Chapter 4

I made a mental note to not supply any unnecessary comments regarding Shelley's "makeover" so to say.

So, it was the date-day, and as though a cherry on top of the cake, the guy I was about to go on a date with was a blind date. Please God have mercy.

Shelley was going to pick me up in a few minutes for this stupid thing which I was honestly dreading with my whole heart. Any girl would be lucky to go out with a godly-looking guy like Jace, but I didn't even have that assurance about how my date would be. I just desperately hoped that the guy would at least be a decent one if not for a sweetheart like him.

The sound of honking brought me out of my thoughts and I quickly grabbed my phone from the couch I was sitting at before putting on my rose-printed white vans (a creation of my sister's skills).

"Mom, I'm off!" I yelled from the living room.

She poked her head out from the kitchen. "Okay, but be back by 8."

"Okay!" I said, closing the front door behind me.

In the car, Shelley brushed her bangs aside with one hand, and I almost laughed. In the face of a makeover, Shelley had gone and gotten bangs which definitely did not suit her and being her best friends, Savannah and I tried to stop her from this utter mortification of a bad haircut, but once she's on a mission, she's like a mad bull seeing red. Okay, too far.

I looked over at her outfit which seemed to be much fancier than mine, though I definitely wasn't about to care. She was wearing a short off-shouldered dress with slightly puffy sleeves along with shiny heels. She looked really pretty for sure.

"You look so beautiful!" I gushed, pointing at her.

She stared ahead as she drove, but smiled widely. "Thank you! And you—" Her eyes widened as she glanced at me, "why are you wearing just a white shirt and shorts?! This is a date, Alyssa."

"Yes, for you," I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.

Truthfully, I didn't think I was under dressed anyway considering this so-called date was actually happening on a Saturday morning in an ice-cream parlor for godssake. And there's nothing wrong with experiencing the joys of ice-cream in a white shirt and dark blue denim shorts. Please someone make this weirdo understand.

The only positive thing about this whole thing was my reunion with my beloved ice-cream. That's it.

Before I could dwell on Shelley's opinion over my outfit further, she pulled up in front of the ice-cream shop. She slowly parked in the space in front of the shop and turned to face me.

"Hey, Lyss, why don't you go and see if Jace' here yet? I'm going to give myself a quick pep talk." She said to me, scratching her head nervously.

I nodded because I would rather stare at all the heavenly ice-cream flavors than hear her talking to herself.

As I opened the door to the store, a small chime sounded overhead and it was the sweetest sound I'd ever heard. Without wasting any time, I glided like a person being pulled by the song of sirens. My mouth filled with drool as I gazed longingly at the myriad of flavors. If I could have eaten everything in here, believe me I would have.

Another person, a tall guy, was also sporting a familiar look as he stared at the ice-creams. I raised my brows at his form. Who knew Jace was also a sucker for ice-creams? Maybe this was why he picked this place for the date. Of course, I was anything but complaining.

"Thank you, Jace. You've done a godly job today." At that moment, I was the personification of that emoji that features an about to cry face.

Hearing my voice, Jace was startled from his position. "Oh, hey, Alyssa." There was very, very tiny hint of blush peaking onto his face. "I didn't see you there."

"Totally acceptable." I nodded and resumed watching the flavors.

"You love ice-creams, too?"

I put my hand on heart. "Always, always."

"Hey," I leaned against the glass partition, turning towards him. "Have you tried Belgian Chocolate and Lavender Honey together?"

He thinks for a moment. "No, but I've tried a lot of ice-cream fusions. Have you tried Maple Walnut and Mango?"

"Yeah, didn't like it. What about Green Tea and Blueberry?"

"Liked it, would say a 7 on 10. Bubblegum and Coconut Milk?"

I scrunched my nose. "Yuck."

His mouth dropped open. "You don't like coconuts?"

I shook my head. "I've been a hater since birth. The flavor gives me major 'ew' vibes."

"Alright, coconut hater." He had an amused smile on his face now. "How about Blue Mint and—" I cut him off before he could finish. "Strawberry? Heck, yes! It's the best combination ever!"

"Right?! Are you my soulmate or what?!" He exclaimed.

"Wow, you guys are having a nice bonding experience which I'm very happy to see."

Both of looked away from each other and stared at my friend who was standing near the entrance with a teasing smile. It was then Jace and I realized just how close we were standing. We were so engrossed in our interesting, mouth-watering discussion that we didn't even notice that he had one hand pressed on the glass partition right next to head and was slightly leaning over me, while I had my back completely plastered onto the glass.

We sprang apart immediately.

"Um," I mumbled, "I'm gonna go order some ice-cream."

I walked away from them, stepping up to the counter to order. After an inner struggle that lasted forever, I finally decided to order red velvet ice-cream. It's my absolute favorite, so much so I could eat it every day.

Sitting down in the window seat of a booth, I gleefully enjoyed my ice-cream as I waited for Jace and Shelley to get theirs.

"Why isn't he here yet?" Shelley muttered to herself as Jace and her sat down opposite to me.

I peered at her. "Who?"

Just as she opened her mouth to answer, something or rather someone behind me caught her eye. She waved at them enthusiastically. Less than a second later, a shadow appeared over the table we sat at.

"Hi, I'm sorry I'm late."

Turning in my seat, I glanced up. Hot damn. Almost like in a real life slow motion, he slowly took off his sunglasses and slowly shook his hair out before running a hand through it. Here I was wishing for a decent guy but seems like I got a supermodel qualifier instead.

It was Ivan Lee, also the quarterback ex-boyfriend of my beloved friend, Shelley.

"Oh, hi, Ivan." I gave him a tight-lipped smile before turning back to glare at Shelley. Seriously, she did not just set me up with her ex-boyfriend. This was somewhat embarrassing.

Ivan sat down next to me completely unaware of any tension in the atmosphere. Of course, he would be, I mean he always was kind of dumb.

"Hey, Alyssa. How you doin'?"

I cringed in disgust. "Please don't!" Do not ruin Friends for me.

Shelley laughed. "It never worked on her before, too."

"'Sup bro?" Ivan nodded at Jace who appeared quite uncomfortable.

"Why don't you go and order something?" I suggested him.

"Oh, yeah!"

One hour later into the date, we were still in the ice-cream parlor and I could tell we were getting under the parlor lady's nerves because she kept on throwing us agitated glances. I had already consumed three different flavors of ice-cream, any more and I'd have a cold the next day. Our booth was blasted with the obnoxious laughter of Ivan as he cracked absolutely ridiculous jokes which neither I nor Jace found funny. Shelley, on the other hand, appeared as if she was the one on a date with Ivan (I was thankful for that as it saved me a conversation with Ivan). Jace and I passed looks to each other when they both cackled like witches again.

"Alyssa," Jace whispered to me from across the table, "if the parlor lady calls the police on us, I'm totally blaming it on your best friend."

I leaned towards him. "I'll support you for sure."