Monday night at 5:57pm, the doorbell rang and Alex hustled out of her room wearing a pair of dark blue jeans, a purple sweater, and black boots. She was in the process of pulling her long brown wavy hair around to one shoulder and into a loose hairband, which she hoped would allow her to get a helmet on, but not have her hair flying all over the place in the wind.
She pulled open the door and came face to face with a bouquet full of various purple and white flowers. On hearing the door open, Dave's head came into view beside the flowers, a grin on his face.
"Oh my God, they're beautiful!" Alex practically bounced with excitement as he handed her the bouquet. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek quickly before turning and walking towards the kitchen with them. "Come on in! I'll just put them in a vase with some water and grab my jacket, then we'll be ready to go!" She turned back to watch him come in the door, walking backwards the rest of the way into the kitchen as she spoke with a smile on her face. "Thank you for the flowers, they're gorgeous!"
"Not as traditional as roses or anything, but they're all native to Scotland, and I knew the color would win you over." Dave smiled as he watched her excitedly arranging the flowers in a vase.
"Traditional can be boring, this is magnificent!" She finished and set the vase on the entry table, giving them one last touch before turning to smile at him as she spoke. "And now I'll see them when I come and go." She squeezed his arm. "They really are perfect, Dave. Thank you."
He returned the smile, genuinely relieved his first surprise had been such a success. "I'm thrilled you like them." He helped her put on her own black leather jacket. "Ready?"
She grabbed a small cross-body bag, quite a change from her typical messenger bag, and slipped it over her head and arm. "As I'll ever be! I have to be honest, I'm quite excited about the motorcycle ride."
"Really?" Dave said sarcastically and grinned as they stepped out of her flat. "I never would have guessed by the Tigger-like way you're bouncing around."
She giggled, "I know, I can't seem to help myself. Just seems to be happiness bubbling up. I'm feeling like a bit like a carefree teenager."
They had arrived at the street-side and he handed her a helmet and grinned. "Well then, let's stay out incredibly late and see if we can get into some trouble." He climbed onto the bike first, then she climbed on behind him. "Just hold onto my waist, and you'll be fine."
"Where are we going for dinner?" she questioned before he started the bike.
"Not telling. That's another surprise." He started the motorcycle and was careful to start off slow so that Alex could get used to the feel of the bike. Before long he was going at normal speed and she was holding on firmly. At a stoplight, he turned his head slightly. "How are you back there?"
She laughed out loud as she exclaimed, "Fantastic!" She leaned into him and let out another laugh and he shook his head with a grin.
Not too much later he found a parking spot on the street not too far from the restaurant he intended to take her to. They got off the motorcycle and he locked their helmets onto it before they walked down the pavement. She was looking around curiously, trying to figure out which place he was taking her, as there were several restaurants in a row. He took a deep breath, hoping again he had judged her correctly as he stopped as the corner of an intersection.
"Here we are!" He turned and looked towards the restaurant in front of them.
As she turned and looked at the restaurant, her smile grew even wider. "You brought be to a burger joint!"
His left eyebrow raised at her American phrase, but he smiled too. "Well, I thought after your conversation with your family this morning, and I thought maybe you would like a taste of home. This place has the best burgers in Glasgow. Is this okay?"
She turned to him, grabbing his hand in hers and squeezing, Hoping she could communicate just how happy she was. "Okay!? Are you kidding me? This is—it's amazing—You. Are. Amazing." She turned back to the restaurant. "This might be the sweetest thing anyone has done for me since I moved to Scotland! I could kill for a cheeseburger and fries—er, I mean, chips!"
He chuckled, relieved he had made another right decision this evening. "No need for killing, I'm fairly certain the butchering has already been taken care of. Come on, let's get you that cheeseburger."
A half-hour later, they were sitting at a two-person table by the window, and their food had been brought to them moments before. Alex took the first bite of her burger while Dave watched and she practically moaned in response to the flavor while his eyebrow slowly raised in response. She finished covered her mouth as she spoke through her food, "I didn't think it could possibly taste better than it looked." She smiled and continued chewing and he dug into his own food. She finished chewing, swallowed and smiled as she questioned, "How are you possibly going to beat this on our second date?"
He finished his own bite and took a sip from his beer bottle before speaking again, "Oh, so I've earned a second date?"
She grinned back at him. "Oh yes."
He pulled at his ear and shook his head. "I don't know if I'm prepared to have done so well so quickly. The expectations are so high now! What if I crash and burn midway through the date? I hope you don't take it back before the night is over!"
They looked at each other and both burst out laughing. "Oh come on," she said. "Don't be so hard on yourself. If things start to go bad, just order me dessert and I'm sure we'll be fine," she finished her statement, punctuating it with a wink.
They continued conversation for almost another half hour, with most of the conversation being about their own childhood and families. Dave's parents had both died several years before. Alex explained that her mother had passed away shortly before the accident that took John, Laney, and Blake from her. For a moment, she seemed to travel far away in her mind, staring at the liquid in the bottle she tilted back and forth in her hand.
"And your father?" Dave leaned in to try and catch her gaze, hoping to capture her back from where her mind had gone.
She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "He's ill. He lives in a nursing home. Had had some health problems before, but then after mom died, it went downhill quickly. Dementia has set in. Some days he won't eat. He barely remembers anyone. Nathan says it won't be long now."
Dave reached across the table, resting his hand atop hers as it held the bottle she had sat back on the table. "You miss him, don't you?"
"This sounds horrible, but I miss the him that was around before my mom died." She shook her head. "What's left isn't as much him anymore."
Dave spoke quietly now, "What will you do-when he dies?"
She shrugged and took another deep breath, but as she spoke, she continued to look down at the table, fiddling with her napkin in her free hand. "I'll drop everything and fly home. There will be a lot of work to take care of his will, his property. We've tried to take care of as much as we can beforehand, but my brother is so busy with his own job. I can't leave him to do it all on his own. He's done so much already, since I've been gone." She finally looked up at him. "I've no idea how long I'll have to be gone."
"How do you feel about going back to America?" he asked as he leaned back in his chair, still holding onto her hand and rubbing his thumb against her knuckles.
"Terribly, terribly anxious. If I'm honest, coming to Scotland was as much to fulfill a dream as it was to run away from my past and start a new life. You've probably guessed that. Going back now, it feels like I'd be stepping back in time to when the accident happened."
Dave nodded slowly and watched her, allowing silence to settle over their table for a few moments. All the platitudes that came to him to say didn't seem to be enough. He had heard so many of them after losing Rita. "I'm here, if—when—you need to talk. And whenever it happens, when you get that call, I hope you'll let me be here for you then too."
"I think I shall," she said quietly, with a smile. Then her attention shifted away, shyly, towards the glass bottle again. "Do you ever—worry—does it ever scare you—to think about getting into a relationship with someone again?" She looked back up at him as she finished the sentence, hoping to find some sort of confirmation there in his reaction.
He nodded and smiled. "I find it terrifying and exhilarating." He leaned forward, resting his hand overtop hers again, this time as it picked at wood grain of the table they sat at. "But I can't help but believe it's worth it. I hope you aren't questioning a second date?"
"No, not at all." She shook her head and took a deep breath. "I just question if this tendency towards brutal honesty I seem to have with you is going to screw this up. I'm not usually so open anymore." She shrugged. "I just don't share about the past, about my dad, about my loss. But I can't seem to help myself around you. Everything just spills out."
He took a relieved breath and glanced up at the ceiling, finding the correct words as he began to speak. "I find your honesty refreshing, Alex. I—" He grew serious as he considered his past. "I told you I was in a relationship after Rita. It was built on some deception and secrets, and it ended up being the ending of it. Even my relationship with Rita, as much as we loved each other, there were some secrets she kept from me that ended up coming out after she was gone. It was almost the undoing of me and my family. You, your honesty, your willingness to be vulnerable and tell me what you are honestly thinking—it's one of the things I lo—," he caught himself and corrected quickly, "I find most attractive about you."
"Alright then." She smiled, and the mood seemed to lighten immediately. "Brutal honesty it is. And you'll return me the favor? Like you just did. I don't want you to be afraid to share about your past, either."
"Deal." He said with a returned smile. "Now, how about a ride around the city before I take you home?"