First Friday - Part II

Once we got in the car and headed on our way downtown, the girls started apologizing. We guys felt a little uneasy at Julianne's mom's comment, but who wouldn't? We did pick up one more guy on the way down (I told you it wasn't a date) and afterwords found some sweet free parking downtown.

Hopping out of the car, I asked one of the girls where to go from there and she gave me a dumb look.

"Um, I really don't know."
"Okay. Do you know where we are at least?"
"Um. One second." Collaborates with female associates. "Nope. We don't really know where we are. But the Towers of the Americas is over there!"

The Tower of the Americas is a large tower with a restaurant on top of it, much like the stratosphere in Seattle, so it's not the hardest thing to find. Needless to say, we were already lost.

We started walking into the busier part of town, found a cop, and asked him for directions. He pointed us down the famous Riverwalk and said to keeping heading down it to the end and we should find First Friday. Awesome! We now know where we are going.

As we started what we thought was a short walk, everyone began making small talk. I talked to Sydney first (aka Syd) which was nice because we already knew each other, so talking was fairly easy. Then came her sister, Jessica. Now this girl is a hoot if I've ever met one. She is fun, outspoken (which in my opinion makes her more fun), and laughs at everything (double fun!).

Then came Julianne. Honestly, we didn't have much to say. I asked her a few questions about herself and said very little about me. Now you may be thinking, Don't you like this girl? Why are you not talking about yourself and letting her get to know you? I'm glad you asked! At the time I had gotten over the brief infatuation I had and I didn’t feel like I needed to impress anyone. If I ever felt like I wanted to pursue anything, then I would break out of my shell, but I wanted to wait and have that be my call.

Finally, we got to the end of the river and found a restaurant. We found a table and I sat at the head. Julianne just so happened to sit to my left. So we talked the whole time at dinner and after about an hour we started to leave.

On the way to the car, I noticed I was walking alone in front of the group. I didn't mind. I was a little tired and enjoyed the ambiance of the city. Suddenly a face popped up on my right. It was Julianne! So here we go again. I recall this conversation was about sports and she talked about soccer (her favorite sport) and I talked about volleyball (and you know about how I feel about volleyball. See "Missing Volleyball" post).

Sydney started complaining about her feet hurting and asked if she could switch shoes with Julianne. I kept walking, but within seconds, Julianne caught up to me and started talking to me again. What is going on? Maybe she’s trying to get me to notice her. I actually felt a little self-confidence bolster inside of me.

By that time we were approaching the car and took the girls home. On the way to our house, no mention was made about Julianne's subtle actions, and I didn't think too much of it at the time. However, I did start to feel comfortable around her insomuch that I started opening up, and y'all know where that got me.