Authors: Lilian Carmine
“Really?” Bradley said, and then paused thoughtfully to weigh up his options. “I hadn’t heard that. Well, in that case, I’ll have to put you on hold for a while, Gray. You’re a babe, but Caroline is smoking hot! I think I’ll have another go at her, then!” he stated with a clever smirk.
“You do that. I’ll be waiting here, holding my breath, Bradley,” I said, but he didn’t seem to catch the sarcasm.
“All right, then, Gray. If things don’t go well with Caroline, you’re next in line!” He gave me a cheeky wink that made me feel slightly nauseated, and then he sauntered away. I practically ran to the cafeteria after that; I didn’t want to bump into anyone else in the hallway.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The Date
The rest of the week passed by in a crazy haze. Tristan announced he was going to take me on a proper date and I decided to focus all my attention on that instead of dwelling on my impending meeting with Death … Sky. Tristan had been walking around with a smirk at the corner of his mouth during the whole week too. I could tell he had a wicked plan in motion, and I was dying to figure out what it was. I knew it had something to do with our date on Friday. I’d tried to fish for information whenever I got the chance, but Tristan just chuckled at my curiosity.
I tried tackling Seth, sure that Tristan must have confided his plans to him for sure. Seth hazarded a guess that Tristan was probably going to take me to the same fancy restaurant in Saint Pete where he’d his first date with Tiffany.
Friday came and at six p.m. I started getting ready for my date. I took my shower thinking about the evening to come. I was a little disappointed by Tristan’s plans, to tell you the truth. Posh dinners meant uncomfortable clothes to me, and painful high heels, and awkwardness because I didn’t know how to behave in such top-notch places. I know most guys think that an ideal date for girls means expensive dinners and red roses, but that was such a cliché and not like me at all! Well, Tristan was just trying to do his best, I guess, and I had to remember he came from a different time. I better master my fake-surprised face and appreciate the date. He was going to all this trouble because of me, and the least I could do was enjoy the evening with him, right?
He was going to be there and that was the important part; that was all that mattered to me. It was my first official date with the boy of my dreams, after all. I was heading to my wardrobe to select a suitable outfit when Tristan walked into the room, all cheerful and bustling with eagerness.
He was wearing my favorite blue T-shirt, and jeans that hugged his body in all the right places. “Hey, my tangerine girl!” he cheered and walked over, wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing me deeply. “I’ve missed you!” he said, putting me back down on the floor after the kiss.
“You’re the one who kept disappearing all day long, mister!” I scoffed, and then added hurriedly, “You’re early, you know, I’m not dressed yet!”
“Of course you’re dressed, Joey. See? These are clothes,” he said, pulling the hem of my T-shirt to demonstrate the obvious. “Oh, I see! You’re talking about getting dressed for the date!” He faked like he had forgotten all about it and laughed at my annoyed face. “First I need you to come with me! You can get dressed after that. Come on!” he said, pushing me out of the room.
Tristan grabbed my hand and walked with me quickly down the hallways until we were outside the school.
“Tris, were the hell are we going?” I whispered, while he glanced around to see if there was anyone watching us.
“I wanted to talk to you, you know, in private. Our room is Seth’s room too,” he explained, stopping to look at me “That small terrace you brought me to the night of the dance was around here somewhere, right? Can we go there for a little bit? To talk?”
I tensed up immediately at the mention of the secret terrace. The memory of that night was still fresh in my head, and the “talk” we’d had then had been the most painful one I have ever had in my life. I didn’t want to re-live any of that, ever again. I looked at him suspiciously and nervously, but I saw nothing but happiness shining inside his eyes. “What sort of talk?” I asked worriedly.
“Yeah, just, you know … talk … a little,” he said, leaning against me in such a provocative sexy way I almost tackled him right there in front of everyone. And I realized he was so lying with his “talk” excuse! His eyes totally betrayed him! He wanted to do other private things with me than talk!
I smirked at him, amused. Well, now I understood the sudden need for a secluded private place. All week long we had been busy with school and band rehearsals. And Seth was often in the room, and sometimes Tiffany, Harry, Josh and Sammy were around. Given our date was going to be in a restaurant full of people, we certainly wouldn’t have any privacy there for sure. We might as well enjoy this couple of hours alone while we could, right?
“Come on,” I said, pulling him by the hand in the direction of the small hidden iron door by the side of the school building. Harry’s secret terrace was saving the day, I thought, smiling to myself. I got to the top of the stairs in a few seconds and opened the iron door with a small push, stumbling on to the terrace out of breath. And then I gasped in shock. The place had been transformed!
There were two blankets put together in the middle of the terrace, and a picnic basket placed right by its side. A couple of candles lay in the middle, with a little vase filled with white lilies next to them. A small boom box had been placed in the corner of the terrace, with Tristan’s guitar case by its side. There was also a big backpack resting in another corner.
The sun was setting, giving the place an eerie, magical look, helped by the edges of the terrace being lit by hundreds of small tea-light candles. I was so surprised I couldn’t even speak! I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. Tristan wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my shoulder.
“Did I manage to surprise you?” he said quietly by my ear. “It’s a tricky thing to accomplish with a girl that can read your thoughts with a quick glance into your eyes.”
“I-I-Y-you … yes!” was all I could reply. So that was why he had been avoiding me all day long!
“Good,” he said, chuckling, satisfied with my reaction. Then he placed a soft kiss on my neck, and another one higher up, below my ear, making me shiver lightly.
“But … but … what about the posh restaurant thing?” I asked, completely confused. He laughed, making me want to melt right there on the spot. “I never said I was going to take you to any fancy restaurant,” he said with a chuckle. “I know your idea of a good time does not include putting on uncomfortable clothes and spending time in a formal setting with so many people around. You’d hate a date like that so much!” he said, and led me to sit on the blanket.
The terrace was getting darker by the minute; the sun had already disappeared behind the horizon but the candles glowed so beautifully on the terrace, bathing a soft warm yellow light over the lilies at the centre.
“How did you know lilies are my favorite flowers?” I asked, surprised again.
“Well, it doesn’t take a mastermind to figure that one out! You always make us stop by the garden next to the auditorium, on the lilies patch. I assumed you liked them,” he said, laughter lines playing around his beautiful gray eyes.
“Yeah, I love them. They are beautiful.” I looked at the small cluster of white lilies, nested nicely in front of me. “They have the most amazing scent.”
He gave me one of those quiet, sexy smiles of his again. Then he leaned in and kissed me slowly. “Hmm, tangerine,” he whispered teasingly. I was wearing my tangerine lip-gloss, and the smoldering tone in his voice told me he liked it, making me feel giddy.
“Speaking of which,” he said, pulling away to stand up and grab his guitar. He sat again, this time in front of me, and patted a place next to him for me to sit. Then he placed the guitar on his lap, strumming a little on it. “This is a song from back in the days, you know, when I was alive. I don’t think you know it, but I really like this song. It makes me think of you, so I thought I should sing it for you tonight,” he said and starting playing.
It was a song about summer, and love and the scent of tangerines in the air. It was a really sweet old song. This was the best date ever! I couldn’t believe I got to have a private musical performance from Tristan. His voice was so amazing; it was raspy, low and a little sad, and so damn sexy!
When he’d finished singing I took his guitar from his hands, putting it to one side, and kissed him like it was our last chance to kiss on Earth!
“Wow, I should sing for you more often!” he said with a cheeky smile when we finally parted for breath.
“You would always get this kind of response from me if you did!” I said, laughing at his slightly flustered face.
“Well, I’ll keep that always in mind, Miss Gray!” He winked and then grabbed the basket by his side. “Now, let’s dig in to the main course, madam,” he said, pulling a bunch of stuff out of the picnic basket. He took out a bottle of wine and two glasses. Then some sandwiches and many assorted foods including chocolates and candies. I chuckled at his food choices.
“I have been talking the whole week with the cafeteria lady. Susie. I told her I was trying to win a girl over, and Susie was thrilled to hear all about it. Apparently, she is a huge sucker for romantic stories. She got me the wine and glasses because I told her it was a very special occasion,” he said, pointing to the bottle. “She was dying to know who the girl was,” he confessed with a chuckle.
“This is the best dinner ever!” I said, taking another big bite out of my sandwich as I listened to his story. “Thank you so much for not taking me to a posh restaurant!”
He laughed hard. “Yes, who wants a five-star restaurant if you can have fast food sandwiches instead!” He shook his head at my silliness. “I’m glad, though, because if you did like expensive meals, I would be at a loss! I don’t know how to act in posh places either,” he said, smiling and pouring us some wine.
“This is perfect, Tris. I love it.”
We ate for a while and drank our wine, talking excitedly about our new songs, and the band. We purposefully avoided any topics like Sky or the New Year deadline Tristan was under. By some unspoken agreement we had decided tonight was a time to be happy, to be together, to enjoy life to its fullest. Tristan had put his guitar back in its case and had turned the boom box on, but very low so we wouldn’t attract any attention to the terrace. But it was nice having low, soft music in the background while we talked. Then the song that we’d danced to on the night of the Spring Ball started playing, and after a few seconds Tristan recognized the music.
He stood up, pulling me into his arms, and started slow-dancing with me. When we had first danced to this song we had been fighting. Now I was in heaven.
“This is how that dance was supposed to be,” he whispered as he pulled me close against him. “I ruined it that night but it’s never too late to right a wrong, is it?” he said, and leaned in, kissing up and down my neck.
I was glad he was holding me tight against him, otherwise my legs would have given up on me. I was melting in his arms and I felt slightly dizzy. And I’d only had one glass of wine. His mouth left my neck for a while, and he gently brushed his lips against my cheek. His lips felt like they were pure scorching fire, pinpricks of heat burning my skin wherever they touched me. My lips eagerly searched for his and when I found them, I kissed him madly and forgot about the world.
“Joey, we should slow down, I’m barely managing to control myself here,” he warned in his incredibly sexy voice. “I promised I was going to treat you right on this date, and you’re making me seriously consider breaking my word, here.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, stepping away from him, giggling a little. “Come on, sit down with me,” I compromised. We watched the sky in a comfortable silence for a while, each of us deep in our own private thoughts. He linked his hand with mine and intertwined our fingers. This was one of the things I loved the most about being with Tristan. We could be together for longs periods of time without feeling the need to speak.
Finally it was getting late so Tristan started packing up all his stuff. He turned the music off, put the candles away and the rest of the food back in the basket. I guess my amazing date was coming to an end. It had been magical. I’d loved every second of it.
“This was the best date I have ever had,” I told him.
“I’m glad you liked it, Joey,” he said truthfully.
“Like it? I loved it! I wish it could never end …”
He smiled and remained silent, gazing at the sky with me.
“It’s getting really late, we should head back to our room,” he said reluctantly at last.
“Can we just stay here for a little while more?” I asked softly. He just smiled his sexy smile again and lay down beside me. It was such a beautiful, warm night.
“You know,” he said slowly, “life with you is full of possibilities. I think you’re extraordinary. And you are so beautiful, but you don’t know it, which makes you even more stunning. You’re strong, and brave, but sweet and kind at the same time. And you never cease to amaze me,” he said before lapsing into thoughtful silence again.
But I decided it wasn’t the time for words in any case; it was time for action.
“Okay, Tristan. Take off your clothes,” I commanded firmly. He chuckled, thinking I was just joking around. “I’m not kidding. Start stripping, mister,” I repeated seriously. “I have no words to tell you how I feel, so I’m going to show you.”
He smirked, still thinking I was joking. I had to prove to him I was serious so I lunged at him and kissed him like he was the last drop of water in the middle of a scorching hot desert. My hands were everywhere on him and I couldn’t get enough of how good he felt under my fingers. He kissed me back with so much hunger that we both had to part after a few minutes, gasping desperately for air.
“Can you, please, take your clothes off now?” I asked, laughing at his ragged breathing. His shirt was off before I could finish the sentence. I laughed even more at his speed and readiness. I took my top off too, and started kissing him back. In a few seconds we were both naked. This time we didn’t rush things as we had our first time together. This time we weren’t fighting or angry. This time was sweet and loving.