He opened the car door for me and I got in, sitting stiffly. No, of course I wasn’t nervous.

Right.

He got into the driver’s seat and started to pull out of the driveway. Oh God. Stop him. Stop the car!

“What?” he asked, startled.

Oh, dear. I must have said that out loud. I felt faint.

“Um, nothing, sorry. Nothing.”

“Jo…are you ok? I mean, I’m not forcing you to go out with me, or anything. You can get out of the car, right now. If you want to.”

I looked over at him. He obviously didn’t want me to. And, I realized, I didn’t want me to either. Yeah, sure, I was panicking a bit.

I was a little (little, ha) nervous, yeah. But I liked him.

“No, no, it’s fine. Let’s just go…”

He nodded, looking a bit relieved, and started driving again, heading down the street.

The car ride there wasn’t too bad, though a bit awkwardly silent. That would get better, though. I hoped.

But we would be in a movie now. No one talks in movies. I would be fine.

I could do this.