Rising Shards

Prior to Stella, I always considered dates basically just hangouts. Not worth putting more thought into or fretting over. But with Stella, I already felt completely different. When she suggested we go somewhere on an afternoon date, we spent about five minutes sputtering at each other over analyzing the idea of a date, even though the little sleepover we had in LE we managed to classify officially as a date. And the time we went to the bookstore was a date. It was weird for us to get up in arms about how to classify dates and me freaking out about where to go, when Stella had already moved in with me and all that other fun business between us.

“I took a nap so I’m all energized!” Stella said. “I wanna do something. Go somewhere!”

“Anything coming to mind?” I asked. This was a pretty weak conversational follow up on my part, but I was weirdly anxious about the blanks I was drawing here. All I had for date ideas was the bookstore. I guess we could go back there, but I didn’t want to reveal to Stella how dim my imagination was for coming up with dates.

A movie maybe? Is there anything good playing? I have a feeling that’s a no for both of us.

“What do you consider a good date in winter?” Stella asked. I must’ve made a very dour expression as I contemplated because she quickly added, “Maybe you don’t have to answer that?”

“No, no,” I said. “I can, I just. I dunno. I can’t think of good winter specific ones. All I can think right now is picturing us wandering around a zoo together, but I dunno if there’s one nearby.”

“I can’t remember the last time I went to a zoo,” Stella said. “I always got very afraid Zeta would fall in one of the pits.”

“Ah, we don’t want that.” I said.

“We don’t, but don’t let that ruin zoos for you,” Stella said. “If you really want to go, I’m sure we could find one.”

“Eh,” I said. “I’m fine skipping that. Unless it’s a totally indoor zoo it’s probably too cold. You know though, there’s a really cool Cani science museum in a suburb to the north. That might be too geeky, and I guarantee I would majorly geek out there.”

“Is it open on Sundays?” Stella asked.

“I…am not sure.” I checked on my phone and sighed. “They close in like twelve minutes.”

“Aw,” Stella said. “Well, add that one to the list, I do really wanna hear you geek out there.”

“Heh,” I grinned, and Stella beamed back at me. “Want to eat out and maybe decide something on the way? Kind of a between lunch and dinner date?”

“That could work,” Stella said. “Thinking out loud, I know it’s an us thing we’re planning right now, but I wonder if Pippi’s free. I kind of want to show you off.”

“OK, that might be a fun date.” I said.

“You think?”

“It’d be good for my ego, at least.”

“Would hanging out with someone else step on big reward day?” Stella said. She frowned as though she’d suggested something that would really bum me out. I put my hands on her shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes.

“Stel. You had me for breakfast. We had that cute little cuddle session while I worked. I’m not so burnt out from yesterday that I can’t do a little hangout with your friend.”

“If you say so.” Stella started texting her friend, then looked at me and tilted her head to the side. “But…?” She recognized it before I could.

I could feel myself pouting, which was an odd sensation for me. I hugged her close, feeling a bit possessive. “As long as the evening is just us.”

“Deal.” Stella said.