While they ate their sundae and afterwards during the drive to her "big surprise", Abby was quiet, thinking about the words her date had said. "Any type of touching is good. And if you compliment me."
With his words in mind, Abby thought about ways to break her habits of keeping him at bay. So far she had always swallowed all the compliments she'd wanted to give him and their points of contact were rare, because she'd never wanted to give him the wrong impresson. Now that she actually wanted to flirt with him, she had to change that. Only so far, she had no idea how because she'd fallen into such a habit. She considered making up a few compliments she could drop during the rest of the day as practice, but shoved the idea aside again a moment later, knowing that compliments that simply slipped out were more honest and actually was Connor had wanted.
So she would stick to the touches for now. Her heartbeat increased a little as she reached out to place her hand on Connor's which was lying on the gearstick. Connor glanced at her quickly and squeezed her hand gently, caressing the back of her hand with his thumb.
Abby's eyes widened and a broad smile appeared on her face when she saw that Connor had chosen a roller rink for the second half of their date. Brimming over with excitement, Abby got out of the car and took Connor's hand. She pulled him after her towards the entrance. "I can't believe you choose this place!"
Fondest childhood memories came floating back to her while she waited for Connor to pay the fee memories she had long forgotten about. But before the emotions overcame her, Connor was by her side again. Together they sat down on a bench and watched the other skaters whizz by while they tied up their skates.
Abby was ready to go first as Connor still fumbling with the laces. "Do you need help, Con?" the blonde chuckled.
"No." Then a soft red hue covered his face and he looked up. "Abs, I've never been skating before," He admitted quietly, feeling unsure all of the sudden.
"Well, I can show you, it's not hard and you can hold on to my hand," Abby offered with a wink.
She waited for Connor to finish lacing up and then took his hands and pulled him to his feet. Slowly Abby started to glide backwards while holding onto both his hands to help him to balance. It didn't take long until Connor was able to shakily skate alone. Abby dropped his hands and saw the disappointment flash in his eyes when they lost contact. Her first reaction was to ignore it, but that wouldn't get her anywhere. Instead she swiftly skated closer and linked arms with him, surprising him with her action and causing him to lose his balance. In order to steady himself, Connor grabbed her arm, catching her off guard too. Before they knew what was happening, they found themselves lying on the floor, Abby on top of Connor, her head buried in the crook of his neck. Abby couldn't move, she was laughing too hard. She was sure they made a funny picture for the other skaters, and the mental image caused another fit of laughter to escape her. Eventually though, her laughter turned into giggles the subsided a few moments later, when she noticed an unusual scent. She took another sniff and pushed herself away from Connor so that she could see him better. "You smell good."
Connor's face lit up a bit, "Thanks Abs, I borrowed your shampoo. Figured you must like the smell since you was the one who bought it."
Abby burst out laughing, "Oh, Con, you are one of a kind, aren't you? But I didn't mean that, though now that you mention it, your hair smells good too. Something else. You've got cologne on."
"Oh," Connor blushed as he remembered, "Yeah, that too. Forgot I put it on I did, so I guess I didn't really need to confess to the shampoo thing then."
Abby chuckled as she climbed up off the ground and reached for his hand to help pull him up with her. It took a few tries for him to get back onto his feet, but the happy look in Abby's eyes as she giggled at him made it so worth it. "So," he asked casually as he finally made it into a standing position. "That 'one of a kind' comment, was that a good thing, or a bad thing?"
"Good of course! I wouldn't date you if it was bad now, would I?"
"Good," Connor grinned and then quickly dared to kiss her cheek. He was rewarded by Abby beaming up at him.
After that they fell silent for a bit again as they skated, Abby lost in her thoughts and Connor concentrating desperately on his feet while he wobbled along beside her clutching tightly to her hand. He was doing alright though, despite the slight wobble, and they both knew he could get by now without holding onto her if he wanted to. Soon he was able to relax and just enjoy the disco-like atmosphere. It was fun and new for him, not just the activity but the idea that he and Abby could possibly end up in a relationship for real, provided she was having as much fun as he was.
He glanced around at the other people on the rink to see if anyone had noticed that he was holding hands with the prettiest girl in the place. To his disappointment, no one was really paying them any attention. He was sort of hoping that he could show her off a bit. He wondered how Abby felt about it being known that they were on a date and suddenly he asked her, "Did you tell Sarah we were going a date?"
Abby nodded, "Yeah, why? Is that okay?"
Connor grinned at her as they turned the corner and he stumbled into the boards. "Yeah, better than okay. I thought maybe you'd be too embarrassed of me and want to keep it a secret."
Abby stopped dead in her tracks. His comment hurt her, but really she couldn't blame him for thinking like that. I was definitely time to clear a few things up. Slowly she turned to him knitting her brows together as she caught his eye and held his gaze, decreasing the distance between them. Then she placed her hands on either side of Connor on the boards, caging him in. "I'll tell you a secret," Abby whispered. "Never was embarrassed of you. Sorry I made you believe that." For a second she wanted to kiss him, but changed her mind. Secretly she hoped that Connor would kiss her at the end of this date so instead she just wrapped her arms around him tightly.
Connor let go of the boards, with one hand, and wrapped that arm back around Abby. He wanted to hold onto her with both hands, but their closeness was making him feel a teeny bit weak at the knees and he already couldn't skate very well, so he kept one hand gripping tight to the low wall behind them. Abby didn't appear to mind (or notice) though.
"Abs," he asked tentatively, not wanting to ruin the moment but having to know, "Why did you make me think that then?"
"I didn't mean to, Con," she responded immediately. "It was the result of me pushing you away all the time. I wasn't ready to get close to someone, not like me and you are, and so I did what I had to to keep you at arm's length."
"And you're ready now?"
Abby smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I really think I am." Then broke away from the embrace with a sly smile on her lips. "I hope you don't mind that?"
Connor's eyes widened at the unexpected question. "No, 'course not Abs."
She winked at him and replied, "Good to know," before skating off. A few meters away, she turned around effortless to skate backwards. "Come on, Con, we don't want to waste all our time standing at the boards, do we?"
After a few fast laps on her own, she fell back into pace beside him, taking his hand again. "And what are our plans for the rest of the day?" she asked, not wanting the date to end. She hoped that this subtle question would give Connor enough of a hint to figure that out.
Connor frowned. He hadn't really had anything else planned, but he definitely wanted to continue their date longer. He tried desperately to think up something on the spot and, as he did, his concentration left his feet again and he found himself sitting on his bottom. "Ow," he groaned. Abby laughed and helped him back up and he used the distraction to think of something as he pretended to brush off his trousers and acted like he'd forgotten the question for a moment.
Once they were skating again, Abby turned to him. "Well? You never did answer, Con. What are we doing after this?"
This time he was able to grin at her. "Well, it sorta depends how long you wanna skate for, Abs. If it's still light outside, I was thinking we'd go for a walk in the park. But if it's dark already we could head to the pub and get some wings for dinner and do a bit of dancing. Either way though, I don't want to be out toooo late because I was thinking that cuddling on the couch tonight sounded about perfect."
"Cuddling on the couch?" Abby wore a doubtful expression, her tone matching it, but her eyes were dancing in delight. Still, for a moment, Connor wondered if maybe he'd pushed his luck too far.
"Sounds good." Abby's words were his relief. "I like the idea of the walk, though too. Maybe we could pick up some take-away on our way," She suggested. "Though the dancing sounds fun, it'd be too much for one date I think. We could add it to our list of activities for our future dates."
"Future dates?" The words didn't come out quite how Connor had imagined them, his tone letting out almost a negative vibe due to the fact that he had nearly stumbled over his feet again in surprise. He caught his balance in time to see the worry in Abby's eyes when he faced her.
"Yes, I thought after today, we maybe would go on more dates?" A fine note of insecurity resonated in her voice. He knew she was watching his reaction carefully, and he was aware that she would quickly build up the walls around her if she thought that she might get hurt, but he also knew he wasn't about to give her the chance to do that.
"I'd love that, Abs, and I love the idea of such an activity list." For a second he was tempted to scoop her into his arms, but he knew the result would be them both lying on the floor again, so instead he skated closer to her and kissed her forehead. "I would really love that."
