And Heaven Too
Chapter Five
Mike calls Carlson because they’re friends and he’s sort of nervous about his date. Johnnie gives him some shit for his effort at practice today and Mike tells him where to shove it. He’d been distracted by his internal debate over whether or not to go back and see Dell again.
Insanity, sometimes his best version of reason, won out and he doesn’t at all regret visiting the archaeologist. They’d had a great lunch on the Mall and she’d even agreed to dinner. Despite the fact that she expected him to be a total man-whore dick. Not fair, but he could understand. She admitted that the majority of her knowledge of the off-ice hockey player life style revolved around Dead Spin.
So, he thinks he can’t really blame her, what with Kane making every fucking one of them look like dick bags. He really wants to make a good impression, wants to show her how awesome he is, and he calls Johnnie. Johnnie has a good track record for advice and right now he needs dinner locations.
“So, I might have met a girl.” As good a start as any to the conversation.
It sounds like Johnnie sputters on the other end, mid-drink or something. “Sorry, what? You met a girl? Don’t you mean you hired a girl?”
“Oh fuck you.” Mike frowns at the statement. “She works at the Smithsonian. I’m taking her out tonight but I don’t know where.”
On the other end, Johnny is silent except for some cursing under his breath. “Are you even listening, man?”
He grunts into the phone and swears some more. “Sorry. Playing 13. Fucking Kronwall. I hate that guy in a fucking video game as much as I do on ice.” There is some more muttering and then the sound of cheering in the background. Johnnie curses again before saying, “What kind of food does she like?”
Mike rubs the back of his head. He’d seen her eat two sandwiches but that didn’t really say a whole lot. It was food court eating. He’d sure as hell do better than that. “I dunno. Food. What’s good around here?”
“Greenie, you’ve lived in that condo for like two years. You know what’s good.”
The problem is that nothing sounds good. The Italian he’d tried to entice her with last night wasn’t formal enough for an actual date. It was okay when he’d just wanted to get into her pants, but now that Mike knew he had a reputation to uphold he’d decided that he’d take his time. Do it right. It’s been almost a year since his last serious relationship and with all of his free-time . . . he just isn’t opposed to the idea of dating, per say. “I need something really good, Johnnie. Not too much, but respectable. You know?”
There’s more muttering, more swearing. With a shout of, “FUCKING DATSYUK,” Johnnie throws something and then sighs heavily. He’s quiet for a few moments. “Well, there’s that new sushi joint. Sakura? I think Nicky said it was good and it’s only, like, two blocks from your place.”
Sushi. Mike can work with sushi. “Yeah, cool. Thanks, man. Good luck with your game. Don’t break anything.”
Johnnie stops him before he hangs up. “What’s her name, dude?”
The dude makes Mike smile, thinking about her. “Adlai something. Starts with an ‘S’. I don’t remember.”
Johnnie hums over the line like he’s got an idea and he’s thinking hard about it but he doesn’t mention anything, just gives him a good-bye. Mike thinks that if things go well with Dell he’ll have to bring her over to meet Johnnie. Maybe she’s as good as she says and she’ll kick his ass at NHL13. That would be awesome.
The sushi place doesn’t take reservations so he banks on it being a slow Friday and drives over to Dell’s at 7 like they’d planned. He doesn’t bring the Lambo; there’s no way he’s going to park it in Georgetown where she lives, even for a few minutes. The BMW works just fine. He thinks she might be waiting out front. Alas, she’s not out front and he climbs up the front steps of her apartment building. When he rings for her apartment, a gruff voice tells him to come in and the door buzzes.
Strange. That was not Dell’s voice, clearly. The walk up to the third floor is a bit dizzying with the almost circular staircase and he thinks the hall smells like mold. And is way too hot. He almost wants to take off his sports jacket.
He raises his hand and knocks instead. He hears a short shuffle break out behind the door before it’s yanked open and Mike takes a step back. There’s a mountain man standing in the doorway, giving him an expectant look. The guy is balding on top, the gray yellow tufts of his remaining hair hanging past his ears while a truly impressive beard reaches the center of his bare chest. Mike stares, hard, at the large skull tattoo that takes up much of the guy’s upper body.
“Um, hi. I’m here for-“
“ADLAI!! YOUR DATE IS HERE!” The guy cuts him off and retreats back into the apartment. Mike watches him scratch his ass on his way back down the hallway.
He closes the door behind him and politely toes off his shoes. He hears Dell yell for him to come in and so he walks the short hallway to the living room. This place is sort of tiny; even smaller than his first place in Arlington. The kitchen off the main hallway is dilapidated but clean. The linoleum peels at every corner and he sees a distinctively pan shaped burn by the stove. The walls are covered with photos and artwork.
Most of the photos, both in the kitchen and lining the hall he’s walking down, are of Dell in various locations. She’s standing in front of Mount Rushmore twice; sitting on a fishing boat somewhere off the coast of Southwest Asia, if he had a guess in another; one picture shows twelve people on a dock with a huge and brilliant ocean in the distance; everyone is joking around, pretending to throw others off the dock. In the center of the photo a man who looks to be in his 50’s holds out a middle finger.
Mike jumps guiltily when he hears a door slam and Dell appears at the end of the hallway. She’s mostly in shadow but he catches a glimpse of a navy blue dress flowing around her calves and cute black shoes. She gives him a wave before heading in to the living room. Mike follows.
The living room is tricked out for gaming. A 60 inch flat screen takes up most of the wall on a huge media center. He sees an Xbox, a PlayStation, and an old N64. DVDs line both sides of the TV. There’s even a sound system. The walls are mostly bare but in all the other nooks and crannies are small objects. He sees a jade dragon hanging out with the PlayStation. A mask of some sort, wooden, is leaned against the far wall. The place looks cluttered, but clean.
The strange mountain man is hunched forward on a giant couch. He’s playing some kind of RPG game that Mike doesn’t find familiar. Dell stands next to the couch, watching the screen while she fiddles with an earring.
“Dude, watch your ass. That dragon is going to fuck you up.” Dell is laughing seconds later when a dragon does indeed come down and chew the hell out of the character on screen. “Told ya. This is Mike, by the way.” Dell glances over her shoulder and Mike sucks in a breath. She looks . . . radiant. Her hair is down again, softly curling. Her base skin blows, laid open to his gaze underneath the strapless dress. Fuck.
The guy on the couch stands and holds out a hand. “I’m Andrew, Adlai’s roommate.” Mike shakes his hand, sort of curious how she ended up living with a guy like this. Dell puts a hand on his arm and Mike looks down at her. Her eyes . . . fuck, her everything. His gut twists in appreciation.
“Oh, Mike, you look so . . . put-together.” She laughs up at him and he subconsciously tries to fix his hair. He’d gone for suave but down to earth. He’s not in a suit but he’s wearing a nice jacket and a tie. She pulls his hand back down and shakes her head, telling him to stop fiddling. “You ready to go?”
Mike nods back at her and they both call out a farewell to Dell’s roommate who is back to playing his game. “Thanks for picking me up. You said sushi?”
“Yup. There’s this new place over in Arlington I wanted to try out.”
“Cool.” She gives him a grin as they reach the curb. He even holds opens the car door for her, wanting this to be perfect. She laughs at him before she climbs in. “It is really strange to be on a real date, I just want you to know. I don’t think a guy has opened a car door for me in forever.”
Mike guns the car before answering, “Well, I’m taking you out. Figured it’d be the gentlemanly thing to do.” He spends the rest of the ride making small talk and trying to wrap his head around the scent of her. She’s still got that flowery, citrus edge but there’s something deeper, spicier underlying it. It’s making his head swim.
He drives straight back to his loft. They pull into the underground parking complex and she’s giving him a really strange look. “The restaurant is just around the corner. Since it’s so nice I figured we could walk.”
Dell looks down at her feet and shrugs. Her heels aren’t tall by any means but he has the distinct feeling that she doesn’t wear anything that isn’t designed for ultimate comfort on her feet normally. It makes him smile to think that she did it for him. She’s perfectly gorgeous and beautiful just for him.
The walk is pleasant, the restaurant very nice, and she coos appreciatively over the selection of fresh fish. Mike isn’t the world’s biggest sushi fan but he can do a California Roll every now and then. Dell orders a handful of sushi, looking around expectantly as they wait for appetizers.
“Sushi is the one luxury I haven’t been able to afford since I moved here. There aren’t any good places that aren’t ridiculously expensive.” Mike thinks about the prices on the menu. At least she hadn’t limited herself because of cost. Not with him, and certainly not on a date. He likes that she doesn’t fight him paying for much. It makes things simpler.
“So, your roommate? He’s . . . interesting.” It’s the most polite term that Mike can think of.
“Oh yeah, interesting is a good way to describe him.” Dell is laughing so at least he hasn’t offended her. “He’s more of a friend of a friend who needed a place to stay. I had the extra room and not paying full rent is pretty nice. I don’t get much of a stipend.”
He thinks about the AV equipment at her house. She must be spending all her cash on toys. Sort of like him, but with a much tighter budget. “Well, he seemed cool.” This isn’t really all that true. Their five minute interaction would never allow him to make that judgment but it’s polite to be polite about your date’s roommate.
“He is, really. He looks rough around the edges but he’s just a sweetheart. And he’s not that much older than me. He’s only 32.”
Mike’s eyes widen. If 32 isn’t that much older than her, than how old is she? Dell, still sort of checking out the restaurant, lands her eyes on him and watches him thinking. She cocks an eyebrow, daring him to ask. He doesn’t. Never ask a woman her age, right.
Dell blurts out, “I’m 27. See, only five years. Not bad at all. And Andrew needs some stability. He’s been jumping trains and crossing the country for almost three years.” She buries her nervous response to his mental question with more strange facts and he doesn’t know whether to ignore the first part focus on the second, or just move on to a different topic.
Thankfully, their food arrives. It’s always the way of things, he thinks. Food is the ultimate tension breaker. He makes it through dinner with light banter. He asks about the photos on the wall and finds out that she actually grew up in South Dakota, explaining the Mount Rushmore pictures. The fishing boat photo was taken off the coast of Indonesia three years ago. The picture on the dock, the hilarious one, was her first field school on the Chesapeake Bay.
Dell gets so caught up when she’s describing the places she’s been. He watches her face as she slides from one memory to the next, usually with a soft smile and that amazing laugh. Indonesia included run-ins with local guerillas and broken cooking pots. She spent a summer working on Grecian ruins. When she talks about fighting off black bears, her eyes light up and her hands start going crazy with description.
“So it’s like 2 in the morning, one of our last nights at field school, and I wake up to pots banging and of course, I’m instantly freaked out. We’re in the middle of nowhere. So I go downstairs to investigate and there’s a fucking bear trying to climb in to the kitchen window. A legitimate bear. Half the people in the kitchen are screaming and banging pots trying to scare it off. Two guys are taking footage with their phones and there’s one girl curled up in the far corner, just crying. It goes on for a few minutes, with this bear just shredding the screen and then it just gets down off the side of the house and wanders off. Totally not the best way to wake up but the footage is fucking amazing.” She’s got tears in her eyes from the story and instantly he knows that he could be in a lot of danger with this one. He could listen to shit like this every day for the rest of his life.
“Do you still have it?” He wants to see this.
“The footage? Yeah, hold on.” She pulls out her phone and scrolls through a few things. In moments he’s watching a YouTube video with a lot of yelling and banging and crying. Sure enough, a fucking bear is trying to climb through a cabin window while a bunch of college kids try to scare it off. The sound is really loud and they’re probably getting stared at but it’s hysterical and he just laughs.
The camera swings around and Mike catches a glimpse of Dell, younger than she is now with short hair, in her pajamas. She doesn’t look frightened; more amused. She even gives the camera man a thumbs up before he pans away. She’d been all legs and bed hair. Sex hair. He swallows hard, willing the video to end so she’ll stop looking at his guilty flushed face.
“You weren’t even fazed, were you?” Mike’s run into bears in the woods while camping. He doesn’t think he’d want to be in such close proximity.
“Nah. Black bears are harmless unless you piss them off. Besides, that thing would have had to go through seven other undergrads before it got to me. I was pretty safe just shaken, a little. All the girls camped together in one room the rest of the night but no permanent damage.”
When Mike grins, Dell watches his mouth. He likes that she does that. He likes how she licks her lips while she’s doing it. Yeah, she’s thinking about kissing him. He especially likes that. “I had no idea being an archaeologist could be so dangerous.”
She tips her cup of sake at him. “Indiana Jones, we are not, but we still have our excitement. That’s why I do it. The chance to discover the past and see the world. I’ve been to seventeen countries for various work and school related reasons. Most of its been comp’ed by universities. Cheap and awesome.”
Sort of like him and hockey. Once he’d made the juniors he’d been given the tour of North America on someone else’s dime. “Ever been to Canada?”
She gives a sad, little sigh. “No. I didn’t have enough time to do field work up there before I started working on my doctorate and my job at the Smithsonian keeps me in the States. I’m sure I’d like it, though. I’ve been to Alaska five times and I imagine it would have to be mostly similar, right?”
He’s never really thought about that so he shrugs. “Maybe. Perhaps I’ll just have to take you home with me so you can make a substantial comparison. Calgary is awesome.” He thinks about taking her up to Canada with him, especially during the winter. It’s been a long time since he’s skated on his old hockey pond.
Her smile is small when she replies with her own maybe and she takes another sip of sake. It’s getting late, after 9 already, and the restaurant is going to be closing soon. He really doesn’t want to leave, especially not since he’ll probably just end up taking her home. He’s having far too good of a time with her. Dangerously good, even.
The waiter brings over the check and she seems to share his sentiments with a heavy sigh. At least they’ve got the walk home and then the drive back to her place, he thinks as he pays the bill. Almost a whole hour. She lets him slip her coat on her at the door and his fingers linger on the bared skin at her neck for just a moment. It’s warm and soft. She shivers under his touch. He absolutely does not want to let her out of his bed for at least a week but he’s not going to push.
Mike slips his hand into hers when they walk out. Her palm fits nicely against his and he intertwines their fingers. He grins down at her, brilliantly, because this is really nice. Just a date. Good conversation, good food, good company. She smiles back up at him and neither of them are watching where they’re going.
Dell trips first, her heel getting caught up on the sidewalk. She pitches forward and Mike reacts instantly, catching her in his arms. Her weight throws him off though and he stumbles too. They both reel, taking wild steps to keep up right. When they finally come to a stop, her leaning on her toes and braced between his spread legs, they’re both laughing.
The soft street light frames her face so perfectly. Mike lets the laughter die down on his lips because right now, he’s not feeling funny. He’s got this crazy twisted feeling in his stomach, signaling something important is about to happen. Something big.
Dell is still laughing, beautifully, when he brings both hands up to her cheeks and he drops his mouth to brush his lips gently across hers. She is silenced under the soft kiss. The contact is thrilling and sends sparks flying across his skin. Dell is soft and pliant under him; she tastes like sake and sunshine.
When they stop it’s to take a deep breath. Dell’s eyes are closed and she’s got a soft smile on her face. He leans his forehead against hers. As far as first kisses go this isn’t the worst ever. It’s actually pretty fucking good. She lets out a sigh. “Wow.”
Mike chuckles. “Yeah.”
Mike leans back so he can watch her expression; he is so fucking pleased to see her soft smile bloom into a grin. He waits until she opens her eyes to lean down and go for round two. There’s such promise in the way she parts for him, her teeth gently snagging his lower lip. He can’t help the groan and she responds in kind. Her hands find his jaw, on sliding up into his hair and her groan deepens. Well, that’s interesting.
He pulls back again, this time to get them both fully upright and not half sprawled over each other. He needs to keep kissing her though. Because it’s addicting. And she is grabbing at his coat, not wanting him to stop either.
It is at this moment, both of them looking for purchase on the other’s bodies, when the rain that has been threatening all day begins. A deluge from heaven.
Insanity, sometimes his best version of reason, won out and he doesn’t at all regret visiting the archaeologist. They’d had a great lunch on the Mall and she’d even agreed to dinner. Despite the fact that she expected him to be a total man-whore dick. Not fair, but he could understand. She admitted that the majority of her knowledge of the off-ice hockey player life style revolved around Dead Spin.
So, he thinks he can’t really blame her, what with Kane making every fucking one of them look like dick bags. He really wants to make a good impression, wants to show her how awesome he is, and he calls Johnnie. Johnnie has a good track record for advice and right now he needs dinner locations.
“So, I might have met a girl.” As good a start as any to the conversation.
It sounds like Johnnie sputters on the other end, mid-drink or something. “Sorry, what? You met a girl? Don’t you mean you hired a girl?”
“Oh fuck you.” Mike frowns at the statement. “She works at the Smithsonian. I’m taking her out tonight but I don’t know where.”
On the other end, Johnny is silent except for some cursing under his breath. “Are you even listening, man?”
He grunts into the phone and swears some more. “Sorry. Playing 13. Fucking Kronwall. I hate that guy in a fucking video game as much as I do on ice.” There is some more muttering and then the sound of cheering in the background. Johnnie curses again before saying, “What kind of food does she like?”
Mike rubs the back of his head. He’d seen her eat two sandwiches but that didn’t really say a whole lot. It was food court eating. He’d sure as hell do better than that. “I dunno. Food. What’s good around here?”
“Greenie, you’ve lived in that condo for like two years. You know what’s good.”
The problem is that nothing sounds good. The Italian he’d tried to entice her with last night wasn’t formal enough for an actual date. It was okay when he’d just wanted to get into her pants, but now that Mike knew he had a reputation to uphold he’d decided that he’d take his time. Do it right. It’s been almost a year since his last serious relationship and with all of his free-time . . . he just isn’t opposed to the idea of dating, per say. “I need something really good, Johnnie. Not too much, but respectable. You know?”
There’s more muttering, more swearing. With a shout of, “FUCKING DATSYUK,” Johnnie throws something and then sighs heavily. He’s quiet for a few moments. “Well, there’s that new sushi joint. Sakura? I think Nicky said it was good and it’s only, like, two blocks from your place.”
Sushi. Mike can work with sushi. “Yeah, cool. Thanks, man. Good luck with your game. Don’t break anything.”
Johnnie stops him before he hangs up. “What’s her name, dude?”
The dude makes Mike smile, thinking about her. “Adlai something. Starts with an ‘S’. I don’t remember.”
Johnnie hums over the line like he’s got an idea and he’s thinking hard about it but he doesn’t mention anything, just gives him a good-bye. Mike thinks that if things go well with Dell he’ll have to bring her over to meet Johnnie. Maybe she’s as good as she says and she’ll kick his ass at NHL13. That would be awesome.
The sushi place doesn’t take reservations so he banks on it being a slow Friday and drives over to Dell’s at 7 like they’d planned. He doesn’t bring the Lambo; there’s no way he’s going to park it in Georgetown where she lives, even for a few minutes. The BMW works just fine. He thinks she might be waiting out front. Alas, she’s not out front and he climbs up the front steps of her apartment building. When he rings for her apartment, a gruff voice tells him to come in and the door buzzes.
Strange. That was not Dell’s voice, clearly. The walk up to the third floor is a bit dizzying with the almost circular staircase and he thinks the hall smells like mold. And is way too hot. He almost wants to take off his sports jacket.
He raises his hand and knocks instead. He hears a short shuffle break out behind the door before it’s yanked open and Mike takes a step back. There’s a mountain man standing in the doorway, giving him an expectant look. The guy is balding on top, the gray yellow tufts of his remaining hair hanging past his ears while a truly impressive beard reaches the center of his bare chest. Mike stares, hard, at the large skull tattoo that takes up much of the guy’s upper body.
“Um, hi. I’m here for-“
“ADLAI!! YOUR DATE IS HERE!” The guy cuts him off and retreats back into the apartment. Mike watches him scratch his ass on his way back down the hallway.
He closes the door behind him and politely toes off his shoes. He hears Dell yell for him to come in and so he walks the short hallway to the living room. This place is sort of tiny; even smaller than his first place in Arlington. The kitchen off the main hallway is dilapidated but clean. The linoleum peels at every corner and he sees a distinctively pan shaped burn by the stove. The walls are covered with photos and artwork.
Most of the photos, both in the kitchen and lining the hall he’s walking down, are of Dell in various locations. She’s standing in front of Mount Rushmore twice; sitting on a fishing boat somewhere off the coast of Southwest Asia, if he had a guess in another; one picture shows twelve people on a dock with a huge and brilliant ocean in the distance; everyone is joking around, pretending to throw others off the dock. In the center of the photo a man who looks to be in his 50’s holds out a middle finger.
Mike jumps guiltily when he hears a door slam and Dell appears at the end of the hallway. She’s mostly in shadow but he catches a glimpse of a navy blue dress flowing around her calves and cute black shoes. She gives him a wave before heading in to the living room. Mike follows.
The living room is tricked out for gaming. A 60 inch flat screen takes up most of the wall on a huge media center. He sees an Xbox, a PlayStation, and an old N64. DVDs line both sides of the TV. There’s even a sound system. The walls are mostly bare but in all the other nooks and crannies are small objects. He sees a jade dragon hanging out with the PlayStation. A mask of some sort, wooden, is leaned against the far wall. The place looks cluttered, but clean.
The strange mountain man is hunched forward on a giant couch. He’s playing some kind of RPG game that Mike doesn’t find familiar. Dell stands next to the couch, watching the screen while she fiddles with an earring.
“Dude, watch your ass. That dragon is going to fuck you up.” Dell is laughing seconds later when a dragon does indeed come down and chew the hell out of the character on screen. “Told ya. This is Mike, by the way.” Dell glances over her shoulder and Mike sucks in a breath. She looks . . . radiant. Her hair is down again, softly curling. Her base skin blows, laid open to his gaze underneath the strapless dress. Fuck.
The guy on the couch stands and holds out a hand. “I’m Andrew, Adlai’s roommate.” Mike shakes his hand, sort of curious how she ended up living with a guy like this. Dell puts a hand on his arm and Mike looks down at her. Her eyes . . . fuck, her everything. His gut twists in appreciation.
“Oh, Mike, you look so . . . put-together.” She laughs up at him and he subconsciously tries to fix his hair. He’d gone for suave but down to earth. He’s not in a suit but he’s wearing a nice jacket and a tie. She pulls his hand back down and shakes her head, telling him to stop fiddling. “You ready to go?”
Mike nods back at her and they both call out a farewell to Dell’s roommate who is back to playing his game. “Thanks for picking me up. You said sushi?”
“Yup. There’s this new place over in Arlington I wanted to try out.”
“Cool.” She gives him a grin as they reach the curb. He even holds opens the car door for her, wanting this to be perfect. She laughs at him before she climbs in. “It is really strange to be on a real date, I just want you to know. I don’t think a guy has opened a car door for me in forever.”
Mike guns the car before answering, “Well, I’m taking you out. Figured it’d be the gentlemanly thing to do.” He spends the rest of the ride making small talk and trying to wrap his head around the scent of her. She’s still got that flowery, citrus edge but there’s something deeper, spicier underlying it. It’s making his head swim.
He drives straight back to his loft. They pull into the underground parking complex and she’s giving him a really strange look. “The restaurant is just around the corner. Since it’s so nice I figured we could walk.”
Dell looks down at her feet and shrugs. Her heels aren’t tall by any means but he has the distinct feeling that she doesn’t wear anything that isn’t designed for ultimate comfort on her feet normally. It makes him smile to think that she did it for him. She’s perfectly gorgeous and beautiful just for him.
The walk is pleasant, the restaurant very nice, and she coos appreciatively over the selection of fresh fish. Mike isn’t the world’s biggest sushi fan but he can do a California Roll every now and then. Dell orders a handful of sushi, looking around expectantly as they wait for appetizers.
“Sushi is the one luxury I haven’t been able to afford since I moved here. There aren’t any good places that aren’t ridiculously expensive.” Mike thinks about the prices on the menu. At least she hadn’t limited herself because of cost. Not with him, and certainly not on a date. He likes that she doesn’t fight him paying for much. It makes things simpler.
“So, your roommate? He’s . . . interesting.” It’s the most polite term that Mike can think of.
“Oh yeah, interesting is a good way to describe him.” Dell is laughing so at least he hasn’t offended her. “He’s more of a friend of a friend who needed a place to stay. I had the extra room and not paying full rent is pretty nice. I don’t get much of a stipend.”
He thinks about the AV equipment at her house. She must be spending all her cash on toys. Sort of like him, but with a much tighter budget. “Well, he seemed cool.” This isn’t really all that true. Their five minute interaction would never allow him to make that judgment but it’s polite to be polite about your date’s roommate.
“He is, really. He looks rough around the edges but he’s just a sweetheart. And he’s not that much older than me. He’s only 32.”
Mike’s eyes widen. If 32 isn’t that much older than her, than how old is she? Dell, still sort of checking out the restaurant, lands her eyes on him and watches him thinking. She cocks an eyebrow, daring him to ask. He doesn’t. Never ask a woman her age, right.
Dell blurts out, “I’m 27. See, only five years. Not bad at all. And Andrew needs some stability. He’s been jumping trains and crossing the country for almost three years.” She buries her nervous response to his mental question with more strange facts and he doesn’t know whether to ignore the first part focus on the second, or just move on to a different topic.
Thankfully, their food arrives. It’s always the way of things, he thinks. Food is the ultimate tension breaker. He makes it through dinner with light banter. He asks about the photos on the wall and finds out that she actually grew up in South Dakota, explaining the Mount Rushmore pictures. The fishing boat photo was taken off the coast of Indonesia three years ago. The picture on the dock, the hilarious one, was her first field school on the Chesapeake Bay.
Dell gets so caught up when she’s describing the places she’s been. He watches her face as she slides from one memory to the next, usually with a soft smile and that amazing laugh. Indonesia included run-ins with local guerillas and broken cooking pots. She spent a summer working on Grecian ruins. When she talks about fighting off black bears, her eyes light up and her hands start going crazy with description.
“So it’s like 2 in the morning, one of our last nights at field school, and I wake up to pots banging and of course, I’m instantly freaked out. We’re in the middle of nowhere. So I go downstairs to investigate and there’s a fucking bear trying to climb in to the kitchen window. A legitimate bear. Half the people in the kitchen are screaming and banging pots trying to scare it off. Two guys are taking footage with their phones and there’s one girl curled up in the far corner, just crying. It goes on for a few minutes, with this bear just shredding the screen and then it just gets down off the side of the house and wanders off. Totally not the best way to wake up but the footage is fucking amazing.” She’s got tears in her eyes from the story and instantly he knows that he could be in a lot of danger with this one. He could listen to shit like this every day for the rest of his life.
“Do you still have it?” He wants to see this.
“The footage? Yeah, hold on.” She pulls out her phone and scrolls through a few things. In moments he’s watching a YouTube video with a lot of yelling and banging and crying. Sure enough, a fucking bear is trying to climb through a cabin window while a bunch of college kids try to scare it off. The sound is really loud and they’re probably getting stared at but it’s hysterical and he just laughs.
The camera swings around and Mike catches a glimpse of Dell, younger than she is now with short hair, in her pajamas. She doesn’t look frightened; more amused. She even gives the camera man a thumbs up before he pans away. She’d been all legs and bed hair. Sex hair. He swallows hard, willing the video to end so she’ll stop looking at his guilty flushed face.
“You weren’t even fazed, were you?” Mike’s run into bears in the woods while camping. He doesn’t think he’d want to be in such close proximity.
“Nah. Black bears are harmless unless you piss them off. Besides, that thing would have had to go through seven other undergrads before it got to me. I was pretty safe just shaken, a little. All the girls camped together in one room the rest of the night but no permanent damage.”
When Mike grins, Dell watches his mouth. He likes that she does that. He likes how she licks her lips while she’s doing it. Yeah, she’s thinking about kissing him. He especially likes that. “I had no idea being an archaeologist could be so dangerous.”
She tips her cup of sake at him. “Indiana Jones, we are not, but we still have our excitement. That’s why I do it. The chance to discover the past and see the world. I’ve been to seventeen countries for various work and school related reasons. Most of its been comp’ed by universities. Cheap and awesome.”
Sort of like him and hockey. Once he’d made the juniors he’d been given the tour of North America on someone else’s dime. “Ever been to Canada?”
She gives a sad, little sigh. “No. I didn’t have enough time to do field work up there before I started working on my doctorate and my job at the Smithsonian keeps me in the States. I’m sure I’d like it, though. I’ve been to Alaska five times and I imagine it would have to be mostly similar, right?”
He’s never really thought about that so he shrugs. “Maybe. Perhaps I’ll just have to take you home with me so you can make a substantial comparison. Calgary is awesome.” He thinks about taking her up to Canada with him, especially during the winter. It’s been a long time since he’s skated on his old hockey pond.
Her smile is small when she replies with her own maybe and she takes another sip of sake. It’s getting late, after 9 already, and the restaurant is going to be closing soon. He really doesn’t want to leave, especially not since he’ll probably just end up taking her home. He’s having far too good of a time with her. Dangerously good, even.
The waiter brings over the check and she seems to share his sentiments with a heavy sigh. At least they’ve got the walk home and then the drive back to her place, he thinks as he pays the bill. Almost a whole hour. She lets him slip her coat on her at the door and his fingers linger on the bared skin at her neck for just a moment. It’s warm and soft. She shivers under his touch. He absolutely does not want to let her out of his bed for at least a week but he’s not going to push.
Mike slips his hand into hers when they walk out. Her palm fits nicely against his and he intertwines their fingers. He grins down at her, brilliantly, because this is really nice. Just a date. Good conversation, good food, good company. She smiles back up at him and neither of them are watching where they’re going.
Dell trips first, her heel getting caught up on the sidewalk. She pitches forward and Mike reacts instantly, catching her in his arms. Her weight throws him off though and he stumbles too. They both reel, taking wild steps to keep up right. When they finally come to a stop, her leaning on her toes and braced between his spread legs, they’re both laughing.
The soft street light frames her face so perfectly. Mike lets the laughter die down on his lips because right now, he’s not feeling funny. He’s got this crazy twisted feeling in his stomach, signaling something important is about to happen. Something big.
Dell is still laughing, beautifully, when he brings both hands up to her cheeks and he drops his mouth to brush his lips gently across hers. She is silenced under the soft kiss. The contact is thrilling and sends sparks flying across his skin. Dell is soft and pliant under him; she tastes like sake and sunshine.
When they stop it’s to take a deep breath. Dell’s eyes are closed and she’s got a soft smile on her face. He leans his forehead against hers. As far as first kisses go this isn’t the worst ever. It’s actually pretty fucking good. She lets out a sigh. “Wow.”
Mike chuckles. “Yeah.”
Mike leans back so he can watch her expression; he is so fucking pleased to see her soft smile bloom into a grin. He waits until she opens her eyes to lean down and go for round two. There’s such promise in the way she parts for him, her teeth gently snagging his lower lip. He can’t help the groan and she responds in kind. Her hands find his jaw, on sliding up into his hair and her groan deepens. Well, that’s interesting.
He pulls back again, this time to get them both fully upright and not half sprawled over each other. He needs to keep kissing her though. Because it’s addicting. And she is grabbing at his coat, not wanting him to stop either.
It is at this moment, both of them looking for purchase on the other’s bodies, when the rain that has been threatening all day begins. A deluge from heaven.
Notes
Sorry for the Kaner hate. I sometimes wonder, though, how his reputation ripples through the league. When MY co-workers do something stupid we all look stupid. Has to be similar, right.THANK YOU! for the comments! They made me smile.
Arrrrggggg-Rated coming up next. Stay tuned!
9/9/13