November 2018

The past week had gone by agonisingly slow, by Friday morning I was ready to pull my hair out. Hayden and I had been texting each other at every free moment, and I couldn't be happier.

This whole thing was utterly surreal every morning I felt like pinching myself, I would've never imagined that we'd actually have a chance together let alone a date together in just under 12 hours.

I rolled out of bed and made my way downstairs to grab a cup of coffee, as I turned the corner to enter the kitchen my heart almost burst.

"These were delivered a few moments ago." He said as he motioned to what I could only describe as a giant bunch of deep red roses, the scent of them alone was intoxicating, but it wasn't a patch on their beauty. "They also came with a note."

I walked over to the table and picked up the small card that was placed between the flowers, as I read the words my heart swelled.

Lucia

Morning beautiful. I hope you like the flowers

I'm counting down the hours until I see you, prepare

To have your mind blown sweetheart.

All my love - Hayden xx

"Well?" Ricky urged "what does it say?" I passed the card over to him and placed my hand on the chair to steady myself, I didn't know what swooning was, but I was pretty sure I was doing it now. "Luce, I'm actually speechless."

"So am I, Rick." I murmured "this is all so surreal, I never thought he'd do this. The card says prepare to have your mind blown, what do you think he means by that?"

"I have no idea but if those flowers are anything to go by I say it's something pretty special."

"I never knew he had this in him. He would've never had done this a few years ago." I murmured

"Maybe, he just hadn't found the right girl." He replied.

I felt my cheeks flush, it was a strange thought to think of myself as the 'right one' for Hayden, but maybe Ricky was right, perhaps he really wanted to do things properly with me.

"Has he spoken to you about some of the Rehabilitation Clinics he's been looking into?"

With that simple statement, my world shifted firmly back to reality. The only reason I'd even agreed to go on a date with Hayden was that he'd decided to get help and I just hoped he was going to follow through with it.

"Yeah, he has. He's really positive about it actually. He told me the other night he's been looking into some clinics a few hours away they all sound excellent, I really am proud of him. I didn't think he'd be that invested in all of this, I kind of thought it was all just for show."

"It's because he loves you, Luce, he's found something worth fighting for."

Ricky's words caused the doubt in my mind to lessen slightly, maybe he was right, perhaps now that we were together and he had something stable to invest his time into; hopefully, the need to pump his body full of drugs would lessen slightly.

Sadly, the problem was he would always be an addict. That feeling of constantly needing the next hit would still be there in the back of his mind, but if he was willing to get clean and do it right, I was going to invest every free minute of my time to make sure that he turns into the man I know he can be.

"Do you know where he's taking me tonight?" I asked eager to change the topic.

"Maybe. Maybe not. You're not getting anything out of me missy. Hayden would skin me alive if I told you about his plans for tonight."

"So you do know!" I shouted "tell me, Rick, please. Is it romantic? Will it blow my mind?" I giggled at my use of the words he'd printed on the card, in reality, I didn't really care what he'd planned for tonight, just the idea of us going out on a real date and spending time together had my whole body tingling.

Would we kiss? God I hoped we would, it took everything I had not to kiss him senseless after he confessed how he felt just over a week ago, but I held back due to the conversation that'd followed shortly after.

However now things were different, and that meant kissing was defiantly on the table.

I'd tortured myself multiple times back when I was younger thinking about what it would be like to kiss Hayden, how his lips would feel against mine but I'd never imagined that my childish little daydream would've actually manifested into a reality.

"Ew, you're totally thinking about jumping his bones." Ricky's squeal brought me back to reality.

"W-what, no I'm not. Don't be stupid." I spluttered, but I could feel the blush making its way across my cheeks.

"Girl, If I had a man that handsome I'd be thinking about it too." He chuckled "the man is like a fine wine, he gets better with age."

We both looked at each other and burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, how he'd managed to say that without even cracking a smile baffled me.

"I distinctly remember you saying you'd climb him like a tree when we were younger." I laughed.

"The man is a god but honey he's all yours." He replied giving me a sly wink.

Ricky and I spent the rest of the day lounging around the house until the time came for me to start getting ready for the mystery date Hayden had planned. The atmosphere in the house was electric as Ricky preened me to perfection.

The excitement rolled of the two of us in waves as he admired the outfit I'd picked out.

"If that dress is anything to go by I won't bother waiting up for you tonight." He gushed as I did a little twirl for him in the bedroom. "Are you trying to kill the poor man?" I laughed as he gathered me up in his arms and gave me a loving squeeze.

"I'm not having sex with him." I squeaked "this is just a first date, we're going to ease ourselves into a relationship gently, I don't want to mess anything up."

"Luce, there's going to be no gentle easing when he sees you in that dress. It's going to be a direct hotline to his groi-."

I screamed and covered my ears. Don't get me wrong I wasn't a prude, but I didn't want to go into this relationship blinded by lust and only thinking about one thing. "You don't think I should change, do you?" I was starting to panic, what if the dress gave off the wrong impression?

"No don't you dare change! You look beautiful Luce, you're going to take his breath away." He placed a light kiss on my forehead and left me alone in the bedroom. I waited to hear his footfalls on the stairs before I flopped down on the bed.

The dress was a little risqué, but I immediately fell in love with it when Ricky pulled it from the rack while we were shopping earlier this week. The black silk hugged my figure and gave it a beautiful hourglass appearance. It fell to just below my knee, but the slit up my leg made it seem much more edgy and sexy.

I glanced at the time on my phone, 8:25 pm. There was no way in hell I'd be able to change that quickly without ruining my hair and makeup, I just hoped to god I wasn't too overdressed.

"Lucia." Ricky shouted up the stairs a few moments later "your painfully handsome boyfriend is here."

I took a deep breath to compose myself and made my way towards the stairs. My whole body felt as if it was trembling, I hated feeling this nervous. I was going on a date with Hayden for Christ sake, I'd known the boy all my life what was there to be worried about?

All evidence of my nerves soon dissolved as Hayden looked up at me from where he'd been stood at the bottom of the stairs. His face was utterly awash with adoration and what made it all the more perfect was that it was all for me.

As I reached the bottom, he immediately wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me into him. I felt his whole body relax as I laced my arms around his neck. "You look absolutely breathtaking." He whispered.

"You don't look too bad yourself" I replied, pulling away slightly so I could get a better look at him, as usual, he didn't disappoint.

His hair was perfectly dishevelled, and his jaw was covered in a light stubble. He wore a white dress shirt and suit trousers that'd apparently been a tailored fit as they fit him perfectly. "Are you ready to go?" he asked, breaking me out of my trance.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I replied, and after a calling out a quick goodbye to Ricky we made our way to the car.

My first date with Hayden Williams had officially begun.

A/N

Chapter 18 will be divided up into two parts as I didn't want it to feel as if the whole chapter was dragging by placing everything into one large update.

I will be continuing on with this chapter today and will hopefully have the second part up by the end of the week.

Remember to vote and comment your support means the world to me ❤️