Dinner and the Morning After
“No, James.” I laugh into my phone. James left at six after I insisted that he leaves before Brian comes to pick me up. I don’t want to put him on the spot and announce to the whole world that I was going to have dinner with him. “It’s almost seven so I’ll talk to you later, bye.” I giggle.
I sigh as I stare at myself in the window. I bought a long black dress that has lace long sleeves that travels up to my neck, with a pair of black ankle heels. I tied my hair with clips but left a few strands hanging around my face. I sit down in my chair and sigh aloud, my heart is sitting in my throat and beating uncontrollably. My phone pings announcing a message and I couldn’t snatch it up fast enough.
“I’m in the foyer, the guard refuses to tell me what floor you’re on. I think he’s wary about me, it could be my McDonald eyebrows, I don’t know.”
I laugh aloud.
“Please tell me that you are joking about the eyebrows?” I grab my clutch and head to the elevator.
“If I want the employee discount I have to have them on.”
“Brian.”
“Samantha.”
“Please tell me you aren’t being serious.”
“Nope.”
I sigh and chuckle. The doors of the elevator open and I step out, the click of my heels echoing through the large silent empty foyer. I stride into the open space and into the low dim of the side lights and was met with Brian. He was standing in a black suit with a black shirt and tie, his hair laid on top of his head in its usual way, but what caught me off guard was the dozen roses he held in his hand.
“You look absolutely beautiful.” He said while staring at me intently.
“You yourself look handsome.” I blush.
He held out his hand for me and I gently slip mine into his, the warmth from his palm engulfed my hand and travelled up my arm. He twirled me around and when I was facing him again he held out the roses for me.
“I hope you like roses, I didn’t know if you like red or white ones, so I got you six of each.” He smiled.
“They’re perfect.” I take them and sniff them.
“Oh that is clearly a lie.” He laughs. I gaze up at him with a shocked smile, shaking my head in confusion. “What color roses do you really like?” He takes my arm and slips it into his arm and he leads me out of the building.
“I like red and white roses, there is nothing wrong with them.” I giggle out. He stops walking and swoops me back in front of him. I flinch slightly but brushed it away quickly hoping he didn’t notice.
“You have to tell me so that next time I can get you ones that you love.” He smiles warmly.
“I love black roses. But I love the roses you bought me, I really do.” I get lost in his eyes and he stares into mine intently. I tear my gaze away and drop them to the roses. I pick a red rose and break it so that it has a little stem, and I bring it up to Brain. I smile at him and he gently takes the rose from me and places it in his chest pocket.
“Thank you.” He whispers. He steps aside and opens the door to his 1969 Lincoln Continental for me to get in.
**
He stops the car at a dark ship yard and I look at him in confusion. He smirks at me and gets out of the car, he strides over to my side and opens the door for me.
“This is not McDonalds.” I stare at him from inside the car, but he just continues to smirk at me. He holds out his hand again, and I gaze out the front of the car to the darkness, I turn to back to him and take his hand and step out of the car.
We walk towards the end of the dock and we gaze out at the still ocean, he turns to me and I face him smiling softly. He raises his hand to my face and I clench my eyes shut tight, pulling my face back away from him. I feel him slip something into my hair and his fingers brush my cheek lightly as he drops his hand to his side. I open my eyes slowly and I see him staring at me intently with a concerned look on his face. I touch my hair and I feel the rose slipped into my hair.
“Are you okay?” He whispers.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” I smile, and drop my gaze.
“Come.” He whispers and takes my hand gently in his and we start walking off to the right, and suddenly there were a million fairy lights that just went on. I notice that they were lighting up a whole boat, running up the mast and down all the ropes and along sides of the edge. I turn to Brain and smile at him widely, he gazes down at me softly and nods and my face drops.
“No.” I whisper.
“Yeah.” He smiles and begins walking.
“We’re having dinner on a boat?” I trot alongside him with glee.
“I’m trying to impress you.” He laughs. “Is it working?” He leans in and whispers to me.
“Are you kidding me?” I look at him and glide into his body and hug him, I feel his arms wrap around me and I can’t help but close my eyes and breathe in his scent. I quickly broke the hug realizing I was holding onto him longer than need be, and walked in silence unto the boat, he lead me up the ramp onto the boat and in the centre was a table with candles and two plates of food, with wine.
He pulled out my chair for me and we started eating, the night flew past us as we talked and laughed. I assume we would have stayed on the boat until morning if it wasn’t for the lightning and thunder that started booming above us. We slowly began to make our way to the car and we starting driving slowly until we ended up in a traffic jam.
“How long has it been?” He asks his head slumped into his seat.
“About an hour.” I said as I gaze at my watch, “I feel we might we stuck here for a long while.” I turn and smile at him. He turns and looks at me, he raises his hand up to my face, I hesitate as he brushes his index finger against my cheek. He drops his hand and smiles sadly at me.
“I…” I sigh and place my head back onto the seat and look out of the window ahead of me. “I dated this guy for a short while, he seemed nice and sweet, a real gentleman, but, he ended up hitting me a few times. He took my phone away and locked me in his apartment.” The tears started swelling behind my eyes. “I was locked in his apartment for a week and throughout that whole week he beat me among other things,” I whispered hoping he wouldn’t hear the last part, “Until one day the police pitched up at his apartment and found me in his bedroom.” I wipe away the tear that rolled down my cheek and turn my face away from him and stared out my window.
“My friend called the police and reported me missing. He ended up going to jail. Then a few months after that I went of a date with a guy, it was good, until he dropped me off. He wanted to sleep with me, but I didn’t want to, so he smacked me, and tried to rape me. Turns out, he is my ex boyfriends best friend and he set him up to do it. I had to move.” I turned back to face him and was met with him staring at me. “That was six months ago. I haven’t been on a date since.” I smiled.
He reaches over and takes my hand in his and squeezes it.
“I won’t let anyone ever hurt you again.” He stated with rage in his voice. I take hold of his hand tight and smile at him. “I promise.”
We sit in silence holding each other’s hands, we haven’t moved an inch for half an hour. I grabbed my phone from my clutch and dial James’ number.
“Hey, can you tell me why there’s a road block leading into back into the city? No. Really? Ah, okay cool thanks. I’m perfect thanks. Bye.” I hang up the phone and turn to Brian. “Can you see if you can get out of here and head back down that way? They closed off the city for some parade.”
“Yeah.” He throws the car in reverse and moves back slowly, eventually we slipped out of the line and drove down the other way. “Where we going?” He asked.
“My house.” I whisper in hesitation.
“Are you sure?”
“There is no way you’re going to get back into the city tonight.” I smile softly.
“Please don’t make yourself uncomfortable on account of me. I’ll drop you off and I’ll find a motel.” He reaches over again and squeezes my hand again.
“Do you think that you’re going to find a vacant room anywhere in this place tonight?” I laugh.
“Yeah I should. Why?” He chuckles in confusion.
“Firstly, there is a parade going on, and secondly, there is some guy who has some sort of concert this weekend, I don’t know.” I smile slyly at him. “Turn left here.”
“Oh and who is this guy performing?” He asks sarcastically.
“I think it’s a Disney star.” I choke on my laugh as he turns his head slowly at look me dead in the face. “Turn right at the light.”
“You did not just call me a Disney star.” He said shockingly.
“I did.” I whisper. “Keep left at the junction.”
A short while later we stopped in front of my apartment, I slipped the key into the front door and stepped in. Brian closed the door behind him and stood at the door with his hands in his pocket.
“I’m just going to go and change quick, there is beer in the fridge, there’s coffee, and juice and what not in the fridge. I’ll be right back.”
As I got upstairs I threw out my tights and a shirt that hangs low over my butt and stopped just above my hips in front. I tried undoing the buttons of my dress but couldn’t see behind my back, and ended up stepping on the dress and flew forward hitting my head on the dresser and landed with a thump on the floor with a groan.
Brian flew through the door and was over me in seconds, he sat me up straight and he ran his finger over the bump on my forehead. I flinched at the pain that shot through my head and groaned even louder.
“Are you trying to kill yourself?” He chuckled.
“I couldn’t undo my dress and I tripped on it.” I giggled as he helped me to my feet. I gazed up at him and he smiled at me. His gaze shifted from my eyes back up to my forehead, and he ran his thumb over the bump again.
“Do you have some ice?”
“In the freezer down stairs.” I smiled.
“Turn around.” He whispers. “I won’t touch you I promise.” He smiled again.
As I turn around slowly, I feel him gently undoing the buttons of my dress, the lower he gets the more it peels open exposing my skin. His breath brushes over my back gently warming my skin, his fingers gently brushed my back and I felt him jerk his hands away from me. I raise my head and stare at him in the mirror, a look of horror over his face.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to touch you.”
“It’s okay.” I smiled.
“Will you manage now?” He asked meekly and I nod. “I’m going to get you some ice.” He said and left the room. I slowly slipped the dress off my shoulders and it landed in a heap on the floor. I took my shoes off and got dressed in the clothes that I threw out earlier.
I open the sliding doors that lead out on the patio and step outside in the warm air, I hear the thunder rumbling in the background but doesn’t seem as if it’s going to rain anymore.
“Samantha?”
“I'm through here.” I peel my head through the curtain smiling at him. I saw him holding a cloth in his hand as he stepped onto the patio.
“Sit.” He gestures to the large sleeper couch behind me and I sit and he slides in next to me. “May I?” He asks holding up the cloth and I nod.
He gently places his left hand on the back of my neck holding me gently but firm and places his right hand holding the cloth on my forehead. The sting of the ice made me jerk back but he held me in place with his left hand. He pulled me a back to the cloth and I stared up at him and notice that he had been staring at me all along. The ice began burning my forehead and the pain rushed into my brain. I jerked back again clenching my eyes shut.
“I can’t.” I stutter out.
“What color are my eyes?”
“What?” I look at him.
“What color are my eyes?” He stated.
“Brown and Green.” I stated again closing my eyes.
“Describe them to me.” I open my eyes and gaze up into his, he was looking down at me intently, “Describe my eyes to me in detail.”
“They are…” I get lost in his eyes and I feel my heart race as I try and form words, “More beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen. I’m staring into a golden sun set long after the sun went down. They change into a darker shade, like chocolate brown when you turn serious, but light up like a ray of sunshine when you smile. You have golden rays that flow away from your pupil and fade into the mix of brown and green pool that is your iris.” I whisper as my words drift into the silent air around us.
Our face was inches away from each other as we stared deep into each other’s soul. His breath was warm as it touched my face, his left hand was still at the back of my neck but he was gently playing with my hair.
“God you’re beautiful.” He whispered.
I began blushing and I smiled dropping my head down away from him. I heard him chuckle and I raised my head back to him, he ran his thumb over my forehead again.
“How does it feel?”
“It’s okay now, it feels better. Just a little sensitive.” I reply.
“Good.” He smiles dropping the now damn cloth on the floor next to him.
He moved across the sleeper to next to me and we rested our backs against the wall and gazed out over the city lights beneath us. I looked at him and saw him staring at me, he slowly raised his hand and placed it in my hair and pulled out one of the clips, gazing at me intently reading my face. I smiled and he began to remove all the clips and my hair gently fell down in a lazy wave and rested around my face.
He hooked my hair behind my right ear and ran his hand down the length of my hair. I giggled at him and gently laid my head on his shoulder, he placed his left arm around me and held me in a gentle but firm hug.
“Let me know if you’re uncomfortable.” He whispers. Gently taking hold of his right hand with my left hand and began running my thumb against against his.
“I like this.” I whisper.
“Good. Because I do to.” He began twirling my hair in his hand, “I saw you had a tattoo.” I sit up straight and look at him, as he continues to play with the tips of my hair. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but notice when I was undoing your buttons.”
“It’s a few skulls and roses.” I smile softly, “They go from my ribs down to my thigh.” I slowly shift my weight and lift up the right side of my shirt and exposed bright red roses with their grey stems entwined with shaded skulls.
Brian sits up straight and leans in close, he stared in awe at my tattoo and I giggled.
“It looks amazing.” He smiles widely. “Do you have any other?”
“No, but I want to get more. I want to get ‘since 1997’ tattooed behind my ear with the curve of my hair line, and my initials done on the back of my neck. The one I want to get really badly, is a panda here.” I placed my hand on the left side of my side over my ribcage.
“A panda?” He laughs.
“I like pandas.” I laugh back. I lean back into his shoulder and curl up into a ball against his body, he wraps his arms around me and we end up talking the whole night away.
I wake up in a lazy daze and rub my eyes as I sit up straight. I hear soft breathing from behind me and I look down at a sleeping Brain. His right arm is behind his head and his left arm is laying limply next to me. His hair is messy and sticks out at all ends, I giggle softly and gently get up off the sleeper and make my way down the stairs.
I switch on the kettle and play “Can’t fight for Gold” from my phone and gently sway to the sound of the song. I turn around and Brian is leaning against the frame of the door smirking at me. He strides over me and takes my hand in his and places his other on my waist and starts to sway.
I place my arm over his neck and brush the hair on the back of his head and he rests his chin against the side of my head. The song ends and he steps back bowing his head to me.
“Thank you for the dance.” He smiles and lets go of my hand.
“Thank you.” I giggle at him, but was cut off from the sound of his phone ringing. He walked over to the table at the door and picked it up and answered it.
“Yes. Yes. Yes. Fuck off.” He hung up and shoved the phone in his pocket. He strides over to me with a frown on his face.
“You have to go?” I smile.
“I do.” He says softly.
“You have a big day today.” I smile.
“I would rather spend the whole day with you today.” He smiles softly. “I'm sorry I can’t stay for coffee.” He sighs as he points to the cups that I had placed together on the counter.
“It’s okay. You’re a busy man.” I smile as we walk to the door together. I open it and we step out into the sun light, I turn to him and I force a smile.
He takes off the tie that hangs around his neck loosely and hooks it over my head dropping of softly onto my neck. He grips the end of the tie and pull it forcing me towards him, our face inches away from each other. His cups my face with his hand and rubs his thumb over my bottom lip and gazes deeply into my eyes.
“What is an appropriate goodbye?” He whispers.
“I don’t know.” I whisper back.
“Can I see you again?”
“Would you like to see me again?”
“Of course I would.” He said aloud.
“Then yes you can see me again.” I smile. He smiles broadly but his face falls into a serious stare.
“I want to kiss you, but I’m not going to.” He hooked a strand of hair behind my ear, “But I’ll wait, I want it to be perfect for you. I want you to feel safe around me, and only then will I ask your permission to kiss you.” He smiles as he rubs my cheek with the back of his index finger. “I look forward to seeing you again.” He smiles and starts down the stairs towards his car.
“Have a good day Brain.” I call after him. He smiles as he gets into his car, the roar of the engine startles me and I jump back a little.
“Go inside.” He calls out as he unrolls his window.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t think that I’ll be able to leave if you stand there.”
I throw my head back in laughter and wave to him as I step inside my apartment, and I slowly close the door. I lean against it and I hear his car reversing down my driveway and then I hear his car drive down the street and the sound of his car drifts off into the distance.
I run into the kitchen and call James.
