Exit Wounds | Noah Sebastian

S I X T E E N

I stand staring at the clothes in my closet. I hadn't had to get ready for a first date in years, unless you counted my two failed attempts recently. And I was not. I don't know what to wear, I don't know where we are going or what we are doing. I close the door and go to the kitchen for a glass of wine.

It was a blessing that I had to spend all day writing the blog for last night's excursion or I would have spent the whole day obsessing over tonight. Yes, I definitely did so much work and zero stressing.

I drain the wine and put on makeup, taking time with my eyeliner and putting on lashes, because lashes make you feel like a new person. And if anyone needed to feel like a new person, it was me. I curl my hair and spray half a bottle of hairspray in my hair to get the curls to stay in my straight hair.

Back to my closet, what am I going to wear? I check the time on my phone, I have 15 minutes until Noah will be here. I'm definitely not freaking out, no butterflies or nervous flutters. Who was I kidding? If I didn't puke before the end of the night I was going to call it a win.

I reach in blindly and pull out every black piece I have, because black has never done me wrong. I settle on a floral maxi dress with a black leather jacket and Chelsea boots. I hear a knock at the door and throw the outfit on. I hope it looks good because there's no going back now. He knocks again and I ignore it while I check my teeth in the mirror in the bathroom to find them wine stained. I violently swig mouth wash and spit it out.

I run to the door, because I don't want him to knock again. I fling open the door, panting, revealing Noah looking more handsome than I have ever seen him. He towers over me, his wild hair looks brushed for once, with a black button up. The sleeves are rolled up his forearms and his ink stands out on his pale skin.

"Why are you out of breath?" He asks, one sexy eyebrow raising higher than the other.

I heave a breath as I lean over and try to slow my breathing, "because I ran across the apartment."

Noah tries to hide a laugh behind his hand, and I give him a warning look. "Well you look lovely," he says before bending to kiss my cheek. "Shall we?"

I nod at him and he leads me to his SUV, opening the door and waiting for me to climb in. "What a gentleman," I tease. Noah chuckles and shakes his head, closing the door behind me and crossing the car to his side.

"So, where are we going?" I ask as he backs out of our shared driveway.

"You'll see."

Noah turns on the radio, pop music plays softly in the background as we make our way towards downtown. We pull up to a restaurant and a valet opens my car door. I don't think I've ever been anywhere that they had a valet, let alone used it.

Noah meets me at the front of the car and his hand goes to the small of my back, gently pushing me to the hostess. Warmth floods my body as he tells her we have a reservation. The ambiance is dark as the hostess leads us to a table tucked in the back next to floor to ceiling windows.

I feel out of place immediately, I had never been anywhere like this and Noah had this air about him. Like he had money, and I was the opposite. I was living in his basement.

"You are quiet tonight," Noah mentions as we sit down.

I glance down at the menu, I wasn't a picky eater but some of the things on the menu sounded disgusting. "Just a little out of my element here," I say truthfully.

A waiter comes to the table to get our drink order and I order a whiskey drink with strawberry simple syrup and lemon. Noah orders an Old Fashioned.

"What do you mean? Dating?" he guesses, then laughs much too loud and it feels amplified in the dark space. "I'm not really used to it either."