After that incident, Elsa and Tyrone called me about a dozen times to apologize on Patrick's behalf. Neither of their apologies were satisfactory because I wanted one from Patrick himself. However, after that brief encounter, I had concluded that he wasn't the type of person to apologize. He seemed too egoistic to do so. I was also partially thankful for this since this meant I wouldn't have to see him again. That was the first time I'd met Elsa and Tyrone's friends. I wondered why they chose to befriend somebody like Patrick. 

Tyrone informed me that after I'd left the café that day, Elsa had given Patrick a mouthful. She told him that he had a lot to say for somebody who was named after Spongebob's sidekick. This warranted a laugh from me. I asked them to never make me meet any of their friends again and they agreed. I knew I'd be unable to avoid this on their wedding day, though.

I found myself thinking about dad and Aunt Delancey often. Their wedding was right around the corner. Dad would regularly send me selfies of them and the two of them looked so happy together. Aunt Delancey's stomach had gotten bigger. 

I also found myself thinking about Warren quite often. This morning in particular, he'd sent me an ambiguous text saying he wanted to see me. I didn't know if he wanted a picture of me or to see me in person so, just to be safe, I sent him a picture of myself. He found this endearing, his words not mine, but clarified that he meant he wanted to meet me. I was embarrassed. 

Elsa had asked if I wanted to come with her and Tyler to the beach since the weather called for a beach party.. with just the three of us. I politely declined and told her I'd promised Warren that I'd mee"t him later on that day. She pointed out how often Warren and I had been meeting the past few months and even said that he got to see me more often than they did. She said that I should've just spent Valentine's Day with him instead of spending it alone. She seemed happy for me. 

Warren had told me over the phone that he wanted to take me to a special location. I wondered if it was as special as that lake we had been to. I figured it wouldn't be. Nothing would beat the way I had felt that day. 

He said he would show up at 6pm. He said he'd show up to my place right after work. He kept his word and showed up at 6:00pm sharp. He did this quite often but every single time, it impressed me. He pulled up right in front of my place and lowered the window, shooting me a breathtaking smile. I felt weird again. I was getting nervous again. 

Ever since that day when he had offered to teach me how to kiss, I had begun to feel a lot stranger around him. Initially, it was just a stomachache and a pounding heart. Now, it was a stomachache, a pounding heart, clammy palms and difficulty breathing. It felt like I had asthma.. minus the wheezing. 

"What are you doing just standing there? Get in!"

I obliged and climbed into the car, staring at the road ahead of us, looking anywhere but at him. Once again, I was unusually aware of this eye contact problem I'd had for ages.

"How come you always show up at the right time?" I questioned. "You said you'd be here at six and voila, here you are."

He shrugged, "I just have this weird thing when it comes to time. We all have our weird things about something."

Weird things..

I thought about my weird thing with socks and colours and Kirby. I thought about Elsa's weird thing with nails. She'd always paint her nails to match the colour of her outfit. I thought about Tyrone's weird thing with durags and how he always wore the neon ones. We called him a highlighter for it but it didn't seem to faze him. 

"Where are you taking me?" I asked him once he was back on the road that seemed abnormally silent that day. Trees ran past us and I could feel the cold air against my skin as a result of the window being slightly open. 

"You'll see," he responded, shooting me a wink.