Mr. Cumberbatch

Chapter 1- The Bar

"That's incredible. You know I'm actually an English teacher," He says with his left eyebrow raised. Nicole can't stop herself from giggling. "He is the most adorable man I have ever seen," she thinks admiringly.

He glances playfully into her eyes. "Maybe I could critique your writing for you sometime, if you would like."

She giggles down at the floor. "Yeah, that sounds nice."

She goes to take a sip of her drink and clumsily drops her napkin by her foot. They react instantaneously and both lean down to pick it up. Their hands touch and a strange jolt of energy generates up Nicole's arm and into her stomach. Shivers run down her spine. She looks up at him and happens to notice he's staring at her with the same exact expression. Was he feeling this connection too?

He slides back up into his chair and smiles. This time he is the one blushing. He runs his fingers through his luscious hair and graciously repositions his grey vest.

Nicole can't help but notice he resembles the man of her dreams almost perfectly with every detail: Tall, smart, and handsome, with curly golden brown hair and the deep British accent.

"Wow..." Nicole accidentally whispers aloud while resting her heavy head on the palm of her hand with her elbow placed on the counter of the bar. She stares up at him in awe. 

Benedict lightly covers his lips with his fingers as he chuckles. "...was that, um, towards me?" he asks sheepishly. 

Nicole's cheeks immediately turn to a rosy hue as she closes her eyes in embarrassment. "I said that out loud, didn't I?" she asks. 

"I think you might have," Benedict says with a smoldering grin lifted higher on one side of his face. 

Nicole opens her eyes to notice he was now a few inches closer to her face than before. Her initial reaction was to move back, but she couldn't help but notice something was different in the way Benedict was now looking at her. She looks up at him with a bit of a puzzled look. 

"You look confused," Benedict says. "Is something the matter?"

Nicole continues to stare into his eyes. He moves his face in even closer to the point to where she can now feel his breath against her upper lip. 

"I-I'm-I'm just-" Nicole stutters. She feels herself slowly moving in closer almost like he had a gravity pull on her. After a few seconds of moving centimeters closer to his face, she jumps back into reality. 

Nicole stands up off the bar stool and slides her mini hand bag off the counter. "I just- uh- gotta go to the ladies room," she says. She brushes down her skirt and tries to regain her composure. "Excuse me."

Benedict slides back into his seat and subtly winks in her direction. "Of course," he says in a hushed deep tone as he nods his head. 

As Nicole walks back towards the direction of the restroom, she becomes suddenly interested in the sexy mysterious man she had just been talking to again. She playfully glances back over her shoulder in his direction to see if he had been watching her walk away. She's quick to notice he must've been since she now has caught his attention. She quickly looks back towards to restroom and smiles subtly to herself. 

She pushes the door open to the single person restroom and goes immediately towards the sink and mirror. She places her purse on the counter and stares up at her reflection while resting her arms over the sink. What am I doing? she thinks. This is crazy, and definitely unlike me. She splashes her face with cold water and dries it off with a hand towel. She stares at her face in the mirror again. She begins to think about all of her past relationships and how none of them had been right for her. She realizes that all her past boyfriends had been bad decisions she had made even when she thought she was making a good decision. Maybe she should go for this guy that seems so different than every other guy she's been with in the past.  She stares at herself for a few more minutes contemplating it all in her head when suddenly she realizes what she is going to do.