C19 One Situation after Another

Leila stood there, stunned. The date barely started and already she revealed that she wasn't an adult. She was internally panicking, trying to figure out what could possibly happen. Will he be angry with her that she lied? Will he be disgusted with her for trying to date an older man? She should've listened to herself instead of Tomi and forget this whole thing.

"What did you just say?" asked Dexter.

She didn't know what to answer, but considering the circumstance, she had no choice but to confess. She took a deep breath and said, "Sorry... about that..."

"So that's how it is," he said, rather coy, "well, you are 21, aren't you?"

Leila looked at him with utter surprise, "what you mean?"

"This is your first time moving away from your mom, isn't it? Even in college, your mom was still ordering you around, wasn't she? But now, you are an independent woman. You no longer have to do as she says, and yet, it probably feels strange to do so. You still feel like she is giving you orders as if you are still in high school."

Leila caught on, and replied, "oh... yeah.... that's right. That's it."

"Well, I don't blame your mother but they're all like that. Don't worry about her. Eventually, you'll learn to live without her and truly feel independent. You'll see."

"Yeah... sure..."

Eventually, they arrive at their destination, a movie theater. Leila gets off the car first and going around the car, helps Dexter out from the other side.

"I told you, I don't need help," he says.

"You should just accept help when offered."

He wanted to complain as everyone kept treating him like he was so fragile. But this time, he allowed it. There was something about his date that allowed him to just relax. Maybe it was that she was so close to him. He was being respectful and didn't want to feel like he was imposing upon her, but this opportunity to get so close to her while she held his arm felt warm and gentle. The only thing that would make this perfect is if she took off her sunglasses.

When all was clear, the car drives off, leaving them to enter the movie theater.

"You are not going to wear those during the movie are you?" he asks as he points to her sunglasses.

"Oh no. I'll take them off when we go into... the dark theater."

"Any reason why you are wearing them this late?"

"Well... my friend Tomi told me to wear them. Oh... I mean, just my friend, no one specific." She didn't know why she just stopped herself. He didn't know who Tomi was, but she was just so scared of being discovered that she just wanted no personal information released about herself.

"Don't you think you could see better without them?" he asks.

"Well, she told me to wear them because she didn't like my choice of clothes. Uh.... you like my clothes, right?"

"I think they're fine. I bit random, but I guess that's how young people dress," he laughs a bit. She also laughs but awkwardly, "the movie is about to start. We should get going."

"Sure," and they both start walking towards their auditorium. A man who was not looking where he was walking ends up bumping into them. This caused her sunglasses to fall into the ground. She quickly scrambles to pick them but so did he. It was on the ground where their eyes meet.