Chapter 2

The next day she's nervous. She's had time to think and she wonders what the hell they're doing. There are so many different aspects of their relationship that they should take into consideration before they do something like this. But she's already said yes. And backing out now would only crush him. And, she doesn't really want to back out anyways. She may be nervous. But she can't lie to herself anymore about her want for him. Not when they've put it out there already. So she continues to get ready for their date.

An hour before he supposed to be there, she's standing in front of her closet wondering if he's having as much trouble deciding what to wear as she is. She has plenty of dresses to pick from, but he's seen most of them on her already. She shifts the clothes around in her closet and her eyes finally settle on her blue satin strapless dress. And once she decides on the dress, she's feeling more confident. But she still wonders how he's doing. So she retrieves her cell phone and snaps a picture then sends it to Cal.

His phone buzzes as he's glaring into his closet and he thinks, thank god, I can't stare into this bloody thing anymore. When he opens his phone he sees that he has a picture message from Gillian. He wonder's if the picture was a mistake, because all he sees is a vibrant dark blue color, but then he reads the message that goes with it. If you're having as much trouble deciding what to wear as I was, then you should wear the tie that I know you have in this color. See you in an hour.

And he thinks, taking her out on a date seems silly if she's reading my mind when we're not even in the same place. But he knows how important tonight is.

Then he has an idea. And he quickly sends a message back to her.

She isn't expecting a response, so when her phone buzzes she's curious. She opens Cal's message and reads just the tie, darling? And smiles at how clever he must think he is.

But an hour later, when her doorbell rings and she opens the door, he's wearing the tie. And he looks amazing in his charcoal grey suit, with a white shirt, and his dark blue tie that matches her dress.

She's about to tell him just how good he looks when he beats her to it and says, "Gillian, you look beautiful love," in the most heartfelt tone he's sure he's ever heard come out of his mouth. "Here," he says, and he pulls a bouquet of light pink roses out from behind his back. And they are her favorite, just like he said they would be. She finds herself struggling with not getting choked up by the moment. She takes the flowers from him and walks off towards the kitchen to put them in some water before they leave.

As they're walking out the door she grabs his arm so he turns to her and she says, "You know, you look incredibly handsome tonight."

And she's sincere when she says it, knowing Cal though, he'll let it go to his head. But he surprises her when he says, "You know, I had some help from two very smart women. Otherwise, I might of walked out of the house in my underwear I was so nervous."

Gillian looks at him with an awed expression, not for being honest with her, since he usually is, but because she can't believe that he has ever felt nervous about something. He walks into every situation as the most confident person in the room. And she admires that in him. And he seemed it tonight when she opened the door.

She smiles shyly at him and says, "I'm nervous too."

Then he loops her arms through his and turns back towards her front door. He walks her to the car, opens her door for her, then climbs in on his side. The small gesture is enough to make her feel delightfully spoiled.

When they walk into the restaurant she's surprised. Because there's a dance floor in the middle with a brass band playing. She looks at him with a raised eyebrow as if asking you're going to dance? But he just smiles at her and gives his name to the hostess. He did tell her there would be a surprise during the night. She's pulled from her thoughts when Cal grabs her hand because the hostess is taking them to their seats. And she's charmed and surprised—again—because their table is a small circular booth. It's intimate, and dark, and she looks at him with amazement because he couldn't be doing anything but hitting this date out of the park right now, and it had barley even begun.

So they sit, and the circular booth allows them to be as close or as far apart from each other as they like. But Gillian immediately slides closer towards the middle, so Cal does the same. There's still some space between them, but he's close enough to drape his arm around her if he wanted to. And he does want to, of course, but he'll wait a little while.

Their waiter comes over, introduces himself, and hands them a wine list promising to come back in a few minutes to take their drink order. Cal opens the menu and holds it so both he and Gillian can look at it together. They debate about what they should get, but when the waiter comes back, they've decided on the bottle of red wine that they'd like.

Once the wine is on the table, and the waiter has left, and they've each taken a large gulp from their respective glasses, Gillian takes time to inhale and then turns to Cal.

"Cal," she says in a nervous breathe, "what got us here tonight?"

And he knows why she's nervous. Because there are so many possible answers to this question in her mind. And he knows she's not sure how much she's ready to hear. But in a moment of lucidity, he decides he knows how much to tell her.

"Emily, actually." And he sees the surprise flash across her face. But then he sees understanding. Because even though he's stubborn, Emily ends up being his voice of reason eventually. And before she can ask him to elaborate, he says, "But, you and I aren't ready to have the conversation that Emily and I did that got us here. Does that make sense?"

"Yes. For now."

He's relieved that she trusts him, because he hasn't explained much. And even though he knows he could leave it at that, there are other thoughts that he needs to put out there for them.

"Look Gill, we used to have this line between us. And we had good reason for it. Because, me and you, we can see things that almost no one else can. And we have practice at interpreting what we're seeing, and knowing the meaning behind it that others wouldn't. And we needed our personal lives to be separate from our work lives. We did it because we both frighteningly acknowledged to ourselves what could be here, and because we needed it not to be, for the sake of the people we used to be and the relationships we used to have. But now it's just me and you. And I'm sure we could make up reasons to keep a line between us, but the reasons we put it in place to start are gone from our lives now. There doesn't have to be something separating us if we don't want there to be. Am I making any sense darling?"

"Yes Cal."

"Good. You know how much I love being the center of attention and all, but it seems like I'm not letting you get a word in edgewise."

And she looked at him out of the corner of hey eye and smiled before she said, "It's okay. I like being the listener. And besides, you hear what I'm saying without me having to say it." And she slid her hand on top of his and gave it a squeeze to let him know she was right there with him. And they were doing great. And she was happy.

When she looked at him, he could see the excitement in her eyes, but it wasn't about them anymore. She let go of his hand, picked up the menus, and handed one to him. With pure delight in her voice she said, "I can't wait to pick out my overly priced and undersized meal!" And he looked at her like she was crazy until she said, "your words, not mine" and raised her hands in a hey, it wasn't me, type of gesture before continuing, "Come on Cal, I'm sure the food is unbelievable, will leave you feeling full, and will be well-worth the cost."

So he picked up his menu and glanced over his options.

"Bet you I know what you're going to order love," he said with a sly grin.

She peeked at him for a brief second over the top of her menu with a suspicious gaze and then stated, "I may be predictable when it comes to dessert, but there's no way you know what I'm in the mood for right now."

He waited for her to look up at him, because his lack of comeback undoubtedly would draw her attention to him. But that was what he wanted. And when she did look up with a curious expression on her face, he looked her dead in the eye and licked his lips when he said, "Guess what I'm in the mood for."

The double meaning was not lost on her, and she blushed and looked back down at her choices. But Cal still wanted to win this game, so he continued, "No, seriously, I know I can guess what you'll order."

"No, you can't."

"Yes, I can."

"Cal, you're being a child."

"A child who's about to impress you with his mind reading abilities by correctly picking out what you're ordering for dinner."

With an exasperated sigh she replied, "Fine," and dug through her purse until she pulled out a pen and paper. Then she ripped the paper in half and handed one of the halves to him and said, "I'll write down what I'm ordering, and you write down what you're ordering. That way we can't change our answers once the other person guesses."

His smile spread across his entire face because she was the only person who would indulge his childish behavior once in a while. He wrote down what he was ordering, folded it, and passed it to her. And she did the same.

He looked like he could barely contain his excitement. Like he would shoot out of his seat any moment.

"Alright, ladies first."

And she squinted and stared at him hard, then looked down at the open menu in front of her, then back up at him.

He saw that she'd reached her decision.

"Okay," she said matter-of-factly, "you're going to order half a dozen oysters to start, and… hmm. It doesn't seem fair. There are about twelve different meat options."

"Oh, so you think I'll go with red meat for my meal?"

She looked at him like she knew what he was up to. Definitely trying to confuse her.

"Yes, you're going to order the… marinated Cajun rib eye," she stated with confidence.

He smirked and said, "Very good love," as she opened his paper and smiled seeing she'd gotten it right.

"Okay Cal, let's hear how smart you are. What am I going to order?"

"You're going to get salad and chicken," he stated with confidence.

"Cal," she practically scolded, "there are seven salads on the menu and four chicken entrees."

"But I am right, aren't I?"

And just as she was about to yell at him for not playing the game right that he had insisted upon, the waiter came over and asked, "Are we ready to order?"

Cal jumped in, "Yes, thank you, I'll have the half dozen oysters to start and the marinated Cajun rib eye for my meal, mate. And she'll have the mixed greens salad to start and the lemon pepper chicken for hers. And, could you bring out a molten lava chocolate cake for dessert once we're done with dinner?"

"Certainly, sir."

"Thank you very much."

And when Cal hazarded a glance at Gillian, she looked a little pissed, and a little impressed. So he flashed her his million-dollar, hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar smile.

For her part, she tried to not to smile or laugh when she said, "You know, you can be a real jerk sometimes. First, I think you don't know me at all, even though I was the one who said you wouldn't be able to guess, then, you go and do something—I'll begrudgingly admit—impressive. But, I guess I shouldn't be surprised with your round-about ways anymore."

"Leaves you all-the-more awestruck in the end, doesn't it?"

"I will not dignify that with an answer."

"You don't have to love," he said with a cheeky grin on his face.

But then he surprised her again when he stood up, held out his hand, and asked, "Gillian, may I have this dance? And maybe a few more after it?"

And she looked at him like she was really seeing all of him for the first time. Like it was coming together. Making sense. All the versions of Cal that she knew and loved were here tonight, converging, to make sure she had the best night of her life. That she was challenged, and entertained, and in charge, and taken care of, and happy, all at the same time. So she looked at him and said, "Of course," and tried not to sound breathless when she did.

As she put her hand in his and he pulled up and towards him he had the intense urge to kiss her. But he pushed it down because he didn't want to cheapen it knowing that others could be watching and scoffing at their public display of affection in the middle of the dance floor. He knows he would do the same. It just seemed tacky. So he pushed the urge down. And she sees this. Feels it. That he's about to kiss her, but holds back. She's not sure why though. But the thought doesn't linger too long because they're on the dance floor, dancing close, to a medium-paced song the brass band is playing, and he's spinning her around and then pulling her close. They danced, delighted to be in each other's arms, for a few songs until their food arrived.

Towards the end of the evening, as the waiter is taking their dinner plates away, Gillian says, "Do you think we could get our dessert to go, please?"

"Not a problem miss, I'll bring it right out."

And the look Cal's giving her when she turns to him is pure desire. But she knew it would be before she looked at him. She can practically feel how much he wants her.

When she sees that he doesn't know what to say, she says, "What? Maybe I'm in the mood for the same thing you are."

Then their waiter returns with dessert and the bill. Cal pulls out his credit card in haste and practically throws it at the poor guy, just itching to get out of this restaurant with Gillian. The two minutes it takes the waiter to come back are excruciating for Cal, but Gillian doesn't seem fazed. She's always been good about staying calm. He'd love to know how she's holding it together right now though. As soon as he writes the tip and signs the slip, he grabs he hand and the dessert, and drags her out of the restaurant and to the car as fast he can. Somewhere along the way they've thrown their coats on. He opens her door for her and then runs back to the drivers side, and she laughing at him once he sits down.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing," she says between giggles.

And they speed off towards her place.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter! I won't leave you hanging after this one. There'll probably be at least one more chapter. Not for a few days though. I haven't written much fanfiction before, so any reviews are welcomed.