Geez it's hard to write dates! Hopefully this turned out ok!

Happy Reading!

Chapter 5

Anakin seemed nice. A little shy and he definitely had a dorky quality to him… but it was charming on him. Majority of the Uber ride to the restaurant was quiet save for the rain hitting the roof and the swiping sounds of the wipers. They talked a little about the city and things they had both done in the past. Obviously, they had both been to the Space Needle at least once and taken a ferry ride around the city. But there were little things she had done that he hadn't and vice versa. He was an action movie fan and so he had gone to see the gravesite of Bruce Lee. She was a lifelong learner and so she had been to one or two of the museums around the city.

The restaurant he had picked was small and close to the waterfront and just as he'd said a hotel was only a block or two away. A soft breezed picked at her hair as Anakin hesitantly pulled her close to him so they could share his umbrella for the short walk from where they had been dropped off to the door of the restaurant. Despite the closeness, half of his coat ended up being drenched by the time they got inside and he pretended not to even notice.

The salty smell of the ocean and freshly cooked fish filled the air and she couldn't remember the last time she'd had fresh Pacific seafood. The atmosphere of the restaurant was pleasant, relaxed and far from the loud boisterous kind of place she knew the rest of the flight crew were probably going. This restaurant was nice not the kind of nice that had staff wearing suits and white aprons nice, but the family-friendly nice. The kind of place friends might go for a casual dinner or even a first date. She liked it.

The hostess led them to a small table in the main dining room along the wall. She and Anakin stowed their bags against the wall. Their waiter arrived not long after to take their drink orders. He had a water and a beer on tap while she only wanted a water. Both of them picked up their menus and read through their options. It was obvious he had been here before, by the time their drinks arrived his menu was already down having already decided on what he wanted. She used the protection the menu gave her to glance at him every once in a while. She couldn't deny he was handsome. Broad shouldered, bright blue eyes and sandy blond hair and a cleft chin… if Dorme ever saw him she knew her friend's jaw would drop and hit the floor like a brick. But Padme knew better than to judge a book by its cover. "What would you recommend?" She asked him.

He smiled at her, "Their baked cod is pretty good," He said. "I love their wood grilled salmon though. They actually serve it on a wood plank."

She couldn't help but laugh at the novelty of it. Her eyes returned to the menu as she narrowed down her options. "Have you ever had the seafood paella?" She asked.

"The shrimp in that thing are huge!" He said, "Honestly, anything this place does with seafood is great." Padme put her menu down and when their waiter returned they put their orders in as the waiter collected their menus and left them alone.

"So…" He started, "How's Luke been?" He asked.

"Good," She said, smiling at the thought of her boy, "He's staying with my sister this weekend while I'm here. He… wasn't too excited about spending three full days with my nieces though. What boy does?" She laughed. "This month's schedule has been hard on him. I've seen him maybe three or four days so far and I call him every night but… I was supposed to be on an outbound flight back to Boston tonight so I could see him tomorrow morning before he goes to school. But it looks like this delay'll keep me at least another day." She sighed and gave a shrug, "The good thing is I got him a new model at the beginning of the month. I know it won't make up for lost time but… I hope it will at least keep him occupied…" Padme shook her head, "I'm sorry, that's probably a longer answer than you wanted."

"Don't worry about it," He said. "It's probably harder on you than it is on him anyway."

She nodded her head as she took a sip of her water, "That's what everyone tells me."

"And if my experience is anything to go by, they're right on this." Anakin bit his lip as his gaze left hers in favor of the small dent in the wooden table. She could tell from the shy expression on his face and the way he traced the rim of the dent on the table that what he wanted to say was personal and something he didn't talk about. "My mom… she worked two jobs just to take care of me," He said. "Sometimes I'd see her for maybe an hour or two before I had to leave for school or she had to start one of her shifts somewhere. It was hard," He admitted, "But I could tell it was harder on her. I mean, she did miss a lot of things… but she was always there for the really important things." His eyes looked up to meet hers. "I know you're doing everything you can for him. That's what he really needs."

Padme shook her head. Everything he said was sweet and she could feel the honesty in his words. "Anakin, you don't even know me," She said. How could he possibly know anything about her or Luke? Who was he to presume—

"Maybe," He conceded with a shrug, "But I'd like to…" A small blush dusted his cheeks as their eyes locked. Did— did he really just… "I… I'm sorry, was… was that too forward?" He asked.

Was it? It had caught her off guard. But it wasn't like he'd asked to marry him or anything. He just wanted to get to know her. Was that forward? Padme hasn't even been on a date in so long… most of the men who had shown interest in her had only been interested in a physical relationship and she always walked the other way from those men. But Anakin seemed to want something else. Part of her was excited by the prospect of seeing someone who wanted to know who she was. Excited that he seemed like a kind, caring man who gave the impression of someone who could really get along with her son. The other part of her, however, was telling her to shut him down. She had too much on her plate to add the responsibilities of maintaining a relationship let alone a relationship with someone she doesn't even know!

Fortunately, she was saved from answering right away at the timely arrival of their meals. Silence fell between them as they started to eat. The conversation eventually picked pack up as they started to eat, topics sticking to safer terrain this time around. They talked a little about work and figured out some of their mutual acquaintances within the company. Padme asked him about how he decided to become a pilot.

Anakin gave a shrug, "I always liked planes," He said. "For my fifth birthday, my mom flew us from Tucson to Phoenix for the day. I didn't really want to go to Phoenix… I just wanted to fly in a plane." A right side of his mouth curled into a smile, "When we took off and I saw the world below me, and then when we got up high enough I could see the tops of the clouds… I just knew it's what I wanted to do." What was it with this man catching her off guard? She'd expected him to say something like he wanted to be an Air Force pilot like in Top Gun. Not something borderline poetic. Everything he said, he said it in a way that just sounded too perfect to be true. And yet, she found herself believing him.

"What about you?" He asked, "How'd you get into all of this?"

Padme laughed and shook her head, "Oh, I've never really been into any of it," She said honestly. "I never even considered a career in aviation before I had Luke. I always thought I'd end up in law school or something."

His brow furrowed, "Law school?" He said, "That's… a pretty big leap."

Padme gave him a tight smile, "Yeah, well… Not long after I had Luke, his father and I separated," She said. "Everything got thrown off track. I now had to find a babysitter, a way to do my school work while taking care of a baby, a job…" She shook her head as she twisted her fork in the orzo on her plate, "It didn't take long for my grades to slip and then I made the decision that college wasn't going to work out like I wanted it to. Luke needed me. So, I dropped out, moved back home to be closer to my parents so I could get help. I've known Dorme since high school so when she told me about her plans to become a flight attendant, and to be honest the insurance policies were what really attracted me." Padme gave a small shrug as she hid her face by taking a drink. She didn't like to talk about why she took the job. Of all the things she had ever done, choosing her career based on salary and employee benefits was low especially for her. But what other option did she have? Low-income insurance was not readily available back then. She could have taken a chance and gone without insurance… but it was a risk she refused to take on her son.

Anakin's eyes flashed with sympathy as his fingers twitched around the fork and knife in his hands. "That… He just left you alone?" He asked.

She gave a shrug, "Back then he had it in his head he was going to make a fortune on his paintings. I told him he had to choose. Us or his art."

"And he chose the art."

Padme nodded her head, "Eventually his art took a backseat when he got a job working for a private art dealer in Paris. Now he pays child support, and he visits every once in a while but… it's obvious he loves his work more than anything else."

"I'm sorry," He said.

She smiled at him, "It's alright. As terrible as it was back then, I'm over it now and my life has only gotten better without him," She said. "So…" She sighed, deciding it was a good time to get the conversation off of her sad story, "I've told you my tragic love life. It's only fair for you to tell me yours."

Anakin chuckled lightly as he shook his head, "Oh, my love life is far from the Greek tragedy," He said, pushing away his empty dish so he could fold his elbows on the table. "I had a girlfriend a few years ago," He said, giving a shrug, "We dated for like two years but she dumped me for her Navy Officer high school sweetheart."

"Ouch…"

"You're telling me," He laughed. "My life has been pretty boring ever since."

The remainder of the dinner went by with a much lighter tone. Even after he paid the bill despite her insistence that they split it, they stayed at the table talking until she yawned and they both checked their watches. They'd been there for a little over two hours. With some reluctance, they left. Walking side by side the few blocks to the hotel. The rain had finally let up and was only drizzling. When they arrived at the hotel they both checked in and shared an elevator to the floor their rooms were on. When they reached the end of the main hallway that would separate them, they paused and faced one another.

"Thank you for dinner," She said.

"Any time," He returned, his smile slipping into a nervous lip bite. "Would you… maybe like to share a cab to the airport?" He asked.

Padme smiled but shook her head, "My next flight is in the afternoon," She said, not missing the sad 'oh,' he mumbled. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a folded plane ticket and a pen. Quickly she jotted down her phone number and handed it to him. "But maybe we can get some breakfast in the morning before you go," She said, nearly laughing at the way his eyes almost popped out of his head. Their hands briefly touched as she passed him the ticket and she took a few backward steps down the hall towards her room.

Her mind flashed back to earlier in the evening. You don't even know me, she'd said to him. maybe. But I'd like to… he'd smiled when he said it. He'd meant it. And something about him just felt… different. He wasn't like anyone else she had ever known and deep down she had the feeling that if they parted without saying another word she would one day come to regret that choice. "By the way," She said, feeling her heart start to race in her chest. "It wasn't too forward," Padme turned around quickly and started to walk a little faster down the hall to her room. Her words had been vague. She could have worded it better so that she knew that he knew… by God she hoped he knew. Opening her hotel room, Padme leaned her back against the door and sighed. Just what exactly had she started?