Dallas, Texas

Brushing her hair and checking her outfit for stains or tears again, even though she was certain by now that there were none, Pamela Barnes willed herself to calm down, Bobby was just a man after all, and tonight was supposed to be about him showing her that, showing her that he wasn't an elitist, Ewing jerk. At present, she didn't really know what he was though; she'd gone from thinking he was a nice, attractive man, to having her opinion completely flipped when he'd unintentionally brought attention to his privileged lifestyle, and then in a surprising twist, she'd had her opinion flipped again when they'd met next. Sue Ellen was due some credit, she'd managed to convince her to give their friendship another chance, so when she'd run into Bobby after that she'd already softened a little toward the Ewings, though not as much as either Bobby or Sue Ellen would have liked. Her opinion about the quality of the Ewing men was still undecided even if she had concluded Bobby might be ok; her interaction with JR Ewing had been more along the lines of what she expected of the Ewing men, so it wasn't too hard to believe that Jock Ewing was the monster her daddy had always painted him as.

She had agreed to give Bobby another chance though and going into the evening with so many ideas about him and his family probably wasn't a good idea, so she was on a mission to calm down and clear her head. If Bobby were anyone else, she would be excited and nervous for a first/second date, so she allowed herself to dwell on that, but only the positive aspects, not the negative ones. It was more than ok to be excited about an evening that combined two activities she enjoyed a lot, skating and dancing, and while it may be a bit soon to imagine what would happen after the main event, there was no harm in girlishly wondering what it would be like. There was really no reason to be nervous, she had been on a lot of dates, some had worked out and gone places and others hadn't; besides coming to physical harm, which luckily very rarely happened, there wasn't a whole lot that could really go wrong. Finding out Bobby really was just a rich jerk would be a bit of a blow for her second chance allowance, but it would squash any attraction she had to him, which would solve some of her problems; and if she was pleasantly surprised and realised he wasn't a rich jerk, then really, she had little to complain about.

Hearing a knock at the door, she took a deep breath and checked her appearance one final time before picking up her purse and leaving her bedroom. Opening the door to her waiting date, she was overwhelmed by a number of feelings; she was physically attracted to Bobby, especially in his casual jeans and blue open collared shirt, she was emotionally pleased he had made an effort by bringing her flowers, and on a slightly different topic, she was thrilled that she was home alone at present. Her aunt Maggie took good care of her daddy when she and Cliff were busy with their own commitments, so he hadn't been expected home tonight anyway, what was really a relief though was that Cliff himself wasn't home; he was working on something big at work, so his workdays had been long recently and today was no exception. The last time Bobby had come to collect her, Cliff had mentioned he seemed familiar, and while she wasn't exactly hiding the truth, she certainly wasn't completely ready to have a confrontation with her brother about her relationship with a Ewing, especially since there was no relationship just yet.

"Hi", greeting him with a smile, she showed him into the house, accepting his flowers, an arrangement of pink and white roses, "they're lovely, thank you". Making her way into the kitchen to find a vase to put the flowers in, she continued to smile as he followed her; he was trying to reverse her negative opinion of him and he was succeeding, though to be honest, the level of attraction she felt toward him made it hard not to feel something positive toward him. He may be a Ewing and he very well may open his mouth again soon and say something that completely offended her and her family, but for now, she was smitten. If she weren't smitten, she would've probably held him to higher standards, expecting more than flowers and his focus alone before she allowed herself to picture how she wished the evening to end; due to her feelings though, some of which were purely physical if she were honest with herself, she already had a fair idea of what she wanted.

"You're welcome, I'm glad you like them", hearing the hesitation in Bobby's voice, she smiled again, this time making sure she made eye contact with him so he could see how she felt; she enjoyed that she made him nervous, but she didn't want the entire evening to be awkward. "I'm very pleased that you agreed to another evening with me too. Seeing you, and dancing with you, on Saturday really made it clear to me that I don't want whatever this is to be over and done with before we even have a chance to explore it". Hearing him explain himself further, she grinned, it was nice to know she wasn't the only one affected by their surprise meeting on Saturday night; it was also a bit of a relief to remind herself that her strong attraction to him was based on something real rather than just what she had imagined over the past few days. There was something slightly inappropriate about considering the next step of a relationship with a man on the first date, but it was slightly less inappropriate to consider the same thing with a man she did know in some sense.

"I'd like that too…" placing the bouquet of flowers in the centre of the dining table, she responded to his comments before pausing in consideration of what she wanted to say next. She was attracted to him and he seemed to have reciprocal feelings, but things between then still seemed a bit stilted, as if they were talking for the first time even though they clearly weren't and the things they were talking about had happened to them together. "I'm sorry too about how I behaved on our last date; I shouldn't have walked out on you, that was rude. I need you to understand that this is strange for me, you're a Ewing and I'm a Barnes and I have a lot of conflicting feelings about all of this, as I'm sure you do too. I really did like you just for being Bobby though, before I ever found out who you or Sue Ellen were, so I'd like to try to get back to that if I can. How do you feel about that?" Considering her conversations with Sue Ellen, she hoped Bobby had also had similar discussions with his sister-in-law, that way they would both be on a similar page.

"I would love that. I accept your apology as well; I made a mistake on that first date, I shouldn't have jumped into something so formal when the interactions we'd had prior to that had been so informal, and I suppose sometimes I don't realise how I must appear to other people". Responding in a serious, seemingly genuinely apologetic tone, he paused for a few seconds before breaking into a wide smile and changing the tone of their conversation, "now that we've got the past out of the way though, do you think we can move on and enjoy tonight? I know you're a good dancer and I promise I'm a better skater than I was the first time we ran into each other; on that basis alone we're a good match". Grinning as she listened to his comments, she felt a weight lifting off her shoulders; she had liked him even with the memories of their disastrous first date, however, now that they had acknowledged and moved on from that, she felt lighter, happier, and freer to indulge in whatever positives the evening held for them. "We didn't run into each other, you ran into me, remember? So I think I'll hold judgement on that until I see it", responding in a casual tone, she knew he was aware she was joking when he smirked and shrugged in acceptance at her comments. "Shall we go?" motioning toward the door and coat rack, she continued to smile at him, not because she was just being polite or he had said something nice and she was responding, but because she was happy and excited; from the look he was giving her in return too, so was he.

To be continued…