I stood in front of the mirror examining the finish product. I had brushed my hair and run some moose through it to keep it thick and shiny. My hair had grown out a lot lately so I was finally able to wear it down without it looking ridiculous. I hadn't done much in the way of makeup because I knew Arizona preferred me without. I didn't leave the house without mascara though.
After going through my entire wardrobe I finally settled on a loose fitted black dress with a long hanging gold necklace. I wore closed toe, short heeled black shoes that matched the dress perfectly. I had decided on a white woollen cardigan of sorts for if things got cold. I ran my hands down my dress and I turned to the side double checking my outfit one last time. It would have to do. Arizona would be there any minute.
Sofia had gone to Karev's and Jo's for the night. Sofia loved spending time with Karev and once in a while Karev loved having a little rugrat around the house. I think he saw it as a way to test the waters with Jo.
I pulled my cardigan on, grabbed my handbag and headed towards the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Before I even got a chance to grab a cup there was a knock at the door. I placed my handbag on the kitchen island and I headed towards the front door. I opened the door and there in the hallway stood Arizona. She wore a nice blue dress, it was summery and cute and between that and the bunch of flowers she held in her hands I couldn't help but smile.
Arizona smiled back and extended her hand to offer me the flowers "Awww, thanks. You didn't have to get me flowers" I informed her as I took the flowers, brought them up to my nose and sniffed them. They looked and smelt tremendous. "Let me just grab a vase and we can go" I informed her as I headed to the kitchen, grabbed a vase, filled it with water and placed the flowers into the vase and placed it on the bench.
"How was work today?" Arizona asked me in attempt to make conversation while I prepared myself to leave.
"Good. Quiet so I just got stuck into some of my research for the military." I grabbed my keys and swung my handbag over my shoulder.
"That's exciting. I know you've been wanting to get stuck into that for a while. Is Bailey going to give you a research assistant?"
Arizona noticed I was ready and she slowly headed towards the door. I followed behind her and locked up as we continued to talk. Things had started off a bit awkward but I forgot how easy it was to talk to Arizona.
"Honestly, I don't know. I talked to her about it the other day and she seemed reluctant to give me one but I have a meeting with her next week about distribution of funds for my research so I'll just have to pitch it the right way" I explained as we walked through the halls, down the stairs and out to Arizona's car.
"How is work going with you?" I asked as we got into the car and started the journey into the city centre.
"Busy actually. Karev is taking more of a leadership role which is nice, means I get to spend more time in the OR and less time doing paperwork and doing rosters. It's busy but it's a good busy."
We talked all the way into town. Mostly about work, it seemed like a safe subject. We even had a joint patient so we talked a lot about her and our individual plans to treat her long term condition. It was nice. It seemed easy but at the back of mind I was still so weary.
Arizona parked the car and we walked through the centre of town until we arrived outside a small intimate Italian restaurant. I had never been here before which was a nice change of pace.
"A reservation for Robbins" Arizona said to the gentleman as he looked over the seating plan and pointed us in the direction of a two seater table in the corner of the restaurant.
"Do you want a bottle of wine?" Arizona asked me.
"Yeah, a glass of wine might make this a little less awkward" I joked. Arizona nodded in agreement and picked out a bottle of red for us to share.
"So…" Arizona said as she looked up from the menu in front of her. "Do you need to be home at a certain time?" Arizona asked curiously.
"Well not really. Sofia is at Karev's for the night, he is going to take her to school in the morning. I do have work in the morning though." I looked through the menu reading the ingredients to each dish. I was starving and every dish on this menu looks appealing.
"She loves going there doesn't she. Did you see that Sofia went up a reading grade earlier this week?" The waiter arrived at our table with a bottle of wine and poured us both a glass. Arizona thanked him just before he disappeared.
"I did. She has got really good. She brought home her first chapter book yesterday which she was super excited about." Arizona and I both seemed to want to stay on safe topics. Things that wouldn't start an argument. It seemed like a safe bet while we figured out where we were in this whole shambles of a relationship.
"Really?" Arizona beamed back. She was more excited than Sofia was. "We have done a lot of things wrong but boy we did well with her" Arizona smiled softly as she grabbed her glass of wine and sipped.
"Do you know what she did yesterday." I laughed just thinking about it. "She came home and wanted to bake cookies. I said she could if she cleaned her room. I went to check on her room and it looked great, best cleaning job I've ever seen her do. So we made cookies. I went into her room to get her PJs ready for bed and I opened her closet and literally everything that was on her floor, clean clothes, dirty clothes, her soccer uniform, her soccer ball, her toys, her books, literally everything was stacked up in her closet." I shook my head as a playful smile danced on my lips.
"She is a cheeky monkey" Arizona said as we both sipped from our glasses.
The rest of dinner was actually really nice. After a glass of wine each talking became easier. I told her all about my plumbing issues and how every time the plumber came around to fix something another two problems popped up. She told me all about her family and how her parents had decided to sell their house and move to Florida. We talked about Sofia a lot and boasted about how beautiful and talented she was. The food was good, the wine got us both a bit tipsy and the dessert just topped everything off.
Arizona paid. She asked me if she could because she knew how I felt about that sort of thing. I was okay with it under the circumstances that I paid for the movie. We walked down the street to the cinema and jumped into the long cue to the see the latest rush hour movie. There was a young couple in front of us that were all over one another. Arizona and I couldn't help but laugh about it quietly to ourselves.
We got to the front of the line and I purchased two tickets to rush hour, the final chapter and I grabbed a couple of ice creams for us to enjoy with the movie. We settled into the cinema nicely and we both enjoyed our ice creams. There weren't many people in the theatre yet. We were quite early.
"Is it good?" I asked Arizona who was biting the chocolate off the top of the ice cream. A piece of chocolate fell off the top and fell down her dress. She laughed and I couldn't help but follow suit. "This is why I can never take you anywhere" I joked.
I reached over and I picked up the piece of chocolate and I brought it up to Arizona's mouth. Without hesitation the blonde took it from my fingers. "Thanks." Arizona said her stare lingered with mine for a split second too long.
We finished off the ice creams quite quickly, maybe quicker than we should have. My stomach was feeling achy sore from the amount of food I had consumed that evening. People began piling in quite quickly and the movie started. I glanced from the movie towards Arizona to see if she was enjoying the movie. Her eyes were stuck on the screen and her hands were sitting nervously on her lap. I knew she didn't want to pressure me into moving too fast. I reached over and placed my hand on top of hers. I squeezed it lightly which caused her to look up at me. We both looked back at the screen and continued watching the movie our hands intertwined neatly together.
At the end of the movie the lights slowly came on and both Arizona and I looked at one another. "Jackie Chan is awesome" I said as I released her hand and placed it on her thigh harmlessly.
"It's quite late. I should probably get you home" Arizona said quietly as the people around us began leaving the theatre.
"Yeah. I have work tomorrow. The medical students are in the hospital too so that'll be annoying" I reminded her.
"I hate med students" Arizona agreed as we both stood up and joined the line to exit the theatre. Along the way our hands became connected again. It was nice. It felt normal.
We arrived back at the house and Arizona insisted on walking me to the door like a 'normal' date. She was really trying. We got to the door and I unlocked it and I stepped inside half expecting Arizona to join but she stood just outside in the hall.
"Are you going to come in?" I asked her.
"I shouldn't" she admitted. "You looked beautiful tonight and I had a lot of fun" Arizona added.
I turned to face her and I smiled, "Me too. I had a lot of fun too" she agreed. "Can we do it again?"
"I hope so." Arizona bit down on her lower lip nervously. She wanted the awkward goodbye, she got it. "I should probably go…. I'll see you tomorrow though" she said as she went to walk away.
"Arizona" I called after her.
"You said you wanted to pick me up and drop me off and kiss me goodnight. You picked me up and you dropped me off but you didn't"
"I didn't kiss you goodnight" Arizona interrupted as a cute smile spread across her lips. "Would that be okay? If I kissed you?" she asked.
"I've heard you're a good kisser" I teased.
Arizona grabbed my hand and she pulled me forward softly. I could feel my body being pulled closer to hers and before I knew it our faces were inches apart. "Funny, I've heard the same thing about you" and before I had the chance to respond her lips were pushed up against mine. I felt her spare hand move to my hip as our kiss deepened. I felt her tongue exploring the inside of my mouth while mine tangled with hers. Our lips moved in unison.
The worst part about first dates is finding out your date is a terrible kisser. Lucky for both of us we had been here done that. Her lips moved perfectly with mine and her tongue knew every inch of my mouth. It was familiar. I wanted to bring her inside, continue things inside but I felt Arizona break away. "Arrrrgh" she grumbled before pecking my lips. "I should go" Arizona said as she released my hand and took a step backwards. "Friday. Dr Porters?" she double checked. It meant more to me than she understood that she remembered that, that after everything that had just happened she was still willing to take a step backwards in order to take major strides forwards. "Yeah. I'll see you then" I said as I watched her walk away. Our second first date was a success.