Chapter Twenty: Dave's P.O.V.

Ten o'clock couldn't come soon enough. I had a half and hour to get cleaned up before I went and met Jessie in the lobby.

I showered at the arena and was putting on a suit when Paul walked in.

"Whoa, big man. You're all spiffed up. Where are you going?" he asked as I put on cologne.

"I'm taking Jessie out to eat."

"You're getting all dressed up just to go out to dinner?"

"A very nice, somewhat romantic dinner," I corrected. "Now, if you don't mind, I've got to run," I said and headed out of the locker room.

By the time I got to the hotel, it was about twenty till eleven. 'I hope she's not mad that I'm late' I remember thinking to myself. I walked in just in time to see Jessie walk out of the elevator. I could've sworn that my jaw dropped to the floor.

Her normally straight dark brown hair was now curled around her face. She wore a beautiful strapless green dress which showed off her long tan legs and drew even more attention to her vibrant emerald eyes. I had never seen a more beautiful sight in my life.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, walking up to me.

"Oh…it's okay. I just got here," I replied, not taking my eyes off of her.

"What?" she asked, bashfully.

"You look absolutely stunning," I told her truthfully as she blushed.

"You don't look too bad yourself."

"Thanks. Well, we better get going," I said and led her to my rental.

"So, where are you taking me?" she asked as I started driving.

"There's this really nice restaurant that I know of that's open late."

She nodded and looked out the window. We arrived at the restaurant a few minutes later and after being seated, ordered our food.

"This place is really nice, Dave. You didn't have to do this," Jessie said, quietly.

"I know, but I wanted to," I replied, reaching out and grabbing her hand.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on with Randy?" Jessie asked, quickly changing the subject and taking her hand away from mine.

I was kind of taken aback by her sudden urge to take her hand away from mine but I tried not to show it. "I really don't know. He's just different from what he used to be. Of course, he turns it around and says that I'm the one that's changed. Something about how before I was an ass-kicking machine and now I'm nothing more than Paul's bitch."

"Wow, those are pretty harsh words."

"Yeah, I know. He won't talk to anybody about anything. Anyway, enough about that. How was your afternoon?"

"Tiring. I swear Stacy took me to every store in Baltimore. Of course, it being her hometown, she knows all of the hot spots. But, believe it or not, it was kind of fun," she smiled.

"So, I take it you and Stace got along pretty well?"

"Yeah, we did."

"Well, now it looks like you're making friends left and right."

"I know. It's actually kind of scary, if you ask me. I've never had that many people who really cared about me."

I saw the sadness in her emerald eyes as she said this. Who, in their right mind, could not care about this woman? She was beautiful, intelligent, and so many other things. Something just didn't seem quite right. And my goal for the night was to figure out just what that something was.