You ended up staying in the car for an hour with Lin.

At first, it was just you complaining about your work situation and romance situation (without throwing around names), but then it turned into a full-on rant session. It turned out that Lin had a lot of frustrations in his life too.

By the end, you felt so much better. It felt good to finally express your anger and stress and have someone be there for you.

You both take a deep breath after Lin finishes his final rant.

"That felt good," he says, smiling.

"Yeah. It really did." You look over at him. "Thanks. I really needed this."

He nods. "Me too."

You both smile, then look away.

It felt so nice to just relax and not have anything to worry-

"Wait. Lin, what time is it?"

"Uhhhh..." He checks his phone. "6:30. Why?"

"Crap. Rehearsal ended an hour ago," you say, panic filling. Your date with Leslie was in half an hour, and you hadn't even gone home yet.

"Crap crap crap crap crap crap," you repeat, getting out of your car. All of your stuff was still inside the theater.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Lin follows you inside.

"Um, I have plans and all my stuff is inside and I still need to go home and get ready," you reply, making your way to your dressing room.

"Oh." He pauses. "Oh crap, I totally forgot, I have plans too. Eh, I've mastered the fine art of getting ready in five minutes."

You roll your eyes, trying to hide your smile.

"What kind of plans do you have?", Lin asks casually.

You go inside and quickly shove all of your stuff in your backpack. "A date," you answer quickly, not looking over at him.

You zip up your backpack and turn and see Lin standing in the doorway.

"Oooh, a date? With who?", Lin teases, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Shut up," you say with a smile, brushing past him.

"No, now I really want to know. What's the guy like? A criminal? A tattoo artist? You know, if he has a lot of neck tattoos, that's not a good sign."

You laugh as Lin follows you back out to the parking lot.

"No, no neck tattoos."

"Hook?"

"Nope."

"Peg leg?"

"No."

"Long grey beard?"

"No!", you exclaim, laughing. You throw your backpack into the backseat of your car. "Why do you think my type is a pirate?"

Lin shrugs. "You just seem like you might be into that."

You roll your eyes, still smiling. "Bye, Lin." You get into the driver's seat.

Lin, once again, appears at the window, and you roll it down.

"Hey, for real, good luck on your date, Y/N."

You feel a pang in your chest, and nod. "Thanks."

He smiles, then moves away from your car, and you back out and drive home.

It takes fifteen minutes to get to your apartment building, so you only had fifteen minutes to get ready for your date, which you were already having a massive freak out about.

"Ahhhh I have nothing to wear!", you yell, looking through your five shirts and two pairs of pants that you had.

You could not make any decisions under pressure. And this was no different.

You pick up your phone and quickly dial Evy.

"Hey, Y/N!"

"Evy! I'm going on a date in like ten minutes and I have nothing to wear!"

"It's true. You only have like five shirts."

"That's not helpful!"

"Okay, okay. You have this nice blue off-shoulder shirt like in the back of your closet, and this cute black skirt I lent you once that you forgot to return. I think it's in your bottom drawer."

"Awesome thank you!"

"You're welcome! Good luck! I hope it goes amaziiiiiing!"

"Thanks! Bye!"

You quickly hang up and throw on the clothes. You speed-brush your teeth, then brush through your hair. You put it in a messy side braid, then dig your makeup out from underneath the sink.

You're just putting on a tiny bit of blush, when this pops up on your phone:

"Oooooooh crap," you mutter.

You quickly type "okay", then get back to work.

You finish putting on blush, put on a bit of mascara, do a couple quick spritzes of perfume, then do a final check of yourself in the mirror.

You look yourself up and down.

Eh.

Not perfect, but, surprisingly, not crappy.

Good enough.

You grab a nice grey purse, tuck your phone and wallet inside, then head down.

While you're in the elevator, you take a few deep breaths.

It's okay. Leslie's your friend. It'll be fun. And you look...okay.

You step out of the elevator and go out into the parking lot, and see Leslie waiting in front of a car, looking very nice in a button up and slacks.

"Y/N," he says.

"Leslie," you say.

He looks you up and down. "You look really pretty."

You smile. "Thank you. You look very nice."

He grins, then walks over and opens the passenger door.

"Oh, thank you," you say, getting in.

As you're driving there, you start to calm down. The worst of it is over. You made it on time. You and Leslie are just going to get to spend quality time together and get to know each other. It'll be casual and nice.

Once you're there, and a valet takes Leslie's car, you walk up to the resturant.

"Wow, this place is really nice," you comment. "Was that the surprise? That you're taking me to an uber fancy place to eat?"

"That's part of it," he replies with a smile, and you walk in.

"Do you have a reservation?", the host asks once you're inside.

"Actually, our table is already ready," Leslie replies, and you start to get confused.

"Oh. Go right on back then."

Leslie starts walking to where all the tables are, and you look around for your table.

You go around the corner and freeze.

Oh no.

Oh my gosh.

You pray that you passed out and this is just a stress dream.

Sitting there, grinning from ear to ear, was Evy. And Lin.

Leslie turns to you with an excited smile. "The surprise is that Lin and Evy are joining us!"

"It's a double date!", Evy squeals. "I was so good at pretending that I didn't know what you were talking about on the phone, right?!"

You lock eyes with Lin.

"This was a surprise to me, too," he says with slightly fake enthusiasm.

"C'mon, let's go sit," Leslie says, holding out his hand.

You grab it, and he leads you towards what promised to be an unforgettable night.