I sat in my car in the parking lot of my apartment after work with my brain running a mile a minute. It was the night of my date with Chris, and I had been so nervous about it all day I could barely concentrate while I was at work. Just then my phone started ringing, it was a call from Estelle. I groaned before picking it up.

"Hello."

"When are you gonna come upstairs and get ready?" She said clearly annoyed.

"What do you mean? I'm not even home yet, how could I possibly come upstairs to get ready?"

"Stop being dumb I can see you in your car from our window."

I leaned over my steering wheel and saw her standing in the window waving at me. "Okay fine. I'll come get ready. Just one step closer to looking like a fool on this date." I hung up the phone and pulled myself out of the car. I really wasn't sure why I was so nervous to go on this date. It wasn't like I had never gone on dates before. I'd been on plenty but I always felt like I was the one in control, but for some reason, this felt like new territory. 

As soon as I walked in the door Estelle was there to question me. "So what are you going to wear tonight?"

I set my purse on the counter and trudged into my room. "I have no idea. Maybe just a trash bag to get the point across." I said and threw myself onto the bed.

Estelle followed me into the room and stood in the doorway. "Laurel Marie Barnes if you deny how amazing you are one more time I will beat the shit out of you I swear."

"Wow, that's very reassuring thank you." I groaned.

"Okay, listen to me." She said and sat next to me on the bed. "You have absolutely no reason to be freaking out this much right now. He asked you out for a reason. He thinks you are freaking beautiful and he is not wrong. So stop beating yourself up and go get that ass in a hot as hell outfit before I go on this date for you."

I rolled over and sat up. "You are right about that, I guess. Let's do this thing."

"Okay great, because I already have a few ideas for things you could wear." She said and pulled open the door to my closet. "These jeans make your ass look amazing so I definitely think they are a must." 

I laughed at her as she tossed them to me on the bed. "I mean, you're not wrong. These also look really good with those black boots." I added, pointing to the pair of shoes sitting on the floor of my closet. She handed them over to me and continued digging through my closet.

"Why have I never seen you wear this shirt before?" She asked, pulling out a maroon top with small flowers printed on it. "This is so cute, Laurel."

I stood up and took the hanger from her. "It's a little too lowcut I think," I said as I held it against my torso in front of my mirror. "I don't want to advertise too heavily."

She rolled her eyes and took the shirt from me and placed it on the bed with the jeans I was set to wear. "Like you don't already advertise those boobs on the daily." I crossed my arms and stared at her in silence. "Come on, you won't be giving off the wrong impression, you're just lightly showing off the assets."

"Fine." I sighed and walked into the bathroom to do my hair and makeup before I had to go. "So are you just gonna hang out in here while I'm getting ready?" I asked, noticing that she had sat on the bed and opened up my laptop.

"I'm gonna do some research on this man that you are going out with tonight."

"Estelle, what did I say about stalking my dates?"

"It's only some light internet stalking. Everyone does it stop freaking out. Now, do you know what his last name is?"

I paused for a moment, realizing I had no idea what it was. "Um, I think it started with an E but I can't guarantee that's correct."

Estelle groaned and then continued her sleuthing. "You are making this way more difficult for me but I will prevail." I laughed at her and continued getting ready. 

*****

When I got to the restaurant I was supposed to meet Chris at I yet again sat in my car for a few minutes trying to gather any and all self-confidence I had. Estelle hadn't managed to find anything while I was still at home so I was able to happily walk into this date without knowing some weird detail about him that I may have accidentally blurted out. I took a deep breath and pulled out my phone to text Chris.

Laurel

Hey! Are you at the restaurant yet? 

I set my forehead on the steering wheel of my car, regretting every decision I'd ever made that got me into this situation. Chris' response quickly snapped me out of my self-pity.

Chris

Yep, I'm just inside by the host stand.

I took another deep breath and finally got out of my car, ready to conquer this random fear that had suddenly manifested in my brain. As I walked inside the restaurant I saw Chris standing at the host stand looking down at his phone. He was undoubtedly the most attractive man I had ever seen. And if Estelle thought my ass looked good, she had another thing coming because the butt on that man was exquisite. Before I could get too wrapped up in the way he looked, Chris looked up from his phone and smiled at me.

"Hey, Laurel." Chris walked over to me and pulled me into a light hug. "It's great to see you again."

"Yeah, you too." I smiled at him. As good looking as he was his personality was even better. 

"They've got a table all set for us if you're ready to go." He said and gestured over towards the host who was ready to take us to our table. 

"Ready as I'll ever be." I let out a nervous laugh and quickly followed the host to our table. When we got to our table I turned over to Chris and he quickly turned his gaze up to my eyes. I was glad that Estelle made me wear these jeans since the two of us clearly had overlapping tastes. We sat down and the host handed us our menus before leaving.

"So, have you been here before?" I asked him as I started looking over the menu.

"Only a few times but some of my friends love this place. I thought it would be a good spot for tonight." He kept smiling at me and I felt like I could melt right there. The conversation lulled a bit but we were quickly rescued by our waiter. 

"Hello you two, happy to have you here tonight. My name is Anthony and I'll be taking care of you." He said, setting down two glasses of water. "Can I get you started with any drinks?"

Chris looked at me to go first. I hesitated for a moment looking over the wine list before responding. "Can I get a glass of the pinot grigio, please?"

"That's a great choice, miss. And for you sir?"

"I will have a rusty nail, on the rocks please."

"Sounds great guys. I'll get those out to you as soon as possible."

The two of us stayed quiet for a bit while we continued looking over the menu and tried to figure out what to talk about next and our waiter brought back our drinks and we ordered our food. "Well, this is a little awkward." Chris broke the silence, twirling his glass on the table while he looked at me.

I chuckled lightly. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. I never really know what to talk about on dates."

"I suppose we could go with the classic small talk if that works for you."

I nodded. "That sounds like a pretty good plan. I'll start, so where are you from?" I said and leaned in slightly. 

"I'm from a suburb just outside of Boston."

"Oh wow, a Boston guy. I have to say I'm a little surprised that you don't have an accent." I joked and took a sip of my wine.

"Just you wait. Once I get a few drinks in me it'll come out." He laughed. "I'm surprised you didn't catch it when we met at the bar."

"I might have had a little too much to drink to have been very observant." He laughed again and I swear it was the cutest laugh I'd ever heard come from another person. 

"Well, my turn to learn about you. I guess I'll stick with this line of questioning."

"It's a pretty good choice." I joked before responding. "I'm actually from Colorado."

He nodded for a moment, clearly mulling something over. "So are you a big weed gal?" He asked.

I nearly choked on my wine laughing at his remark. "That is the stereotype isn't it," I said still chuckling. "I wouldn't call myself a connoisseur, but I'll indulge every once in a while."

"Good to know. Well, what brought you out to California? You don't exactly seem like the very 'Cali Lifestyle' person." 

"You're not completely wrong," I admitted. The reason I had moved here was to get away from my family. My parents were pretty overbearing and getting away always seemed like the best option, but I wasn't sure telling him about my crazy family was the best thing to bring up on a first date. "I just wanted a change of scenery, you know. I'd lived in Colorado my whole life so I wanted to be able to say I'd spent part of my life experiencing new things. But what about you? What brought you to the Golden State?"

"It is the place to be for my line of business, I guess." He said and took another sip of his drink. "It's got its perks but I definitely love Boston more than anything. I try and get back there as often as I can and see my family."

Before I could respond and eventually haphazardly enter a conversation about our families, our waiter came back with our food. We spent the rest of the meal bouncing around random talking points and I learned that not only was he seemingly a total bro, but was incredibly intellectual and loved to explore the meaning of life. Our waiter eventually came back and we both couldn't resist ordering dessert.

"I'm gonna run to the restroom really fast." I said, standing up from the table and grabbing my purse. 

When I walked into the restroom I pulled out my phone to see three missed calls from Estelle and a text.

Estelle

TEXT ME BACK AS SOON AS YOU CAN I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU

I was extremely confused about what she deemed to be so urgent but I decided to indulge her.

Laurel

What's up?

Estelle

Okay so Chris is like a big-time actor. Like Big. Time.

Laurel

What do you mean? What's he been in??

I was starting to get a little nervous even though I really didn't need to. I mean, he seemed like a perfectly normal guy and did not give off a very Hollywood vibe.

Estelle

Attachment: 1 image

I opened the picture and my jaw dropped. It was the poster for Captain America and it very clearly showed Chris front and center. I was shocked. I had seen the poster around for months but I hadn't put two and two together that Chris was, in fact, Captain America. 

Laurel

What am I supposed to do with this??? 

Estelle

Um... bask in the glory that a literal superhero is currently taking you out on a date!! What else?!?!?! 

I stood in the bathroom for a few seconds and could feel the sweat beginning to pool on the palms of my hands. How on earth was I on a date with an actual celebrity? What choices had I made that had gotten me to this point? I could feel a light panic beginning to set in so I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to try and settle myself before going back out, hoping that I would still seem normal. When I got back to the table our dessert had already arrived and Chris seemed to be struggling to wait for me before diving into the delicious looking chocolate cake. Seeing him like that calmed me down a little. He really was just a normal guy.

The rest of the date when amazingly. We kept bouncing around a bunch of random topics, my favorite was probably our discussion on whether or not humans actually had free will, to which we both concluded that we had absolutely no fucking idea. We stayed at the restaurant until we were one of three other groups remaining and decided it was time to head out. 

The end of first dates are always super fucking weird. As great as this one had gone, that fact still remained the same. He walked me back to my car, and I kept wanting to drift my hand towards his to grab it but I felt like that might've been too much.

"Well, this is me." I told him as we arrived at my car. "I had a really great time with you tonight, I'm glad we did this." I added.

Chris smiled, looking down and running a hand through his hair. "I did too, you're a lot of fun to talk to." His smile sank a bit which confused me.

"Something on your mind?" I asked as a bit of worry started to build in my brain.

He sighed and quickly shoved his hands into his pockets. "It's nothing huge just that I think you tensed up a little bit towards the end of dinner. Makes me think you might've finally noticed." 

I started to speak but stopped myself to think for a moment. He had definitely noticed that I was a bit more nervous when I got back from the bathroom and at that moment I swear I could have punched Estelle if she had been with us. "Yeah." I finally admitted. "I was hoping you wouldn't be able to tell, but you are far more perceptive than I anticipated."

He chuckled. "Don't worry about it. You're not the only person who's done that. I hope that doesn't change anything for you though."

"I hadn't really thought about it to be honest." We both paused for a second while it finally hit me at that moment. He really was a celebrity and if we were going out there was the possibility of me getting pulled into a spotlight I don't think I was prepared for. 

"Well, as I said, I hope it doesn't because I would really like to see you again." He gave me a shy smile.

"I would like that too." I smiled back at him and he hugged me before we said our goodbyes. The drive back home I thought a lot about what he had said. I didn't want the fact that he was famous to change anything about how I felt about him, but part of me was starting to bug out about it. I never thought I'd ever be put into this position and now that it was here I had absolutely no idea what to do about it.