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“I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this!” Diane repeated aloud over and over again.
“I want to, I really do. But I just can't do this.” She cried. She just called Miss Tarantula to help her get over her nerves of asking Wolf out, but ever since she dialed the number, she's been a nervous wreck.
“Calm down! What are you whining about anyway? Mind telling me what's going on instead of just implying something?”
“I just got this shot of confidence last night and promised myself the next day that I would tell Wolf I loved him, I was finally going to ask him out and really felt good about this time but now I psyched myself out and I need help because I can't move on with my work or hang out with people if I keep thinking about him!” She blurted out in one breath.
“.....Oh.”
“You are the only person I know that can help me with this. Girl to girl, right? You can help me, right? Please just.......help me on this.”
“Um, okay I guess? I mean, you said it yourself. You psyched yourself out and the only way for you to gain your confidence back is to re-convince yourself. So.....re-convince yourself.”
“But I d-” It was too late to answer, Tarantula had already hung up. Diane sighed, maybe she could get advice elsewhere, or try to push through the day. All she had to do was get through the day's work, right?
The morning was long and arduous, and the following afternoon was even harder to deal with. Constant filing and paperwork was starting to get to her as the words on the pages became nonsensical slush.
She rubbed her temples in exhausted frustration and leaned back in her chair.
“This day couldn't get any more boring or stressful.” She muttered to herself.
She kept getting stuck on that one thought racing through her mind. She rehearsed the question in her head perfectly, but no matter how many times she recited it inside her mind, her tongue continued to slip up the words; “We've known each other for a long time now, and I've been meaning to ask you something important. Will you go out on a date with me?”
She repeated it in her head a couple times before trying it out loud again. “We've been together- well, not together together but, uh- I....uh wanted to tell you something really important. It's probably not important to you, so I shouldn't really bother you with it, um....”
Diane was still messing up the delivery, every time.
“Why do I even bother practicing? It's just going to sound stupid...”
She put her hands on her face and groaned.
“I'm stupid.”
After her short pity party, she resumed her work and managed to finish on time.
“Finally, the day is over.” She breathed a small sigh of relief. Now, she could properly focus on her single objective she promised to do.
Asking Wolf out.
Crap.
Diane still felt she didn't have enough confidence or even the guts to tell Wolf how she felt. But, what was she supposed to do? Bottle her feelings up and regret never telling him? Hell. No. She would not let her doubts get the best of her.
She marched out her office with a flaring sense of eagerness. This was it. She was going to tell him, no questions asked. She was going to ask him out no matter how much doubt she felt. Worst comes to worst, he would say no.
But then she saw him, walking towards her in the hallway. It was like her nightmare was coming true all at once, unwrapping the terrors beneath. “Why is he walking to my office? Was it something I did? Oh no, did Tarantula tell him? Crap, I shouldn't have told her! She could be a gossip for all I know.”
Before she could curse herself any more, she noticed Wolf was holding something behind his back. It might as well have been a gun to shoot her in the heart since that's just what she felt.
He waved at her. “Hey um, Diane? I got something I want to ask you about?”
She walked past him with her head down and covering her face. “Hi I'm not really wanting to talk to people right now not that I don't want to talk to you or that I don't like talking with you it's just a problem with me and I've said too much bye!”
She almost ran out the hallway and into the next room. She breathed a sigh of relief while adjusting her blazer. “Almost got caught there, if I didn't leave so quickly I would've just blurted everything out. I just hope he didn't think of me as rude or whatnot.”
Something caught her eye. “What's Tarantula and Snake doing here?” She put her hands to her mouth and gasped. “Did she tell him? The little snitch! I knew it, I knew I shouldn't have told her.....”
Snake turned to Diane. “Hey, why aren't you holding his flo-” Tarantula nudged him from saying anything more.
“Did you tell him? Please don't tell me you told him anything.”
She reassured Diane. “I didn't tell Wolfie a thing.”
“Oh thank goodness, I thought you-”
“I told Snake instead!”
“....Did.”
Snake snickered to himself. “You know, it's kinda funny that we're both here to help with the same thing.” He pointed to Wolf behind her. “You two idiots have the exact same question. So go on ahead, no need to overthink. Wolf, go on and give the dumb flower already.”
Diane turned around to see Wolf holding out a flower to her, blushing from head to toe while looking down near the ground.
“REMMEBER, EYE CONTACT IS SEXY!” Snake half-yelled out.
Diane couldn't help but giggle at Snake egging him on.
He got extremely flustered. “You are making things so much more worse.” Wolf responded.
“That's my entire reason for being here! Don't forget the eye conta-” Tarantula nudged him harder to get him to stop.
“Stop it. You know how nervous he was from just buying the darn thing.”
“Oh how could I forget! He was so excited to buy it, he kept dropping his wallet trying to pay for it. Afterwards, he kept twirling the flower between his fingers, just waiting to ask you allll day!”
“Come on Snake, I think that's enough.” He pleaded.
“Get on with it already! I had to listen to Diane whine about you this morning and call Snake for help. But he couldn't even pick up the phone which made my job as certified wing-woman even harder.”
“What?! I can work a phone just fine, thank you.”
They started to walk away.
“You can't even turn on a computer!”
“And I can turn on a woman. Just because you know how how to hot wire a car doesn't make you special, Webs.”
“Ugh. You're unbelievable. I don't know why you even agreed to help Wolf out, I could've done this all by myself.”
Their conversation became indistinct as they left the two alone. It was just them now. An embarrassed wolf and a nervous fox.
Diane stepped closer to take the rose he was holding. She could feel more than just her own heartbeat pulsing.
“So...Are you going to ask me out? Or are you just waiting for me to say it?”
“Huh, I'm already shaking.” He mumbled, looking at his hands and fingers shaking.
Wolf kept looking away nervously but remembered Snake's dumb-assery from earlier.
“Diane, will you go out with me?”
Her face turned crimson red. “I thought you'd never ask.”
She walked closer to him and kissed him on the cheek. Wolf could feel a current running through his body when he felt her lips press up against him.
“How about tonight? At the diner?”
“Sounds like an amazing time.”
“Speaking of time, how does 5:30 sound?”
“Too far away.”
He chuckled. “I'll see you then.” He winked.
She watched him walk out the door and stared at the rose in her hand.
“This really happened. It's not a dream.”
Diane twisted and twirled the symbol of love between her fingers.
“And if it was one, which I doubt, I don't want to wake up.”
She went to the break room a few rooms over to grab a glass cup.
“I don't think they'll notice one cup missing.” She spoke to herself as she filled it with water.
Walking back into her office, she put the gift in the cup and on her windowsill.
She muttered so softly that only a mouse could hear. “That way, I'm always reminded of him.”
She laughed at herself. “What was I so worried about anyways?”
With that, Diane turned off the lights in the room and left the office to prepare for her date. Leaving the velvety petals to bask in the clear water, shining in the ray of light that was left in the room.