I wished I'd had a camera.
The look on Dimitri's face when he saw was priceless.
It took a few attempts before he was able to strop gawking and pull a sentence together.
"You look…wow…you look…"
He struggled to pull the words together to make one whole sentence.
I decided to save him any further embarrassment and help him.
"Beautiful, amazing, magnificent. These are all good adjectives."
He smiled and ran a hand through his damp hair.
He'd showered and changed too.
He was wearing jeans that were a soft blue and a black button down that I decided was my favorite shirt on him. The top buttons were undone and the sleeves were pulled up at the elbows showing his tanned muscled forearms.
"You look pretty good your self," I muttered.
Dimitri had set up the room service table out side on the patio deck.
There were two lit candles shaped like Mickey on top of the white tables cloth with silver covered trays of food on each side.
Dimitri pulled my chair out for me.
I brushed against him and caught a whiff of his aftershave.
"How did you even know what to order?" I asked trying to shake away another fantasy coming to mind.
He sat across from me smiling.
"I think I know your favorite foods by now," he said uncovering one of the plates.
It was a nice cheesy slice of pizza with pepperoni shaped like Mickey.
"Everyone loves pizza," I teased.
He uncovered another plate with a tower of chocolate chip brownies.
"Lucky guess. Who doesn't love brownies?"
He smiled and uncovered every plate that held all of my favorites.
"Okay, I admit it. You know me."
"I've convinced you at last. Lucky for me, you and I love all of the same foods."
I laughed and we dug into all of the food.
"Is that how you knew what to order? Because they're your favorites too?" I asked laughing.
"Well that and I've been your case worker for almost half a year. I think I should know everything about you by now."
I looked up from my brownie confused.
"Half a year? I've only been helping you guys for a few weeks."
"We were handed your fathers case over a year ago when the original detectives, including Jesse, couldn't handle it any more and there were rumors of corrupt agents. Jesse got himself back on the case since he knew it so well which meant Christian and I had to get just as involved so we divided the people involved with your father and I got your file."
"So you knew about me before we even really met?"
He sipped from his glass and nodded.
"Yeah. We decided to approach you and Lissa about aiding us in our investigation when we couldn't get close enough to your father and here we are."
I liked the idea of Dimitri having my file.
In a weird way, this made him even closer to me.
I smiled to my self, nibbling on the brownie.
I decided to change the subject. This vacation wasn't going to include any conversations about work any more.
"So you know everything about me?"
"Mmmm…not everything but I probably know more things about you than most people. Not just from the file but from talking to you for the last few weeks we've been together," he admitted.
"Like what?"
He laughed softly and indulged in my little game.
"From your file or from what I've learned by being around you?"
"Mmm…my file first."
"Okay. Your full name is Rosemarie Hathaway, no middle name. You were named after your fathers mother."
"Not very creative of her," I muttered looking down.
He lifted my chin with his fingers making me blush and smile.
"Continue," I said smiling now.
He grinned and went on.
"You're seventeen going on eighteen in March. Your five feet seven inches tall, you have brown eyes, dark brown hair, and your size seven in shoe."
"I don't even want to know why you have my shoe sizes in your file."
He laughed.
"Now you want to know what I've learned from being around you."
I nodded eagerly.
"My favorite color?"
"Trick question. You like any color that isn't pink," he answered sipping from his glass again.
"Favorite movie?"
"It's between Stardust and the Pirates of the Caribbean series."
"Favorite TV show?"
"Anything that isn't reality television, war related or on PBS."
"I'm convinced. You know me."
He handed me a chocolate covered strawberry that I was reaching for.
"That's just the basics. I know you twirl your hair when you're nervous, for some strange reason you eat your cereal with a fork and you use your left hand for everything even though you're right handed."
"Wow! You know so much about me you should write my autobiography. You know me better than I know my self."
"I'm a cop, it's my job to be observant," he laughed.
"Either that or you just like me," I joked.
"That could be it," he smiled.
This dinner was turning out better than I'd imagined. We went back and forth trading favorites, likes and dislikes. We talked about nearly everything.
After a while we'd cleared the tables, eating everything.
The bellboy came toe grab the cart.
"Did you enjoy your meals?" The bellboy was looking directly at me.
Even when I was a kid, I earned the pleasure of having creepy guys leer at me, looking me up and down. I felt like they were undressing me with their eyes. I usually avoided it by dressing down but right now, in some of my best clothes, the bellboy didn't even try to be discreet looking at my chest. I squirmed uncomfortable.
"Yes thank you," Dimitri answered curtly.
The bellboy looked up at Dimitri and his enormous height and backed out of the room trembling a bit.
"You okay?" he asked coming out on the patio, leaning on the railing beside me.
""Yeah. I just felt really…cheap with him looking at me that way," I admitted.
"Want me to find him and beat him up for you?" he offered.
That made me smile.
"No. I don't think it'd be good for your career. Not to mention having someone beat someone else up for me would only make me more like my father."
"You're probably right. The offer still stands though."
"No, no beating up. Just, stay here with me."
We leaned on the patio and looked up at the stars, Dimitri pointing each one out to me.
"This is what kind of sucks about living in the city," he said after showing me the Orion. "You can never see the stars."
"Why not leave the city and move to like the country, a small town with only like fifty people and everyone is related and somehow married to their cousin?"
"Is that the kind of life you want when this case is over?" he asked laughing.
"It sounded better in my head."
"Really?"
"No."
"So what do you want to do when this is all over? You should be eighteen by then."
I opened my mouth to make another joke but I realized I didn't know what I wanted to do. I always thought I'd either never live long enough to see my eighteenth birthday or that I'd be stuck with my "family" forever. Death and entrapment were my only two options.
Now it felt like the weight of no knowing what I was going to do what crushing down on me.
Honestly, the farthest ahead I've ever thought involved Dimitri and me. Alone. The rest didn't matter. I was getting ahead of my self though.
"I don't know," I answered honestly. "I've never been on my own. I haven't really thought about it."
"You have you're whole life ahead of you to figure it out," he said sounding philosophic.
"Yeah but I need a plan for when I turn eighteen. I'll be too old for child services. I don't even know if this case will end well," I rambled over thinking it all. "How did you know what you wanted to do?"
"It was kind of decided for me. I told you I got into a lot of trouble with the law. This agent who kept picking me up after I did something made me a deal. He said "instead of breaking the law, why not enforce it" My mom saw this as an opportunity to for me to better my self and accepted on my behalf."
"And here you stand, a full fledged F.B.I. agent. I'd say your mom did a good thing by getting you involved with the police force," I complimented.
"I turned out well?" he asked.
"Better than well," I replied looking him over he caught my eye and smiled.
"You will too. You just need time. You're more than welcome to stay with me if you still don't know what you're going to do."
He sounded so sweet and sincere and his voice was so soft and smooth, especially with his slight Russian accent, I couldn't resist.
I leaned over and I pecked him on the cheek.
It was rough where stubble was already coming in but I didn't care. It felt good to make a move and finally kiss Dimitri. Of course I'd always imagined it on the lips but baby steps Rose, baby steps.
I pulled back slightly to see if it was okay I'd done this.
He stared down at me with those heavy brown eyes of his, his face unreadable.
"I'm sorry. I just-"
Dimitri leaned down and kissed me, cutting off whatever I was about to say. It was gentle and sweet…and surprising.
It caught me so off guard I didn't react to the kiss until a heart beat later.
Wow! What a night!