In The Heat Of Los Angeles [H.S.]

First Date (Blink 182)

"All of the projects we gave you are awesome. I have copies of the scripts on my desk that I need to read. Maybe I'll read them as I listen to people ask me questions today. Do we think I can multi-task that well?"

"I'd like to believe you can do anything you put your mind to. But currently, you're barely able to eat your breakfast and talk to me. So how about you don't try to do anything strenuous. Save it and read it after work while I make you dinner."

"That could...wait a second. You're trying to trick me!"

"I might've and you nearly fell for it. Sadly you didn't completely."

"Of course I didn't. Because you aren't making me dinner tonight. And I'm not staying here and we aren't sleeping together again." He leaned in to kiss me. "Stop that!"

"Sorry, can't. You're sexy when you get all fired up like this."

"Ugh, you annoy me. Ya know that?"

"Yup." He again leaned in to kiss me. "Now, eat your breakfast." I relented and started to eat. The food was perfect. The yogurt and granola was like breakfast dessert. "Do you want me to make you a smoothie that you can take to work with you?"

"Nah, I've got stuff I can make for a mid-morning snack if I need it. Also remember I have a five star restaurant I can order from every day for anything I need."

"Of course," he said. "So what are you thinking for dinner?"

"Chinese delivery because I'll be working all night. The delivery place knows my order based on my phone number." It was sad that this accomplishment excited me. Most people would've been depressed that their favorite Chinese restaurant knew what they ordered because of how frequently they ordered it.

"That just doesn't sound remotely good."

"No, it sounds fucking delicious." I stood up and carried my plate to the sink rinsing it off. "Thank you for breakfast. And dinner last night. And last night in general. And putting towels out for me this morning. But, I have to go to work now."

"I know." He wrapped his arms around me before bending down slightly to kiss me. He picked me up and sat me down on the island in the kitchen. For the first time I was nearly eye level with him because I was actually a little bit taller than he was from here.

"I have to go to work," I whined.

"Can I just have a minute?" He seemed almost frustrated with me. I softened for a minute and wrapped my legs around his waist pulling him into me a little more. "You are amazing. You're intelligent, talented, and incredible at what you do. You are going to need to put down this wall you have up. You can fight me about dinner or you coming over here again tonight. But you can't deny that you want this as much as I do. You can't deny that you like when I kiss you. I know you do. And I want to keep kissing you. I can't go back in time and not hire you and I wouldn't want to. But presently I don't want to pick between if I can take you out for a nice dinner or if I only get work related phone calls from you. I want you in my life in both ways. So would you give some serious thought to it today?"

"Okay," I said. "I'll think about it. But you realize that before I can even think about it I need to do my job. I need to make sure I survive today and the mountain of emails in my inbox. I'm sure that while I'm fielding questions and phone calls today I will have plenty of time to think."

"So can we do dinner tonight to talk about it? Just us tonight. No one else."

"I guess we can do dinner." He leaned in and kissed me. I could feel him smiling against my lips. I don't know why I was telling him yes to dinner. It was a mistake. I couldn't do this. But I did have to admit it, he was right and I did like the way he kissed me and being around him was something I was starting to enjoy a lot. I wasn't sure how to handle this. I'd never ventured in to this territory before.