chapter 1: first impressions

Daniel sat outside the cinema waiting for his tinder date. He knew he’d be waiting a while seeing as he came almost an hour earlier than the pair had planned to meet hoping that changing locations would mitigate the nerves he had been brewing over all day. Unfortunately Daniel’s plan had failed and he was more stressed now in the smothering solitude of dusk than he was at home, especially with nothing around to distract him from his thoughts. Despite his anxiety though he knew that whether tonight went well or not it’s a step in the right direction, he was finally over the rough break up and getting back in the dating game and tonight was the reward of many months of conquering heartbreak. He continued to dive deeper into his complex emotions until after only 10 minutes he was interrupted.
“Did you come early because you were nervous?” Jade asked with a smile. Daniel was speechless. Jade was a beautiful young woman in the pictures on her profile, but photos didn’t quite capture how pretty she was with her sparkling bright green eyes, soft pale brown hair, and a dangerously flirty smile but even still Daniel was briefly disappointed that she was exactly as thin as she was in her photos – roughly 125lb - before reminding himself of how poorly his relationship went the last time he chose size over a solid personality. After an uncomfortably long silence he finally replied embarrassed.
“Um…”
“It’s alright” Jade laughed. “Me too. It’s nice to finally meet you. We still have an hour until the movie starts though?”
Daniel’s previous worries about the date slipped away with Jade’s warm introduction. He wasn’t surprised, Jade had always been easy to talk to in their previous conversations over text. As he stood to greet her she embraced him with a friendly hug.
“Nice to meet you too, we could get icecream while we wait if you’d like. There’s a decent little shop just down the road.”
“Oooh yes! Icecream sounds good to me.”
As they walked to the icecream store Jade gushed about all her favourite flavours enthusing especially about choc-mint while Daniel made mental notes and thanked fate for Jade’s apparent enthusiasm for food.

It was later than Jade expected when her first date with Daniel ended. She reflected on how perfect it was. She and Daniel seemed to connect instantly and ended up talking in the icecream store for so long that they ended up a few minutes late for their movie despite both getting to the cinema so early. He had gladly welcomed her cuddles during the movie and spent a while afterwards talking some more and as they both realised how late it had become silence fell for a few minutes as their hands slowly crept together. Once their fingers locked together they leaned in without words for their first kiss, and Jade had wished it would never end. Now home and too lovestruck to sleep, she took some chocolate from the cupboard and nibbled giddily at the block piece by piece. Sweets always calmed her when she was feeling excited.