“How long until we get there?” I asked.I sat in the passenger seat of Jacob’s car with my eyelids shut and a smile on my face. All of the nice things he had been doing for me were starting to make me feel like a princess. I loved it, but I was still a little hesitant to get my hopes up completely. With everything I was already dealing with, like trying to find work and get on my own two feet, the last thing that I needed was to get my heart broken.“A couple of minutes,” he said. “No peeking, though, okay?”I tried to play detective and figure out what this surprise might be. He had said to dress casual, so I was wearing dark jeans with a white blouse. I'd worn comfortable shoes, even if they weren't truly tennis shoes. I really had no clue what to prepare for, though.“Can I guess where you’re taking me?” I asked. We'd transitioned from the paved road onto a dirt one, but I wasn't sure where we were yet. “Or is that not allowed?”“You can try, but you won’t be able to,” he said with
Jacob sat back on the blanket and grabbed the bottle of champagne, filling up the glasses. He handed me one of them and then held his in the air. We clinked them together. “To us.”“To us,” I repeated.We both took a sip and I couldn’t believe how good it was. “This is amazing. What kind of champagne is this?”“It’s Dom Perignon,” he said. “My favorite.”“I don’t know enough about champagne to really know what that means,” I said. The bubbles tickled my nose as I took a sip. “But I can say that I think I may have found my favorite, too.”“I hope you’re hungry,” he said, reaching over and opening the basket. “And I also hope you don’t mind that I’m not a very good cook.”I watched as he pulled out a bunch of grapes and then two sandwiches. In addition, he set out sliced cheese and crackers, some vegetables with ranch dressing and some barbecue chips. I noticed the picnic basket still had the price tag on it.“Wow, you went all out,” I said, with a smile. I pointed to the tag. “Did you
“Must be a Monster nearby,” he said, switching on the application. I shook my head at him, but pulled out my phone as well.As soon as I looked at the screen, I nearly dropped my phone in surprise. A Legazeus was nearby. Normally, this wouldn’t have meant a single thing to me. But Tommy had been talking about this particular Monster for weeks now, pretty much since the game came out.He said the Legazeus was one of the rarest Monsters. They only ever showed up in special places, and nobody ever knew when or where that will be. I remembered him saying that the last one to appear was in Central Park and caused a major traffic jam due to people stopping to catch it.“These are rare, right?” I asked, not believing what I was seeing on the screen.“Insanely rare,” he said. He grinned at me. “Let’s catch it.”We held up our phones and lined the camera up with the cartoon looking character. It looked like a Centaur. It jumped around on the screen as I attempted to catch it with the Monster C
After almost forty minutes, Jacob and I were finally able to get out of the craziness in the park. Luckily, Jacob had a tablet in his car, so we used the time to continue creating the imaginary updates for the game.I couldn't believe what the game was capable of. I hadn’t experienced anything like it in my life. One minute, we were enjoying a peaceful picnic and the next we were practically getting trampled over by a bunch of tweens and their parents, all in an effort to catch a rare Monster. I was still excited to tell Tommy about what had happened, but that was going to have to wait until I got back home. My date wasn’t over yet.“Thanks for agreeing to finish our date at my place,” Jacob said, as he pulled off of the highway. “I had no idea that was going to happen.”“How could you? That was crazy,” I said, as I reached over from the passenger seat and touched his arm. “I didn’t want the date to be cut short either, so this works out perfectly.”“I still can’t believe what happene
Jacob’s hands drifted down my thighs and landed on my rear. He pulled me upward, sliding me along his length once again. My body tingled with delight and heat started to surge .“Upstairs?” he asked.I nodded, unable to speak coherently.I wasn’t sure what in the heck had gotten into me. For the most part, I was a pretty shy girl. I’d have imagined that some boys would have even called me a prude, at least during the dates where I didn’t have sex. But Jacob was different. He had treated me like a princess in every encounter I had ever had with him.The connection we had was more than just sexual. I knew he was going to treat me right afterwards. I knew this wasn't going to be a one-night stand. This was just the beginning of a wonderful relationship. I felt safe with him.He sat up, and we crawled to our feet. Jacob placed on arm at my lower back and the other behind me knees, and then he lifted me from the ground in one swift movement. I giggled as I wrapped my arm around his neck to
The next morning, I sat at a table in the corner of the coffee shop while I waited for Caroline. Since I was on the opposite side of town, I’d called her only a few moments after getting home from Jacob’s apartment demanding we meet up soon. And she’d agreed without any hesitation.Besides, I knew she liked coffee shops and I knew she liked double shot espressos with caramel and almond milk. I’d already ordered her one and a vanilla mocha for myself. Her drink sat across the table and right in front of her chair in what I hoped would be an enticing sight, something like using a bone to call a dog. If nothing else I wanted to bring her mood to a level near mine, and for Caroline, coffee was always the answer.The coffee shop was bustling at nine-thirty in the morning and I appreciated being able to sit and wait contentedly. It was the beginning of a warm day without any fog that sometimes accompanied California mornings.Even the sun is in a good mood, I thought.Caroline wore a tight
The house was silent when I arrived home. Dad was at work, and Mom had left a note that she and Tommy were getting shoes for school. I had the house to myself.Well, almost to myself. Athena was still there. I heard her nails hit the floor as she jumped off the couch and ran to greet me. She danced around my ankles with the kind of smile that only a welcoming dog can achieve.“Were you on the couch?” I asked, lecturing her in tender baby-talk. “Were you sneaking in a little nap up there?”She pushed between my legs and circled back around without ever losing contact, her tail whipping from side to side.“You think you’re sneaky, but I bet if I go over there your beautiful gold fur will be all over it, huh?” I pet her head and loved on her for a moment. “You just leave too much evidence.”She followed me up the stairs and into my room.“Wanna come up?” I said, patting my bed. “Come on, come up.”Athena jumped onto my bed and circled once before plopping down onto one my pillows. I had
For the next four hours I watched episodes of House Hunters in the living room. I wanted something to take my mind off of things. Something that would keep me from obsessing over my job and what that meant about my future with Jacob.It was seven-thirty by the time my father, mother and Tommy all got home from dinner. I'd seen more houses on TV than I'd ever even been inside in real life.“Hey, Sweets,” my mom said, kissing the top of my head as she came in.“Hey, Mom,” I replied.“You thinking of buying a house in Boca Raton?” she said, stopping behind me and noting the setting of the episode I was watching.I faked a laugh, but otherwise ignored her comment. “Did you guys see a movie today?” I asked.“Yeah, your brother and I saw that new sci-fi one,” she said, her attention more on the show than answering the question. “The one with the robots.”“How was it?” I asked, not really caring what the answer was but making conversation anyway.“It was a little much for my taste, but ask y