Today is the day

“Today is the day I am finally going to ask her out”, I thought to myself.

I have planned this for three weeks and if I don’t do it today, the last day of summer, who knows what kind of boys she will meet back in school. The kind that have no respect for girls, just ask them out for fun, like kissing and stuff. My plan with Nancy Wilkens is not just about having fun, it’s more of a long term commitment. I planned to marry her one, grow old together and sit on an beautiful carved bench, that I built many years earlier, surrounded by our many children and grandchildren and two golden retriever dogs. It would always be sunny and everyday we would row our little boat out onto the lake and sit for hours looking at each other with love in our eyes.

“Josh!”, I heard her call.
“Yes dear”
“Josh, wake up man”
“What?” I said as my eyes regained focus.
“Dude, what planet were you on?” It was my best friend Robert.
“I’m going to ask her out today”
“No, you are going to ruin your life, she will destroy you”

I had first seen Nancy Wilkon three Saturdays ago. She was the most beautiful thing on the planet Earth. I was ten and had just moved to a new house in a neighbourhood called Starlane and I was in love for the first time. It was the middle of summer and I had just stepped out my front door, ready to explore the world after unpacking my bedroom and helping Mom with some of the living room boxes. She walked by with this other girl who I hardly noticed. The other girl glanced over and smiled but Nancy, as I would later learn was her name, just looked straight ahead. For a second I thought, what a snob. But then I knew better, she was perfect and was just focused on the conversation and the day’s activities They were probably going to do something perfect like help an old person across the street or clean up the garbage on the highway. They continued up the street for about twenty feet, all the while I was staring right at her. Then her friend said something to her, and she turned and looked right into my eyes. I realized that we were about forty feet apart but it felt like she had point blank stared right into my soul. And she smiled! I instantly turned a nice deep red, which thankfully she didn’t notice, and managed a kind of wispy smile back. They continued up the street while I melted onto our front porch. I knew right then, she was the one.

“Did I tell you she smiled at me” I said
“Oh man, that was like three weeks ago” Robert replied
“When I was buying groceries the other day with my Mom, she was at the next cashier and after she looked at me she whispered and giggled to her friend”. I already realized my argument was weak.
“Exactly, she thinks you’re a dork”

I really felt like Nancy was the one, but I was losing faith in my ability to ask her out. I revisited my many introductory phrases (‘pickup lines dude’ as Robert would say) and thought that “I like your smile” was the best one, it would compliment her without putting too much emphasis on anything in particular. No girl can resist a compliment and she would say thank you. I would have my foot in the door and the rest would be easy. We would laugh and talk for hours, and then later we would meet at midnight and stay up all night under the stars. I would give her a light kiss on the cheek at dawn to show her that I respected her. It would be easy for both of us, we were already in love, it was karmic and meant to be. As soon as Robert went home I would march right over to her house and get it over with.

“Today is the day I am finally going to ask her out”, I thought to myself the next morning.