NINE
"You look... nice."
I smiled shyly in front of Caleb outside my loft's building. "Thank you. You do too, yourself." He was casually wearing dark jeans, a white polo shirt, and a suit jacket over.
I secretly admired him from my window as I spied on him pull up to the curb in his ostentatious car. When he called offering to walk to my door, I refused and said I would just meet him out here instead. It was now Saturday evening, and Caleb called earlier in the day asking if we were still on tonight. I wanted to decline. Badly, but I also wanted to go more than I didn't.
His hazel eyes gleamed in the lamppost that was our only source of light. "Ready?"
I nodded and let him lead me to the other side of the car where he opened the passenger's seat for me. I smiled at him briefly in thanks and slipped in. During the short amount of period I was alone in the car, I took deep breaths. Okay, Ann. You can do this. You've been on dates before. Just pretend Caleb's like any other guy.
Except I couldn't. I really liked him. He invaded my thoughts and dreams. That wasn't just attraction. It could probably end up as more...
"So, I made a reservation at this Japanese restaurant downtown. I hope you love sushi," he winked at me before starting the car. "I know it's a typical first-date kind of thing, but it is a great way we could get in some proper conversations."
"I never really tried them," I admitted keeping my hands tucked under my legs, one of the things I had noticed about myself that I do whenever I was nervous.
Caleb's driving slowed down as we neared a red traffic light. He looked over at me. "Would you rather we go to a different one then?"
"Don't be ridiculous," I waved it away. "There's no better time to try sushi than tonight."
He nodded slowly. "If you're sure... I want to make sure I do an excellent first impression."
I laughed out loud, slowly easing into the idea of the date. "Mr. Caleb, I think it's way too late for first impressions. We got to know each other pretty well." I blushed at what I just said. "I mean... you know."
He grinned at me from the side. "Oh I do know. Very well." I looked away to the window to try and cool my cheeks before looking back at him. "I think we should set some rules." He added out of the blue.
I sharply turned my head to look at him. "Rules?" I asked meekly.
Caleb noticed the change in my tone and laughed. "Relax. Just some things I think we need to go over."
"Is this what you do to get women, sir? Set rules on a date?" I rolled my eyes brushing away stray hairs from my face.
"And that's the first rule. Please don't refer to me as 'sir,'" he grimaced as he said it. "We're not on professional terms here. It only ever makes me cringe."
I shrugged. "Maybe you are old, Caleb. How old are you anyways? Here I am going on a date with you, and I don't even know your age!"
He smirked. "Don't tell me you didn't do your Wikipedia search on me before I picked you up? Isn't that what women do? Google the guys?"
"No!" I denied. It wasn't technically a lie. While on the phone with Em, she searched him up, but I didn't let her tell me anything. I was surprised enough that he had his own Wikipedia page. "That's very stereotypical of you."
We were silent for a few moments before the curiosity got the best of me. "How old are you really?"
"Twenty-eight," he replied smoothly. "Too old for you?"
"I'm only twenty-six," I mumbled. "Too young for you?"
He flashed me a smug look. "I like you just the way you are if you already didn't know."
"So!" I said brightly changing the subject. "Any other rules you want me to be aware of before I break it and get sent to the principal's office?"
He shook his head. "The sir thing was sort of my only big one. I guess the other first-date rules apply."
It was my turn to smirk. "Ah. Okay, no kissing. Gotcha." I couldn't help in stifling my laughter to myself.
"You are kidding, right?" He asked in his deep British accent.
I shook my head. "Nope."
"After days of not getting my fix of you, do you honestly think I'd let that rule go unbroken?"
I sighed. "Look. I thought the purpose of this date was to get to know each other and maybe form something out of it. Kissing is not going to help."
"I think it definitely will," he argued slowing down as we reach the busy downtown area on a Saturday night.
"We'll see about that."
He only shot me a smile and a wink that left me feeling all kinds of movement in my stomach. The two of us didn't say anything for the short remainder of arriving at the restaurant. He parked in the nearest space he saw and like the gentleman he was, he helped me out of the car.
"Careful, there's a puddle," he warned holding the door for me.
I carefully stepped around it and onto the sidewalk where Caleb caught me after stumbling slightly. His hands fit around my waist perfectly steadying me before releasing. I suddenly missed the warmth of his hands against the chilly weather. I was only wearing a black, peplum dress complete with sheer stockings and heels.
"Thanks," I told him gratefully and continued walking beside him getting closer to the Fukuzushi Bar.
"Anytime."
He had his hand on the small of my back leading me inside the restaurant where he rattled off the reservation under his name. The Asian hostess led us to a table near the back after Caleb specifically ordered for us to be seated. Not once did he lift his hand making me feel secure in the darkly lit atmosphere.
"Theez good for you sir?" The woman asked, her native accent stronger than Caleb's.
Caleb looked around. We were in the corner only a few tables occupied surrounding us. "Perfect." He grinned pulling out the chair for me.
The hostess left and was replaced by a male waiter. I looked through the menu, my eyebrows scrunching up in confusion as I read on. I had no clue what any of these are! I set my menu down and took a sip of my drink.
"You're done already?" Caleb asked from across me.
"I'll just have what you're having," I smiled tightly. "I really do not know what to get."
A few minutes later after idle conversations, the entire table was filled with all types of sushi I'd ever seen in my whole entire life.
"Enjoy your meal, sir and madam," the waiter said and left.
I stared at the table in front of us with wide eyes. "This is an awful lot of sushi, Caleb..."
"You did say it was your first time, right? We could get a sample of each and every one. Come on, it won't be that terrible."
He picked up chopsticks and dug into it one type of sushi right away. "So," he said after chewing and swallowing. "Where do we start this 'getting to know each other' thing?"
A whole hour later, we couldn't stop ourselves from launching into story after story. I was surprised to see myself getting comfortable with Caleb and tell him my family life. After hearing his, I couldn't bring myself to talk about mine, but he coaxed me into it kindly.
He had a perfect family life. His parents were still together, he had two sisters, Georgina the oldest and Selene the youngest. Georgina was already married with a kid, Caleb's five-year-old nephew.
"Did you mention that Selene lives here?" I asked putting down my fork. "In America, I mean?"
He nodded wiping his face with the handkerchief. "Down in San Diego."
I nodded. "That's cool." Then I remembered him mentioning to me that he lived in Norway for almost two years. "Tell me about Norway." As the night went on, I got bolder and at ease around him. It felt really nice to be able to just have someone to rely on in an unfamiliar city.
He raised an eyebrow at me. "Norway? Hmm. I lived in Stavanger, mainly. It was a nice experience living there." His eyes brightened at the mention of it. "It wasn't much of a difference from England except all the beautiful women..." His voice trailed off before picking up with the same enthusiasm he had before. "They were nothing serious."
I nodded slowly being caught off guard slightly. "Oh. That's ...wonderful. I think." I pursed my lips.
Caleb grinned, and his eyes darkened a tad bit. "But I think I'm able to find something serious with the stunning woman sitting in front of me now."
My breath hitched, and I let a nervous chuckle come out. "You're such a flirt, you know that?" I cleared my throat and fixed myself together after his lovely comment. "I'd love to visit there someday. Well actually I just want to get out of the country to go anywhere. Someday when I have a proper job."
I watched him eat a few more sushi. "I don't know how you do it, Caleb. My stomach couldn't handle any more after the eighth or ninth."
He closed his lips over another sushi and moaned in delight. "Mmm. Bethany, you have to try this. This is absolutely delicious."
I looked at him in amusement. "I really cannot eat anymore."
Caleb picked it up anyways and smiled wickedly. "Come on. This could be the last thing, and we'll leave." He held the chopsticks in mid air waiting for me to agree on eating it.
I reluctantly leaned over the table and opened my mouth waiting for the tangy taste of the sushi. I closed my mouth over it, bits of the sauce he poured dripping down my chin. Before I could get one of my hands free to wipe it away, Caleb brushed it away with his thumb gently.
I watched him with an intense gaze as he disposed of it by bringing it to his mouth and licking it off. I chewed slowly entranced by his erotic action.
"Satisfied?" He asked.
I leaned back into my chair and nodded. "Yeah, it was great." The truth was my mind couldn't comprehend the taste. It was too busy doing something elsewhere...
He looked to his right and waved for the waiter to come over. When he did Caleb pulled out his wallet. "We're ready for the check."
The waiter pulled out the small, black folder out of his back pocket and placed it on the table. I made a move to try and snatch before Caleb could do pay my share of the dinner. He smoothly got to it first before me though.
"Bethany, I'll pay for this," he informed me sternly.
I sighed. "At least let me pay half of it."
He shook his head, slipped in his card into the folder, and handed it to the waiter. I took my wallet out of my and and took out the only cash I had which was a ten dollar bill. I placed it on the table with a challenging look directed at the amused man in front of me.
"The tip's on me then," I announced gathering my things and standing up. "Are you ready?"
He chuckled and stood up draping his jacket over his arm in the process. "It hurts my ego to see how keen you are for this night to be over. Was it that bad?"
I blushed and walked in front of him to the front. I didn't say anything as he retrieved his card back, and we were wished to have a good night. I quickly checked my phone for the time. It was almost nine thirty pm. It wasn't that late in the night, but part of me was worried that maybe the night was over for us. I had to admit... I wasn't ready to leave. I had a great time.
"The perfect date might insist on taking you home after this wonderful dinner." Caleb appeared right beside me with a hopeful look. "But I'm not a perfect date and the selfish part of me would want to keep you to myself for as long as I can in fear of you ignoring me come Monday."
I smiled and gave him the answer he was looking for. "Maybe we could go walk around and burn off all the calories we ate from the sushi?"
He smiled. "I'd love that."
We both started walking in the direction away from where we parked down to the direction of the busy nightlife Seattle provided. The place was far from deserted with all kinds of people milling around. Drunken men and women, the homeless begging for money, and regular people like us just taking a stroll.
I shivered at the sight of an old man groveling after a man in a suit who purposely ignored him. I wished I could have done something to help him. I felt something warm and comfortable drape itself across my shoulders, and I looked up at Caleb who gave me his jacket. He must have mistook my shiver for being cold. Though now I realized that I had goosebumps from the cold.
"Thanks," I smiled and wrapped the oversize jacket across my body. "Are you sure you won't get cold?"
He waved my concern away. "Nah. I'll be fine. I'm not the one wearing a dress that shows off my legs. Although I'm pretty certain I can pull it off better than you."
I playfully shoved him with my elbow and laughed. "Oh definitely." Then I remembered our conversation from yesterday under the bus stop. "Caleb... What's happening on Monday? Can you finally tell me why you've been MIA for the past week?"
He glanced down at me briefly before looking back up to where he was walking. "You said you didn't want to date me because I was overlooking the internship, so... I'm not overlooking it anymore starting on Monday."
I stopped in my tracks and looked at his back as he continued walking. "What?" Caleb turned around after noticing I wasn't walking besides him anymore. He waited for me until I caught up to him again. "Why?"
He ran a hand down his face. "It's what you would want, right?" Is it? "I did this for you and me, obviously. Like I mentioned previously, I only took over the internship until Luis could come back. And after finding out he was returning next month, well, I talked him into coming back sooner."
My heart plummeted into my stomach. "You're leaving?"
He nodded. "Yeah. I figured I could let him take over."
"But you're a great teacher." I frowned. "I don't understand why you're just giving up."
He scoffed. "I'm far from giving up, Bethany. In fact, I'm doing quite the opposite by pursing you. You said so yourself you wanted to be fair to Oliver and Jeff... Well why not take me out of the internship process entirely? I have no say in who gets the job in the end anymore."
I was silent for a moment thinking things over. While I felt warm all over at the thought he did all this for me... "I'm guessing you're going back to London then?"
Caleb laughed at the absurdity of it all. "No. That's ludicrous. Don't you understand? I'm staying here, at least indefinitely." His fingers brushed against the back of my hand before he hooked some of my fingers in his, and then fully intertwining them.
I looked down at it as he tugged me closer to his side. We stopped at an intersection where cars were passing by.
"My stay here depends on this special someone if she's willing to let me in."
I stared into his eyes only to find that he'd been looking at me. I looked away to the side breaking eye contact with him.
"But I'm nobody special."
"Trust me, you are."
I regained my composure. "I'm not the perfect girlfriend. I put my family and myself first before anything."
"Good thing I'm not looking for perfect, and I love a woman who loves herself and family more."
"I'm not the best at everything," I told him as we walked hand in hand to the other street.
He smiled cheekily down at me. "But you're the best kisser and that's the only thing I need you to be best at."
"You and I aren't the same."
He pursed his lips in thought. "I don't really want to date a replica of me. Although that is rather enticing offer."
"That's not what I meant," I said smiling slightly. "You're this really top-notch architect for a multi-million dollar company, and I'm just this waitress-slash-intern ordinary girl you can find anywhere. You and I are from two different worlds."
"Maybe we can bridge those two worlds together."
I groaned in frustration. "Why are you so at ease about this?" I slipped my hand from his grasp and crossed my arms in front of my chest.
"Because I like you, and there shouldn't be anything difficult about it." I guessed that does make some sense. I let out a big yawn and covered it quickly with my hand. Caleb looked down at his watch. "I should probably take you home now."
I nodded. "I didn't realize how tired I was." And my feet were killing me too after walking in these heels for quite some time. "Should we head back now?"
He shook his head no. "I don't want to make you walk all the way back in those shoes." He led me to a nearby bench. "You could wait here, and I'll just drive on up."
I nodded. "Yeah that's fine."
He left right after, and I decided to just walk around for a bit seeing it would take him a while to get back to his car. The area we stopped at were filled with bars and nightclubs. I spotted the infamous club 4N just a block away. I heard it was rated number seven in the top twenty clubs of the summer. There was a long line wrapping around the brick walls waiting to be let in.
I was getting ready to head back to the place where Caleb and I had agreed on meeting before I spotted a familiar head.
"Oliver?" I called out my friend's name as he walked out of bar.
He turned around and a smile made its way up to his face. "Ann! What a coincidence in seeing you here."
I hugged him hello before stepping back. "What are you doing out here?"
A light tint of red covered his cheeks as he nodded behind him. I looked over his shoulder and saw Taylor waiting patiently behind him. My mouth dropped into an 'o' shape.
"Yeah. I could ask you do the same thing."
I would have nodded over my shoulder, if only Caleb was here, to mock Oliver. "I had dinner at Fukuzushi Bar. I decided to try some sushi for the first time in who knows how many years." I quickly added before he could ask anymore questions about it.
"Are you by yourself?" He looked around me as if a person was going to magically appear out of thin air. He eyed the jacket around me. "Why don't you join Taylor and I to 4N? He has a friend that works inside and could get us in right away. I'm sure he won't mind, won't you?"
Taylor joined in the conversation with a smile. "That's no problem. The more the merrier huh?"
I examined the two men in front of me. The two of them must have disappointed plenty of ladies with their sexuality preference.
I smiled. "Thanks but no thanks. I should be leaving soon actually." Caleb should be here any minute. "You two have fun though!" I was trying my best to get them to leave before Caleb arrived. It would become an awkward situation if he did.
Oliver wasn't listening to me and looked somewhere else. He squinted his eyes hard. "Is that... Is that Mr. Wilkes?"
I turned around sharply hoping he wasn't mistaken but sure enough, there was Caleb getting out of his car that was idling on the side of the road illegally. I didn't have time to dodge this situation for Caleb was already walking towards us.
"Good evening, Oliver," Caleb greeted with a handshake formally. I rolled my eyes. Oh how his attitude changes when he was around different people. "What a coincidence in seeing you here."
He nodded. "Exactly what I said to Ann. I'm just going to take a wild guess here and assume you two are here together?" Oliver shot us a teasing grin.
I felt Caleb's arm wrap around my waist pulling me closer to him possessively. Oliver is nothing to worry about. I thought it my head and smiling to myself.
"We just finished having dinner actually," Caleb boasted rubbing the side of my stomach with his thumb.
"Uh, we were just leaving Oliver," I explained starting to say my goodbyes. "I'll see you on Monday. It was nice seeing you Taylor." I waved at both of them and let Caleb lead me to his car.
He opened the door and helped me get in before closing it and jogging to the driver's side. I looked back to where Oliver and Taylor were still standing. He gave me a knowing look and a wink.
The ride back to my loft was in awkward silence. Caleb didn't seem to have anything to say, and so did I. It was a good thing my place wasn't that far from where we were or the awkwardness would have been prolonged. He parked the car into the adjacent parking lot besides the building and turned off the engine.
My heart drummed against my chest as I took off his jacket and handed it to him. "Thank you for lending me your jacket and for also tonight. I really enjoyed myself."
He threw the jacket into the back. "I'm glad you did."
We both didn't make a move on getting out of the car. I bit my lip trying to think of anything to say. "So Luis... He'll be our mentor now?" I angled my body towards his where he was leaning comfortably in his seat.
"He's a wonderful man and a very good architect as well. He'll be able to teach you and the others way more about architecture than I would be able to." He scratched the back of his head and the unruliness of it bothered the OCD part of me.
"Will you still work at the company?"
Caleb faced me with a smile. "Of course." Those two words filled me with delight.
We were quiet once again. I finally made a move to fix his hair placing a hand on the back of his neck and combing down the messy part. I blushed when I pulled away and saw him giving me a curious look.
"Sorry... It was bothering me."
Caleb took my hand in his, caressing it for a moment, before trailing his fingers up my bare arm, to my shoulder, and finally cupping the side of my face in his hand. The atmosphere inside the car dimmed despite the lamppost giving off light.
I closed my eyes and shivered in anticipation. I felt his other hand lightly touch the other side. I gripped his two arms for support feeling the hard muscles even through the cloth cladding his skin. His nose skimmed the outline of my face feeling his breath fan out across my face. Somehow, his breath smell minty even after the amounts of sushi he ate.
"I'm tempted to break the rule of not kissing you," he whispered against my ear.
His lips were close to my skin enough to make me go crazy but not enough to where it was considered as a kiss. I noticed he was just waiting for the green light from me to continue. I breathed out and moved my head up and down hoping he got the signal.
Our lips collided into a slow and sweet kiss. He was gentle with me unlike the kiss we first shared. I touched his face with my hands bringing him closer. One of his hands unlocked my seat belt and pulled me closer by my waist until I was leaning over the console in between us.
Caleb pulled away way too soon, but he didn't remove his hands off of me. I opened my eyes and found him grinning at me.
"I think that's a perfect kiss to end the date, hmm?" I shook my head still in a daze, and he laughed caressing my cheek with his thumb. "I don't want to risk you getting angry with me for deepening the kiss even further."
I gained back control of all my senses, and settled back into the seat picking my small clutch off the floor. I opened the door and faced Caleb once more before leaving the vehicle. "Thank you again for tonight."
He nodded. "Goodbye Bethany."
I stepped out of the car and was getting ready to enter the building through the side door before I heard Caleb getting out of the car behind me. I turned around, and he placed his hands on my waist pulling me close to his body, lowering his head down to mine kissing me urgently and thoroughly.
I pulled away a few minutes later out of breath.
Caleb had a cheeky smile up on his face. "Now that was a good night kiss."
Please keep the Philippines in your thoughts and prayers.