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So, dinner tomorrow?
Devi shot up from her bed. She’d been scrolling through Instagram, leaving a comment on Eleanor’s latest post which had featured Trent and her at a make-shift Speakeasy that had definitely been Eleanor’s idea to attend. Devi definitely had not been expecting a notification from Ben. Not that things had been weird between them after yesterday. He’d been sweet and even offered to drive her home which she’d instantly declined. There was no way she was going to let her mom see her in Ben’s car. Not when things were healing between them.
Dinner tomorrow? Was he asking her on a date? Was she reading into things too much? They hadn’t exactly figured out what they were yesterday. Just friends and yesterday was a mistake? Friends with benefits? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Enemies?
Devi had spent the best part of the today trying to figure out where she stood with Ben, too much of a chicken to text him and find out. And now he had messaged her. About dinner. She panicked for a minute, trying to figure out what to reply. She hadn’t told Fab or Eleanor about what had happened between her and Ben so it wasn’t like she could even ask them for advice. It wasn’t the sort of news she could drop over text. Devi quickly typed out a reply and hit send before she could start overthinking it.
Dinner is an everyday thing for me, Ben.
That was good right? Gave off a jokey vibe, like she didn’t care too much? Or was that the wrong thing to say? Maybe now wasn’t the right time to joke. Maybe she needed to be more serious. Devi didn’t get long to freak out before the next message popped up.
Hilarious, Devi. Truly. I’m laughing so hard right now.
Devi bit her lip, thumbs hovering over her phone’s keyboard. What did she even reply to that? Thankfully, Ben saved her with another message.
Seriously? Are you really going to make me ask you properly? Fine.
Devi, would you like to go on a date with me? Dinner tomorrow at Nomura? I know it’s your favourite.
Butterflies erupted into flight in Devi’s stomach. She read over the text at least five times before it sank in. Ben Gross was asking her out on a date. A proper dinner date where they would be sat opposite each other and flirt and not have to act like they hated each other.
Devi fell back on her bed again, a huge grin spreading across her face. So, Ben hadn’t thought that yesterday was a mistake, then. He couldn’t have if he was going to take her on a date. And he’d even remembered her favourite restaurant. She’d only mentioned it in passing, during a study session. They’d worked through lunch and forgotten to eat and the sound of Devi’s stomach had been the only reason that either of them had looked up from their textbooks.
“Seriously, Devi? Do you not have any self-control?”
“Dude, I can’t help it when my stomach growls. I’m hungry.”
Ben had rolled his eyes, grabbing a bag of chips from his backpack and handing them to her. “This is why you’ll never get valedictorian.”
“What? Because I’m hungry?” Her stomach growled again and she took the chips from him. “You know what I would really love right now? Sushi from Nomura. They do the best dragon roll.”
“Eh, my Dad knows Simon Cowell’s sushi chef. He catered my 13th birthday.”
Devi threw a chip at him, “Say whatever you want but Nomura is the best restaurant in the city and I’m not going to stand for any slander against it.”
Uh, hello? You know I can tell that you’ve read my messages right? If you don’t want to go, that’s completely fine. It was probably a dumb idea anyway.
Devi panicked. She had been lost in her daydream and hadn’t replied to Ben’s message in over five minutes. She was sure she’d turned read receipts off!
No no! Not a dumb idea. Her thumbs flew across the keyboard, hitting send so Ben didn’t think she was rejecting him before taking her time to craft out a better reply. Dinner sounds really good. I can’t believe you remember my favourite restaurant.
I remember a lot about you, Devi. You aren’t someone I want to forget.
“Okay, now I just need to figure out what to wear…”
At least half of Devi’s wardrobe was strewn across her room. She’d tried on seven different outfits so far and had hated all of them. None of them felt right for a date with Ben. She wanted this to be perfect. Devi knew she’d already messed things up with him once and she didn’t want it to happen again. The fact that Ben was even giving her another chance after everything blew her mind but she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
After another half an hour of debate and rummaging through both her and Kamala’s wardrobes, Devi ended up settling for a lilac balloon-sleeved blouse with a black skater skirt.
“Heels? No heels? Would heels be too fancy?” A quick glance at the clock made her realise that she really didn’t have the time to debate her footwear. She grabbed a set of ankle boots, snatched her bag from her bed and ran down the stairs.
“Gonna be late, mom. Love you, bye!” She gave Nalini a quick kiss on the cheek, barely hearing the calls for her to text when she got to Fabiola’s.
Even though the relationship between Devi and her mom had improved significantly, Devi still wasn’t quite ready to tell her mom about her date with Ben. She needed to figure out what was going on first before she even tried to broach the subject.
When Devi finally got to the restaurant, she was only five minutes late. From outside, she could see Ben sitting at a table, foot nervously bouncing as he stared at his phone. She rushed inside, making a beeline for the table.
“Hey, I am so sorry I’m late. I completely lost track of time and then the traffic was just crazy on the way here and I really didn’t mean to be late. Honestly, I-”
Ben stood up, taking one of her hands and cutting her off. “You look… wow…”
He found it impossible to take his eyes off of her. Ben was used to staring at Devi over the past couple of months. He found himself automatically seeking her out in every room in the school. His head couldn’t help but turn whenever he heard her laughter. She was always beautiful. But tonight, with the glow of the sunset streaming through the window, Devi looked radiant.
“Oh, uh… Thanks,” Devi stumbled over her words, a blush crawling up her cheeks.
“Shall we… uh,” Ben gestured to the table with a tilt of his head.
“Yeah, sure.”
When the two of them sat down, there was a moment of awkward silence before Devi decided that this definitely wasn’t the trajectory she wanted this date to take. “Ben, can we stop being so awkward about this? I mean, I’ve really been looking forward to this date and I love this place so I can’t have the next hour and a half just be painful silence.”
A small smirk graced Ben's lips, “Okay, how about we talk about your shoddy timekeeping skills, then?”
“Hey, I was only five minutes late!”
The tension quickly dissolved and the two of them fell into an easy conversation. Devi hadn’t felt that comfortable in a long time. While the two of them waited on dessert, Ben had grabbed Devi’s hand across the table, his thumb running over her skin and Devi couldn’t even try and suppress her smile.
“Devi? Ben? Is that you?”
Devi’s hair flew around her as he found the source of the voice. “Eleanor, Fab! What are you guys doing here?”
“Dinner, we texted you earlier to ask if you wanted to join but you never responded.” Devi winced, she’d put her phone on silent after texting her mom. She hadn’t wanted anything to distract her tonight.
“I guess now we know why,” Eleanor eyed Ben with some suspicion.
Ben went to retract his hand from Devi’s. Feeling his warmth leave, Devi held onto it, turning back to Ben and giving him a reassuring smile. “Yeah, sorry about that.” She looked to her friends again, “Ben and I are on a date.”
It was hard to tell who was more surprised at that point, Eleanor, Fabiola or Ben. Fab quickly recovered, jumping in before Eleanor had the chance to say anything. “Well, I’m really glad for you guys! We just need to grab our order but we’ll get out of your hair.”
Fab began tugging Eleanor away from the table. “Hey, wait, I have questions!”
“Later!” Fab hissed in her ear before smiling at the couple. “Have a good night guys.”
Devi shook her head and grinned at Ben. “I’m sorry about them, but you should know that if you’re planning on dating me then we’re a package deal.”
“You didn’t lie to them.” Ben looked slightly in awe as he looked down at his and Devi’s hands which were still intertwined across the table.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, I guess I just thought you might want to hide the fact that we’re on a date. I know the girls would prefer you to be with someone like Paxton…”
Devi gave Ben’s hand a squeeze, “Ben, I’m not ashamed of you and I don’t want to be with someone like Paxton. I want to be with you. Look, I know I’ve been a trainwreck when it’s come to relationships and I’ve hurt you way more than I could ever apologise for but I know what I want now and it’s you. Fab and Eleanor… I think they’re just surprised because I hadn’t told them anything. There’s been a lot to unpack and I kind of wanted to know what was going on between us first before I told them anything. I’m sorry if you wanted to keep this quiet. It was stupid and I should have asked before I told them anything.”
“Devi, you don’t need to be sorry. I don’t want to hide this. I really don’t care who knows.” Ben would have happily yelled it from the rooftops if he could but decided that a little self-restraint was probably for the best.
“And what is this?” It wasn’t often that Ben saw a more shy side of Devi and all he wanted to do was grab her and kiss her.
“A start of a relationship. Where I was hoping that you would be my girlfriend.” There was not a hint of shyness in Ben’s voice as he spoke. He knew that this was what he wanted, he’d waited long enough. He knew that both he and Devi had been through a lot of growth over the past few years. The timing hadn’t been right for them before but he couldn’t help but think that now was their time.
“Well, Benjamin Gross, I think you’re in luck because I would love to be your girlfriend.” Devi hadn’t realised how tense she had actually been about their situation. She hated not knowing things and not knowing where she stood with Ben would have ended up driving her crazy. But that wasn’t something that she had to worry about now because she was dating Ben Gross. She was his girlfriend. And for some reason that she’d figure out soon enough, it felt like coming home.