Outside The Box

“I have never done this before...”

These were the first words out of Camille’s mouth as she walked into the dimly lit room. She gave a small, shy, smile toward the grinning man who had opened the door for her before glancing around the room and taking note of the very comfortable setting.

He let out an amused chuckle, “so you’ve said.”

She was generally a cautious woman, especially so with the addition of the Covid crisis, but something told her that it was time to step out of her comfort zone. This is why she began doing ride sharing, it was a way to put herself out of her comfort zone as well as force her to meet new people in a current society that had created a more difficult environment to accomplish that. She had never thought that she would be able to meet so many new people and actually be comfortable in her skin.

This was how she met Bryan. It was an extremely dreary, exceptionally rainy, day. A day that felt optimistic despite its gloomy overcast. Camille treated this day like any other. She got dressed, grabbed her umbrella, mask, and cleaning supplies, and headed to her car to prepare for the day.

She had been lucky, honestly, having just moved into a new home and began a remote job that allowed her to set her own hours in general. She lived in a small apartment in a new complex within the limits of her home town. Until beginning to use ride sharing as a hobby to make extra money in her free time, she usually just stayed to herself.

She was looking for a change though. Her mother had once told her, “change won’t come by staying still.” She took that to heart. She understood that she would have to make moves in order for anything to be set in motion. This was something that applied to so many aspects of life.

Humming to herself, Camille finished wiping down the interior of her car, a 2019 Chevy Cruz, and placed her supplies in a basket in the front passenger seat area. After connecting her GPS and the ride share app on her phone together onto the car Bluetooth, she crank the car and started the app to find those in need of a ride.

The sound of the rainfall hitting her windshield and the wipers-swish-swish-swishing was calming in a very surprising way. She hadn’t always been comfortable in the rain or even just interacting with people in person but, after stepping out of the proverbial box, now she has found that she quite enjoyed both

‘Well, as long as there was no thunder or lightning,’ she thought with mild amusement.

-Ding-

She blinked as she glanced at her phone, the signature sound of the app letting her know that there was a nearby person to pick up. Accepting the ride through the app, she followed the directions to the pickup location. Seeing that the location was about ten minutes away, Camille turned on her music application to play her driving playlist, a playlist she named “Chill2” of all things. This was something that made her smile. The honest truth was that her music taste was literally open, she had told quite a few of her passengers that she had an open-ended disclaimer that she never knew what song would come on next.

Even as she thought back on this, her playlist changed from a song by Michael Jackson to a song by Twenty-One Pilots. The rain had slacked to a light drizzle, she noted absently. . A small grin graced her face as she made the last turn of direction given by the GPS that indicated she had made it to her pickup location, an office building with a parking lot that held a sparse amount of cars. Since she didn’t see anyone waiting outside, she pulled into one of the empty parking spaces near the entrance and pressed the button on the app that would allow the passenger to know that she had arrived.

About seven minutes passed by as she waited, with no one coming out of the building. Concern building as each moment passed beyond that, she decided to see if contact information was available in the app. Seeing a contact button, she pressed the icon and waited as the phone rang through her Bluetooth in her car. The call went to voicemail and she hung up, despite becoming more confident in stepping outside the box she was still uncomfortable with leaving voice messages. She was on the verge of cancelling the ride when her phone rang back through the app.

“Hello,” Camille answered, “I’m your driver and I’m outside of an office building, am I in the right place?”

A distinctly male voice answered, “yes, I am sorry for the wait, I’m headed out to you now.”

Before Camille could respond again, the phone call ended leaving her listening to her playlist again. She shook her head for a moment before focusing on the entrance to the office building. This is when she saw a tall gentleman in slacks and a buttoned shirt come out holding an unopened umbrella. He glanced around before spotting her and heading her way.

“Hello, my meeting ran a little later than anticipated, thanks for waiting,” the man says as he gets into the passenger side of the back seat, “the name is Bryan, by the way.”

Camille turned her head briefly and gave a smile, “Nice to meet you, Bryan. My name is Camille,” she then clicked the button on the app that gave her directions to where she needed to drop off her passenger. As the GPS began navigating her out of the parking lot, she looked into her rear view mirror. “How was your day today?” She questioned curiously.

“It was a good day, I got quite a lot accomplished, now it’s time to go home and unwind,” he said with finality. She nodded as she continued to drive following the directions given over the Bluetooth. Some time passed in which they had seemingly meaningless conversation including favorite chocolate types, favorite movies, and general aspects of the day.

As they got closer to the drop off destination, Bryan paused for a moment, “Hey Camille, I hate to ask this, but would you be willing to make an extra stop for me? I’ll pay you an extra tip, I just want to make a quick stop at the Harris Teeter that’s coming up in the next block.”

Camille nodded, “Sure I don’t mind.” She pulled into the parking lot of the Harris Teeter that was, indeed, about two blocks ahead at the time that he mentioned it. Once there he got out, after assuring her he wouldn’t be long, and she waited patiently waited for him to come back out.

Once he came back out he got back in and thanked her. The remainder of the ride was silent for the most part, but it was a comfortable silence. Once she got to his drop off destination, she pressed the app button to indicate her arrival.

“Thank you so much,” he said as he handed her a plastic bag through to the front seat, and a $20 bill. She blinked, “Oh, thank you, I really wasn’t expecting anything.” He gave her a grin, and waved before walking away.

She opened the bag to find a rose made of white chocolate, her favorite chocolate, and stared at it in shock for many seconds before she grinned and shook her head. Deciding to just take it as it is and not think too far into it, she pulled away. Heading to see if there was anyone else nearby who needed a ride.

How was she to know that this would be the start of a beautiful cycle? Somehow, she would end up picking up Bryan from various places and at various times. Each time they would have a conversation, sometimes deep, and sometimes general, but always he remembered the smallest details. Even to the point of a conversation regarding the things that they wanted to experience, she had never drank socially, nor had she ever been on a romantic date, and really, had never been in a romantic relationship at all.

All of these rides, and all of their conversations, lead to this moment. This extremely unreal moment, because stepping out of the box had results that happened quicker than she thought possible.

“Come,” Bryan said as he lead her over to the table that was set for a dinner for two. He pulled out her chair for her to sit. After she sat, she looked up at him with a larger smile, “Thank you,” and then glanced at the table. “Wine and dine, I see,” she said with a small laugh as she saw the wine glasses on the table and the bottle of Jetbird that he opened and pour into her glass. “Anything for my lady,” Bryan said with a faux gallant persona and then chuckled.

Camille smiled, lifting her glass to gently swirl and then sniff, allowing the heady aroma of berries to grace her senses for a moment before turning to the gentleman who she knew instinctively would become the source of a lot of firsts.

For now though, she would just enjoy this first date.