XX
"You go first." April demanded.
"I was just going to say we probably shouldn't talk about the hospital, this is one of the times we have free from there." He replied, unsure of her views on this matter. He wanted to get to know her separate from work, to see if he really liked her or if it was, just, something else instead.
"Agreed. I was going to say you wouldn't believe the first date conversation topics I came across on the internet." April chimed. She began laughing quietly to herself as the memory of these topics resurfaced. Alex smiled, she looked even more beautiful sitting there quietly laughing to herself, happy and joyful. He loved seeing her this way.
In that moment, as April tried to speak between laughter Alex knew that this date was worthwhile. That the nerves and anticipation were worth it, that this would be different. That he actually liked April not just Dr Kepner, but both of them, one and the same. He never really got to know someone, before, well other things got in the way. He had never had a relationship that went through normal dating first, the dinner dates, the nerves, the feeling of getting to know each other, finding out each other's eccentricities before seeing each other naked.
"What?" April questioned, a slight worry line appearing on her face as she wiped her mouth, unsure of what Alex was staring at so intently.
"Nothing." Alex mumbled. He softly squeezed her hand and continued, "I can't believe you searched up conversation topics. That is so sad."
Faking a look of hurt she replied, "Ouch. Okay then, why don't you start the conversation then, I'm sure it will be illuminating. Super interesting." She pulled her hand back, crossed her arms and leant back onto the chair with a smug look on her face.
"Uhm well I can't ask you about your job, I already know what you do." He started, playing with his hands again.
"Uh huh." April replied, the smile on her face spreading, she was pleased watching him squirm.
"What's your favourite colour?" Alex said his voice shaking.
"My favourite colour? Are you joking?" April said with a snort, "Does that actually work?"
"Well if they are drunk enough it does. But anyway, shut up. You can't do any better!" Alex shot back with a smile on his lips, no point trying to conceal it.
"Oh I found the best one, What went wrong between you and your ex?" April replied between laughs.
"Seriously?" Alex answered, laughing he pushed all potential answers out of his head and continued, "Talking about how past relationships failed is one way to ensure the date doesn't end in sex."
"It's not as bad as, do you have any stds?" April laughed and took another sip of her drink.
"Any answer that doesn't involve the word no, should signal the immediate end of the date." Alex replied. He was having fun, he thought he would, but when he was sitting alone in the restaurant waiting for her to come all he could think about was everything Cristina told him to do and not to do. Which meant that he had barely thought about what they would talk about, but it that didn't seem to be too much of an issue, but that was now, that might change later.
"Then maybe I should head home." April teased. She smirked as the waitress came over and placed their food in front of them, Alex sitting silent, dumbfounded. Slightly confused as to what she was implying exactly.
"Anything else?" the waitress asked politely, moving her head side to side, spotting another table that needed her attention.
Regaining his voice Alex replied, "No we're good." And she walked off. Turning to April he asked, "What?"
Enjoying his confusing she took a deep breath and a pause before answering. "I heard about what happened a few years back. The hospital outbreak, some guy named George getting it from you, through a nurse or someone." Cutlery in hand she began eating her dinner, glancing up every few seconds to see Alex's face as he was trying to formulate some kind of answer. From the looks of it, things weren't going to well.
"Why don't you eat while you construct your no doubt witty reply." April said stuffing some salad into her mouth and then lightly placing her cutlery on her plate and taking a sip of her wine.
"April, uh well… about that, uh…" Alex mumbled and then regaining his composure said, "I'm clean if that's what you were wondering" with a smirk, raising his eyebrow slightly.
Choking on her wine, April placed her glass on the table and quickly covered her mouth. Grabbing her napkin from her lap, she wiped her face and then looked down to survey the damage. Good save she thought to herself once she realised that not a drop of wine ended up on her dress, her food or the table. Dropping her napkin back onto her lap she moved her gaze up to her Alex and said, "Would you care to confirm that with a blood test?"
Now it was his turn to be surprised, "Seriously?" he spluttered.
"How sure are you? Pretty sure or certain?" April replied, her expression not giving any clues, she remained blank to all emotions, not a smirk wandering from her lips to her eyes, nothing.
"Certain." Alex answered with not a moment's hesitation. Staring into her eyes, not moving, he continued eating. He did not want to break the eye contact.
"This tastes great." April said, wanting to change the subject. It was either that or to giggle nervously. She felt completely reassured by Alex, there was no doubt that he was honest, and if the evening progressed that way, she knew he was clean.
Alex chuckled, she was a surgeon but certain topics, areas of conversation made her so nervous. She was actually kind of badass when it came to work, but then when she put down that scalpel her whole personality changes. Innocent wouldn't be the word to describe her, neither would naïve. It wasn't that she was oblivious of certain things, she just didn't feel comfortable. For some reason that made him like her even more.
"So does this!" Alex responded, taking a fork full of food and then extending his hand out to April. "Try some." He wasn't ordering her, but after a few seconds he immediately regretted the gesture followed by the words. He hoped she wouldn't get the wrong idea and think he was demanding her to do something she potentially didn't want to do.
He began to withdraw his hand a little when she replied, "Looks delicious." Putting her cutlery on the edge of her plate, she placed her palms on the table and leant towards Alex. She was cautious not to get anything on her dress, or to spill her wine over, she didn't want to make a fool of herself. Looking into his eyes, she opened her mouth and wrapped it around his fork. Pulling back, she sat back down in her chair and repositioned the napkin on her lap as he sat still with his hand still hovering in the air.
Licking her lips, she picked up her cutlery and said, "Tastes it too."
"What?" Alex muttered, realising his hand was still extended he brought it back down to his plate, "Oh yeah, told you." Shut up Alex, he told himself, This is just a nice dinner, getting to know one each other, without the sex. She's April. The other half of his brain was not agreeing with him, although for now he chose to ignore it.
"That was delicious." April said after devouring the last remnants of mud cake on her plate. She wasn't certain she would eat dessert when she was getting ready as Cristina said that she should only stay for dessert if she wished to extend the date, if it's going badly decline dessert and get the hell out of there. Luckily that wasn't the case.
Alex smiled back at her, a mouthful of sticky date pudding preventing him from answering. She looked so beautiful, she was surprisingly funny and there was just something about her that made him incredibly happy, she was one of those people you just generally liked being around. She wasn't as annoying as she seemed at work. He was so glad that they had done this, the initial awkwardness of the date was long gone.
"So what is your favourite colour?" April asked, placing her cutlery down on her plate and reaching for her glass of wine. She finished it off while she waited for Alex to finish eating a reply.
"Delicious." He said resting his cutlery on his plate, then looking towards April he said, "Uhm don't really have one." He chuckled silently to himself, remembering that part of the evening, when he was still so nervous, and not so relaxed. But shortly after that April took control of the conversation for a bit although it was always a conversation, neither of them talked at each other, which was always a risk with a date. He loved how she didn't talk about herself endlessly for the last hour, she asked him questions and answered his question and acted like she genuinely liked listening to all he had to say. Why didn't we do this sooner? He thought to himself.
"How can you not have a favourite colour!" April sounded surprised.
Alex smiled slightly as he stared at April for a moment and then answered, "Red. Maybe green."
April felt herself blush slightly as she realised that he was only saying that based on the dress she was wearing and then after a moment she also realised that he was saying green as in the colour of her eyes.
Before she could formulate some sort of answer a new waitress arrived, "Can I get you anything else?" She spoke fast as if she could not get the words out fast enough, her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, too tight, making her face look kind of pinched. April exchanged a look with Alex, they both noticed her strange attire and the heavy eyeliner but they also communicated, no, through their look.
"No thank you. Cheque please." Alex answered, grabbing his napkin from his lap and placing it on his empty plate. April watched him and did the same.
"Yes sir, one moment." She said, frantically rushing off in the other direction, almost knocking into another waitress who was carrying a tray of drinks.
"Tia watch it!" She hissed at her, steadying herself, so that the drinks wouldn't end up on the floor. She gave her a death glare and glided over to a table, while Tia rushed off in the other direction.
"Cat fight." Alex whispered. Both he and April watched this entire exchange. "I'll just go pay, it's probably easier I go to them, than to risk Tia coming back here." He said, standing up.
"Are you sure?" April asked, also rising from her seat, grabbing her jacket off the back of her chair.
"Didn't you see her almost knock over that chicks entire tray of drinks?" he said, misunderstanding what she was saying.
"Not that, don't you want to split it?" She asked stepping towards him and placing her hand lightly on his arm.
"Maybe next time. This ones on me. Meet you out front?" he leant down, gave her a quick kiss on her cheek and headed off in the direction that Tia had gone, a lot more slowly and cautiously than she had done of course.
"Next time." April repeated to herself as she made her way to the door. There was going to be a next time. She thought to herself Of course there will be a next time.
She shuddered as she stepped outside, there was no rain, but a cold breeze swept down the street. Wandering towards a bench, she sat herself down and crossed her legs and pulled her coat tightly around her. This went well. Rather well. Better than well. It went… She thought to herself Perfectly.
A small seed of doubt settled in her mind, what if he didn't find it that way. She then remembered the way he had looked at her all night, his expression between wanting to rip off her scarlet dress in the restaurant bathroom and a kind fondness in his eyes.
Smiling she looked up at the night sky. That was the one thing she hated about the city, with all the bright lights down below you could never really see the stars, and even if you could, it was only one or two. Nothing compared to the beauty of the country. Lowering her gaze she saw one of the things she loved about the city, Alex. Standing up she linked her arm with his and leant her head against his shoulder as they headed down the street.
XX