Wednesday, November 11th 8:52PM
Your Uber Pool is arriving. Please meet your driver, Leonardo, at the predetermined pick up location.
Wednesday night was Lad's Night. Tradition. Food and beer and movies and the occasional board game. Then, Remus and Sirius got together which was fantastic. So exciting, true love and joy and pure happiness for his two best friends in the world. Consequential to their happiness, however, meant that James's beloved Lad's Nights frequently became him crashing Date Night. Even though they did their best to keep his third wheeling to a minimum and keep it Lad's Night, it frequently became Lad's plus a lot of PDA. Tonight was one of those nights.
Sirius picked a horror flick just for an excuse to dump popcorn on James's head during jump scares and to curl up on top of Remus. James had plenty of practice ignoring their canoodling but apparently they were feeling especially noodley tonight, nonstop noodley really.
Remus had made it clear that he would drive the both of them home that night but each passing minute made it more and more clear that Sirius would be spending the night and James had the option of sleeping on the couch or Ubering himself out of there. Once Sirius flung his shirt and jeans off and onto James's head in one motion about three quarters of the way through the movie, he settled on calling his second Uber of the day.
Not only his second of the day, but his ninth of the week simply because James is pathetic. He knows this, he feels this, and anyone who looked at his Uber ride history could prove it. But he couldn't help himself. How was he supposed to deal with the fact that he had met possibly the most amazing woman in the world and then he just stood there and watched her drive away. Correction, slammed the door in her face and then watched her drive away.
Half of him wanted to just go stand outside of the building they had dropped her off at that first Uber trip and just pray she actually lives there and he could stage a run in, but he felt that was likely to get him a restraining order instead of a girlfriend.
He stopped himself from doing that (barely) but wasn't able to stop himself from taking an Uber every day since then. Pathetically paying for a $10.60 Uber ride to work, and then another to go to lunch, and then another to get to the coffee shop closest to that apartment they had dropped her off at, and just one around the block. But no. No Lily. Not even any other passengers except for that very morning when a lady rode with him to the bookstore holding a very large lizard on her lap.
Lizard Lady was the final blow that pushed him back to reality and to take Uber's strictly out of necessity, instead of desperation.
And as much as he loved Sirius and Remus, and loved them being happy, seeing them so happy was certainly a desperate situation.
He jumped in place on the sidewalk, running his hands together for warmth waiting for Leonardo and his SUV to pull up and looking over his shoulder, still on edge from the horror flick.
The car pulled up and before James could approach the driver and check for his name, the backseat window came down and a smirking red head was peering out of it. Suddenly the whole night began to look up.
"Well, look who it is!"
"Lily! It's you! Again!"
"James, it's me! Again!" His entire chest felt bubbly as she slid across the seats so he could come in next to her and watched her smile nearly match his in excitement. He said hello to Leonardo passingly, all without taking his eyes off of Lily, sliding in as close as he could without being considered publicly indecent.
"Wow, of course you would be here right now." She shook her head admonishingly, leaning back and rubbing at her eyes with her hands.
"What's that mean? You manifesting my presence?"
"You wish, Breakfast Boy." She poked him in the arm, "I've just had the worst night ever and was just thinking I needed ice cream or something equally as yummy to cheer me up."
"So I'm yummy, am I?" His grin split his face wide open, those bubbles in his chest started to feel more like roaring lions now.
"Mmm, something like that. Maybe yummy isn't the right word. Dashing, handsome, half decent car ride entertainment. Dealer's choice, honestly."
"I think I'll stick with yummy, but really love to hear more about this whole 'dashing' thing. Is that like a Prince Charming vibe? That's really the one I've been trying to put out. Prince Charming could make a better nickname than Breakfast Boy."
"Please, much more like a hungover bumbling idiot than a Prince Charming, don't you think?."
"The abuse! I swear, you sign up for an Uber pool, count your blessings that you've been lucky enough to ride along with the most stunning redhead in this half the hemisphere not once, but three times, only to find that she's five feet of beratement and insults." He leaned back in his seat, mockingly shaking his head.
"Only in this half of the hemisphere? What stunning redheads does Antarctica have to offer?"
"I've never been to the southern hemisphere, I just feel I can't accurately make a statement about the redheads there. Happy to pop down south for a few days to get some proper research. I'm sure after proper investigation you will be conclusively proven to be the most stunning redhead in both halves of the hemisphere."
"Quite the pragmatic answer. I appreciate your commitment to well researched compliments. Truly, the dedication is admirable. Unnecessary though, I feel validated enough. I'll just stick to this half of the hemisphere to avoid any possibility of losing my title."
"Probably smart. Wouldn't want to pop down and come back to find Ed Sheeran has gotten a six pack and has overtaken your spot."
"Excuse me," her jaw dropped lightly, "you think all Ed Sheeran would need is a six pack to magically become more attractive than me?"
"Lily, look. I didn't want to insult you and please don't mistake me, you're perfect in literally every single way, like designed by the Gods perfect. But Ed Sheeran is a ginger that can sing and plays multiple instruments. And again, goddess that you are, are you really telling me you can top that?"
"Never in my life have I been so confused if I should be flattered or disgusted."
"Lily?" Leonardo was turned around to face them. "We're here." James whipped around to see they had somehow ended up in front of the same apartment building they had dropped her off the first time. He had barely noticed they started moving, nevermind stopped moving to pull in front of her destination.
His heart sank as he watched her gather her belongings and unbuckle her seat belt. Who knows when the next time they'd take an Uber together would be. He might not see her for days, or weeks, or God forbid never.
"Lily, wait!" He blurted the words out, not even slightly knowing what he'd say next.
Green eyes snapped to his, one hand on the door handle prepared to swing out of the car.
"Yes, James?"
"CanwegoforanUbertogethernexttime?"
"I'm sorry, James, what was that?" Lily's eyes wide and mildly concerned. Even Leonardo was turned around looking at him like he had just pulled the pin out of a grenade and suggested they all sit around and watch it explode from real closeup.
"What if," he worked to speak slowly, feeling his entire face flush scarlet, "the next time we take an Uber together, we get out at the same place."
"Like a carpool?" Her eyebrow rose up slowly, corner of her mouth sliding up.
"Like go somewhere. Like go somewhere together, like get in the same car on purpose. And then get out at the same time and go somewhere. Like dinner."
"You want to get a ride to dinner together?" She was fucking with him. Of course, she couldn't make this easy when his entire body was turning red.
"Yeah, erm dinner as like a date, if that's not super weird or doesn't make you uncomfortable." Her grin didn't slip, and he felt his whole body tense and the rambles coming on, "like get a ride to go to dinner together but like at the same time. And then eat together. And get a ride home. But maybe not home together. Because erm first date and I wouldn't want to pressure or be too forward. So just dinner. Like a dinner date. Or a coffee date, if that would be okay. Of course not if you're uncomfortable or think I'm being insane but I think you're fun and I have fun in the car with you and I think we could have even more fun if it was a meeting on purpose and I'm going to stop talking but Lily, will you go out with me?" His voice rose dramatically to the end until he was practically shouting at her.
"Yes, James." He felt his entire body let go and those lions started to fire up again,."Yes, I would love to go out with you. Been waiting for you to ask actually."
He very suddenly felt like the Uber could run over him and he wouldn't even feel it. "You should have said!"
She swung the door open and stepped out, looking down at him, red hair swinging around her shoulders. "It wasn't like I was being subtle. You're just entirely too thick to pick up on signals. But yes, I would love to go out with you James."
"Brilliant! Fantastic! We'll do that then." He smiled brilliantly, cheeks beginning to hurt.
"You know," Lily leaned back into the car to whisper, "this is usually the time where a normal bloke would ask for my phone number. You know, so we could set this up later and let Leonardo get on with his evening," she looked pointedly towards Leonardo who was, watching them both with a mixture of exasperation and amusement.
"Right! Sorry, Leonardo." He ran a hand through his hair sheepishly. "Could you please put me out my misery and let me have your number?" he begged.
"Lucky for you," she dug around in her massive bag once more, "I came prepared. Been prepared actually since our first ride together." She slid a slip of paper with a number, her number(!), across the seat and into his hand.
"Use it and let poor Leo go home, alright?" She smiled one last time and slammed the door.
He sat back in his chair, dazed and overwhelmed, and disgustingly pleased with himself.
"Sorry about that, Leonardo."
"No worries mate." He pulled away from the curb slowly, winking at James in the mirror. "Wasn't expecting her to agree if I'm being honest. Good for you, mate."
Damn right, good for him.