Dinner was better than expected. I had never been to this restaurant, probably because it was one of the more expensive restaurants in town. Everyone knew that it was owned by woods people, but the food was good enough to ignore the rivalry. Baxter was excellent as well. Usually, when I have a first date, it is awkward, but with him, the conversation never stalled. He always knew how to keep me comfortable. He never broached conversations that I didn't want to talk about. It was like he was reading my mind, and I loved it. The only awkward part of the conversation was when we were talking about pets. I told him that I am a cat person and that I was scared of dogs, and he was despondent, but he explained that he wanted several but understood. Seeing his sadness that I was afraid of dogs made me want to make him feel better and bring a smile that I caused to his face, so impulsively, I said that I could learn to like dogs; I just needed to be exposed to friendly ones. Immediately, just like I hoped, his smile returned, and he started talking about me meeting them and how he hoped I would become a dog person. I'm unsure about it, but I would try to make him this happy. 

I had assumed from how important his job was that his phone would go off during our dinner, but it was mine. I was in a group chat with the secretaries and other guidance counselors, and it started blowing up during the desert. Apparently, Sally saw me with Baxter as she was stopped at a red light outside the restaurant, and now everyone knew. I had already known that she had a crush on him, but she was happily married and was just playing around pretending to be jealous. It was Hannah who was the real problem. She hated the Avery family and the woods people. Her texts were straight-up aggressive, saying that I was hiding it from her and doing it to upset her. She had told me that she blames the Avery family for the loss of her aunt, but I didn't realize what a problem this would be for our friendship. 

Baxter noticed my abrupt change in mood and asked me what was wrong. But I simply turned my phone on silent and smiled at him and the milkshake before me. My smile was strained because I wanted to look at my phone to know what they were saying or so I could defend myself. I resisted and focused on Baxter.

"how long have you lived in this area?" He asked. I tore my gaze from my phone and locked eyes with his. 

"my whole life. I remember playing by the woods when I was little, and I went to the public school," I answered. 

"It is crazy that I have never met you. I mean, this town isn't that big," he laughed. 

"Well, I don't go out much more of a homebody." 

"I wish I could stay at home too, but with all the work that goes on in the community and all the community events, I'm always in the office or out and about," 

"oh wow, that must be a lot, but at least when you are done, you can go home and relax no matter how fleeting." 

"Well, my place is bare bones. I need to work on fixing it up, but it is an apartment, so part of me wants to wait to get comfortable in a house." 

"Well, you can be comfortable in either if you try." 

"Maybe you could help me make my place more comfortable." 

"I would need to get to know you first." I blushed so hard at his tone. "so I know what you like."

"I like you, so I will probably do whatever you like." 

"I'm serious. You probably like manly things. I don't know the first thing about that."

"We are talking about extra touches to make the place more comfortable, not a total rehaul. Everything will be fine." He leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss like we had done it a million times as if it was the most natural thing in the world that we would kiss. Of course, my mind turned to complete jelly. I don't remember what happened next, but soon, we left the restaurant. 

"I should go home," I said outside the restaurant. 

"if you want to, did I make you uncomfortable I didn't mean to?" He reached for my hand but hesitated 

"you didn't make me uncomfortable."

"Good because I wanted to kiss you, so I did, and I want to do it again." With a slight nod, he leaned in and kissed me again.