Willowdean and Mitch Lewis’s first date and uncertain attraction

Willowdean and Mitch Lewis’s first date and uncertain attraction take shape through a sharp contrast: Mitch treats the outing as a date, while Willowdean accepts the invitation without discovering the chemistry she wants. Their connection moves from a polite agreement to an awkward evening and then to a public denial that they are dating, making uncertainty—not a settled romance—the defining feature of their relationship in these scenes.

Invitation and Acceptance

Mitch first makes his interest explicit when he asks where Willowdean works. After she names Harpy’s Burgers & Dogs, he steps ahead to hold open the door and explains that he wants to know where to take her on their date and learn a little about her before choosing a destination. Willowdean pauses over the word date. His courtesy is conspicuous to her: he holds the door even as a crowd of freshman girls passes through, and she registers his manners with surprise.

The invitation does not immediately produce an uncomplicated yes. When Willowdean asks whether Mitch has asked girls out before, he says he has asked a few. Her next question turns the exchange toward whether any accepted. As she gestures, an image of Bo Larson in the storeroom flashes through her mind; she hears Bo’s name for her in that recollection, and the thought feels like a dead end. She then changes course and agrees to go out with Mitch. The sequence links her decision to an abrupt return of the unresolved Bo connection, without making that memory itself a promise of attraction to Mitch.

Their agreement is sealed in the form of a handshake. Willowdean expects Mitch’s palm to be sweaty, but instead finds the pressure neither excessive nor insufficient; the narration compares it to Goldilocks finding the just-right bed. Mitch enters her phone number into his own phone and promises to text so she can save his. He then heads toward the locker rooms outside the stadium. The exchange is orderly and considerate, but its formality also anticipates how much of the date will remain at the level of politeness.

Preparing for the Date

Getting ready becomes a shared effort with Ellen Dryver. In Willowdean’s bedroom, Ellen has her try on several possibilities, including her eighth-grade graduation dress and a shapeless floral chiffon tunic that Willowdean’s mother had bought the previous Christmas. Her mother had described the tunic as making her look mature, but Willowdean had not received that judgment as a compliment. The outfit search therefore carries more than practical nerves: the clothes bring her mother’s assessment of her appearance into a moment when she is preparing to be seen by a boy.

Ellen and Willowdean settle on jeans and a black-and-white striped shirt, with Willowdean’s dark blond hair spread across her shoulders. The account records a concrete choice rather than a makeover that transforms her. Mitch’s date begins with Willowdean arriving as herself in selected everyday clothes, while the earlier try-ons expose her discomfort with how others frame her appearance.

The Dinner and Its Limits

At dinner, Mitch asks whether Ellen is Willowdean’s best friend. Willowdean confirms that she is and tells him about Lucy, Mrs. Dryver, and the way Dolly Parton brought them together. Mitch responds by asking whether Willowdean is a devoted Dolly Parton fan and remarking on the singer’s age. The conversation gives him access to an important part of Willowdean’s life, but the exchange does not become the intimate recognition she hoped a date might provide.

Halloween also marks a subject Willowdean chooses not to share. Mitch says she is missing out on the holiday, and she considers explaining why she hates it. Because Mitch is a large guy himself, she wonders whether he might understand, but she is not ready to expose what she privately thinks of as her fat-girl secrets. She recognizes that sharing one bodily experience would not automatically give her permission to disclose everything about herself. The two eat their soup in silence until the busboy brings their dinners; the silence and the withheld explanation keep the date from opening into the candid connection Willowdean had imagined.

After the meal, Mitch pays with five-dollar bills. At Willowdean’s house, he gets out of the car to open her passenger door. She thanks him for dinner, and he offers his hand; after looking at it for a moment, she shakes it firmly. Her summary of the evening gathers its particulars—Dolly Parton, her dead aunt, favorite holidays, best friends, and a handshake—while identifying it as her very first date. The list is precise, but it contains no moment of romantic closeness. She anticipates having to sit beside Mitch in class for the rest of the year, an everyday consequence that outlasts the date itself.

Willowdean cannot bring herself to call Ellen for a detailed account of the evening. She contrasts the date with making out with Bo beside a Dumpster, which had felt more romantic. What she wants is not grand treatment or constant attention, but chemistry: a spark strong enough to make the two people feel alone together for a few minutes. The comparison makes clear that Mitch’s good manners and considerate gestures have not produced the sensation she associates with attraction.

Follow-up and Public Denial

After the date, Mitch texts Willowdean several times and follows her into the hallway after second period. He suggests meeting on Sunday to see a movie; Saturday is unavailable because his coach wants the team to watch film for the next game. Willowdean keeps walking, but Mitch grabs her hand to stop her. A freshman calls out to ask whether she is Mitch’s girlfriend. Willowdean yells back that they are not dating, and Mitch’s cheeks flush red.

Willowdean pulls her hand away and walks in the opposite direction. She feels like a terrible person, yet says she cannot play along as if they might be more than friends. Her rejection is shaped by both the public interruption and her own lack of readiness to present them as a couple; the evidence does not settle whether she will later want a different relationship with Mitch. She still believes she owes him an apology, and he calls after her as she leaves. The episode ends not with a romantic resolution but with an obligation left hanging between them: Mitch has pursued another meeting, Willowdean has denied the relationship, and the apology she thinks she owes has not yet been delivered.