Chapter 19 — Brie
Ryan and I leave our friends and go off on our own. I can feel the butterflies in my stomach. We get to Ryan’s bike, and we drive for about five minutes down the road from the mall. We pull into a Japanese restaurant. I smile. I love sushi. We walk in and get seated. We both order soda and place our food orders. It is all you can eat sushi for thirty bucks, so I’m pretty excited.
“I’m so glad you took me here. I haven’t had sushi in forever. It’s my favorite.”
“I know Bex told me about your love affair with sushi.” Ryan jokes with a grin on his face.
I laugh at his joke.
“You have no idea. I’ve eaten sushi for a month straight for lunch and dinner. I’m pretty sure Bex hated me during that month. We were staying with our grandma down south. She normally cooks, but her health hasn’t been so great lately. Anyway, when she wasn’t up for cooking, she would let us get takeout or go out to eat, and I’d always make Bex get sushi.”
Ryan laughs. “I can see Bex getting annoyed with you. He really hates repeating things. Like when we are jamming out, if we go over a song too many times Bex gets cranky, but I’m the moody one.” Ryan cracks another joke.
“Oh, that’s nothing you should have seen him when we were kids. He would get so annoyed if our parents read us the same bedtime story in the same week. His face would twist in disgust, you would have thought he was smelling something horrible.”
Ryan smiles, but then his mood shifts. He seems nervous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ryan nervous. Here I thought I’d be the nervous one and make a fool of myself. I guess even with his cool demeanor, Ryan gets nervous like the rest of us on a first date.
“Brie I got to be honest with you about something. My parents aren’t like your parents. Mine can’t stand each other. They’ve put a bad taste in my mouth for relationships. It’s why I’ve never had a girlfriend and in Emmy’s words I am a man whore. I don’t always play by the rules like a warlock should. I really like you, and I don’t want to scare you off by being an ass. I’ve never done this before. I don’t normally date girls, I just sleep with them.”
I take Ryan’s hands into mine.
“It’s okay. So, what you broke the rules about sex with only your soulmate, you aren’t the first, and you won’t be the last. I can’t say I’ve broken that rule myself but believe me I’ve broken a few rules here and there. I know everyone sees me as the good girl and maybe I am for the most part, but no one is perfect. We’ve all broken rules and made mistakes. I’ve never dated anyone either. This is my first date ever so believe me I have no idea what I’m doing either. Let’s just get to know each other. We both like each other, and right now that’s enough.”
I have no idea where the sudden burst of confidence comes from, but I'll take it. I tend to be shy around guys I like. Right now, I feel like our roles are reversed. He is the shy one and I am the confident one, normally it’s the other way around.
Ryan smiles and I can see him relax. We both enjoy dinner and talk about everything and anything. By the time we leave I’m filled with sushi. The drive back to the manor is nice. I like being on the bike.
Bex never takes me out on his. I’ve asked him dozens of times, but he never took me out. Now I’m on the back of Ryan’s bike, which is way better than being on the back of Bex’s bike.
By the time we get back to the manor it’s late, but everyone is hanging out in the main living room before we all head to bed. We have to train tomorrow. It was nice having two days off from operation save the world, but it didn’t last long. Tomorrow we are back to hard core training till Christmas.
Ryan walks me to my room. He kisses me goodnight on the lips, and I think I might fly. Ryan and I agree to take things slow since this is new for both of us. I’m not his girlfriend yet, but I have a feeling I will be soon.