Never Again

** LACEY'S POV **

When I texted Grace yesterday telling her that Patrick and I had set a dinner date for tonight, she just about lost her mind. She acted like it was a huge shock which took me by surprise because the Grace I know would usually tell me how she knew it would happen because I'm such a catch, but this Grace was asking me if I was sure I was texting the actual Patrick Kane. Whenever I questioned her about her reactions, she would just shrug it off and just comment about how cool it was to have a friend going on a date with a player on the Chicago Blackhawks. After so long of asking about it, I just gave up because I knew that she wasn't going to tell me anything.

Regardless of her reactions, she insisted on coming over a whole four hours before Pat was scheduled to pick me up. When she asked me what I was going to wear, I realised that I didn't ask Pat what the dress code for tonight was, so I pulled out my phone and sent him a text.

Me: So I'm going to get dinner tonight with a friend, but I have no idea what to wear. Got any ideas for me?

Pat: Hmm, who's the lucky guy? I would suggest something more on the casual side, but not casual. You know what I mean?

Me: No actually, I don't. How does one dress casually but not casual?

Pat: You know. Not a dress, but not sweatpants. Jeans and a nice blouse, maybe?

Me: So basically, dress casually. Thanks!

Pat: You're welcome. I can't wait to see you :-)

After laughing about Pat's description of what to wear, Grace went through my closet and instructed me to get started on my makeup. Sticking with the casual theme, I decided to keep it minimal by just using some foundation, mascara and lip gloss. I put on little crystal studs for earrings, and headed back to my room to make sure that my wardrobe wasn't completely thrown out on my floor. To my surprise, Grace was just finishing hanging a few things back up in my closet and my outfit for the night was laid across my bed. I picked up the pile of clothes and quickly changed out of my sweats and into the outfit Grace chose for me. After looking in the mirror, I had to admire her choice. A black pair of leggings with a dark purple tank top, a necklace to match and a pair of black heels. I definitely looked good, that was for sure.

I let Grace take total control of my hair and she decided to just curl the ends and put half of it up. It took longer than I was willing to sit still through, but Grace insisted it would be worth it in the end and as usual, she was right. I was completely ready to go with around 20 minutes to spare. Grace left as soon as I was ready to be sure she wouldn't be here when Patrick came to pick me up, and I made sure my apartment was clean so that he wouldn't think I was a pig. With a final look at the clock, I saw that I had five minutes to kill until Pat would be here. I started to get nervous.

Too nervous.

My hands are becoming clammy, and my palms are sweating. My heart is pounding out of my chest and my thoughts are all over the place.

What if he doesn't like me?

What if I don't look good enough for him? I mean, look how attractive he is. He probably wants an equally as attractive girl to match, and I'm not that girl.

What if he thinks I have a bad personality? I'm usually really shy, and it's going to be hard to be social.

What if he picks up on my fright and he runs the other way? I won't be able to handle that.

As if on cue, my phone vibrated indicating that I had a text.

Grace: Breathe, woman. I can practically see you freaking out and I'm not even in the same building as you.

Damn, this girl knows me too well. I knew she was right so I started taking some deep breaths. It was on my fourth exhale that there was a knock at my door.

I opened the door and there he was. The man I'm taking a big risk on. He was wearing dark blue jeans, a white button up dress shirt and a black suit jacket on top. It was perfectly casual, but still showed that he wanted to look good. The cologne that he had on was the perfect mix of manly and sweet, and it was so inviting. His hands were behind his back out of nervousness and I could feel his gaze on my face.

When I looked up at him and met his bright blue eyes, a huge smile enveloped his face, and it reflected on to mine.

"Hey. You look, wow. I don't even know. Great. No, not great. Great doesn't do it justice. Wait, shit. I don't mean that you don't look great, because you do. But you don't. You look better than great. Wow, okay. I'm going to shut up now. Sorry."

I let out a laugh. "Thanks, but it's just a tank top. And you don't look half bad, either," I said with a smile.

I decided to go in for a hug because his scent was drawing me to him and despite barely knowing him, I felt an incredibly strong urge to be in his arms so I just went for it. I immediately regretted my decision and rejection washed through me from head to toe when he didn't return the hug. He didn't even make an attempt to return it. I didn't even get one of those half-assed one arm hugs. Nothing.
I knew this was too good to be true.

♦ ♦ ♦

I immediately started running through every moment of our encounter in my head, not that it was a very long encounter. It lasted just long enough for Pat to spit out some word vomit and for me to wrap my arms around him and have him not return it. When I realised that his rejection likely meant that I should pull away from his body, I did exactly that, trying to prevent the tears from falling.
Pat noticed that my eyes were glossy and his smile was instantly wiped from his face.

"Hey, hey. What's wrong? Did I do something?" His voice sounded panicked, like he had no idea what to make of the situation.

"No, no, it's fine. It's me, not you. I just thought that"-- I paused to sniffle, "You know, this was a date. I'm sorry if I misread this, it's completely my fault." I lowered my eyes away from his, knowing that if I looked into them for too long I'd lose myself completely and I just can't afford to do that.

"Is this about the hug? Because I, uh, had good reason for that."

Before I could even look back up, Pat took his arms out from behind his back, one of his hands holding a bouquet of roses and the other holding a small, heart-shaped chocolate.

"These are for you, Lacey. Don't be sad. You didn't read into this wrong, it's definitely a date. Unless you don't want it to be, then it's just two friends getting dinner," he said with a smile and a wink.

I breathed the biggest sigh of relief that I ever breathed in my life. "Wow, talk about embarrassing. I'm sorry, it's just been awhile since I've been on a date. Thanks, Pat. You're really sweet," I said taking the flowers and chocolate from him. "Let me put these in a vase and we can go, if you still want."

"Of course I still want to go; I've been looking forward to this all day! You're as silly as you are beautiful if you honestly thought I wouldn't want to go anymore."

With a smile, I went back into my apartment, quickly put the roses in water and rejoined Pat outside my door, extending his arm to let me go ahead of him.

♦ ♦ ♦

We sat in a surprisingly comfortable silence in his car while he drove us to our destination. I assumed we would be going to a restaurant, but I noticed that we were no longer city driving. Hell, we weren't even on pavement anymore, we were driving on rocks.

"Uh, Pat? Not that I don't trust you or anything but, uh, ... where are we going?"

He looked over at me and reached his hand over as if to squeeze my thigh, but he stopped before he did and opted for a smile instead. "All in good time Lacey, all in good time. And by good time, I mean another 30 seconds, because we're here."

He put the car in park, we both got out, and I took in my surroundings. We were in the middle of a forest, with no houses and no signs of other people in sight. My mind went back to the thoughts I had two nights ago of Pat being a murderer.

"You're not going to kill me out here, are you?" I said half-joking, half not.

"If I wanted to kill you Lacey, I would have done it by now," he said with a smirk. "Come on, we have a 10 minute walk to do."

"I thought we were going for dinner?"

"We are."

"Interesting. Lead the way, I suppose."

Everything about the walk was nice. The sun was still up, the temperature wasn't too hot, wasn't too cold, and even though there was silence between us, it wasn't awkward. It was comfortable, which says a lot to me about Pat as a person. Even if others think that silences aren't awkward, if I don't feel comfortable around the person, then I'll see the situation as awkward. To me, this is a great sign in the right direction. I might actually be able to open myself up to Pat, and I couldn't control the smile that came on my face.

"What's making you so happy? Is it something to do with the boy who you now have alone in the woods?" Pat asked with an edge of cockiness in his tone.

If only he knew what I was really smiling about, because he might not be smiling back.

"Hmm, it might be. But it also might be the fact that I decided not to wear six inch heels, because this walk would be really difficult if I did."

"Don't worry, once we go around this curve we'll be there, I promise. I'm too hungry to walk any further."

When Patrick and I turned the corner, I wanted to jump up and down with glee. We were standing in a beautiful field with wild flowers growing everywhere, and with a river flowing through it. Right in the middle was a dinner table set for two with a candle in the middle and a full meal on each plate.
I ended up standing there, in awe, with my jaw on the floor. Pat broke me out of my moment by using his hand to bring my jaw back up to my upper lip. It was an innocent touch, but the electricity that ran through us was undeniable. This man did incredible things to my body and this was only one simple touch. I shuddered happily just imagining the other sort of reactions he could probably get out of me.

"Shall we?"

Notes