Dear Diary,

First dates are usually always nerve wrecking, but with him I've never felt so at ease...

I woke up bright and early Sunday morning. The sweet sound of birds singing to one another greeted me as I opened my curtains. I was anticipating my lunch date with Sal later on. Got anxious just thinking about it. After reading my Bible and praying for a little bit; I showered, brushed my teeth, and then made my way to the kitchen to fix myself breakfast. Wanting not to eat anything heavy and to save my appetite for later; I decided to scramble up some eggs, butter up a slice of toast, and drink some orange juice. It didn't fill me up, but it did kill the hunger pain. My cell phone went off as I was washing my dishes. My face lit up after seeing the call was from Sal.

"Good morning!" I answered in greeting.

"Good morning cutie," said Sal on the other end. "You just waking up?"

me: "No I've been up for about two hours now."

Sal: "Really? Well I see you're an early bird. I'm just now getting up myself."

*he yawns in the background*

Sal: "Excuse me. Sorry about that."

me: "No worries."

Sal: "Do you have any particular taste in cuisine? Here we're known for our diversity in food. We have your typical American food of course, but we also have: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Chinese, Japanese, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Italian, Greek, Indian, Jamaican, German, Thai, Polynesian...basically all you have to do is name any country in the world, and we have a restaurant that serves nothing but food from that particular country."

me: "Wow, so many choices! I'm always up for something new. I'll let you surprise me."

Sal: "Ok I'll surprise you then. I love surprising any lucky lady of mine. Well look here I'm going to let you rest up for our date later on, and in the meantime I'm going to finish waking myself up. I'll swing by your place and pick you up around 1:00. Is that okay?"

me:"Yeah, that's perfectly fine! See you then!

Sal: "Alright. Bye."

The call ended, and I was standing in the middle of the kitchen squealing away. I couldn't wait to spend time with Sal.

"Let me guess that was Sal wasn't it?" asked Bree, walking to the fridge.

"Yep!" I said.

She poured herself a bowl of cereal.

"So where are you two lovebirds going for lunch?" she asked.

"We're not lovebirds Bree," I told her.

"As of yet," she emphasized.

I giggled a little.

"Anyway I told him to surprise me," I said. "So where we're going I have no clue."

I hurried and changed the subject.

"Enough about me. What's your plans for today?" I asked.

"I'm hitting the gym today and might even treat myself to a movie," said Bree. "There's this new comedy flick that has been out for awhile that I've been dying to see."

"What's the name of it?" I asked.

"Can't really recall the name of it right now, but Will Ferrell stars in it," informed Bree.

"With him in it you know that's going to be a good movie," I said.

"I know right!" agreed Bree.

Bree was already gone around the time 1:00 came around. It was already a little after 1 pm, and I was expecting Sal to arrive at anytime now. I was applying on lip gloss when there was a knocking at the door. Being already as nervous as I was; I jumped. I walked over to the door and looked out the peek hole. Sure enough it was Sal! I took a deep breath and opened the door.

"Hi!" I greeted.

"Hi Tori," greeted Sal. He hugged me.

"Sorry for being a little late."

He pulled out some flowers he had hidden from behind him.

"These are for you."

I accepted the flowers from him. "They're beautiful," I said.

I also smelled them.

"Smells good too. Thank you so much."

"My pleasure," said Sal. "Ready to head out?"

"Yes," I said. "Let me just put these in some water and grab my purse."

I filled a tall glass with some water and placed the flowers in. Then I grabbed my purse and began my date with Sal.

"Wow this food is really good," I said.

Sal and I were sitting inside a Mediterranean restaurant eating lunch.

"Figured you might like it," said Sal. "It's like your standard seafood, but up a notch."

"Yeah," I agreed.

I had ordered Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta, while Sal had ordered Beef stuffed Zucchinis with a side salad.

"So what made you decide to move out here?" asked Sal.

"My dreams!" I told him. "Figured if I wanted to model I would need to get out of my town. There weren't many opportunities for anything there."

"Sorry to hear that," said Sal.

"It's all good," I said.

"Have you had any luck with your modeling since being here?" he asked.

"Outside of auditioning, but then getting turned down for America's Next Top Model I've had nothing," I said.

"Their loss," said Sal. "With a cute face like yours they don't know what they're missing."

I couldn't help but to blush.

"What do you like to do in your spare time?" he asked.

"Well I would say reading is what I like to do best," I said. "If left undisturbed I could read through a whole 300 page book in about 6-8 hours. I've done it before."

"I'm impressed!" said Sal. "You must really love to read."

I smiled.

"For me in my spare time; I like to clean," said Sal.

A wide grin appeared on my face.

"Laugh if you want to, but I'm a total neat freak. Everything, and I mean everything has to be organized in my house."

"Nothing wrong with that," I said. "I hate clutter too. I swear it annoys me everytime my friend just leaves her dishes in the sink without washing, or when she doesn't put stuff back after she uses them. It's so annoying!"

"I know right?" said Sal. "With clutter comes germs, and germs are just ugh!"

"You hit the nail right on the head!" I exclaimed.

Sal and I took a sip of our drinks staring into each other's eyes. I knew then that him and I were going to get along just fine. Good to know I wasn't the only germophobe around here.

After lunch, Sal and I went mini-golfing. We had a fun time. I totally kicked his butt in it! Later we took a nice and quiet stroll in Central Park getting to know each other more.

"Such a lovely evening isn't it?" asked Sal.

"Yeah it really is," I agreed. "I had a nice time with you by the way."

"I had a nice time with you too," said Sal. "We're definitely going on another date soon."

"Fine with me," I said smiling.

We walked back to his car, so he could take me back home. The car ride was awkwardly quiet. Maybe because we talked so much during our date that we didn't have anything else to talk about.

"Well here I am back at the old homestead," I said as Sal pulled up in front of the apartment building.

I wanted to bite my tongue so hard after realizing how country girl I sounded. Luckily Sal didn't seem to notice, nor care.

"Yep," said Sal. "Need me to walk you inside, or are you ok?"

"I think I'll be ok," I said. "Thanks for the offer though."

He grinned and nodded his head.

I didn't realize how much of a gentleman Sal was. That scores major brownie points to go along with his attractiveness!

We were staring into each other's eyes and without realizing it our faces were moving closer and closer to each other too. My heart had to have been racing 1000 miles a minute, but then I remembered an important golden rule that has been passed down woman to woman in my family for generations; and that rule was to NEVER kiss a guy on the lips after a first date.

Before Sal's lips touched mine; I quickly turned my face so he could kiss my left cheek instead.

"Sorry!" I said. "I just don't believe in lip to lip kissing on the first date! I explained. "Please don't be mad!"

"No problem. I respect your wishes," said Sal. "But next date those lips are all mine!"

"Deal," I said.

We both laughed.

"Alright, Tori you have a nice night," said Sal as he unlocked the car door. "I'll text you probably sometime tomorrow."

"Ok," I said. "Bye Sal. Drive safely."

Sal didn't take off until after he saw I made it indoors safely. I took the elevator up to me and Bree's 3rd floor apartment. I had my key out about to let myself inside, but there was no need for that, because as soon as I got to the door Bree yanked it open and pulled me inside.

"Um thanks?" I said.

Wasn't long before she started bombarding me with questions.

"So how did it go?" she asked. "What all did you do? I saw you two outside in his car when he dropped you off. Did ya'll kiss or make out? You have to tell me everything!"

"Bree trust me...if him and I had made out I'd still be with him in his car doing just that instead of being inside here with you and your crazy self!" I said jokingly.

"Very funny," said Bree rolling her eyes.

"No seriously though he kissed me on the cheek and that was it," I told her. "We almost kissed on the lips, and believe me I wanted to! But you know how traditional I am."

"Yeah no duh!" said Bree.

"We also went to a Mediterranean restaurant for lunch, went mini-golfing, and finished our date with a romantic walk in Central Park," I said.

"Mediterranean food?" asked Bree. "Yuck!"

"It's actually really good! I persuaded her. "Next time we have a girls day out I'm taking you there so you can try the food."

I took off my shoes and rested my feet on the couch.

"How was the movie you treated yourself to?" I asked.

"Freakin hilarious!" said Bree. "There were some parts that had me laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes."

The rest of the evening/night was filled with me listening to Bree chitter chatter.