The First Date

She said:
After a few conversations over the phone, I decided it was OK to move forward with date #1. Chad left most of the details up to me (which I admit, was a bit of a turn-off at the time), but I came up with the plan to meet that Saturday at Starry Night at 5:30. In my mind, a coffee date had the perfect contingency plan...going well, leads nicely into dinner; not so good, well it was nice meeting you.
In getting dressed that day, I chose comforable. A green long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans with a light jacket (my Colorado Rockies jacket...little did I know, this was a perfect conversation piece). I walked into the coffee shop and locked eyes with Chad immediately. I was worried that I wouldn't recognize him (or he wouldn't recognize me), since the day we met we were only face-to-face for 5 minutes. But the minute I walked in, the worries left me. I smiled, and he smiled back. I sat at his table and we instantly started up...the typical "What do you do? Where are you from" How many pets do you have?"
As you could have guessed, the coffee date went well. We decided to get dinner at Suehiro sushi restaurant (Chad's suggestion). What I remember from that night is that I laughed until my cheeks hurt, Chad didn't know how to eat edamame, and when dinner was over, I wasn't ready to say goodbye. So we didn't...we continued our date at Mug's Coffee. There we sat in the basement playing "Battle of the Sexes" and drinking our hot beverages. It was perfect! The evening ended and I knew I wanted to see him again.
A few days later, a bouquet of flowers arrived at Countryside Animal Hospital. The ladies at the front desk brought the flowers back with smiles across their faces. They handed the bouquet to me and waited eagerly while I read the card. I opened the tiny card and read aloud, "Thanks for taking a risk."

He said:
I remember being excited on the day, however, not very nervous. When the time came, I wanted to be early. I thought the initial meeting would go better if I was already there. I was certainly concerned I would not recognize her in plain clothes, since I had only seen her in scrubs. However, to this day, I remember exactly what she looked like entering the coffee shop. The bright sun shining in through the windows behind her, hands in the pockets of a Rockies hoodie and a coy smile, one I now know well. I did recognize her and the introductions were smooth. Once settled with an arbitrary conversation beverage, the discussions flowed naturally. The Rockies sweater was definitely a bonus, some instant common ground and a girl who likes baseball is definitely a notch up in my book.
Dinner followed, and a playful mood struck me as Amanda seemed to smile and laugh at every joke I tried to make. To say we hit it off would be an understatement. I had only ever had sushi once, maybe twice, before, but it seemed like one of Amanda's favorites, so we went with it. Chopsticks were not my strong suit and some high protein beans were certainly displaced, projectile style, to the displeasure of some of the other floor-seated diners. Amanda took all this silliness in stride, and we finished the evening with a night cap of coffee and awkward inducing board game questions.
When saying our good-nights, I offered Amanda one of my CD mixes. She found one she liked as I dropped her off at her car. It seemed like we were both unsure of how things would end that night, maybe because we did not want them to. Upon leaving for home, I know I spent some time thinking about how to make a gesture that would certainly allow us pick up where we left off. Remembering that Amanda had told me the girls in the office encouraged her to go that night, to "take a risk", I finally devised the perfect plan.