Rain Check?

~21~

Third Person POV

Chris drums his fingers along his steering wheel as he pulls down Dempsey's street. While casually looking for a place to park he notices the attractive brunette sitting out on her steps. Unaware that he's pulled up, she doesn't notice him. He takes a few seconds to just kind of watch her.

From where he sits in his car she appears both solemn and yet frazzled at the same time, as if she's a cross between guarded and begging to be set free of something.

This meet up was completely spur of the moment, his desire to see her so quickly again winning out over appearing desperate for someone that he hasn't actually, truly opened up to.

Chris climbs out of the car, adjusting the cap on his head and locks the door behind him. He jumps up onto the sidewalk, hands in his pockets and walks the four car lengths to Dempsey's brownstone.

"You don't exactly look like the girl I dropped off last night?" he calls out with a smile. "But, gotta say, I like the sweatshirt."

"Hey," she responds, sitting up a bit, brushing her hands off on the thighs of her jeans.

"You okay?" Chris asks, stepping up but stopping on the third step. He leans back against the wrought iron railing, looking at her with concern.

Dempsey glances up at the sky, the lines on her forehead prominent from furrowing. She opens her mouth before closing it again quickly, the nerves coursing through her veins attempting to throw her off of whatever plan she'd been toying with.

Chris grows increasingly concerned, afraid that maybe he overstepped last night. Or maybe he shouldn't have come back over so quickly after the initial date. Perhaps he should've asked to visit rather than just telling her of his plan and showing up.

From what he can tell it seems she's a bit in her head. He's seen her like this before, even though she's unaware of it. During the auction he saw her discomfort, and her attempt to retreat inside herself. Maybe that's why he bid so high, hopeful that it would bring her back to the reality in front of her.

"Wanna go for a walk?" he offers, a possible feeble attempt, but he's not real sure where to take this if she's holding something back. "There's a great ice cream place just a couple blocks from here, or we can drive back to the pier, take a walk at the harbor."

Dempsey debates within herself, glancing at the time on her cell, buying the extra moment she needs without coming across as unsure. Or so she hopes. She rubs her hands down her face before finally throwing caution to the wind. "Yeah, ice cream, okay."

'Did those words even make sense?' she thinks to herself.

Asking Chris to give her a second, she goes back inside her home to grab her wristlet wallet and keys. Locking the door behind her she shoves her keys in her pocket and joins Chris at the bottom of the stairs.

He's ready and willing to take her hand immediately, but falters easily once he notices she's cutting herself off, her hands crossed against her chest. "Cold? We can grab coffee instead?"

"No, ice cream is fine," she answers, eyes forward.

'Is now the right time to bring it up?' he asks himself as they return to silence.

One block down, one to go and Chris is beside himself in trying to figure out what's gone wrong in such a short time span. "I can't remember the name of the shop, do you know it?" he asks, glancing next to him to finally see Dempsey look back at him.

"Oh, yeah it's Emack and Bolios. Truthfully it's one of the things that sold me on the house," she lightly laughs out. Chris joins her but she shuts down again almost immediately. "The shop was actually opened by a lawyer who did a lot of pro bono work. The name actually came from two homeless men that he helped. They asked that it be named after them."