Four.
He did the right thing. Right? He did what he had to. He had to do it. He had no choice. He couldn’t fake through his life anymore. There was only one thing that was real to him, and he had to chase that. He had waited so long for that, and he wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way. He shouldn’t feel guilty about giving himself a chance to fall in love.
Okay, well maybe he should feel guilty for leaving Karen stranded at a water fountain in New York City without a ride back to Scranton.
But that didn’t matter. She’d figure out a way back, she was a smart woman.
He was still trying to justify himself as he rang her doorbell, hoping that she would give him a reason to let him know it was all worth it. All the waiting, all the heartbreak, all the nothingness of his life up to this moment would all be worth it. As she opened the door smiling, radiating actually, he knew it was all worth it.
He practically dropped the flowers as he gave her the once-over. He handed them to her, hands shaking, as her fragile arms and freshly manicured hands reached out to accept them. She welcomed him inside as she fixed a vase for the beautiful assortment that he had agonized for hours to choose. He went for the most expensive bouquet they offered—roses, daisies, tulips, and tiger lilies. His roommate told him he was coming on too strong, but he didn’t care.
“Jim, these are beautiful!” she said happily, in pure joy that this moment had finally come for them.
“You’re beautiful,” he said so quickly that he didn’t have time to question whether or not it was corny. But seriously. He looked at her again, auburn curls falling softly at her shoulder, pinned back by a rhinestone beret to reveal the diamond stud earrings that sat on her soft lobes. Her face, accentuated by the shimmering highlights of her eye shadow, as he cheeks glowed and complemented the pale red matte of her lips. She wore a sleeveless black dress, falling just above her knees and the neckline plunging to where the crevice of her cleavage just began. It cinched at her waist, emphasizes her small frame, but hung modestly over her hips. As she reached up to her cabinet to grab a vase, he noticed how perfectly the dress clung to the swells of her ass, and he thought for a second that he was going to pounce on her and they wouldn’t even make it to dinner. She walked with the vase and flowers in hand to the sink, as he got to see the full outfit in his glory. Red heels. Wow.
“Beesly..are you trying to kill me? I mean, really. How can you wear that and expect me to make it out to dinner?”
She laughed the nervous first date laugh. “I can change if you want.”
“No. I don’t want. You look…amazing. Ravishing. Stunning. Perfect.”
She walked over to him and stood on the tips of her heels to plant a light kiss on his cheeks. He felt lightheaded from the touch, and held on to the edge of the counter for support.
“You can look at me later. Come on, we have reservations,” she said, winking at him suggestively. “Where are you taking me by the way, anyway?”
“That is one secret I’ll never tell.”
“Well if that’s your only secret, then I feel pretty bad for you because I’m about to find out in probably ten minutes.”
He laughed.
“No, I have more secrets. I’ll tell you them all tonight,” he told her as he opened the door to the car and lowered her in.
He stepped around to his side, and pulled out of her driveway heading in a familiar direction as she blurted out names of restaurants that she thought he might be taking her.
“Il Tradito? La Famiglia? The Kitchen? Mario’s? Kotobuki? Meson Ole? Can you at least give me the type of food? It would narrow down the guessing.”
“Hmm… let’s see..the type of food….well, I would have to say that the type of food…”
He rambled on, not really saying anything, just keeping her gaze locked on his so she wouldn’t notice that they had actually pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. She looked up at he saw a familiar smile grow across her face.
“Cugino’s! How could I not have guessed Cugino’s!”
He turned off the car and looked at her happiness with a satisfaction, glad to see that he was the one who made her smile now. “Do you remember Cugino’s”
“Of course I remember Cugino’s.”
“You know, some would call Cugino’s our first date.”
“Well, it is now.”
“So you’re saying that the last time we went to Cugino’s was nothing?”
“Oh stop. Of course it was something. But now it’s even more, it’s our first real date.”
“What was it back then?”
She paused before she opened her lips to say something that was momentous for both of them. “The day that I realized that Roy might not be The One for me.”
Jim felt the words inside him, he literally felt them flowing through his bloodstream. And his blood was flowing, too, out of his head and straight to his lips and possibly other places. He lifted his hand to her chin and tilted her towards him as he leaned in to meet her lips. She moved her lips at his lead, wanting more, wanting more of his tongue and more of him, but he pulled away. He could see the look of disappointment in her eyes, and decided to show her the only reason he pulled away.
“So I figured as long as you were going to tell that secret, I might as well tell one of my own.”
Her disappointment faded to intrigue. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. So you remember all the times we would practice driving stick shift?”
“Obviously! How could I forget?! That was like, a whole year of my life!”
“Yeah. I’ve been driving stick shift since high school.”
She put her hand over her mouth and could feel her eyes watering up as she consciously blinked back the tears, not wanting to ruin her eye makeup but more importantly not wanting to ruin this moment. He pulled her hand away from her mouth and kissed her again, this time not pulling away, not ever wanting to pull away.
They were two hours late for their dinner reservation.
Chapter End Notes:
inspiration for the whole stick-shift thing from his wedding speech! i know this wasn't how he revealed it, but hey, it's fanfic right!
