Winnie's POV
I've been having the oddest shift ever. Giving the wrong orders to different tables, bringing lemonade instead of ice tea, filling up salt shakers with garlic powder. It's been a bad day for tips with my head so out of it. Something has been bothering me all night, now all day.
Did I have a date with Embry Call?
There was something about having him cook for me. The way I was so disappointed in him leaving early, and wanted him to come back for some sort of do over, to get something right... I've haven't been able to stop thing about the way Embry asked me, the way he looked at me, the sound of his voice when he said "Let me make you dinner sometime."
Was that him asking me out on a date? Or am I allowing myself some teenage delusion?
"Hey Joel, how does a boy take a girl out on a date?" I ask to Joel's back as he grills onion rings from my spot on the stool in the kitchen. He lets out a loud laugh the second it comes out of my mouth, instantly making me want to curl into myself then die. I'd do anything to take it back, I hate that I can't.
"That's funny." He breathes, with a hand supporting his chest. Joel turns serious when he turns and sees the look on my face. "Oh, are you asking me to give you the talk about the birds and the bees?"
"No, Joel." I roll my eyes with a laugh. The Lodge's cook certainly knows how to end an awkward moment. Ever since I was fifteen years old I've avoided boys like they were a walking illness. It's ironic with my local reputation.
"So what made you ask? Did some prick something to you again?" Every once in a while a local comes in and loves to bring up my incident, they think it's hilarious running into the Res's infamous flasher where I have to serve them coffee and fries. They're usually nothing I can't handle, but it can get ugly.
"No," I shake my head, resting my elbow on my knees, not asking anymore questions.
Embry's POV
Winnie has been acting completely the same. As if the other night never happened. Every conversation since hasn't been any different than a last week. Just good mornings and how was work talks, short and simple.
If anything this date has been making me even more frustrated with our situation, I feel restless. I've going off on late night runs and shifting in the middle the day to run off how much I miss her, how much I want to be with Winnie.
"You have you're thinking face on again." Jacob lifts his head up from the hood of Winnie's bug, a streak of grease smeared across his forehead. "You asked me to make sure you don't think."
"Right..." I frown, which makes him groan. I came over to help work on Winnie's car to keep me from thinking about the dinner. It hasn't really worked.
"Okay, you need busy work. Go change the air filter." Jacob chucks a filter at me, sending me off to the passenger side to get to. We fall into a comfortable silence for all of a few minutes, before I stick my head back out the door.
"What if I did something wrong?" Jacob groans.
"Then she probably would be avoiding you." I almost point out she can't really avoid me if I'm driving her to and from work, though I bet Winnie would find a way how.
"Do you think I did something stupid?" I wonder, which makes Jacob rolls his eyes.
"No, I think you were an absolute gentlemen." Jacob wipes his hands on a nearby rag, knowing he won't get much work done with me.
"That sounds bad." So unsettled, I raise myself out of the buggie completely, resting my arms on the roof of the car. I'd go running but I have enough control not to go running out of Jacob's house.
"I dunno Embry, I've never been on a date with you." Jacob closes the hood, leaning against the bumper to listen to me vent. "But if I had to take a guess, maybe you're being too friendly. Maybe you're not making your intents too straightforward. Take it from me, I'm a professional at being friend zoned."
Despite Jacob not saying her name out loud, the entire garage fills up with Bella.
"With a thing for leaches, nothing would have won her over." Jacob shrugs off my comment. "Hey, she wasn't right for you, not the other way around."
"Back to your imprint," Jacob waves off, not wanting to talk about Bella anymore that he has to. Bella made her choices, she picked Edward, she married him, she changed, she died, had a half human off spring, now she's living with her family.
"Take her out for a second date." Jacob crosses his arms, chuckling to himself. "This time when you actually ask her, use the word date."
—
When Winnie first got in my van after her shift, I had every intention to ask her. But she hit me with a "what's wrong?" Because I looked too serious.
Then I waited to ask her on the drive home, but was so nervous I never brought it up. By the time we got to Old Lady Enola's, she was halfway out the door and I was kicking myself.
"Hey Embry," She pauses, looking like she's thinking something over.
"Yeah?"
"About dinner the other night..." She trails off, her words fading in the direction she's focusing on. I perk up in my seat, nearly hitting my head against the roof which just makes her tense up.
"What about it?" I've never been one to be nervous around girls, but Winnie manages to turn me into a mess without even realizing it. She takes a moment to speak up her, her face fighting off an oncoming shade of pink.
"What did you mean by it?" She forces out, looking like she's ready to bolt for it.
I knew it.
Jacob was right. I friendzoned myself. The realization stings a bit. Too much friendliness, not enough romance. When I made her dinner I should have been upfront.
"I meant it to be a date." I don't have it in me to be my usual charming self. I don't flirt. I don't ease her in. Instead, I state it. I should have added a duh at the end.
"Oh." Is all she says, looking confused. I figure it's a slightly better reaction than her asking me if it was a joke.
"Are you kidding around?" I stifle a sigh.
"No,"
"Oh. Okay."
"Okay." I don't really know what else to say. This conversation is going nothing like how I thought it would. The way Winnie's face is going from pink to purple, I'm debating if she's about to ask me to never give her a ride again.
"Okay, well, thanks." Her face drains of all color now, her lips matching too.
Screw Jacob, why did I ever listen to him? The boy has the right spirit but the worst execution, and yet I listened to him.
"You're welcome?" She nods like she's nauseous, closing the door weakly and swaying up the driveway towards the cabin.
I'd usually stay till I know she's inside, but I can't do it today. I pull the van out and go, trying to stay calm behind the wheel. Trying to stop myself from overthinking.
That... that wasn't too bad, right? It wasn't the worst case scenario. Not a no, right? She could have flat out told me to not to ask. Yeah she did think it was a prank, but she didn't seem mad... She could have told me to get lost.
Winnie is probably pacing her cabin right now, just as confused as me. Probably thinking about high school, trying to talk her way out of needing a ride. Probably feeling fifteen all over again.
Cursing under my breath, I turn the van around.
The flash of Winnie's diner uniform across my windshield makes me speed up the van. Just as I'm pulling back in, she's coming down the drive.
"I'm sorry," She immediately says as I shut the driver's door behind me. When we meet in the middle at the mouth of the driveway, I brace myself for what's about to come. That unmistakably sounded like 'I'm sorry I don't like you' apology. "I shouldn't have just walked off like that."
"No, I'm sorry, I should have been—" I start about how I should have just asked her the first time, but Winnie shakes her head.
"No, Embry. You brought me food, you made me dinner, you take me anywhere I ask, you towed my car. You shouldn't have been anything else. This was me." She breathes, shaking her head as if she's still stunned, and trying to feel like herself again. Her hand cups her forehead, the other on her hip as she reminds me again I don't have to apologize when I open my mouth.
"I guess I couldn't tell because I've never been asked out before." She admits with a frustrated blush creeping up her neck. She didn't it say as an omission, but as a fact. A fact I can't believe.
"You haven't been asked out?" My voice sounds unrecognizable to my own ears the way it's heavy with disbelief. I sound absolutely dumbfounded.
"Yeah."
"No way." I don't mean to sound so shocked but it makes her chuckle. A dry chuckle heavy with self depreciation.
"Embry, with my reputation, I'm not really the girl people want to bring home to meet their parents."
I instantly want to say I'm sorry. Sorry she had one bad night, now she's forever considered loose and easy because of it. She always walking around with that night right behind her. And I didn't do anything to make it better for her.
"Winnie would you go on a date with me?" I rush out the words so fast I didn't even realize I was speaking.
"I thought... didn't we already go on a date?" Her face goes completely flushed now, a bright pink that even reaches her ears.
"Yeah, a second date." A surge of emotions is pulsating through me, it's almost enough to make me rush for the trees to shift and run it off. Yet there's no where else I rather be right now. "This time you get to know about it."
"Why?" I understand why Winnie asks, but her question doesn't hurt any less. "Why are you asking me out?"
As Winnie waits for my answer, she braces herself. I know she's expecting a lukewarm answer at best. Her doubts are making her anxious for something like I think she's easy or I'm bored, or worse. When that's the complete absolute.
"Because, I like you." I state, she looks scared. Winnie wants to believe me, but by how her dark eyes are full of apprehension means she's questioning all of it. I can't tell her she's my imprint, not for a long while. But this is a good place to start. "I like spending time with you. I like getting to know you better. I like hearing making you laugh. I like being with you."
"Really?"I have to bite the growing smile by the softening expression on Winnie's face.
"Yes, really." I have to hold back the urge to scope her up in my arms, but I understand she needs the space. After a long moment, she inches forward a bit then stop dead in her tracks. My werewolf hearing can hear the heavy swallow she takes to clear her throat.
"Since we've technically been on one, we could go on another." Winnie says quietly. A bright smile spreads across my face, and I almost let out a laugh of joy. God, I want to kiss her.
"Good." I beam down at Winnie, whose looking up at me with a hopeful look in her eyes. "I'll call you."
