Chapter three: Overdressed

The date had been set in the late saturday morning and the remaining five days had seemed to last forever, much to her displeasure. But now thursday had arrived, finally, and so had Lara's nervousness.

Throwing a quick glance at her bedside clock, she saw that she had two other hours until eight o'clock, two hours until Dana would pick her up. Lara sighed, letting herself fall backwards onto the bed.

"Just two more hours and I'll see Dana again.", she told herself, unable to keep a grin from her lips.

Another sigh escaped her lips and the sous chef rolled onto her left, facing her opened wardrobe. She got up slowly and walked towards the wardrobe.

"So many clothes and you can't find anything to wear.", Lara muttered to herself as she started going through her clothes again.

It had to be something sexy, something that would catch Dana's eyes and keep them on her, but not too sexy, since that would probably only serve to scare the tennis player and turn her into a nervous wreck all the more.

"Sexy, yet not too sexy.", the redhead thought. "Casual, yet not too casual."

Lara kept rummaging through the wardrobe, not finding anything that pleased her. She tried to imagine what Dana would be wearing, when her hands came across the soft material of a yellow sundress.

"I think that will do."

A while later the sous chef-now showered and dressed in the yellow sundress, her red hair pulled up into a bun-was nervously pacing back and forth in her living room. Dana would arrive any second now-she had given the brunette her address scribbled on a napkin, along with another free plate of grilled vegetables the same saturday the date had been set on. Lara could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She couldn't remember having ever been that nervous before, not even on her first day of school. She tried to take some calming breaths, but to no avail, the butterflies in her stomach just wouldn't go away. The sudden sound of the buzzer made her jump out of her skin.

"She's here."

The chef practically flew to the door, checking her appearance one last time.

"I'll be right down.", she told Dana via intercom, grabbed her purse and walked out of her apartment, only a few steps separating her from the sight of a certain tennis player.

Lara felt the knot forming in the back of her throat grow bigger and bigger the closer she came to the front door. As she walked down the stairs, she could see the blurred silhouette of another person through the door's pane, Dana's silhouette. Reaching the front door and taking the doorknob into her shaking hand, she stopped to take some last calming breaths, trying to ease her own nervousness.

"Here we go, Lara.", she said out loud to encourage herself, as she finally turned the doorknob.

As she stepped outside, the cool evening air brushed the exposed skin of her shoulders, lightly caressing it. Lara took a deep breath and looked around for her date. Dana stood on the last step of the small staircase leading up to the entrance, looking up at her, obviously amazed by the sight of the chef. She was wearing a simple white blouse and plain, not patterned pants, looking simply gorgeous. Suddenly Lara felt way overdressed.

"I overdressed.", she said, sounding somewhat defeated.

Dana's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"No...no...", Dana started, but didn't seem to find the words.

"God, I feel like such a geek.", Lara said, turning her eyes away from Dana and scratching her forehead in frustration-something she always did when she was embarrassed. A habit she couldn't shake.

"No, no...", the tennis player started again, while Lara silently wished for the ground to open up and swallow her. "Uh...umm...my friends made me wear this.", Dana confessed, breaking the short silence that had developped between the two.

The sous chef raised her head again, looking at the other woman in utter confusion, a little amused smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"What?", she asked.

"My friends said that...", the athlete stammered. "They thought that you would think I was a geek if, you know, if...if I wore a dress.", Dana explained, her voice trailing off as she finished.

Lara couldn't believe how adorably cute and shy the other woman seemed to get whenever they met. The smile that had been lingering at the corner of her mouth grew wider as she watched Dana's nervous smile.

"So I am a geek.", Lara simply stated, trying to ease the nervous tension between them.

"No, I'm a geek.", the brunette said, while eyeing the sous chef with a somewhat apologetic look on her face. "...for letting me friends tell me what to wear...", she added, turning her head away.

"Well, I could go change.", Lara suggested, gesturing towards the front door. "So, you don't feel so geeky."

She felt like she had to do anything possible to calm the tennis player's nerves down. She wanted Dana to be able to enjoy their date, instead of being as self-conscious as she was.

"No, you look beautiful.", Dana said, seemingly not noticing the compliment she had payed on the redhead.

Lara felt her heart starting to beat even faster at Dana's words. The other woman had said it as if she would say it all the time, but Lara knew Dana really meant these words with all her heart. They had escaped the tennis player's lips so fast, she couldn't have been thinking about them. The sous chef couldn't help but smile broadly at her date, feeling her affection for the shy brunette grow deeper and deeper and as Dana kept rambling on at how totally geeky she was being, Lara descended the few steps to stop her flow of words by softly kissing her on the lips. As their lips met, the chef herself felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of her, a comforting calmness suddenly warming her from inside out, and she figured Dana felt the same.

Lara broke the kiss, slowly pulling away from the athlete, who was rather reluctant to break their contact already, as she was moving her head along with Lara's. Finally, the liplock was broken and Lara found herself staring at the other woman. The way Dana looked at her reminded her of the first kiss they had shared.

"She's so beautiful.", the redhead thought to herself. "If she looks like that everytime we kiss I could make it a new habit of mine." Smiling at her own thoughts Lara suggested that they'd go, linking her arm with Dana's as the made their way to Dana's car.