things. It was probably the easiest conversation I’d ever had in my life. I found myself acting normal around her, being me without the tough act I put on, which is very unusual. Whenever the conversation turned to my past, I would deflect it off to something else. I didn’t want her asking about my past, where I lived, or my family. I didn’t want to lie to her like I did to everyone else.

“So, you want to catch a movie or something?” I asked hopefully, as we finished eating.

“Err yeah ok. It’s not late, right?” she asked, nodding at my watch.

I checked the time, it was only just after nine thirty. “No, it’s not late,” I told her, grinning as I put money on the table to pay for dinner.

“I can pay,” she protested, grabbing her purse.

“I got it.” I took her hand and pulled her away from the table, grabbing my jacket from the coat rack on the way past. As we stepped outside I put it around her shoulders and discretely left my arm there too, she didn’t protest so I grinned proudly as I led her to the movie theatre.

The only thing due to start within the next hour was some crappy sounding movie about a singer who lived in a trailer park, trying to make it big. When we went in we were literally the only ones in there.

“Wow, does this tell you that this film is gonna be a pile of crap?” she whispered as we sat down. I laughed and nodded, she really was funny, and so damn beautiful.