I had finished work, and the moment after I disappeared from the manager's sight I made a run for the exit. The address of the place where Lily wanted us to meet was already memorized. It took me five minutes to get there.
She was waiting for me. I was happy. She had already ordered a carrot cake for me. I sat down, and started talking. She answered.
She looked distracted.
Just when I was going to finish my cake, she started stuttering. She wouldn't look at me.
My heart stopped before speeding up. I froze before I could I could eat the last bite, thinking maybe, maybe... And yes. Yes..!
There I was, carrot cake on my fork, sitting at one end of a small table, in a cafe, with Lily nervously biting at her lip as she waited for me to respond. I have no idea how long it took me to answer. I was stunned. Reality had taken a sharp turn and ran into some fourth dimensional wall; my dreams were real, all of a sudden.
Eventually I set my fork down. She looked up to me, smiling shyly.
She was asking me out. And I was there, staring at her with an empty gaze, mouth open, partly because I was going to eat cake, partly because I was too stunned to shut it. It was then that I realized that I was probably scaring her with my stunned-almost-terrified reaction.
I tried to remain level-headed. I answered 'Sure' with a smile.
It felt incredibly underwhelming and anticlimactic. Reality wasn't like fantasy, with happy cheers and flowers flying around, and a kiss exchanged. But this was real. It sunk in that Lily had actually asked me out and I said yes and it was real.
It was a date. An actual, real, date.
I started crying a little, laughing quietly. When she looked confused, I told her, after the shortest but mightiest hesitation ever, that I had been too scared to ask her myself.
She smiled.