The one they got right

    It was Thursday night and I was comfortably tucked under my duvet in my one bedroom apartment watching an episode of friends while enjoying a cup of hot chocolate, it had been a long day it started raining in the afternoon but it was light showers but as the day progressed the rain got heavier and the wind got stronger it managed to destroy my umbrella when I was just a few meters from my apartment so I was at the mercy of the rain that had been rather unkind and had bitten me to the point that I was wet from top to bottom, so the comfort of my warm apartment was very comforting. I was laughing at one of Chandler’s many sarcastic jokes when I got a message ‘Hey I’m Tom’: I had been expecting this message for a while, my best friends Alice and Lola had told me they wanted to set me up with this pediatrician they had met at an amusement park with his nephew; both Alice’s and Lola’s children and his nephew had become friends so they had gotten into a conversation and found out he was single, they were so delighted and sang praises about me to him. Alice and Lola were my best friends we met in college and we had been inseparable since then, they had both gotten married two years apart and had made my love life a pet project they were always trying to set me up with someone and sometimes when I met the men I usually wondered if they knew me at all or even liked me because the dates would be so bad that I would message them during the date and occasionally curse them out; they had told me to expect a message from Tom and after they had described him I had finally felt some hope that my friends were redeemable after all.

      I replied and we exchanged some introductory messages back and forth to know each other a little better than he asked me what seemed to be a weird question to me

‘Have you ever been apple picking before?’. I was a bit puzzled I did not know that was something people did.

‘No, I haven’t, you?’.

‘Yes, I have it’s very relaxing, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it too’. I frowned my face in disappointment, this was not something I thought I would enjoy neither was it something I was looking forward to and It didn’t help that I googled it and it was exactly how its name sounded picking apples in an orchard

‘lol, if you say so’ I replied very unenthusiastically.

‘Don’t worry you’ll enjoy it I promise, the farm isn’t far it’s fifty minutes away from the city I go there every year around this time they have an apple picking party/picnic and its really fun.’ Great! I thought to myself, this time around my friends found me a boring guy.

‘I have to go to bed now, I’ll text you the details tomorrow, but it usually starts in the afternoon’.

‘sure, no problem good night’ and like that the conversation ended, it was 9pm so I decided to text the girls to tell them about the apple picking, they tell me not be to quick to judge him and to go on the date with an open mind I was adamant about the fact that I was sure there wasn’t anything interesting about it I had checked for apple picking on YouTube I was still not impressed, but keep an open mind they said so keep an open mind I will, do after the conversation I went to bed.

     The next evening I got a text, Tom was coming to pick me up at 12pm because the party was supposed to start at 1pm and he wanted us to get there early; the first thing I did after was to google what to wear to an apple picking party that is how clueless I was thankfully google gave me amazing ideas so I decided to wear and overall with a black long sleeved turtle neck and black laced boots because of the dirt I was inevitably going to encounter as I was gathering my outfit I was really hoping that it would rain and we wouldn’t have to go because not only was I not looking forward to this event but I really wasn’t an outdoor person during autumn and especially during winter the cold was just to annoying for me; I sent a picture to the girls and they both loved my outfit also expressing how much they couldn’t wait to hear all about the date; Lola even suggested she come over and help me with my make up since her husband was going to take their one year old daughter to a friend’s birthday party but I told her she could didn’t need to worry and I didn’t think I needed any serious make up for something like this  I would be just fine, for some weird reason while I was still unenthusiastic about the date I was looking forward to meeting Tom he was quite cute from the few pictures I saw and the social media deep dive that I did on him it was a bit difficult because he didn’t have a lot of pictures it seemed he wasn’t really a social media person, but deep down I was hoping he wouldn’t be a boring person. The next day I woke up a little early to tidy up my apartment and get some office work done then I got ready of course with my two best friends on video call to keep me company and give me advice like they did every time I had a date, I was putting my stuff in the bag my friends had suggested me to use when I heard a knock on the door

“He’s here” Lola practically squealed I picked up my bag, bid the girls goodbye, grabbed my cardigan and nervously went to open the door I was greeted with a very cute and delightful smile from a very attractive face

“Hi” I managed to say with a smile, Tom’s pictures did not do justice to him at all, he looked like a model out of a catalogue he had a chiseled face, blue eyes and pink lips, he reminded me of a less darker version of Lance Gross he was wearing a black denim jeans, a dark blue weather.

“Hi, Summer it’s nice to meet you”

“Nice to meet you too”  I proceeded to lock my apartment door, the first few minutes of the car ride were silent so I looked outside the window to distract myself from the silence in the car, I guess Tom could sense my uneasiness so he broke the silence

“You look very lovely by the way”, I glanced at him and involuntarily blushed “Thank you, you look nice as well”

‘what I was thinking was you look drop dead gorgeous’ “thanks” he replied with his eyes focused on the road

“So, when did you start apple picking or rather what got you into apple picking” he smiled

“An ex”

I just nodded awkwardly but he continued “her friend invited her, and she asked me to tag along I was skeptical at first which I’m sure you are”

 he took a short glance at me “but it was a nice experience, at least for me she didn’t enjoy it that much”

I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say I just nodded and like that the silence filled the car once more he focused on the road and I looked outside the window enjoying the scenes ‘this isn’t going so well I thought to myself, if we couldn’t keep a conversation going in the car how were we supposed to get through this date’ after some time of long driving on the open roads and awkward silence we had finally reached Apple Days Orchard it was a huge farm the main office was a green building not too far from the main gate close by there was a kitchen and the rest was just land we could see from where we parked could see how large the farm stretched, after Tom had parked he looked at me “Sorry for the awkward silence I don’t talk much when I drive, I like to focus in the road”

It was like he knew what I had been thinking “It’s fine” I said with a less than believable voice “alright let’s go pick some apples” he said with so much excitement in his voice then we came out of the car it did not rain but it was a bit chilly, so I put my cardigan on. I followed behind Tom as he led the way to the main office for the organizers to give us instructions there weren’t a lot of people waiting in the office, we were less than fifteen a family with two kids, two couples and a group of friends; after a few minutes a man who introduced himself as Tim told us the history of the farm, talked about the farming process, the do’s and don’ts of apple picking and then he gave us instructions on what to do

“So basically, we give each of you baskets to pick the apples remember not to pull the apple from the branch just roll or twist it to gently but please don’t shake the branches because a lot of ripe apples might fall from the tree, carefully place the apples in the basket so that you don’t bruise the apples because they get rotten faster and will affect the other good apples”,. He looks at Tom and smiles

“Well Tom here is no stranger to these instructions he participates every year” Tom smiles back at him.

“After you are done, we can make some apple pies from your apples or you could exchange it for some apple cider, although you have to give up to twenty or more apples to make the exchange; and last but not the least please be careful not to injure yourselves and if you would like to get rubber boots you can rent a pair from us, alright guys that’s all I have to say enjoy your apple picking.

  I mistakenly let out a loud sigh which made Tom give me a questioning look like he was trying to read my facial expression, I think he could see I was already over the date that hadn’t even started yet

“Come on I know where the best apples are” he motioned his head for me to follow him we passed a lot of trees some had apples scattered around them some fresh apples others rotting apples

“Your friends told me you are a journalist, that sounds pretty amazing” I smiled “yeah it could be, but I mostly do gossip columns”

“And you don’t like it?” he gave me a concerned look, I made a loud sigh

“I would prefer to do international or local news maybe even sports and I’m not really a sport person, a gossip column isn’t why I went to college you know I want to do more”

“So why are you still there, have you considered quitting?”

“I actually have, but I need to get another job before I quit it’s easier to be an independent gossip blog or column than an independent local news column if you know what I mean”

“Yeah I understand”, then we finally stopped a few meters away from the other people, I gave him a confusing look

 “what is so special about these apples” he did not say anything he just proceeded to lift the apples towards the stem and twisted like about five apples

“These are most ripe and sweetest apples here, I would know” then he winked at me all I did was chuckle

“Whatever you say Mr. apple expert” and I started my apple picking; he was right all the apples I had picked were all fresh

“Want to make this interesting” he gave a mischievous smile

“why not?” he moved to another tree, with his basket and I followed suit

“we have thirty seconds to pick as many ripe and unbruised apples as we can, I have eight in my basket now” he counted the apples in my basket

“you have six, we subtract these from whatever we pick” I rolled up the sleeve of my cardigan and long-sleeved top

 “bring it on apple boy” he gave me an amused look and laughed, I did not pay him any attention I was going to win this game, he set a timer on his phone

“Ready?” I nodded. “Go”.

You would think this was easy but having to twist or roll the apples and gently place them in the basket made it a lot harder but I was determined to get as many ripe apples as I could now I wasn’t sure if Tom had picked more apples than me but I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance so I decide to shake his tree and run back to my apple picking it caught him off guard, so he didn’t react immediately he just giggled and when he was coming over to my tree the alarm went off, I was giggling like a school girl I was sure those few seconds had given me an advantage

“cheat” he said shaking his head at me, I stuck closed my eyes and stuck out my tongue like a little child.

He brought his baskets closer to me

“let’s see if your deceptive ways paid off” he counted but to my dismay I was one apple short of his; he gave me a satisfied look and laughed at me so I playfully said in a low tone “NO!”

 “We have enough for one apple cider, I’ll pick some more so I get one too”

“Its fine, I’m not interested in getting one”

“Sure?” I nodded, we went back to picking apples to make as much apple pies as we could I wanted one for Lola and Alice; we kept talking about our lives and work he suggested we take some pictures which I willfully obliged to; that made the process more interesting it helped pass the time but I stopped picking when my backet was half full so it wouldn’t be to heavy to take back to the farm shed, he however filled his basket to get more apples from the both if us, Tom offered to carry both our backets but I told him I could carry it and when I was tired I would let him know but the basket wasn’t so heavy so I ended up carrying it to the shed when we got there we gave another farm attendant our apples to make six apple pies and then Tom exchanged twenty apples for a liter of apple cider then we just went to sit in the dinning hall and wait for our apple ciders, the family and one of the couples were already there eating their pies

“Can I be honest with you Tom” he gave me a puzzled look

“I didn’t think in a million years I would enjoy apple picking it’s nice, not that bad actually”

“Well, I did tell you that you would enjoy it eventually” he said it in a somewhat sexy way that I could not help but blush, just then we were interrupted by one of the children from the family that came, the little girl with blonde hair and a pink cute long sleeved dress came towards me and motioned me to carry her so I did

“Isn’t she cute” I asked Tom he gently tickled her, and she burst out laughing her mum a woman that was the splitting image of her daughter came towards us

“I’m sorry she disturbed you”

“It is totally fine; she is so adorable”

“thank you” her mum carried her away but not before telling us we were an adorable couple and asked how long we had been together when we told her it was our first date she had a shocked look on her face

“Well I don’t mean to be forward but I’ve been married long enough to know that there is something here and I think you guys should explore it “and with that she left us, we both awkwardly looked at each other and smiled and as if he was sent to break the silence the instructor from earlier came to inform us that our apple pies were ready we went to pick them up and decided since it was getting late we should just take all the pies to go.

  The drive back home was different going back home we were talking more than we did before but not so much; so Tom wasn’t distracted I played some music from my phone after I had connected it to the Bluetooth of the car and we found out we had similar tastes in music, we kind of turned the ride into a karaoke session it was so much fun I couldn’t wait to get back home and tell my friends they had finally gotten it right, when we finally got to my apartment Tom accompanied me to my door  

“Summer I had so much fun with you today, that hasn’t happened in a while”

“me too”

“I would love to do this again if you are interested, not apple picking but another date”

“I’d love that” and with that we said our good nights I went into my apartment not being able to wipe the smile off my face.