"The mall?" I exclaimed somewhat surprised by her choice.
"Sure!"
She tugged on my right hand as she started for the door. "But what are we going to do here?" I asked puzzled.
"Just walk around hold hands and talk. I told you it's a cheap date. It'll be fun I promise!" She said girlishly with a grin as she continued to tug me along.
It was a very large mall and we did a lot of walking and she did a lot of talking. I don't think her mouth ever stopped and in a way I hope it never did.
Typically I didn't like to be around people who talked a lot, but with her I wanted to hear everything she had to say.
"Mr. Tyre I'm hungry and I think it's time that I bought you dinner."
Amused by her offer to buy me dinner I let her pull me into a fast food place.
At the cash register she held up a twenty dollar bill, "I'll have you know if you are wondering that yes I truly did earn this money and that it's not some of yours."
I respected her attempt to show me the genuineness of her desire to do something for me, but I really wished she'd just let me pay for everything.
She was chewing on a french fry when her face grew suddenly pensive, which was so unlike her. She put the rest of her fry down and reached across the table and touched my hand and I waited to see what had brought this change over her.
"I want you to know how much I appreciate all that you've done for me Tyre! Walking me home, giving me your gun, your money, especially the taxi, but as much as your kindnesses mean to me they are not why I'm here with you on this date. I'm here because I want to be! I want to spend time with you and I very much want to be your girlfriend completely outside of what you have given me."
I saw a bead of moisture slip out of the corner of her eye and she wiped at it laughing a little nervously, "You will have to excuse me I get very emotional very easily."
She started to pull her hand out of mine, but I reached out and caught hers between both of mine, which surprised her. I wasn't going to leave her hanging in the wake of her emotional declaration to me, but that meant I had to say something emotionally responsive and that was a very hard thing for me to do.