I've been waiting all my life
and now I found you
I don't know what to do
I think I'm fallin' for you
I'm fallin' for you

She stood in front of the mirror and asked the same question she'd been asking herself for the last thirty minutes. "Haley James, what the hell are you doing?"

"Haley James, what the hell are you doing?" Haley turned around to see Brooke come busting through the doors. "Nathan is going to be here in fifteen minutes and you're not even dressed!"

"I, um…"

Brooke saw the look of fear and hesitancy on Haley's face. "No. No backing out. You're going to put on this dress, and you're going to look hot, and you're going to go on a date with one of the sexiest men I've ever seen."

Well, who could resist when she put it like that? Besides, it didn't sound like Brooke was giving her much of a say in the matter. "Alright, alright, I'll be right back." Haley took the dress that was hanging on the door of her closet and went into the bathroom to put it on. Brooke had seriously outdone herself on this one. It wasn't too complex; a black one-shoulder dress that came in around the waist and then fell loosely down almost to her knees. But there was an elegance in the simplicity of this dress that Haley had never felt before. She took a breath and opened the door. Brooke jumped up off the bed the second she stepped back into the room.

"You look gorgeous, if I do say so myself." Brooke took Haley's arm and pulled her over in front of the full-length mirror. "Now, what were you going to do with your hair?"

"I thought I would just pull it up-"

"No way." Brooke bent over to pick up a curling iron from the floor. Haley didn't remember that being there before…. "Let's see what we can do."

What felt like hours later Brooke stood back and took in her masterpiece. If Nathan hadn't been hooked before, he certainly was going to be after this date. While Haley messed around with the curls Brooke just created, Brooke went into the closet and picked out a pair of heels for Haley to wear. "What do you think about these?"

Haley's eyes bugged when she saw the size of the heels on those shoes. "I'm thinking I'll break my ankle walking two feet in those and then Nathan will have to carry me back."

Brooke gave her a wink and set the shoes on the floor so Haley could put them on. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Haley slipped on the heels and immediately felt taller. At least Nathan was pretty tall too and she wouldn't be towering over him. Just as she was getting her coat from a hanger in her closet she heard someone knock at the door. Before she could say anything Brooke was out the door in a flash. "I'll get it!" she yelled, as if she was going to have to fight someone to be the first to open the door.

With one last look in the mirror Haley grabbed her clutch from her bed and went out in the hallway. As she approached she could hear Brooke going on about the dress she made and how Nathan wouldn't be disappointed. And the look on Nathan's face when she entered the foyer told her Brooke wasn't lying.

"Wow Haley, you look great." She watched as his eyes ran up and down her body. Normally when a guy did that she'd be mad, but she had no problem at all with Nathan looking at her like that. In fact, she wanted him too.

"Thanks."

Nathan had been standing with his hands clasped behind his back, but when he brought them forward she saw a flower in his hands. "I know this might be kind of old-fashioned, but…"

Haley smiled. "It's beautiful." She reached out and took the flower from Nathan. It was a single red rose with a white ribbon tied around the stem. "I love it. Thank you." She stood there totally lost in the moment with Nathan that she almost forgot Brooke was standing behind her, and apparently she'd brought her camera.

"Alright you two, picture time."

Haley turned to give her a friendly glare. "Brooke, that's not necessary."

"Oh come on Haley, you know I always take pictures of people wearing my designs. It has absolutely nothing to do with you, I promise."

Haley knew that was a load of crap, but didn't push it. No matter how much she argued, there was no way Brooke was backing down. She set the flower on the table and walked over to pose with Nathan. He slipped an arm around her back and she did the same. Their posing made her flashback to all the prom pictures she'd taken with Dean during high school. Shuddering, she pushed those memories back where they came from and smiled.

About ten pictures later Brooke was finally satisfied with their photo. She set down her camera and walked over to the door to see the two out. "I expect you to have her home no earlier than midnight, Nathan."

Nathan looked back up from the sidewalk. "You have my word."

After a few failed attempts they were finally able to get a taxi. Nathan held the door for Haley to get in, and after going around to the other side to get in he gave the driver the address of their restaurant and they were on their way.

The conversation on the way to the restaurant wasn't too deep. Haley had never felt comfortable having serious conversations in cabs with the driver more than likely listening in, and luckily Nathan felt the same way. So they kept it pretty impersonal, just the general "how have things been going?" and such.

Fortunately the restaurant wasn't too far. Upon their arrival Nathan jumped out of his side to help Haley out of hers. As he was paying the driver Haley took the chance to admire the new french restaurant. It had opened a few weeks ago, and she'd been extremely surprised that they were willing to help out with her afterschool program. Haley knew this was a restaurant she'd never be able to afford and she never dreamed that she'd be here on a date with Nathan using the restaurant's auction donation, so the whole experience was kind of surreal for her. She was pulled from her thoughts when Nathan came up behind her.

"Ready?"

Haley nodded and they walked into the restaurant. They gave their coats to a gentleman and followed the hostess to their table. As they walked through the restaurant Haley noticed the lack of people at the tables. In fact, the only table that was set was the one their hostess led them to. She set their menus on the table and waited for them to be seated so she could take their drink orders.

"Do you like wine?" Nathan asked Haley. With her approval Nathan turned to the hostess and ordered some fancy type of wine Haley had never heard of. Once the woman was gone she leaned across the table to whisper to Nathan.

"Does this place look kind of empty to you?"

Nathan took in the room. "I suppose so."

Haley didn't understand why he wasn't as confused as her. "This is the newest, most romantic place in town. There's no way people wouldn't be here."

As Nathan was about to answer their waitress came by with their drinks. Once she left Nathan leaned back across the table. "Well, I kind of asked the restaurant to not let anyone else eat here tonight so that we could have some time alone."

One of Haley's eyebrows rose in question. "You 'asked'?"

Nathan smiled. "Yes. Very, very nicely." Once he said this Nathan started to look like he was beginning to regret this. "I hope it doesn't seem too creepy or anything."

Just the opposite, actually Haley thought. "No, it's not. It's kind of nice." She smiled and saw Nathan relax. He smiled back and looked down to read his menu. After a few minutes of silence Nathan looked back up.

"Uh, do you know how to read-"

"-French?" Haley laughed. "I think I know enough for us to order something." She and Nathan were able to decipher the foreign language and find something they liked. As if sensing their readiness the waitress came to their table to take their order. It might've been Haley's imagination but the waitress looked a little too eager to take Nathan's order. She pushed the thought away, not even wanting to appear jealous to herself, and placed her order.

After the waitress had left Haley took a sip of her wine. She set the glass down and sat back in her seat, looking around at the décor of the room. When she got back to Nathan she found him staring at her. Self-consciously she wiped her face, afraid she had something on it. "What?"

Her question seemed to pull him from some kind of deep thought. "Oh nothing, it's just, you look really beautiful tonight."

Haley felt her cheeks get extremely hot. She smiled and looked down, not sure how much redder her cheeks could get if she looked at him. "Thanks."

The rest of their dinner went smoothly. A few more times Haley had to convince herself that their waitress was just extremely helpful and not trying to make a pass at Nathan at all. Of course Haley knew this was completely wrong.

After Nathan paid the check they left the restaurant. She couldn't help but notice as all the cooks, waitresses and other staff came up to the front window to watch them leave. But Nathan didn't seem to see and they started walking until they found themselves in Central Park. The night was pretty cold so she wrapped her coat tighter and walked closer to Nathan, pleased that he didn't seem to mind. Haley stopped for a minute to adjust the heels on her feet. She was so going to kill Brooke when she got back.

"Are you ok?"

Haley looked up to see Nathan looking at her, trying to figure out what was wrong. "Yeah, it's just these stupid shoes Brooke picked out. They're killing my feet."

"Oh, well we can't have that." Nathan looked around the park. "I'll be right back."

Haley watched as he went down the sidewalk to talk to one of the carriage drivers. After some talking the two men shook hands and Nathan made his way back. "Do you think you can make it down to that carriage?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well you said it hurts to walk, and since I can't take you home yet without Brooke killing me, we can just ride around in here for a bit." When they reached the carriage Nathan held out a hand to help Haley up.

"Really? Nathan these things are so cheesy." She took his hand and made her way up the little ladder.

Nathan took the hand holding hers and brought it to his lips, placing a kiss on the back of her hand. "Maybe so, but they can also be quite romantic."

Haley turned quickly so he wouldn't see her blush. She felt extremely touched at his worry for her care. She sat down and scooted so Nathan could sit beside her. She watched as he climbed up and took the seat next to her.

The driver turned around as he got the horses going. "So what are we celebrating tonight?"

Nathan smiled at Haley. "Uh, first date."

The old man laughed silently to himself. "First date huh? Well then I've got the perfect place for ya. You folks just sit back. There's a blanket under the seat if ya get cold."

Nathan got the blanket out and spread it across their laps, then wrapped his arm around Haley to keep her warm. She let herself lean into him. "Thanks."

He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Of course."

"So, how's your team doing?"

Nathan looked at her questioningly. "I thought you didn't follow sports."

I don't follow sports, I follow you. "Oh, I just saw something in the paper about your team. You won a game right?"

He laughed. "Yeah, we've won our last few actually. But our season just started. We've still got a few months."

"Wow, you must really like basketball to play it so much."

"Oh I love playing basketball. But the truth is, I don't really know life without basketball. My dad signed me up for my first little league team when I was four and I've been playing ever since."

"Your dad sounds like he was really supportive of your career." Nathan laughed at that and she looked up at him. "What?"

"Well, my dad wasn't exactly the 'supportive' type. He played in high school too, so it was always him telling me I'd never be as good as him if I took a day off from practice or didn't lift every morning before school. But I can't be mad. If he hadn't introduced me to basketball I never would've had a way to get away from life and school and just be myself."

Haley leaned her head on Nathan's shoulder, pleased when he rested his head on hers in return. "It's always good to have something to do that you love, no matter how you get it I guess."

"Yeah. What about you? Did your parents support your music?"

"Well they dragged me to piano lessons until I graduated high school so I suppose so. But like you said, I'm glad they did. I guess they saw my love for music before I did."

"So where did the guitar playing come from?"

"When I was a senior in high school my grandfather passed away. And when we were cleaning out some of his things I found one of my uncle's old guitars in the attic. I took it home and started messing around with it. I guess that's when I really discovered how much I loved music and when I got to college I knew I wanted to take it more seriously, so I decided to study it."

"And you said you almost made it big?"

"Yeah. Instead of spending my freshman year finding all the cool parties I spent a lot of time in the practice rooms in the music hall. There was another guy, Chris, who liked to hang out there too. So we started working on some stuff together and it actually turned out pretty good. Our junior year we had a band come to campus for a concert and we got the opportunity to open for them. After the concert they told us if we recorded a few songs and sent them to their label they'd get some people to listen and we would have a good chance at getting an offer."

"Wow, that must've been pretty exciting."

"It was for Chris. He wanted to go for it, but I told him I wanted to graduate first before doing anything. I guess he felt like he could make it without me because after a few weeks when I still wouldn't change my mind he left for the city and I haven't seen him since."

"Well that makes it sound like you guys were more than just friends."

"Uh, I guess somewhere in there we kind of started going out. Actually, I'm really not even sure I know exactly when it happened. It was just one of those things. We'd made a few plans for after college, nothing too big, just where'd we go and how we could try to get some sort of music career going. But given the fact that he was packed and gone that quick, I guess he wasn't really planning on too much." How had they suddenly found themselves wrapped up in her past? She hadn't told hardly anyone these things before, and she was telling Nathan on their first technical date?

Nathan gave her a gentle squeeze with the arm he had wrapped around her. "So do you regret it? Not going I mean."

"Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I'd gone with him and tried to make an album and what that could've led to, but I really do love teaching music to kids and showing them the incredible things it can to do their lives if they let it. To me that's the most rewarding thing I could ever do with music. So I guess not." Haley let out a small laugh. "Though I do admit sometimes Brooke makes me wish I had my own apartment."

Nathan laughed with her and was about to inquire further when their driver stopped the carriage. They both looked out to see where they were. Through the darkness Haley thought she saw a small pond with some benches around it and behind it where some buildings signaling where the park boundary was.

Nathan hopped out and quickly offered up a hand to help Haley down. She was almost positive she could've made it down herself, but she found herself looking for opportunities so she could hold hands with Nathan. When she was safely down she saw Nathan turn back up to the driver to inquire their price but the old man just shook his head and smiled.

"This one's on me. You kids have fun." He gave them a wink and before they knew it he was gone.

Nathan turned and, to Haley's extreme pleasure, offered her his arm. "Care for a walk in the park Ms. James?"

God she loved how poetic he made her name sound. Haley smiled and took his arm. "It would be my pleasure Mr. Scott." He smiled back as she played along with his little game and they started to make their way down the sidewalk. After a few minutes they found themselves crossing a bridge looking out over the pond. Haley marveled at how the buildings lit up and their lights played across the pond.

"Where do the ducks go in the winter?"

Haley turned to Nathan. "What?"

His head popped up like she'd pulled him from a thought. "Where do the ducks go in the winter? It's from-"

"-The Catcher In The Rye. You've actually read it?"

Nathan laughed. "I'm pretty sure every high school student in America has to read that book at some point while they're in school."

"I suppose that's true. I've just never heard anyone quote it before."

"Well I don't know where you went to school, but some of us athletes do actually like to read something besides the paper every now and then. And having a brother who's a writer and quotes books all the time can help too."

Haley started to feel a little foolish. "I didn't mean to sound mean or anything. Sorry."

He smiled. "Don't worry about it."

She smiled back and was about to say something when something white fell on his coat. She and Nathan looked up and sure enough, it was starting to snow. She quickly closed her eyes and made her wish.

"What are you doing?"

Haley opened her eyes and saw Nathan looked at her with a questioning look on his face. "I'm making a wish."

"Why?"

"When my sisters and I were little, whenever there was the first snowfall of the year my mom would have us all run outside to watch. Then she'd have us make a wish. I know, it's silly and doesn't really doesn't make any sense, but I've done it for as long as I can remember. I guess it's just a habit."

"It's not silly. That's nice you had a mom like that." Nathan looked up at the snow falling around them. "My mom never really did anything like that."

"You should do it too."

He looked back down. "Make a wish?" Haley nodded. "Alright."

She laughed as he squeezed his eyes shut real tight, causing his nose to scrunch up too. He was probably making fun of her, but she didn't really care. After a bit he opened his eyes. "Done."

Haley smiled. Dean and Chris had always made fun of her childish ritual for the first snowfall of the year. The fact that Nathan was willing to go along with it meant a lot. Probably more than he realized. Just then a sharp breeze blew through and she shivered, Nathan noticing.

"I guess we should get back before we freeze to death." He wrapped an arm around her and they started walking towards the street. This time they were more successful at getting a cab. Their conversation this time was more relaxed than it had been at the beginning of the evening. At one point Nathan reached over to take one of her hands and she felt her stomach flip upside down.

To her dismay the drive back to her apartment didn't take as long as she was hoping it would. She started to get out the door as Nathan got out of his side and they walked up the steps to her door. "Thanks again for everything. I had a really great time tonight."

Nathan smiled. "Well thanks for going with me. I was right, you look way better in that dress than Luke would've." They both laughed. "So, um, call I call you sometime?"

You'd better. She held her hand out for his phone, which he gave her. She put in her number and handed it back. "I think Brooke might kill you if you don't."

"Well she won't have to worry about that." He laughed as he put his phone back in his pocket, then glanced back at the cab waiting for him at the curb. "I guess I should get going."

Haley nodded. He looked at her, asking with his eyes what he was afraid to ask outloud. She knew he got her answer when he stepped closer and gently pressed his lips to hers. This feeling of familiarity washed over her and she was starting to remember why it had been so easy to invite him in last time. But this was different. Haley lost track of everything until he pulled back.

She smiled. "For the first time that I can remember, my wish came true."

"What do you mean?"

Haley felt a little blush creep into her cheeks but she didn't look away this time. "I kinda wished for you to kiss me."

Nathan smiled. "Well I was certainly happy to oblige." He opened her door for her to walk in. "I guess I'll, uh, talk to you later?"

"I hope so."

She was certain the smile on Nathan's face matched hers as he started back down the steps. Haley shut the door and locked it. She stood there for a minute, reliving all the memories of the night. Her reminiscing was cut short when her cell phone started ringing. She pulled it out but didn't recognize the number. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me."

"Nathan?" Haley turned back to the door and looked out the peep hole. She saw Nathan standing at the bottom of the steps looking up at the door. "Did you forget something?"

"No, I just wanted to make sure I got the right number this time."

Haley laughed. "I guess I deserve that." Through the hole she could see Nathan's smile grow, probably glad she wasn't mad that he was already calling her.

"And I, uh, just wanted to tell you again how much I enjoyed tonight."

"I had a really good time too Nathan."

"Great. I guess I'll, um, talk to you tomorrow?"

Haley's heart jumped at the thought of Nathan calling her again. She was talking to him right now and already couldn't wait to hear his voice again. "That sounds great. Good night Nathan."

"Night Haley."

Haley watched as he hung up his phone and, with one last look at her door, he hopped back in the cab and drove off.

Yep, this one's definitely a keeper.

I've been waiting all my life
and now I found you
I don't know what to do
I think I'm fallin' for you
I'm fallin' for you

-Colbie Caillat, Fallin For You

A/N: I know, I totally fail at life for being so late with this. But studying for tests + end-of-semester projects + the flu + preparing for finals = absolutely no free time at all. I hope the length and totally cheesy Naley-ness of this chapter makes up for it! As always, I would absolutely love to hear what you think :) Thanks for reading!