The Date

Louise's POV

"Surprised?" Ed asked.

I was gobsmacked. Clear twinkling lights dangled effortlessly from the ceiling, drooping over to the walls.

Every single table had a single stick candle, glowing on the tables which where decorated with rose petals and lined with a white cloth.

Couples were eating peacefully at their tables as they allowed the beautiful taste of their food to dance on their pallets and release the heavenly feeling which escaped from their delectable food.

The atmosphere was so relaxing and calm with the quite, slow sound of faint music in the distance.

It was perfection.

"It's amazing." I managed to breath.

"Yay dot com forward slash epic!" Ed proudly said. "I feel like a ninja, or a spy, or a detective."

"Detective Sheeran. Sick." I laughed.

"I know. I would make such an awesome detective." He said.

"Good evening sir and madam." A man greeted. "A table for two?"

"Yep." Ed popped the 'p'.

"Certainly, this way." He guided us towards a window table.

"I'm a sir." Ed whispered happily to me as the man guided us. "And you're a madam. How posh?"

"Very." I giggled.

"Someone will be here in a few minutes to take your order." The man's British accent stood out.

"Thanks." Ed thanked as the man walked away.

He pulled the chair open for me and I sat down. Aw, such a gentleman. He sat on the chair opposite me.

"So is the food here like really elegant?" Ed was excited.

"What do you mean?"

"Like do they have really fancy names and the portions are way too small, yet cost a bomb? Because I've always wanted to go to a place like that." He said.

"Uhm," I laughed a little realising he was right. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Awesome sauce." He grinned.

"I remember the last time I saw you in a restaurant. You didn't look as happy. You were with a friend?" I told him.

"Oh yeah, when you were the waitress there for one day." He recalled.

"Yeah."

"I was with my friend, Jamal. He had just told me he was moving to New York so I wasn't too happy." He informed me.

"Oh right. Well that sucks." I said.

"There was something else that happened that day." He remembered.

"What?" I was intrigued.

"After you went..." He began. "I chased after you."

"What?"

"Yep. You finished your shift and I saw you walking down the road. I wanted to ask you out but you were too fast and then caught the bus." He admitted.

"Oh wow." I was truly amazed. "I remember having my headphones in and hearing a faint noise. If I had any idea-"

"It's fine. Got my yearly exercise done." He joked.

I was flattered. He actually liked me before we even came to camp... and so did I.

"I couldn't believe my luck when I saw you were working at the camp." He said.

My heart was beating out of my chest. He was so sweet. Every time he said something like that, a swarm of butterflies would jump around in my stomach. I loved it.

Ed's POV

Why did I say that? It sounded weird, right? Like how I 'chased after her'. I bet she thought I was a right weirdo for saying that.

When she walked in and saw the place, I wished I could've taken a picture of her gorgeous face, which lit up, and cherish the memory forever.

"So, let's get down to the important stuff." I eyed the menu. "The food."

"Let's." We both reached for the menus and I found my hand rested on top of hers for a brief moment.

A warm, tingling feeling shot up my arm as I felt the soft touch of her and I could tell she felt it too.

I studied all the different types of food, trying to stop my mouth from watering. She loved cooking and I loved eating. It was a perfect match.

Me, being a random weirdo, brought dental floss with me just in case I got food stuck in my mouth. I don't know why I did it, but I did. I just thought that if we did happen to kiss, I didn't want food stuck in between my teeth. I felt like it was burning a hole in my pocket. It was stupid.

"This is one of the hardest decisions I've ever made." I said.

"I know exactly what to get. I always used to get it. The-"

"Steak?" I finished off her sentence, remembering how she told me about the first thing she cooked was the steak in this very restaurant. See, I listen.

"Yeah." She smiled, happy that I remembered.

I wanted the guy who taught her to make the steak to be here to give us another masterclass, but he retired. I was gutted but it didn't matter now. As long as I was here with her and she was having a good time.

"Sorted." I smiled.

A waiter soon came and took our orders and our food came within ten to twenty minutes.

There was only one word to describe the food. Delicious. If I could, I would eat like this everyday. It was my new favourite place to eat.

"So, Ed." Louise began. "Tell me something that I don't know about you. Like a strange middle name or a funny habit."

"Well..." I thought about it. I didn't really have anything cool about me which she didn't know. At least I think I didn't. "My middle name is Christopher?"

"How strange?" She commented.

"I know." I carried on the sarcasm.

"Well I have quite a long name. It's a bit of a mouthful. It's Louise Jane Evelyn Meridith Nora Clark." She explained.

"Louise Jane Evelyn Meridith...?"

"Nora Clark." She added. "Yep. But Louise Clark is fine."

"Louise Clark." I smiled. "Perfect."

The more I knew about her, the more I liked her. She wasn't like anyone I had ever met before. She was... well she was was Louise Jane Evelyn Meridith Nora Clark; one of a kind.

"I do have a pretty cool talent. I can fit like 40 or so maltesers in my mouth at once." I told her.

"Really?" She was impressed.

"Yep." I nodded proudly. "Sick, isn't it?"

"Most definitely." She smiled. "Oh I have a semi cool talent."

"What?"

"If you muddle up a Rubix Cube, I can get it back to normal in less than 2 minutes." She revealed.

"Awwwwesome!" I was amazed. "Those things are tricky."

"I know, but once you know how to do them, it's easy." She explained.

She was so cool.

"Oh, let's play a game!" I beamed at her as soon as the idea sparked to mind.

"A game? What kind?" She was totally down for it.

"It's called..." I tried to think of a name of the game I just made up. "Hilariously not funny."

"Hilariously not funny?" She lightly laughed. "How do you play?"

"Well basically, you tell me a joke and I have to try my best not to laugh, then I tell you a joke and you have to try your best not to laugh. It goes on and on until someone laughs or can't think of a joke, meaning they lose." I explained.

"Is that really a game? Or did you just make it up?" She asked. How did she know it was made up?

"All games are made up. So yes it is a game." I told her.

"But you made it up?" She stated rather than it being a question.

"Yeah, okay me first." I thought of a joke. "Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"Ach." I said.

"Ach-who?"

"Bless you." I smiled, delivering the pun.

"That is so bad." She didn't laugh and thought of her joke."What happens when you get a bladder infection?"

"I don't know."

"Let's just say, urine trouble." She smirked.

"Oh my." I smiled but did not laugh. "What did Jay-Z call Beyoncé before they got married?"

"What?"

"His Feyoncé." I told her the pun and still she did not laugh.

"Why was six afraid of seven?"

"Why?" I asked.

"Because seven eight nine." She replied.

"That is so old." I smirked. I looked around for some inspiration to spark a joke to mind. I couldn't think of one. Then some noodles drifted passed me. "Oh! What do you call a worm that looks like a noodle?"

"I don't know."

"An Impasta!" I replied and yet still she failed to laugh.

"What did the ocean say to the other ocean?"

"I don't know." I said.

"Nothing, they just waved." She answered.

"Oh I sea what you did there."

"I'm shore you did." She smiled.

"Okay, okay." I thought of my joke. "Erm... erm..."

"Can't think of a joke?" She smirked.

"Yeah, I can." THINK, ED, THINK! I did not want to lose at a game that I had invented.

"I think your time is up." She smirked. "I win!"

"Congratulations, you're the winner of hilariously not funny!" I cheered.

"And what's my awesome prize?" She smiled.

"Spending time with me, obviously." I joked.

"Best. Prize. Ever." She laughed.

We carried on talking and eating... and talking and eating... and talking and eating some more. It was like an awkward silence was alien to us. It made me like her even more.

I still felt like this date wasn't special; wasn't memorable. But I desperately wanted it to be. But how? Right now, it was just like a cliché date at a restaurant. It needed to be more.

So once we had finished eating, I had paid for the bill (which was large but I really didn't care), and we left the restaurant, I had a thought.

We were sitting in my car with the radio on playing at a low volume.

"We've gone to one of your favourite places, so I think it's only fair that we go to mine." I told her.

"And where would that be?" She asked.

"The beach."

*****

Stars glistened brightly in the sky, their light, along with the moon's, reflecting on the ocean in the darkness of the night. The sea roared as Louise and I strolled down the silky, smooth sand.

"It's beautiful out here." Louise said.

"I know." I agreed.

My eyes kept flickering towards her hand. Would it seem weird if I were to hold it? It was as if it were staring at me; grabbing my attention.

"I used to come here when I was little when I just needed to escape reality. It's peaceful... it gave me time to think." I told her.

"I wish I had a place like this when I was younger." She admitted.

We sat down cross legged, side by side, on the sand, listening to the echoing of the ocean.

I started looking around at the pebbles which were scattered all around the beach, when one caught my eye.

"Look," I move a little and stretch to pick it up. "It's in a heart shape."

A light grey pebble with a tiny hole at the top rested in my hand.

"Let's see." She said. I held it in the middle of us and we both studied it. "It's so beautiful."

Like you. I thought to myself. I believed in fate and I believed that finding that heart pebble was a sign of some sort.

"It is." I agreed and then remembered something. "I have dental floss!"

"What?" She laughed.

"Look." I dug around in my pocket to find it. I got it out a pulled a long string of it out. I looped it in to the tiny hole of the pebble, like the pebble was a pendant.

"What are you-" She began to ask but then realised that I was making her a necklace.

"Turn around." I smiled and she turned and held her hair to the side of her.

I put my hand crafted necklace around her neck and tied a knot at the back. She turned back.

"Now the heart falls where your chest is. A piece of me and the beach falls just where it needs to be and rests, peacefully." I said. So you just need to breathe to feel my heart against yours now.

You will never know just how beautiful you are to me.

"Thank you." She looked down at it and held it in the palm of her hands. "Now I'll never forget this day."

"Neither will I." I agreed. "So, I don't suppose you'd want to do this again?"

"I'd love to. Definitely."

My heart skipped a beat.