A wonderful sign

Laila was thoroughly impressed by Steve's letter. He had understood the assignment she had given him and carried it out perfectly. As she was reading it, she ended up laughing more than once and after reading the ending she looked at Maria and asked, "So, what are you going to do? Will you take him up on his offer?" Maria was still looking a bit bashful when she said, "Well I practically have to at this point. I mean, the cat is out of the bag, so there is no use in avoiding things anymore. He knows I like him and we already had something that was pretty much a date this morning. So, I might as well give into the madness and see where it will take me. Especially when he does something like asking me out with a handwritten letter. I think he even sprayed something on it. It smells just like him."

Laila squeezed Maria tightly as she let out a cheerful squeal. "I am super happy to hear you say that. No matter what your reasons are, the fact that you are being so open to his advances, is a great progress and a wonderful sign for what is to come. As for your feelings being clear to Steve, I think you might want to be a bit more direct. He is doubting himself quite a lot for some reason. He was even taking some of your words in their literal meaning. Of course picking the wrong words to take literal. This morning he was even wondering if you had said certain things at all and if he hadn't just imagined the words that he wanted to hear from you. So, the sooner you can give him this date, the better I think."

Maria was surprised to hear this. She thought she had been pretty clear but apparently her earlier words and actions had thrown in some confusion into the mix. She felt a bit bad about what she had put Steve through. Though his challenge had been short, it had been quite hard. Any man with less confidence in himself and their suitability, would have probably given up after their interactions back at her house. Luckily, the problem of his current doubt was one that was easy to fix, even for her. With this letter, he had given her a perfect and easy way to clear up the confusion. So, that is exactly what she will do.

Though she was still feeling a bit nervous to be jumping into the deep end so soon after they had gotten to know each other, for things to work out between them, it needed to be a give and take. So, even though Maria hadn't expected things to progress between them so soon but now that they had, she needed to make some effort as well. Since she had admitted her feelings to herself, and she thought she had admitted them to Steve as well, there was no need for her to drag matters out any longer. It was clearly inevitable, so why continue to fight it right?

She could do a lot worse than to be loved by a man who was clear in expressing his feelings and who didn't mind showing her affection. He had even taken her dishonest mouth in account by letting her answer with the simple checking of a box on a written letter and by preparing for any excuse she might have for the days to come. Besides, in a way she had already mentally prepared herself for a second date. After all, she thought that she had confessed to him this morning. The most logical step after letting someone know that you like them and a first date, was a second date. Since he had taken the initiative to follow her this morning to spend some time alone, it was now her turn to do something back.

Laila, not knowing exactly what was going on in Maria's mind, had an idea and made a suggestion to her friend. "Well, I don't know what you have in mind but if you want, you can have a nice dinner here. In fact, me and Noah will be out of the house tomorrow, which means that you will have the house all to yourself. That way you can be alone if you want to be but you can have the staff be present if you change your mind or feel too nervous on the actual day." Without even waiting for Maria to respond to her suggestion, Laila was questioning her own idea. "But then again. Maybe you want this date to be more special and not have it potentially interrupted by us returning home. There are plenty of great restaurants around here. You won't be fully alone in any of them but at least there you won't have to worry about any interruptions by me or Noah."

After spitting out her idea, there was nothing left for Laila to do, other than wait for Maria's response. Hoping that even if she did not like her idea, it at least kept her open to a date with Steve and possibly even get her thinking of something herself.