He blushed as she addressed him that way but didn't correct her as she spoke so fast. The dark-haired woman practically flung him into the house. In the light he was able to see that she definitely was not related to Catherine. She had softer eyes that were brown and her hair was dyed a dark blue that resembled black.
Along with this her body type wasn't the same being much bigger, with proper thick thighs and hips. To top it all off she didn't have the pointy ears Catherine did. Her ears did protrude out from behind her hair but were more circular. Still, something about them left Alexander feeling weird. But he ignored that feeling as he had his bag taken by the talkative girl and sat down on a wicker basket chair. It was kind of uncomfortable for his back but he kept his mouth shut.
“Catherine's still getting ready so you'll have to wait out here. I'm her friend Rachel by the way.” She held out a bangle clad arm and he shook her hand to find their half palm was rather scarred. Once he pulled back she noticed that he was looking at it and sighed.
Rachel held out both her hands for him to see. They looked like they had burned and healed repeatedly making him wince. “Yeah, sorry for not warning you. I'm super clumsy and end up injuring myself alot.”
He did a double take as he realized just how bad the scars were. “How did you injure yourself? Was it the same way or different?” He knew it was awfully rude to ask a stranger something so personal but he had to know. It must have hurt a lot for her to go through, especially if she had been a child at the time it was happening.
She flexed them, one or two fingers moving noticeably slower than the others as she bawled her hands into fists. They sat atop her knees as she thought about what to say before answering. “I got injured by silver.”
“Silver?” Alexander stared at her unsure of what he just heard. He expected her to say something like a hot stove or a terrible allergic reaction. But for her to say that something as simple as silver caused her hands to become disfigured had him utterly at a loss for words. “How di–”
Their conversation was interrupted by a door slamming open. He turned to look behind him and was met with Catherine's angry face. But her rage wasn't directed at him but instead Rachel. The blonde was eyeing her with a look that he couldn't read very well. Whatever the reason was behind the tension was evident to the dark-haired woman who huffed.
She made a show of getting out of her seat and pushed her chair in loudly against the table they were seated. The chair's legs scraped on the floor as she finished and gave him a smile. Alexander didn't give her one back as he could tell that Rachel was doing it to anger Catherine some more. She deflated when neither bit her bait and scurried into the back of the house. A bedroom door slammed behind her leaving an awkward silence.
Catherine sighed, her anger deflating as she quickly became embarrassed. She hurried over to him but didn't sit down instead standing in front of him. It was obvious she had still been getting ready for their date with her face makeup free. Alexander noticed now that she had some scarring that resembled Rachel's hands on her lower, left cheek. It was just as severe in its thickness and had to be old. She noticed him looking at it and turned away, moving her hand to cover it.
The man felt like the biggest piece of shit after that, not realizing just how rude he came off. He had to have been staring at her for a while and she looked like she was about to cry. The gifts and the date were forgotten as he stood up rather loudly, his seat thundering onto the floor behind him from the sheer force. He made his way over to Catherine and saw just how upset she was. Whatever her issue was Rachel, it had shaken her quite a bit and his actions hadn't helped.
“I apologize for looking at you like that. I promise I don't think of you any different than I did yesterday or last week. I'm just an idiot who assumed that you were okay with me talking to her. And a dumbass for staring at you like that. I'm sorry Catherine.” Alexander apologized earnestly, his heart beating rapidly as she remained silent. He didn't know if she was about to yell at him to get out or to sit back down.
Eventually, she just looked at him with her eyes becoming watery. “It's fine. I guess I mislead you about my appearance this entire time and didn't want you to see my real face. Or meet my annoying friends.” Alluding to Rachel caused them to both hear her stomping around in whatever room she had whole herself into to have a tantrum.
Alexander tried not to judge the other woman too harshly but her behavior was obviously hurting Catherine. And that made what little opinion of her he had developed sour. “It's fine. We all have friends or family that aren't the best with strangers. I know from experience.”
“Besides,” He moved to grab her hand and she hesitantly accepted his offering, clenching his back. “I'm not going to stop seeing you and hanging out because you have some scars. I'd be a massive prick to do so and you'd be better off without me if that's the case.”
She laughed so hard that she snorted, her cheeks turning pink. “Yeah, you're right about that.” Her hand felt so delicate in his that he honestly wished that they could stay like that forever. “I'm happy you came. Some guys have ghosted me in the past so I was really nervous.”
Hearing this made Alexander feel anger at the men of Catherine's past. The guys who had used her for their own egos and threw her away. It was so shitty for her to have gone through and he never wanted to make her feel disposable while being with him. The woman he knew was kind and spoke highly of everyone she cared about or ever loved. Even now she was burying her hurt to try and make him feel more comfortable.
To meet someone so selfless really made his love for her blow up. Like, he could feel his own cheeks burning as he wondered if she felt the same for him. And if they could actually develop a romantic relationship with another after this. He really hoped they could because he was falling for her and he was terrified of getting heart broken into pieces. Catherine noticed that he was dew in thought and used her free hand to book his nose. This broke all the tension and made the two laugh.
“You had an odd look in your eyes so I just had to.” She said cheekily as she got up, letting go of his hand only to grab a bag. His gift bag. Catherine looked at it with avid interest. “Is this all for me? Alexander you're such a charmer I swear you want me wrapped around your finger don't you?”
He rubbed the back of his sheepishly. “Well, you invited me to dinner so I wanted to bring you something great as a thank you. I hope you like it.” He watched her look through the bag contents with interest.
Catherine ooed and awed as she pulled out each present individually. He had spent an entire week's worth of pay on her with the perfumes being incredibly expensive. The man had marched straight to Sephora to get her their latest fragrances and anything the cheerful sales clerk helping him recommended. It appeared the employee had good taste as Catherine's eyes grew as wise as saucers as she recognized what he had gotten.
Along with perfume she had gotten video game merchandise he could afford. Games that she had mentioned in some texts they had that he never heard of. It really showed him that the blonde was probably into gaming more than he was. She squealed holding up games that had only been released in their countries and never even been localized. He figured she could understand them due to her love of learning languages.
The bilingual woman practically launched herself at him, pulling him up against her chest as she squeezed him into a tight hug. She swayed back and forth as she thanked him loudly. “Thank you thank you thank you Alexander oh my God how did you even find these?!” The rest was in what had to be a foreign language as he couldn't understand her at all.
She was excited that her ears were even moving. His eyes grew wide as he saw them moving up and down in a way that reminded him of a dog's. It was honestly super adorable, endearing the woman some more to him. He coughed as she gave him one final squeeze that was a tad too hard and let him go. Catherine had a sparkle in her eyes as she sat the bag down on the table and handed him one of the games. It was one of the rare games he had gotten, a visual novel from back when the genre was first starting to be localized. She was holding it up at him like it was the holy grail, her face full of happiness as she told him her feelings. Her voice was still the same amount of roughness from their date but her glee shined through.
“I don't know what to say, this has to be the sweetest gift I have ever gotten. Alexander I don't know how I can ever repay you for all of this. I've seen listings online and they aren't cheap. You have to have paid so much to get them today, thank you so much.” Catherine blushed as she finished and waited for him to say something. Anything really.
He didn't really know what possessed him at this point. Maybe it was the blonde smiling at him with so much joy. Or her big speech thanking him for getting her something she always wanted. It could have just been that the time they spent together really made him happy. Who knows, what he did know was that his heart was racing and his palms were sweaty.
His body moved in autopilot with him having to be bent down due to their height difference. Before she could react he gave her a quick but purposeful kiss on the lips. Her lips were just as soft as every other part of her and tasted like cherry lip balm. She was looking at him with shock and he looked right back at her just as shocked. Alexander moved back almost immediately to see her staring at him. She blinked. Wiped at her mouth and just stared at him.
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