“Oh, he’s such a wonderful boy!” Olivia’s mother said while Olivia was in the bathroom straightening her hair. “He works on cars and he’ sin college, so that’s good. Not like your last boyfriend who hardly finished high school and thought that guitar was going to bring in any real income.”

“Mother, you’re so judgmental,” Olivia said, pausing and lowering the hair-iron to caste a scowl in her mother’s direction. “Dean’s actually a very talented musician. He just drinks himself to sleep every night so it’s hard for him to get motivated.”

“Will you stop making excuses for that boy! He couldn’t even afford a mattress for the two of you to sleep on. I’ll tell you, if your father had made me sleep on a floor with him every night, you may not be around today,” she said, crossing her arms.

Olivia rolled her eyes. “At least we know I’m not terribly high maintenance,” she said with a shrug before going back to fixing her hair.

Moments later, she found herself sitting in the living room glancing at her watch. “He’s fifteen minutes late,” she muttered, starting to feel like this entire set up was a complete mistake. As if on cue, a loud roar came from outside followed by a screech as a car came to a stop. A huge cloud of exhaust wafted past it, catching up from the car’s wake. A loud groan came from the car door as it opened and Austin Tulus stepped out.

Olivia peek through the blinds. “I thought you said he worked on cars?” She directed her question towards her mother as her hazel eyes peeked through the shades.

“He does. Only, he works on everyone else’s cars, so he doesn’t have time to work on his own,” her mother replied, knowing her excuse was a little on the lame side. “You know, his friends call him Torch,” she said, winking at her daughter.

“So you’ve told me. And that’s gross. Don’t wink at me. Winking is creepy,” Olivia replied, standing up straight as Tulus wandered up the path to the house. “Al least the boy is more attractive than the car,” she muttered.

Answering the door when the bell rang, Olivia smiled up at him. “Hi,” she said simply, stepping aside so he would enter.

“Wow, uh, hi!” he said back, seemingly happy that Olivia wasn’t a photogenic troll. He was about a head and a half taller than her with brown eyes and a sandy crew cut. Olivia wasn’t a fan of really short hair on guys, but his broad shoulders and muscular physique definitely made up for it. “I’m Austin,” he said with a nod.

“Oh, I’m Caitlyn. Olivia’s in the basement finishing her fish heads. That’s what we feed her, you know. People get freaked out by her third eye.”

“Olivia!” her mother scolded.

Olivia couldn’t help but smirk. “Sorry, couldn’t resist!” she said with a small laugh. “Well, since you two already know each other, shall we go?” she asked as she picked up her purse.

“Uh, sure! If you’re ready to go, that is,” he said, holding the door open for her. This gesture made her raise her eyebrow. She tried to remember the last time a guy had held a door open for her, but couldn’t recall it for the life of her. Not only that, but approaching his hissing car by the curb, he stopped and opened the car door for her as well.

A small grin formed on her face as he hopped in the driver’s seat.

“So, where to?” he asked.

“Dinner sounds great. I’m starved,” she replied. She would have said more, but as he turned the key in the ignition, the car let out a loud roar once again that was loud enough to pop anyone’s ear drums within a two-block radius. Being tossed around by the dynamics of the ancient stick-shift, Olivia found herself headed out on her first date with Tulus.