When we'd finished breakfast I threw on my clothes from yesterday and went back to my own room. All my things were still there so I decided it would be easier to get ready in that room. We arranged that Chris would call for me in an hour as he said he needed to shower and make a couple of phone calls before we left.
I entered my room, kicked off my shoes and threw myself down on the bed. I was finding it hard to believe what had happened the day before. As I lay there, staring at the ceiling, smiling to myself I heard my phone beep to indicate a text. I rolled over and grabbed it from the cupboard where I'd just dropped it and looked at the screen. The text was from Christine
"Hi Mia. How did it go yesterday? Call me. x"
I hit call and Christine picked up straight away!
"Hey Mia."
"Hi Christine"
"Well?" She said
"Well what?" I teased.
"Don't give me that. Spill!" she laughed.
"Yesterday was a great day" I told her.
"Oooohhhhh!" she squealed excitedly "So what did he say when he saw you?"
"Not much, he was on stage but he smiled. Oh Christine that smile...." I heard her laugh "What's funny?"
"It's just strange to think that a little while ago you were trying to deny you had any feelings for him at all..."
"Yeah well...."
"Hey, it's good that you feel like this. I'm pleased for both of you. You deserve it. So after he smiled?"
"He invited me up on stage..."
"Oh my God! You played at the gig last night?"
"Yes! And it was so much fun."
"And afterwards?"
"We went back to his hotel room for something to eat."
"Sounds great. Did you get a kiss goodnight?"
"Not exactly....."
"Oh...." she sounded disappointed "Why not? What happened?"
"Well....you know that hotel room you booked for me...."
"Yeeesss...."
"Well I kinda didn't need it...."
I heard her scream and I couldn't help but grin.
"That's wonderful. I'm so happy this is working out for you. So where is he now? He's not listening to our conversation is he?" she asked suddenly nervous.
"No! Of course not. We're going on a date. A proper one, in New York. He's gonna show me around. So I'm back in my room to get ready."
"Oh Mia, it all sounds perfect."
"It is. Thanks Christine for helping me with this."
"It was my pleasure. Now go get ready and enjoy your date. You can tell me all about it tomorrow."
"I will. I promise. Bye."
"Bye."
With that the phone went dead and I sighed happily. For a moment I just lay there but then I noticed the time.
"Shit!" I muttered before rushing into the bathroom for my shower.
I'd just finished straightening my hair and putting on my makeup when there was a knock on the door. I took one last look in the mirror to make sure I looked alright before rushing to let Chris in.
"Wow! You look amazing." he said.
I'd chosen a pretty, flowery dress that showed off all my curves and he seemed to like it.
"You look pretty good yourself." I grinned.
And he did. He was wearing black jeans with a slim T shirt that showed off his fit body and let me see the tattoos I loved on his arms. I stepped out of the doorway so he could come in and as he walked past me he placed his arm around me and kissed me gently. There was something about that kiss that took my breath away.
"You ready for our date?" He murmured with that deep dark voice of his
"Yeah. Where are we going?"
"It's a surprise. But I've made a few phone calls and it's all arranged. I hope you like it."
"I'm sure I'll love it." I told him as I returned his kiss. "Just let me grab my bag and I'm ready."
As we rode the elevator down to reception I stood quietly by Chris' side. After a few minutes I felt Chris slide his hand into mine and I entwined my fingers with his. I looked over to see him gazing at me, smiling and I felt myself blush. It was weird but even though we'd spent last night in bed together I still felt really nervous like I always do on a first date.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Yes" I answered managing a small smile.
He frowned a little like he wasn't sure I meant it.
"I just feel a bit nervous that's all." I tried to laugh but failed.
"Why?" he asked, even more confused now.
I shook my head
"I don't know. It's just this is our first date and....."
My words trailed off. When I said it out loud it sounded it even sillier than it felt in my head. Chris wrapped me in his arms and held me close.
"I love spending time with you, you know that. Today is gonna be great." he said as he kissed the side of my head.
I leaned back and smiled at him.
"I love spending time with you too."
I gave him a quick kiss just as the elevator doors opened on the ground floor and I turned to see a group of people waiting to get in. I felt my cheeks burn and I dropped my head away from their eyes. I heard Chris giggle and then felt his hand take mine as we stepped into the lobby.
"Morning" I heard him say to the strangers as we walked past.
We stepped out on the street and into the glazing sun.
"I don't know if you know but this hotel is really close to Central Park so I figured we'd start our date there. It's a beautiful place to just walk. That sound OK?" He asked me.
"Sounds perfect." I replied as I smiled at him.
With that he gave my hand a squeeze and we headed off to start our date. Chris was right about Central Park, it was beautiful. We walked past statues, over bridges, through gardens, past fountains and even sat watching the ducks. Chris pointed out things of interest as we walked. We'd been out for a couple of hours when Chris glanced at his phone.
"Is there a problem?" I asked.
"Nope! I just needed to check the time. Come on there's somewhere we need to be."
He grinned and gave my hand a gentle pull as he started to walk a bit quicker.
"Where are we going?" I asked, intrigued.
"You'll see." he laughed as we carried on walking.
When we walked over a bridge Chris let go of my hand
"Wait there a minute." He said
"Why?"
He just smiled and ran over to talk to someone. When he returned a minute later I was looking over at a couple having a picnic on the grass.
"Now that's what I call a picnic." I said pointing over to them. "How on Earth did they carry all that into the park?"
"They didn't have to." Chris said and laughed a little.
"What?"
"You can book a picnic. They set it all up, you come along, eat and then they clear it all away afterwards."
"Really? That sounds so cool."
"I'm glad you think so because that one over there is ours."
He pointed over to a blanket laid out with two cushions and parasols on top of it. Beside the cushions I could see a wicker picnic basket, a small posy of flowers and a sign that read 'Shiflett' on it. For a moment I stood just staring at the picnic before me. I was shocked that Chris had arranged all this so quickly.
"Now you know why I needed to make some phone calls before we came out this morning." He smiled and took my hand
Chris led me over to the blanket and we both sat down. Immediately I leaned over and kissed him.
"Thank you for this. It's amazing."
A huge smile spread across his face as he said
"I'm glad you like it."
"I love it." I told him. "And I'm starving!"
"Let's eat then" Chris laughed
He opened the picnic basket and inside I could see so much food, meats, cheeses, olives, nuts and bread together with fresh fruit and chocolate for after. Chris picked out a bottle of champagne and I picked out the two crystal glasses. He opened the champagne and poured it into the glasses before standing the bottle down beside us. He took one of the glasses from me and we chinked them together before take a sip. It was the best champagne I'd ever tasted. Chris took some of the food from the basket and then lay down on his side his elbow leaning on one of the pillows.
"So you gonna join me?" he asked.
I nodded and quickly lay down the same way looking over at him. My heart skipped as I felt myself floating away gazing into his light blue eyes. We started eating, and the food was just as amazing as it looked.
"So did you always think you were going to be in a famous rock band?" I asked him while we were eating.
He laughed a little.
"Well I guess I always dreamed of it. When we were growing up in Santa Barbara me and my brothers played in bands but I was never sure I could make a living at it."
"What did you plan to do instead then?" I said
"You're not gonna believe me but I thought about being an accountant."
I was just sipping my champagne when he said it and I nearly choked as I started laughing, it seemed like such an unlikely thing for him to say.
"Told you, you wouldn't believe me." he grinned
"Sorry" I said as I got my laughter under control "but I certainly didn't expect that."
"Well it was just an idea I had for a while but in the end I dropped out of school and got a job in LA."
"So when did you become a professional musician?" I asked, eager to get to know everything about this man.
"Well I was in a few bands but the first band I toured with was a band called No Use For A Name when I was about 24."
"And the rest as they say is history." I joked.
"Exactly!" he laughed.
When we'd finished eating Chris refilled our glasses and he lay down against his pillow. He held out his arm towards me and I lay beside him, my head on his chest. He wrapped his arm around my back. I felt him kiss my head and heard him sigh contentedly. It felt good hearing him sound as happy as I felt. Although Central Park was busy it felt so peaceful lying with Chris that I almost fell asleep."
Well I guess we should be moving on." Chris whispered and pushed a string of hair out of my face.
I raised my head from his chest to look into his eyes
"Do we have to?" I asked.
"As much as I'm enjoying being here like this with you I'm afraid our time is up."
I sighed before moving just enough that I could reach Chris' lips to give him a kiss.
"Thank you for arranging such a fantastic date." I smiled.
"Hey, just because I said we've got to move does not mean this date is over."
"But..."
"Just this bit is over. We have a whole day to be together and I intend to use every minute of it." he grinned.
With that he reached up and returned my kiss before taking his phone from his pocket and calling someone to say we were ready to leave.
A few minutes later a young man arrived and we both stood to talk to him.
"Was everything alright Mr Shiflett?" he asked.
"It was great thanks. Wasn't it Mia?"
"It was perfect. Thank you."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it." he smiled at me before turning back to Chris "Your carriage will be here in just a minute Mr Shiflett."
"Thanks man"
"Carriage?" I asked confused.
"Yeah carriage. I noticed you watching all the horse drawn carriages we passed as we walked through the park so I figured you might like to take a ride in one."
I squealed with delight as I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tight. I loved horses and I was amazed that he'd noticed me taking an interest without me even saying a word.
"Thank you so much. I didn't think this date could get any better but it just did." As I loosened my grip and leaned back I could see the huge smile on his face. He leaned his forehead on mine
"I just want to make you happy."
Just then we heard the clatter of hooves and we both turned to see a white carriage pulled by a black horse stop a few yards from us. This date was like something out of a fairytale and I was loving every bit of it.
"Come on then." Chris said taking my free hand "Your carriage awaits as they say in the movies."
We ran, giggling, over to the carriage and Chris helped me climb in and then got in beside me. When the horse started off Chris put his arm around me and pulled me close. I lay my head against his shoulder and settled down, happily watching the scenery pass by. I enjoyed the warmth of being so close to him. I was so relaxed in his company that I didn't feel the need to talk, the silence was soothing somehow.
When we travelled he leant his head on top of mine and I heard him start to hum quietly, so quietly it was hard for me to hear at all. I listened carefully trying to pick out the tune he was humming. After a while I realised it was one of his songs and as he got to the chorus I smiled as I heard him sing a few words
"Tonight's not over 'til tomorrow comes rolling by." before going back to humming.
Eventually though the driver pulled the horse to a stop at the edge of the park and it was time to leave our carriage behind. Chris got out first and then took my hand to help me down.
"Thanks man." he called up to the driver who waved before setting off again.
"So you ready to walk to the next bit of our date?" Chris asked.
"There's more?"
"Oh yes. It's New York! I could show you around for days and we still wouldn't see everything."
"True." I laughed.
"And I figured there was one place you just had to see while you're here so that's the next stop."
"Where?"
"Not telling." He squeezed my hand and started walking to the gates that lead out of Central Park.
We walked through the streets of New York, past the Rockerfeller Centre and I had no idea where we were going. There were so many sights in New York that I just couldn't guess which one he might have picked. We approached the Empire State building I began to hope that he was taking me there and sure enough he took me into the visitor centre and over to a kiosk to print some tickets. I was shocked when he walked past the queue of people waiting to go in and said to the woman who was checking people's tickets
"I've booked VIP passes."
She checked the tickets Chris held out to her.
"That's fine sir, go right in. Enjoy your visit."
"VIP passes"
"Of course" Chris laughed "Only the best for you." Then he winked at me and I felt myself blush as my heart fluttered.
We walked over to the elevators.
"The first thing to see is the exhibit detailing the history of the building. It's fascinating." Chris said
"You've obviously been before then." I laughed.
"Yeah I've brought the boys. They loved it."
He was right the exhibit was really interesting with so many historical photographs to see. And after that we walked round the 86th floor open air observation deck. The views were magnificent. I looked out over New York and Chris stood behind me, wrapped his arms around me and leant his chin on my shoulder. He kissed my cheek.
"Enjoying youself?"
I turned my head so I could return his kiss.
"Yes! It's an amazing day. Thank you so much."
"You're welcome." He smiled
Then he started to pointed out various things to see, Times Square, The Statue of Liberty and Central Park. From up here I could see just how big it was. We had so much fun just taking in the sights together and fighting over who got to use the high powered binoculars first. I couldn't remember the last time I'd enjoyed myself this much.
When we'd been all the way round the 86th floor we used our VIP passes to jump the queue for the elevator to the 102nd floor top deck. The view up there took my breath away. It was so easy to see the grid layout of the city from up so high. Chris pointed out the window
"You can see for 80 miles on a clear day like today." he told me.
I was so happy I turned, wrapped my arms around him and kissed him deeply. For a second he seemed taken aback.
"Sorry. I probably shouldn't do that in a crowd." I said quickly starting to step back from him.
"Hey," he said putting his arms around me "you can do that anytime you like."
And with that he returned the kiss. For a few minutes we stood kissing, our tongues dancing together before we were jostled by the crowd and figured it was time to move on.
When we'd taken in all there was to see we took the elevators back down to the lobby. Even the lobby was beautiful, all Art Deco in design and I found myself just staring at everything.
Chris gave my hand a squeeze
"It's getting late" he said
"Yeah I guess we should get back."
"Not yet." he replied "You hungry?"
"A bit."
"So do you fancy a burger? The State Grill and Bar does the best burgers in town."
"I love burgers." I told him.
"Well it just so happens I've booked us a table." he grinned.
"You really did have the whole day planned didn't you?"
"Yep! I told you we had a whole day and I intended to spend every bit of it with you."
By the time we'd eaten and had a drink it was getting late into the evening and we decided to take a cab back to the hotel. Chris wrapped his arm around me once more and pulled me towards him. He claimed my lips, kissing me deeply. I felt his tongue touch my lips asking to be let in. My heart raced as our tongues twirled, his kiss making me breathless. When the kiss was over I leant my head on his shoulder as he held me close.
"This is the best date I've ever had." I told him.
"Good." he replied as he kissed my head tenderly. "There's no one I'd rather have spent my day with."