A/N: Welcome, brothers and sisters! When last we met, Ezra was thinking. Whatever could he have been thinking of? Let us find out, shall we?
Disclaimer: I got nothin. You?
The next morning, Ezra showed up wearing a beanie. It wasn't usual for him to wear one, but nobody really noticed because everyone was too buzzed with excitement over Ezra and Jen's date that night. Everyone except Trucker and Piper, that is. "What's going on with you guys today?" Piper asked as she and the rest of the staff waited for customers to start coming in. "You're all jittery and excited, and have been all morning."
Tish spun around and fixed a look of surprise on Jen. "You didn't tell her?" she practically demanded.
"Uh, no," Jen answered shyly and a bit afraid of her friend's wrath. "I was so excited last night that I didn't really think about telling anybody else. Wait, how do you know?"
"I was at Priestly's house when Ez called him," explained Tish with a shrug.
"What didn't Jen call me about?" Piper interjected impatiently.
"She and Ez are going out tonight!" Tish cheered, throwing her arms around Jen. "I'm so excited for you!"
"That's great!" Piper squealed as she slammed her friend into a hug.
"What's great?" asked Trucker, just coming in from from the morning's surf.
"Jen and Ezra are going out tonight," Piper and Tish announced together.
"That's awesome, you two," Trucker smiled. "What time are you two going?"
"We agreed on 6:30," answered Ezra.
"Alright, that means we're closing at four today," the shop owner decided. "Will that give you girls plenty of time to get Jen ready?"
"Guys, you really don't have to do that," Jen tried to protest.
"Yeah," Ezra agreed, not really used to the attention. "We don't need all this."
"Nonsense," Priestly chimed in. "You two deserve it. Trucker and I will even go with you back to your place, Zig."
Ezra's eyes bugged out in slight shock. "Really, you guys don't have to go to so much trouble for me."
"Ezra, we're coming over," Priestly informed his cousin with a pleasant smile that Ezra knew, all too well, not to argue with. It reminded the girls of the time Priestly insulted the jerk Tadd by smiling and batting his eyes.
"Fine," the tall man relented. "If you insist so much, you can come with me." The day seemed to go by at a snail's pace for the BCG team. Everyone was excited about Ezra and Jen's date that night, especially Tish and Piper. And it was even more unbearable for them because they wanted to discuss clothes and hairstyles with Jen, but knew they couldn't because Ezra was in the room.
But, finally, the last of the lunch rush left at around three. Trucker ran to flip the closed sign so they could quickly clean up and make preparations for their return later that night.
The men and women went their separate ways at the front door of the shop. "Alright," Priestly began once Ezra let them into his apartment, "first things first. Ziggy, you go get a shower. You don't want to go on a first date smelling like the grill."
"He's right," Trucker agreed, not taking any offense to the mohawked man's words about his business.
Ezra rolled his eyes, but he complied with the order, secretly agreeing with them after taking a tentative sniff of his shirt.
Now that he thought about it, Ezra was thankful Trucker had let him off two and a half hours early. He was going to need a while to get ready.
While his cousin was in the shower, Priestly let himself into the bedroom closet to look through Ezra's clothes. "Alright, Zig said he and Jen are going to Mama Bella's, so nothing fancy," said Priestly as he perused the shirts handing before him. "I think one of the polos would be good enough."
"Yeah, definitely," agreed Trucker. "Which one does Ezra like best?"
"I know he likes the green one a lot." Priestly pulled a shamrock green polo shirt out of the closet and laid it out on the bed.
"Does he even have any jeans that aren't ripped?" Trucker asked in amusement as he, too, sorted through his employee's clothes. Every pair of jeans in the drawers had some kind of hole, tear, or wear in them.
"He keeps the nicer ones here in the closet so they don't wear out as quickly," answered Priestly. He selected a pair of dark wash jeans and laid them next to the shirt. "Once they start wearing in, he moves them to the drawers.
"That makes sense," mused the older man. He shut the drawers and joined Priestly by the bed, where the younger man had made himself comfortable flipping through channels on his cousin's television.
"What in the world is taking so long?" Priestly grumbled. Looking over at the clock, he saw that his cousin had been in the bathroom for nearly an hour and a half. "Ziggy never takes this long in the shower." He got up from the bed and went to rummage in his cousin's refrigerator. When he came back with two cans of soda and a bowl of popcorn, he was pleased to discover that the shower had finally shut off. "'Bout time, Zig."
"I know you guys picked out something for me to wear," Ezra called out with slight impatience. "Hand me my jeans and some boxers, Bo." Priestly did as asked and passed the clothing through the cracked door. When the door opened a few minutes later, the older men were surprised to see Ezra walk out with his hair combed out, coming down just past the nape of his neck, and he'd shaved off his beard.
"Oh wow," Priestly breathed when he saw his cousin. "No wonder you wore a hat today."
A look of self-consciousness flashed over Ezra's face. "What? W-will Jen not like it?" he asked nervously.
"No, no she'll love it," Priestly assured his worried cousin. "It's just been so long since I saw you without the dreads that I forgot what your normal hair looks like." The fear left Ezra's eyes, replaced with relief. "Why'd you decide to take out the dreads?"
Ezra shrugged bashfully. "It's mine and Jen's first date," he explained softly. "I wanted to do something nice for her. So I started taking them out last night so it wouldn't take so long today."
Pride filled not only Priestly, but Trucker as well. "I think you did good," the older man praised his employee. "Priestly's right. Jen's going to love your hair."
"That time I wore my hair naturally to work, Jen couldn't keep her hands out of it," Priestly reminisced with a fond smile. He figured Tish would be the one to constantly touch or play with his hair, but, to his surprise, it had been Jen who obsessed over it. "She won't be able to resist your luscious locks."
"Dude, shut up," Ezra laughed as he pulled on the green polo shirt his cousin had picked out. "Thanks for picking out my favorite shirt."
Priestly shrugged nonchalantly. "I figured you'd want it. After all, it is your first date in how many years?" he teased with a smirk.
The nerves hit Ezra again like a tidal wave. He shot his best friend a glare. "Seriously, Bo, not cool!"
"Don't worry so much," Trucker chuckled good-naturedly. "Jen doesn't need anything fancy to impress her. She much prefers sincerity."
"Yeah," Priestly piped up. "Just be yourself. I mean, she's already agreed to go out with you, right?" Ezra didn't say anything, but that was answer enough for Priestly. "So, you crazy kids go have fun and don't worry about anything."
"Priestly's right, Ez," said Trucker. "I'm sure you'll both have a great time if you just be yourselves. Don't worry about trying to be impressive."
Ezra took a steadying breath. "Okay," he sighed. "But what kind of flowers does she like? I'm still going to be a gentleman, even if I'm not trying to impress her."
Priestly sniffled and mimed wiping a tear. "My little boy's all grown up," he cried playfully, earning a swat on the shoulder from Ezra.
"Shut up, man," he admonished, but the smile on his face belied his words.
"I'm not sure what Jen's favorite flowers are, because she likes a lot of different kinds," Trucker said thoughtfully. "But I know she likes blues, pinks, lighter colors like that. And she likes simple, nothing gaudy or complicated."
"Okay, thanks." Looking at the clock, Ezra saw it was nearly a quarter to six. "I better get going if I don't want to be late."
"Good luck," Priestly and Trucker chorused behind him as he snatched up his keys and hurried out of his apartment.
Thankful that he'd been able to buy a pretty decent car, Ezra ducked inside and started it up, going down the road to a florist shop he'd seen when he and Jen were house hunting. He walked into the store and was hit with the smell of dozens of flowers. "Hello, there," a woman Ezra guessed to be in her late forties greeted. "What can I help you with today?"
"I wanted to get a bouquet of flowers," Ezra told her, looking around helplessly at the blossoms arranged around the store.
"What kind of bouquet?" the woman asked. "Do you have a specific flower in mind? Or maybe a flower combination?"
"I really don't know flowers very well," Ezra let out a shaky smile. "I want something simple, but nice. Nothing too over the top."
The florist thought for a moment, considering what her customer wanted and what she had in the store. "I've got some hydrangeas in store. Come with me." She rounded the counter and went toward the front of the store. "Hydrangeas are lovely flowers, and very underrated if you ask me. I have blue, pink, and purple."
Ezra took in the flowers the woman had indicated and agreed that they were lovely indeed. "I like all three, actually," he admitted.
"Alright, then," the florist said. She plucked a flower of each color and took them back to the counter. She arranged them in a way that made the different colors compliment each other, and it made Ezra glad that she'd recommended them. The finishing touch was a brown ribbon to fasten the bouquet together. "There we go." She held the bouquet up for Ezra to see.
"That's great," he said. "The brown was the perfect touch."
"Wonderful," the woman cheered. She set the flowers back down to ring up the price. "That'll be $15.40." After receiving the payment and returning his change, the florist picked the bouquet back up and handed it to her customer. "Good luck," she said kindly.
"Thanks," Ezra said. "And thanks for this, too." As he walked back to his car, Ezra looked over the bouquet in his hands. The simple beauty of it really made him think of Jen, and he was very glad he'd listened to the florist. Taking a deep, steadying breath, Ezra started the car. "On to Jen's."
A/N: I don't know for sure how long it would take to remove dreadlocks since I don't wear them, but all the research I've done tells me that it takes HOURS to unravel them, even if they're short. Hopefully I did okay in making it realistic. And the underrated hydrangea comment is from my sister's friend. She's a quirky thing. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!