Paige had told him to "dress professionally" for their sixth date, the final one of the experiment, and Walter found himself changing several times before she picked him up, unsure of exactly what that meant. What were they doing? They'd gotten past the is – this – a – job – interview – to – you concern of his, so this wasn't a warning from her that he needed to really, really impress her or else this was the last date they would ever go on. To him, dressing professionally meant dressing like he did every day, so he put on black trousers, a button up shirt, and black dress shoes. At the last minute, he selected a bow tie. She liked him in bow ties. And it set him apart from what he wore on a day to day basis.

Paige showed up with a clutch purse – he was pretty sure that was what they were called – and a dark blue dress that looked almost like a top and skirt combination, the skirt flaring out where the rest of the outfit hugged her body. Walter realized when she lifted her arms to hug him that it was, in fact, not a dress. He put his hands on her waist, his thumb finding the strip of skin between the two pieces of clothing.

They kissed briefly. "Alright, your big third date. What's the plan?"

"It's not time yet to reveal the plan," Paige said, touching a finger to his lips. "But it's gonna be big, trust me. You trust me?"

He nodded.

She raised her eyebrows. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Paige gave a little laugh. "Okay, I wasn't necessarily looking for the ma'am. I'll take it, though." She hugged him again, and he chuckled along with her as he pulled her close. "Okay," she said after a silence, "As much as I love being like this, we have a…a date to get to."

"Ah, you almost slipped up there."

"Well, I'm pretty excited about this," she said. "Hop in the car."

"The university?" Walter asked, looking toward her and cocking his head. "At night?" It was October. "Is this some haunted thing?"

"Why, do you know something about this place I don't?"

He rolled his eyes and she giggled. "No, Walter, nothing haunted. But there is a really cool mansion that's opening on the weekends."

"Sylvester's Super Fun Guy characters are not real," Walter said, "but he still enjoys them. I suppose I can see the appeal in ghosts in that sense, though why anyone would actively want to be scared is beyond me."

They got out of the car, and Paige grabbed his hand, leading him up to one of the class buildings. "I think it was Edgar Allen Poe who said that people enjoy being scared when they know they're safe. It's because of the adrenaline rush, or something."

"I see."

"Falling in love is kinda the same concept, if you think about it like that."

Thinking about it like that, suddenly Walter found himself a fan of haunted houses.

Paige led them inside, locating a classroom with a poster propped up in front of it. "Looks like there's some event tonight," she said, her tone that of a person who was trying to seem curious but really knew exactly what was going on. "Let's check it out."

"You typically need tickets to – " He trailed off when Paige smiled and flashed two glossy strips at him. "Oh. Okay."

"Hi there," Paige said to a lady standing with a clipboard at the door, on the other side of the poster. "Here you go."

"Thank you," she said, taking the tickets and marking something off on her clipboard. "Enjoy your night."

"How do you know what names to mark off?" Walter tried asking, but Paige was already pulling him into the classroom. Inside an older gentleman was standing at the podium, bringing up a PowerPoint presentation. There were chairs – empty chairs – set up neatly in rows, the two in the center of the front row with cards marked Date Six.

"What…what is this?" He asked, feeling his heart start to beat a little faster.

"Well," she said, "you heard me tell Ralph that, essentially, the last thing I wanted to do was go to that lecture with you." Slipping her hand into his, she continued. "And I've realized lately that I can't very well complain about you not being completely into my interests if I'm not completely into yours. Just because what I like doing is more so what 'typical dating' is like doesn't make that more valid. So…" she smiled. "We set this up. Rented the room, hired Dr. Oldenworth at his usual requirement of fifty ticket sales. It isn't the exact same lecture because you've already been to that one and it wouldn't be efficient for you to hear the same information twice. But Dr. Oldenworth is from the same team – Ralph looked into that for me – and he's going to be talking about…honestly I can't pronounce it all. But it's just for you and me. We're the only ones here."

"Um," Dr. Oldenworth said hesitantly from the podium, "I'm not sure that's true. All fifty tickets were purchased."

"Yes," Paige said. "They were. By people who wanted to give you the revenue while also ensuring random people wouldn't be here. I know you have to wait until eight o'clock to start, but trust me, we are the only people here."

Oldenworth adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose. "I must say, if my husband had presented me with such an intellectually oriented gift of a date back when we were dating, he might have become my husband a little sooner."

The grin and mischievous wink Oldenworth gave did little to make up for the jolt of anxiety Walter felt at his remark. They had just gotten back…no, they weren't even formally back together yet. Of course, Oldenworth didn't know that. To him, they probably seemed like what they should have been – a couple together for over a year who may be starting to think along those lines. He wasn't sure what to make of the squeeze Paige gave his hand, but he took it as reassurance.

"Who bought the other tickets?" Walter asked.

"Oh, you know." She shrugged casually. "Me. Cabe. Allie. Happy. Toby. Sly. Florence. Me again."

"Huh."

She smiled and kissed him.

Oldenworth cleared his throat. "Ladies an…" Pausing, he furrowed his brow. "Lady and gentleman. Good evening, and welcome to…"

Yeah. Walter didn't blame Paige for not being able to pronounce the topic.

He was impressed with the way Oldenworth forged on, likely exactly as he had intended save the singular intro, as if he had a whole room of people to captivate. Walter wasn't sure he could do the same thing. He was sure he would be thrown off, would pick one of the few attendees to stare at and never break eye contact, making that person uncomfortable. Or maybe he would get arrogant, state that the people who had bought out the lecture were effectively robbing forty – eight other people of the opportunity to hear such a genius speak. Maybe this was why Dr. Oldenworth was somebody's husband, and Walter O'Brien was not.

Or maybe his recognizing what he would do was a sign that he would be able to avoid doing those things now.

The lecture was an hour long, and incredibly mentally stimulating. Walter hadn't even considered a few of the points that Dr. Oldenworth was making. That didn't happen very often.

Paige, to her credit, was trying. He noticed about halfway through that her eyes had glazed over, but she wasn't yawning, wasn't shifting in her seat, and wasn't asleep on his shoulder. The material was over her head. But she was here with him. She had organized all of this for him. And a couple times, he saw her look over at him and smile, as if to herself, at how interested he was.

When she told him at their last date that she loved him, he didn't doubt it. But somehow now he was even more sure.

The lecture concluded, and Dr. Oldenworth thanked them for coming, walking around the podium to shake both of their hands. "I haven't given a presentation for such a small crowd since I told a class of freshman that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving class was optional," he joked. "But it was lovely to be part of such a thoughtful date night. You have a wonderful woman there, sir."

"I have a wonderful man, too," Paige said, squeezing Walter's arm and smiling at him.

They exited the university and were pulling back out onto the highway when the radio alerted them to a three car accident around the corner from the garage. "That's gonna take at least an hour to clear up," Paige commented.

"Just drive back to the condo," Walter said. "I don't mind hopping on the bus around the corner. By the time it gets around to that stop it should be mostly cleared."

"I don't want to make you walk, though."

"It's half a block to the stop from your place and two blocks to the garage from that stop. It's not a problem."

She was quiet, then shrugged. "Okay. Probably the path of least resistance."

Another traffic alert came on, but this was for an intersection miles from where they were going. "Thank God," Paige said with a laugh. "I mean, not great for the guy on the moped. Or, from the sound of it, mostly the moped itself. I would be running out of bus stops to drop you at."

She switched lanes, made a left turn, and within minutes they had pulled up to her condo. "I'll walk you up," Walter said, getting out of the car and offering her his arm. "We need to…"

"Talk about the past six weeks," she said, nodding. "Yes, we do."

"I don't know really what to say besides that I had a wonderful time on this experiment," he said as they walked to her stoop.

She turned toward him. "Me too. And now that we've completed all six dates…" She squeezed both his hands. "Walter, I want to keep this going."

He nodded, feeling his throat tighten. "I do, too."

"I know we still have to work on, you know, communicating, and not taking each other for granted," Paige continued, "but I want to do all of that."

"Yes. Maybe I could have lived without you before I knew you. But now that I do…and now that we've been with each other, I just…" he shook his head.

"I know what you mean," she said, softly. "Somewhere down the line I forgot how to exist without you. And I don't want to remember."

She leaned against him, pressing her lips against his, and Walter slid his arms around her, kissing her back. "I love you," he murmured.

"Mmmm." She bumped her nose against his before kissing him again. "I love you, too. So much."

He moved a hand up to the side of her face, cradling it as he deepened their kiss. "I know it's time for me to go," he mumbled, "but I would be okay if we never had to stop kissing."

Paige pulled back slightly, cocking her head. "So…we're doing this. Right? Continuing to date? Officially be back together?"

He nodded again. "Yes. Yes."

"Okay, well…" She lifted her eyebrows, tipping her head toward her door. "Ralph isn't home. How about we…go inside and…start date seven right now?"


And there you have it. For those of you that like reading smut, I'll have one more chapter for you coming in a few days – hence the name of the fic, Seven Dates, being different than the experiment parameters of six dates. For those of you who would rather not read smut, this chapter is your conclusion. I hope it satisfies.