Fighting to Survive (Guarded Hearts Book 3) by Alexis Noelle Page A

door for her. She smiles at me and seems like she’s surprised I did it. If my mom taught me only one thing about girls, it’s that they can’t resist a gentleman. On the drive into town, I am trying to think of where I can take her. There aren’t too many exciting places to go on a date, and I really haven’t gone on many dates to know what’s good. I park the car and walk around to the side to get the door for Christen. “Are you hungry?”
    “Yeah, I could eat something. Our coffee breakfast this morning has definitely worn off.” She laughs and I grab her hand and start walking.
    “Where do you want to eat?”
    “I’m not sure. I don’t really know a lot of the restaurants around here. Holly and I usually either eat on campus or just make something at home.”
    I think about all of the different options around us and I’m not sure which to pick. That’s when I get an idea, hopefully she doesn’t think it’s crazy. “So, I have an idea, but if you don’t want to do it just tell me.”
    “Okay, what’s your idea?”
    “Some people will go to one restaurant to have a three-course meal, but what if we had a three-course meal at three different restaurants? We go to one for appetizers, a different one for entrees, and another one for dessert. It’s a way to have a bunch of different kinds of food and have fun in the process. What do you think?”
    She smiles at me. “I love it! I have never done anything like this! You pick the restaurants, though.”
    I take her hand and we walk around for a little so we can see what our options are. The first restaurant I pick is a little Mexican restaurant called Sunrise. We sit down and decide to share a plate of their steak nachos. I love it. Christen isn’t afraid to actually eat. The last date I went on, the girl ordered a side salad, which is usually fine, but she didn’t get it as a side dish to anything. The waitress brings out the food and we start to eat. “So, Mr. Matthews, Spring Break is in a couple of months, do you have any plans?”
    “I’m probably just going to go home and visit my family. What about you?”
    “Unfortunately, I’ll probably go visit my family, too.”
    I laugh. “Why unfortunately?”
    “My parents are definitely not the easiest people to live with. They constantly expect perfection in every aspect of my life, and honestly, it is so unbelievably exhausting. Everything to my parents is about keeping up appearances and making sure that you always have the best of everything. I hated it when I was growing up because I never really got the chance to just be a kid, you know?”
    I nod my head because I’m not really sure what to say. My parents always encouraged me to follow my dreams. “You know there is a saying that goes, ‘anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new’. It sucks that your parents are like that. At least Spring Break is only a week, though, right?”
    “Thank God.”
    When we finish our plate, the next restaurant we go to is a little Italian place called Mama Maria’s. We order a plate of pasta and decide to share again. I tell her all about my family and how I want to try to get an internship this summer.
    Christen is going to school to be a teacher, but says her parents hate the idea. “My mother keeps telling me ‘those who can’t do, teach’. I swear if she tells me how I just need to meet a nice boy and settle down one more time I’ll scream. Do I want to get married some day? Sure. Do I want to be a lonely housewife like her who pops pills just to function? Absolutely not.”
    I laugh and end up choking on my food a little bit. “Amen to that.”
    She just laughs and shakes her head. The last place we stop is an ice cream parlor for dessert. We order a banana split to keep up with our whole sharing theme. They have a couple of outside tables and we decide to sit at one of them. We’re talking and laughing when her phone starts to ring. She hits the ignore button and then