Next Date, When?

By Amber Atkinson

June couldn’t believe it took her this long to realize that maybe men weren’t her thing.

Daniel wasn’t a bad guy. June liked his sense of humor. She liked his sense of style, intelligence, and the infinite amount of stories he’d tell about his childhood. She liked that he was kind and carefree.

So, when he’d finally asked her out to Nova, a new restaurant that’d opened up in a small corner of downtown San Francisco, June accepted the offer without much thought.

Nova was the definition of fine dining, from the overpriced menu items to the décor, but the food was good enough to warrant coming again. But the more Daniel talked, the more uninterested June became in the entire occasion.

Perhaps she just couldn’t see past the fact that after this date he’d probably ask her on another one and then another. And then he’d probably propose the question of: Will you be my girlfriend, Juniper Yamamoto?

Even worse was that, once he proposed such a question, June would most likely accept, because she was a dirty people pleaser through and through: Yes, Daniel Hernandez, I’ll be your girlfriend.

“Are you listening to me, June?”

Daniel’s voice snapped her back to reality. June blinked-once, twice-to try and put her mind back on the current situation. She was here. She was with Daniel. They were at Nova. Her steak was getting cold. Daniel was talking about… something.

“Yeah,” June nodded, taking a sip of her funky-tasting water, “of course I am.”

“Okay…” Daniel trailed off, furrowing his eyebrows. He didn’t look entirely convinced. “Just… sometimes you do this thing where you sort of zone out… well, nevermind. As I was saying—”

“Can you actually excuse me for a moment?” June didn’t really give Daniel anytime to respond before she was up, grabbing her purse, and dashing off to the bathroom.

The heels she was wearing felt awkward and clunky on her feet, and her dress felt too tight and revealing. The bathroom had been a safe space for her ever since middle school; a place for her nerves to settle down and her mind to clear. No one was inside, thankfully, and June didn’t hesitate to lock herself in the first stall she saw.

She put down the toilet seat and plopped right down, immediately taking out her phone. She moved past the text notification from Daniel that asked if she was okay, and quickly went to her contacts. She scrolled to Naomi’s name.

Naomi Smith.

They hadn’t talked for about two years. Naomi was at NYU, studying pre-law, and June was all the way here in San Francisco. They’d grown apart since senior year of high school, sadly.

Against her better judgment, June clicked Naomi’s contact and waited for her to answer. The dial tone rung three times before stopping. June’s heart was pounding out of her chest.

“Hello?” Naomi answered groggily on the phone.

A wave of relief washed over June, her nerves completely shutting off at once just from the sound of Naomi’s soft, sweet voice. She’d missed that voice; it’d been ages since she’d heard it. June wished she was on a date with Naomi right now instead of Daniel… and that was a problem.

“Hi,” June answered calmly.

“Hey, Junie. What’s going on? Everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” June answered, despite the fact that, for whatever reason, her eyes were starting to well up with tears.

“Good. What’s up?”

“I’m sorry I haven’t called all this time. I’ve been busy and I’ve been sort of like a fish out of water. Did you get the birthday present I sent you?”

“Yeah, I did. Are you sure you’re okay? You sound like you’re about to cry.” Naomi’s voice was laced with concern, even through the scratchiness of the line.

“Yeah, I just missed you, so I called. Sorry if it’s weird.”

“Junie, it’s never weird for you to call me,” Naomi chuckled lightly. “You can call whenever you want, just maybe a little earlier next time.”

And that was exactly when June decided that it was late and she was wasting time. June needed to tell Naomi she was attracted to women and her, specifically, and that maybe she had been for a while now.

“Okay, don’t freak out but—”

Naomi interrupted, “Wait, let me grab Jake. He’s gonna flip when he sees that you’re on the line.”

“J-Jake?” June stammered. Jake Wiley, Naomi’s boyfriend and June’s other friend. Throughout elementary and middle school it’d be the three of them, until high school came and Naomi and Jake decided that they wanted to be more than friends.

June hadn’t seen or spoken to Jake outside of Instagram and Facebook since forever ago. The fact that he and Naomi were still together, though, made her heart sink down to her toes. She didn’t stand a chance.

“Hey, Junie bug! How’ve you been?” Jake’s voice through the line made June’s whole body cringe. There was nothing wrong with him, nothing at all, except for the fact that he was with the girl June wanted. She was painfully envious and couldn’t even bring herself to respond to him.

“You okay? Nomi, FaceTime her.” Nomi was the nickname June had called Naomi all throughout childhood. The fact that Jake got to call her that 24/7 without any awkwardness made June want to explode.

“No!” June exclaimed, rather aggressively at first. “No need to FaceTime. I only called to say hello. That’s all.”

“Wait, but you said you had something to tell me, right?”

June shut her eyes so tight that she was sure they’d roll back into her skull. She sighed heavily and forced herself to turn off whatever emotions she was feeling. “I, um—you must’ve misheard me. The connection is pretty bad where I’m at.”

“Oh… okay then.”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“June, you don’t sound okay,” Naomi remarked. Jake agreed with a light hum. “If there’s something going on, you know we’re here to help, right? It’s just us.”

“I shouldn’t have called. I have to go,” June forced out.

“Wait, June—”

June hung up the phone as quickly as she could. She could feel her eyes welling up with tears even more than before and the threat of bawling her eyes out in a five-star restaurant bathroom was looming overhead. But she wouldn’t do that. She’d just have to suck it up.

She clicked on the iMessage icon and hovered a finger over Daniel’s message: Are you okay, Juniper?

She wasn’t quite sure why he used her full name. He was a little weird like that. Still, she responded back: Yeah, I’m fine, just really had to pee.

And then, with as much reluctancy and discomfort imaginable, she followed up with: Next date, when?