Natalie took yet another look at herself in the mirror. Not for the first time, she observed that she matched her room a bit: pink dress and shoes, black jacket and bag. She checked her hair again.
"Nat! Tony's here!" she heard her mother call.
Natalie took a deep breath, wishing she wasn't so nervous about this. With one final glance in the mirror, Natalie headed downstairs.
"Oh, you look lovely, Nat," her mother smiled.
"Thanks."
"Ready?" Tony asked.
"Yes, thanks."
A few moments later, they were standing outside the Hanson's door. Natalie knocked on the door.
Taylor
Taylor was putting cologne on when he heard the knock. Rushing to finish up, he grabbed his jacket and said goodbye to the fuzzles before making his way to the front door.
"Hey," he smiled when he opened it, "ready to go?"
Natalie
Natalie smiled as Tony vanished behind her.
"Yep," she said, reaching out to link arms with him. "So, where are we going tonight?"
Taylor
"I hadn't specifically decided," Taylor admitted, locking the door with his other hand and then leading her to his car.
"After all, I don't really know if you're allergic to anything yet. Anywhere specific you want to go?"
He unlocked the car and opened the door for her.
Natalie
Natalie shrugged.
"You know Tulsa better than I do," she replied. "And no, I'm not allergic to anything."
She got into the car seat.
Taylor
"Ok then..." Taylor mumbled to himself after closing her door.
He made his way around to the driver's side and got in before starting the car.
"How about Italian?" he suggested, "there's a great Italian restaurant just a few blocks from here."
Natalie
"Sounds good to me," Natalie arrived.
They drew up to the restaurant a few minutes later and were soon being escorted to a table. The waitress gave them menus to peruse.
Taylor
"So... what looks good?" Taylor began, talking mainly to himself.
"Manicotti looks as good as ever. That would go with white..."
He mumbled a bit more about what wines went with what dishes.
Natalie
Natalie giggled.
"Wow, I never met anyone that much into wines before," she said, as she perused the menu for herself. "Does it really make a difference what wine you have with what meal?"
Taylor
"Well, yeah," Taylor looked a little sheepish, "if you want it to be just right. You know some liquor places you go into these days show you those graphs that tell you if the certain wine goes with fish or chicken or vegetables..."
Taylor cut himself off and chuckled.
"Sorry. Nerves."
Natalie
Natalie chuckled as well.
"That's fine," she said. "Hey, you can ramble on about wines if you want."
The waitress soon returned and Natalie gave her her order.
Taylor
Taylor waited for Natalie, then ordered for himself and finally selected the wine. When the waiter departed with the menus and he now had nothing to fiddle with, he began twiddling his thumbs under the table.
"How was work last week?" he asked after a moment.
Natalie
Natalie nodded.
"It was good," she said, then grinned. "I'm still trying to get the names straight for my co-workers! I think there are actually a couple of the customers I know better than my own colleagues."
Taylor
Taylor chuckled.
"We all get like that I guess," he shrugged, "I don't think I could remember the names of all the road crew of the last tour even."
Natalie
Natalie chuckled.
Soon their food arrived. Natalie thanked the waitress and then picked up her fork to begin the much anticipated task of eating.
Ending as written by Michelle
The two had a pleasant dinner together. Afterwards, Taylor took her to the santuary he had told her about that he had created for the animals.
Then they headed back to Taylor's place. Not knowing when the date would finished, they had previosuly agreed that Natalie would stay the night. Out of consideration for them, Isaac arranged to be elsewhere.
They chatted together about all sorts of things. Then chatting led to touching. And touching to kissing. And kissing to... well... they were on Taylor's bed at the time, and that's all I'm going to say about the matter.