The Moon and More(65)
Author: Sarah Dessen

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“Okay. Keep your eyes closed.”

Another date with Theo, another Big Surprise. It was embarrassing enough be sitting there, blind, in a public place. This time, though, I had an audience.

“Are you looking? Don’t look.”

“I’m not looking,” I murmured, although I was sure everyone else was.

“Okay, one more second.” I felt Theo back moving beside me; something bumped my elbow. “And . . . now. Open your eyes!”

I did. The first thing I saw was Morris, across from me, a bored, slightly annoyed look on his face. Beside him, Daisy appeared slightly alarmed. And then there was the sparkler.

It wasn’t like I could miss it. It was one of those big ones, lit and spitting in all directions. At its base was a small, heart-shaped chocolate cake that had something written on it in pink icing, not that I could make it out through the pyrotechnics. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to blow this thing out or just let it run its course, so I just sat there watching it burn down, down, down until it ended with a fizzle, leaving a cloud of smoke behind.

“Wow,” I said, as Daisy coughed, politely covering her mouth with her hand. “What’s the occasion?”

“You don’t know?” Theo asked me. A large group of tourists, sporting sunburns and fresh bathing-suit strap marks, were all watching us from the next table over. “It’s our two week anniversary today.”

“Oh, right,” I said quickly, looking at him and smiling. “I just . . . the sparkler distracted me. Happy, um, anniversary.”

“Happy anniversary,” he repeated, then he leaned forward and kissed me. A real kiss, not the kind you normally engage in on a date with another couple when half the restaurant is watching. I felt so bad about forgetting the date, however, that I felt like I couldn’t pull away as quickly as I would have liked. When we did finally break, I did everything to avoid seeing Daisy’s face. She hated public displays of affection even more than mopeds and mom jeans.

Instead, I focused on removing the sparkler and setting it aside so I could read the message on the cake. WILL YOU . . . ? it said, the question mark ending in a fancy curlicue.

“Will I . . .” I repeated, glancing at Theo, “what?”

“That’s the second part of the surprise,” he replied, reaching inside his sport jacket and pulling out a pink piece of paper with a bow on it. “Here.”

“Theo,” I said. “This is too much.”

“What? It’s our anniversary. Open it.”

Now I did risk a look at Daisy, only to see on her face something worse than offense or annoyance: pity. Oh, God, I thought. All I’d wanted, with this double date, was to show her and Morris why they were wrong about Theo. If I could just get us all together for one meal, I’d reasoned, they would quickly see he was not, as they thought, an obnoxious summer person, know-it-all, or big-city snob. Despite my best effort, though, so far I’d proven just the opposite.

It had started with the sport coat. Actually, scratch that. It had started with the restaurant. My idea was to go to the Inlet Drive-In, which had some of the best shrimp burgers in town, and just eat at the picnic tables there. We’d get some of our favorite food, and Theo would get to experience a bit of the real Colby, done our way. Win-win. But he had other ideas.

“A double date! Sounds great,” he’d replied. “I just read about this new pan-Asian place in the paper. I’ll make us a reservation.”

“Pan-Asian?” I’d repeated. “In Colby?”

“No, it’s somewhere else.” He turned around from the kitchen sink, where he was busy washing some huge grapes Ivy apparently required to have on hand at all times, picking up his phone. After pushing a few buttons, he said, “Cape Frost. That’s not far, right?”

“It’s not close, exactly.”

He squinted at the screen, reading off of it. “‘Offering a range of both traditional and modern Asian fare, Haiku boasts an extensive sushi bar, a wide array of sake choices, and one of the best vegetarian menus in the area.’ Great, right?”

“I guess,” I said, sounding uncertain even to myself. “But it might be easier if we just, you know, stay closer to home and keep it simple.”

“It doesn’t get much simpler than sushi,” he pointed out, going back to his grapes. “Fish. Rice. Seaweed.”

“I don’t think Morris is much of a fan of that.”

“What about Daisy? I’m sure she has a more adventurous palate, right?”

“Why? Because she’s Asian?”

He gave me a look. “Emaline. I don’t stereotype.”

“I’m just saying—”

“What I meant,” he continued, over me, “is that Daisy, from what you’ve said, has a very urban sensibility when it comes to fashion. I figured that might apply to cuisine as well.”

Now I felt like the one stereotyping, which was why I didn’t tell him Daisy, for all her reading of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, preferred pizza above just about all other food. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” He was drying the grapes now, carefully, with a paper towel. “Look, just let me make a reservation. I promise, they’ll like it.”

So earlier that evening, I’d put on jeans and one of my nicer tops, pulled back my hair, and worn some eyeliner—all things I never would even think of doing for a shrimp burger at the Inlet. Because I was dressed differently, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to see Theo do the same. But the sport jacket still felt like a bit much.

He was wearing it casually, with jeans and a button-down white oxford shirt, expensive sneakers on his feet. Personally, though—and I knew this said more about me than him—I associated any kind of dress jacket with formals and funerals, not dinner. I could only hope Morris wasn’t in shorts.

He was. And a T-shirt, albeit what looked like either a new or newly laundered one. Daisy, true to form, looked gorgeous in a floral dress and sandals, a simple white eyelet cardigan over her shoulders. When they walked out of the house, Theo jumped from his seat, opening the back door for her. Morris, not noticing, got in first.

Oh, dear, I thought. Out loud I said, “Everybody ready for a road trip?”

“Let’s go to the Inlet,” Morris asked. “I could dominate on a shrimp burger right now.”

“We’re going for sushi, remember?” Daisy said to him.