Something New

I can’t say home many times I’d read her address. I actually had it memorized, but I kept reading it to make sure I had it right. This date thing was putting me on edge. Jan said she’d be over in a couple minutes, and so I was sitting on my bed waiting for her.

Finally I heard a knock and I opened up the door for her. Her wide smile turned into a deep frown when she looked at me. “Is that what you’re wearing?”

I looked down at my usual, jeans and a button up shirt. “What’s wrong with this?”

She rolled her eyes and pushed past me into the living room and then into my bedroom. I heard her open my closet and I groaned before shutting the door.

Soon I was in a pair of nice, black slacks and a dark blue dress shirt. She pulled out a black tie and I started to protest. “What, am I getting married to her or something? No tie.”

She rolled her eyes and then said, “Come on, wear it. It looks nice. And when you go and have sex after, it’ll be sexy. Hell, use at to tie her hands up, I don’t care, but you’re wearing it.” Jan had set her mind on this, which meant there was no getting out of it.

“Whatever.” I muttered and took the tie from her. I could tie my own damn tie…

“Wear this jacket too. And go do your hair when you’re done.” She ordered. She left a dinner jacket on the bed.

“You know, if you weren’t Jan, I’d think this whole command thing is sexy.” I joked, but she just scowled.

“I’m writing out a schedule for you. You go to dinner at 8, okay?”

“It’s four, I’m supposed to pick her up at five. You said for me to pick her up at five. This was dinner and then sex.”

“Too bad.” She walked into the living room and I just went to the bathroom to fix my hair.

When I came out she was writing on a piece of notebook paper. She didn’t look up when she said, “You’ll pick her up on time, none of that late shit you like to pull, and you’ll compliment how she looks, understand? I even wrote it down, see?” She lifted the paper up and in capital letters it said ‘COMPLIMENT HER’ on the first line.

“Okay, okay, I’ll say she looks nice.” I muttered, like I needed a reminder.

“Use my car. You look nice, you don’t need to screw that up.” She warned.

“How will you get home?”

“I’ll stay here and wait until you get back.”

I sighed, “Fine, what next?”

“Take her to this local art gallery. It’s free and some of the local artists are really good. Gives you a chance to talk and admire the art and all that. Then you’re going to go for a walk in the park, offer her your jacket and don’t take no for an answer. Don’t screw this up Dev.”

“Alright, alright.” I felt like Jan didn’t think I could do this sort of thing. I guess she had a right to. I hadn’t taken a girl who wasn’t a bro out in years, and I was doubting how well I would do tonight. If I was going on a date (against my will might I add) then I wanted to make it a great fucking date. I just didn’t really know how to do that.

“Then you go to dinner at Jolt.” Jolt was the local fancy, expensive restaurant. It was wonderful from what I heard, but I had never been. It wasn’t place I took my friends; it was a place you took a girlfriend, a serious girlfriend in my opinion.

“This is a first date; you do realize that, right?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Of course I do, but it’s your first date in years and I feel like Sara deserves a pretty great date considering how you treated all the women before her.”

“What if I want to have sex? You’re going to be in my house.”

“Have it at hers.”

“What if she doesn’t want to screw there?”

“Then you’ll have to wait.” She said. “After you take her out to dinner, you can go a screw or drop her off at her house or whatever you feel like doing.”

“Alright.” I mumbled, allowing her to control the date.

“You’ll wear your nice shoes too.”

“Control freak.” I muttered under my breath.

“I heard that.”

“What if she isn’t dressed up?”

“She will be.”

“How do you know?” I was suspicious now.

“I told her friend to help her get ready. I told her to dress her up nicely.”

“I hate you.” I groaned.

“No you don’t.”

I just gave her the finger as I walked to the door.

“Hey!” I turned to see her and caught her keys just in time. “Have fun tonight.” She smiled and I shut the door and started walking to the car.

I stood outside of her house for a couple minutes, trying to get the nerve to knock. I looked at my watch. It was 4:57. I had a couple more minutes if I needed them. Then again, it’s best to be early, and if I didn’t do it then, I wondered if I’d do it at all.

I finally reached up and knocked softly. The door opened after about thirty seconds and I was looking at her tomboy friend who had told me to talk to her in the first place. She smiled at me and stepped aside so Sara could step past her.

Shit.

She was wearing a dress that went down to her knees. It was dark blue and tied around the back of her neck and there was a belt around her waist. I couldn’t see the hickey I’d left there, probably covered up with makeup. She looked gorgeous. Absolutely wonderful.

I remembered the first part of my list, which was tucked into my jacket pocket along with her address. I tried to swallow the lump in my throat, but it didn’t really work. “You look beautiful.” I said, hoping my voice didn’t betray my nerves.

She blushed and looked down at her feet. “Thanks. You look really nice too.” She looked back up at me and I thought about Jan would want me to do.

I held my arm out for her and she smiled before lopping her arm through mine. Her hand rested on my forearm and I felt like I was in a storybook as I walked her down the steps and to the car. I opened up the door for her and shut it once she was inside.

I looked up to see her friend shutting the door as she left the house and watching us with a smile. She waved goodbye and walked to her car.

I got in the driver’s seat and started driving to our first destination. Local art gallery.

“So, where are we going?” She asked as we drove.

I looked over at her and smiled at her charmingly. “The local art museum.”

“And here I thought it was dinner and sex.” She seemed happy though, she had this big smile and I think she was blushing a little, but I couldn’t really see because the sun was starting to go down.

When I pulled into a parking spot I rushed to the other side of the car and opened the door for her. I held my hand out for her and felt my hand tingle when she touched it.

When she got out I closed the door and shoved my hands in my pocket, trying to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.

We wandered around for a while, making small talk as we admired the art.

“So, what about your family?” She asked and sat down on a bench in the middle of one of the rooms. No one else was in the gallery except for the man behind the desk about three rooms over.

I sat down next to her and looked over at her, debating if I wanted to answer or not. “My parents are in Oregon. My father is a lawyer, and so is my mother. I have a brother, but I haven’t seen him since I was 8. We are pretty well off. That’s why I have my own apartment.”

“Why haven’t you seen your brother?” She asked, shifting closer to me.

“We got separated in the foster system. They tried to keep us together, but…it didn’t work out like that. My parents wanted one kid, and we got separated. They fostered me for a while and then adopted me.”

“If you don’t mind me asking…why were you an orphan? I mean…what happened to your biological parents?”

“They died in a car crash. I was about 6 and we didn’t have any other family, and so me and my brother, Caleb, became orphans. I don’t remember much of my parents. I remember more of Caleb than anyone else from then.” I hated talking about this, it made my chest ache.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered.

“It was a long time ago.”

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.” Her voice is still quiet.

“What about your family?” I wanted to get away from the conversation.

“We’re pretty normal. I have an older brother and we’re an average middle class family with a dog.” She smiled.

“What kind of dog?”

“He’s a golden retriever. His name is Dusty, and he’s about three or four years old now. I miss him a lot, but I like it here. It’s nice. They live in California, so I visit during the holidays.”

“I’ve never been to California.” I smile again at her.

“It’s beautiful, you should see it sometime.”

I looked down at my watch and stood up. I held my hand out for her yet again and she took it. I didn’t want to let go, but I felt like I should’ve. This was supposed to be a friendly date and sex, not a girlfriend date. Friends like us don’t hold hands.

“We have to get going.” I smiled at her and she walked with me back to the car. I held the door open for her and shut it once she was inside.

The park wasn’t far from the gallery. When we got there it was getting darker and the street lamps that lined the sidewalks in the park were lighting up.

“It’s beautiful out here.” She was smiling and walking with her arm linked in mine.

“It is.” I said and looked over at her. “My favorite trees are willow trees.”

“Why is that?” She seemed genuinely curious.

“You’ll laugh.”

“I’m surprised I haven’t been laughing this whole time. I thought you didn’t believe in this sort of thing. I thought it was all about the sex. I don’t think a tree will push me over the edge.” She smiled.

“Normally, it is all about the sex, but you wanted dinner first, and I thought I should do it right.” I thought I saw some pink on her cheeks and she looked down at her feet. “As for the tree…my mom used to take me and Caleb to picnics, and she’d always set it up under a weeping willow. I asked her about it once, and I didn’t understand the answer very much then, but I think it’s quite beautiful now.” I hadn’t talked about my mom in ages. Or Caleb. Or really anything about my past.

“What did she say?” I must’ve stopped talking.

“She said that whenever she saw them, she thought of secret lovers meeting beneath them beside a lake so still that it looked like there was a second moon. She used to have paintings that she drew of the scene. There were two people hugging each other so tightly that they looked like one person in one of them. It was hung up in their bedroom. Once, Caleb asked who they were and Mom looked up at it and took my dad’s hand. She had this...smile when she told us that it was her and my dad.”

“You miss them.”

“I didn’t know them.” I whispered.

She stopped and I looked over at her, a little confused. “What’s wrong?” I felt a sinking in my stomach, hoping nothing was wrong.

She was so close to me, I couldn’t help but breathe in the vanilla and lavender. It was almost like a drug now. I felt so warm whenever I smelled it. She was looking up at me with a small smile. She reached up and I felt her hand brush against my cheek. I suppressed my shiver at the feel of her hand. Her lips felt so soft. This wasn’t like the passionate, lustful kisses I was used to. I could feel…something in this one.

When she pulled away I felt my lips tingling and my heart racing in my chest. This wasn’t the usual racing, the anticipation, this was something else…I couldn’t place it…it was so strange and new.

“Your mom sounds like a romantic.”

“She was.” I whispered. We were still close and I noticed goose bumps on her arms. I felt so stupid for not thinking of this earlier, it wasn’t that Jan told me to do it, it’s that I was on a date with her and she was probably cold. What an ass I was. I guess it wasn’t that bad because we hadn’t been out here long. I slid off my jacket and draped it over her shoulders without saying anything.

She smiled and slid her arms into it and pulled it tightly around her. “Thank you.” She said.

“Of course.” I smiled back down at her. I didn’t feel cold; instead it felt like it was pretty warm out here, even though I knew it wasn’t.

We walked around the park for a while and she told me about her family and her dog Dusty. Finally we had to go back to the car and go to dinner. It felt like the last few hours had gone slowly. I was glad for that. I liked spending time with her a lot more than I thought I would.

When we got to our table I pulled out the chair for her, much to the waiter’s displeasure. He may not have been able to see it, but she still had my hickey, and now she had my jacket, and that made her mine. At least for the night.

She slid my jacket off and hung it on the back of the chair and sat down. I sat down across from her and we ordered. I felt like I was getting lost in time, like I was an entirely different person from who I was. I paid for both of us, though Sara tried very hard to stop me.

I was at her doorstep when I was reminded of sex for the first time that entire night. She was standing there, biting her lip in that cute way she does and I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “Goodnight.” I whispered, and as I started to leave Sara looked at me curiously.

“Don’t you want to come in and finish the night the way you promised you would?” She asked.

It was my turn to bite my lip. “I don’t want you to feel obligated, Sara. I had fun tonight, I don’t need to—” I was cut off by her grabbing me by my tie and pulling me in for a kiss.

“Trust me Dev, I want this.”

And then I was pulled into her apartment and to her room where we had sex all night. It was a little different, not a lot different, but…suddenly, I felt something. Looking at her, there was more than lust in those eyes, and I could feel more than lust in me. Sure, there was plenty of it, and in the end it outweighed that other feeling by a lot, but it was strange.

I had to remember to thank Jan for the tie.