WntrDrgn

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Looking back at Daniel, I smile sunnily and tell him, “As for you, you’re coming with us. No arguments.”

Alla snorts and giggles at me. When I glance at her, she mouths, ‘Go get him if you want him.’

I smile at her even as I quirk an eyebrow and mouth, ‘Thank you.’ She winks at me and smiles. Turning back to look at him, I take his arm and begin to head to my car.

As we walk, he’s smiling, even if he does look a bit confused, then he says, “That’s fine with me, but where are we going?”

I grin mischievously at him. “You’ll find out when we get there.” I quirk an eyebrow at him. “Or, is a chance for us to get to know one another a little better not to your liking?”

He chuckles and shakes his head. “Andrea, I’d walk through a hurricane for a chance to get to know you.”

Oh my! He’s good. Damn good, because that just made my heart flutter. I know it’s probably just a line and I’m not foolish enough to believe otherwise, but damn! Making it to the car, he climbs into the back to, I assume, make it easier on me.

Alla drives us to Romano’s where we’re having the get together. Once we make it inside he holds my chair for me as I sit and then sits down beside me.

Of course, Mia looks at me with a questioning expression and I wave her over to me. She comes over and I quietly explain what happened with Chris, Daniel protecting me and that I invited Daniel.

She smiles, but it never reaches her eyes as she says, “Chris will be paying a rather heavy price for hurting you, even if it was unintentional.” She lightly pats my shoulder. “Have a good time tonight. Everyone is so happy that you’re back with us.”

I smile and reply, “Thank you. I’m glad to be back. Even though you all came to see me, it wasn’t quite the same.”

She nods and heads back to her seat beside Brittany. Then the waiter comes over and asks us what we’d like to drink. A happily smiling me gives him my order.

After he leaves, Daniel gently touches my arm and I look at him. “You know, you really shouldn’t do that to people.”

Confused, I ask, “Do what?”

Grinning, he says, “Captivate people like that. Didn’t you see how flustered he was?” Looking at him even more confused than before, he continues, “Oh, come on, Andie. You have to have at least an idea of the effect you have on the men around you.”

Truthfully, I haven’t really ever paid that much attention to it. I've been more about my friends and Alla than paying attention to the other people around me. “I captivated him?”

Disbelief shows in his expression for a second before he asks, “You truly never noticed?” I shake my head and he chuckles. “Andie, take a look at the men around you. Trust me, they damn sure notice you. You’re impossible to miss or ignore.”

Sure, I’m damn cute. I have no problem admitting that, but I captivate, dazzle, or whatever term you want to use, the men around me? Really? I slightly tilt my head and an impish grin forms as I ask, “Are you captivated by me?”

Before I have a chance to regret asking him that question aloud, he blushes slightly and replies, “Every single time I see you. Andie, you take my breath away and it’s not only because you’re beautiful.”

His reply echoes in my head endlessly as my heart flutters intensely. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the waiter picks that moment to come back with our drinks. My face burns intensely as I turn to take my drink from him and take a large sip to give myself some time to calm down.

Catching him staring at me out of the corner of my eye, I turn and ask, “What?”

He shrugs and grins at me. “You’re even more beautiful when you blush,” which only serves to make me blush that much harder and I pat my chest while taking some deep breaths to try to calm myself. He asks, “Are you alright?”

Once I’m a little calmer, I lean toward him, take his hand and murmur, “Daniel, you have to stop doing that to me. I’m not used to this kind of attention and it’s making me, uh, a bit out of sorts. Remember, it wasn’t all that long ago I was nothing but a wallflower that most everyone ignored. I don’t have any experience in how to deal with this.”

He says, “Andie,” and I touch his lips with my finger to cut him off. “Please, let me finish what I’m saying.” I take a breath and continue. “Daniel, you don’t have to flatter me or try to wow me. Nor do you have to try to impress me, you already did that earlier. Why do you think you are here with me? I never thought anyone would defend me like that other than my friends. So, please, do me the favor of just talking to me normally. Get to know me and let me get to know you. The real you, not the someone trying trying to impress a pretty girl, because if all you do is keep me flustered, then we’ll never be able to find out if this can go anywhere, alright?” He nods. I smile at him and say, “Good. Now, tell me about yourself.”

I won’t bore you with our rather long conversation, but I will say I love his sense of humor and what impressed me the most is when I’d talk he’d actually listen to me. He didn’t cut me off to tell some story of his own. I did find out he likes anime and we talked at length about that, manga and light novels. While he isn’t as into them as Alla and I are, his eyes almost sparkled when I mentioned that Alla and I cosplay and he said, “I’d definitely love to see you two in costume,” which made me giggle. I did agree to that as long as he went with us. As you can guess, he readily agreed.

Honestly, I had a great time tonight and it was a lot of fun getting to know more about him and in the end, I agreed to go on a date with him on Saturday.

Once Alla and I take him back to school to drop him off at his car, we step out. Pulling him down to me, I lightly kiss his cheek and murmur, “Goodnight Daniel, I had a lot of fun tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I climb back in and he shuts the door for me. I wave to him as Alla pulls off and we make our way back to my house. Looking over at her, I ask, “Are you upset with me?”

She glances at me and replies, “No. Why should I be, Andie? I told you to go ahead if you wanted to.”

“I know what you said.” Sighing loudly, I tell her, “I’m sorry.”

She stares at me for a moment before returning her attention to the highway. “For what?”

“Ignoring you tonight.”

“Andie…” She clears her throat. “I’m not going to say I wasn’t a little jealous, because I was. The thing is, I have to remind myself that you’ve never said anything when Brian would talk to me or take me away from you for a while.”

I shrug. “He’s your boyfriend. Whether in fact or in name only, he is and since that’s the case, he does have a claim to your attention. At least some of it anyway.”

“Exactly. Daniel, well, I saw the looks you two were giving each other tonight. Hell, I saw the look in your eyes when he stopped Chris from hurting you.”

Nodding, I say, “I’m sure you did… Alla, pull over.” She pulls the car onto the shoulder and stops. When she looks at me, I take her hand and continue, “I care about you a lot. I’d never want to hurt you, so tell me the truth, are you really alright with this?”

She takes a minute before she answers hesitantly, “I, umm, I’m not really sure. What I can say is that your happiness means a lot to me and I’d do just about anything to make that happen. I suppose what I’m trying to say is, if dating him will make you happy, I’ll support you.”

I squeeze her hand. “Thank you, but you do know I need you too, right? I don’t even know if anything will come of our date on Saturday. Alla, why don’t you ask Brian to come on a double date with us?”

“You know that he’ll probably be busy, but I’ll ask.”

“Good.” I lean over and kiss her, which quickly turns into a deep, sensuous kiss. When she finally breaks our kiss, I murmur, “Gawd, I love kissing you,” which makes her grin. Looking back to the road, she slips the car back into gear and gets back on the highway.

WntrDrgn

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