Stephanie descended the stairs dressed in a straight cream skirt and a filmy blue and cream flowered blouse. The evening was almost as warm as the day had been and she looked both cool and summery in the outfit. Tom was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs and he smiled at her as she approached him.
She watched him warily. “What are you so happy about?”
“Nothing, it’s just a nice evening to be out,” he replied, following her to the door.
“It’s work Tom, remember that,” she said, opening the door for them.
They arrived at the hotel and country club at ten o clock but the hotel seemed to be a lot less busy than it had been earlier. The restaurant manager met them at the door of the restaurant and asked for them to follow him.
“How does he know they are here waiting for us?” she asked Tom suspiciously.
Tom simply shrugged and slipped through the patio doors onto the terrace after the manager. Stephanie was surprised to see that they seemed to be the only people on the terrace and she turned with a frown to watch as Tom motioned for the manager to leave them.
“What’s going on?” she said, noticing that there was only one table on the terrace that was set for dinner. The table had been laid with a white tablecloth, silver cutlery and a single red rose in the centre.
“Where are Samantha and Jack Tom?” she asked, folding her arms crossly in front of her.
“Well you know, I think…” he began, taking her by the arm and urging her to sit at the table. She snatched her arm away and stood stubbornly on the spot. “I think that we must have missed them,” he finished.
“Really? You know what I think Tom? I think that you’re press-ganging me into a date with you,” she said angrily.
“I’m doing what?” he chuckled.
“Kidnapping me! Abducting me, call it what you will. Do you think I was born yesterday?” she exclaimed.
“No, I was with you all day yesterday,” he joked. Taking her by the hand, he attempted to seat her again but she refused to move.
“How could you bring me here under the pretence that Samantha would be here? You know how much I wanted to contact her,” she accused.
“Come on Steph, We will contact her I guarantee it. She probably just couldn’t answer the call today.”
She huffed. “Anyway, I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to date,” she pointed out as he took a seat at the table and proceeded to pour two glasses of wine from a bottle that was chilling in an ice bucket.
“I don’t remember agreeing to that. Besides, it’s not a date exactly,” he said, trying to appease her.
“Hmm, what is it then?” she came back, putting her hands on her hips.
“Err, well…it’s a pre date,” he announced.
“A what?” she frowned.
“Yeah, it’s a date before a date. Not really a date at all. And if you don’t like it you don’t even have to go on the proper date,” he smiled.
“You just made that up!”
“No I didn’t. It’s all the trend now,” he lied. “Everyone goes on a pre date first,” he said, trying not to laugh.
She tutted. “You talk such a load of rubbish Tom, you know that?”
“Stephie come on, sit down. You’re causing a commotion in the dining room in there,” he said, glancing through the patio doors. She followed his gaze and noticed a group of waiters stood looking out of the window at them.
“Fine,” she began, eventually taking a seat opposite him, “but this is not a date. If I don’t agree that it’s a date then it isn’t, okay?”
He held up his hands in surrender. “Okay!”
A waiter hesitantly emerged from the restaurant moments later and handed them a menu each. Tom took his menu and opened it up in front of his face, hiding momentarily behind it.
“Is it safe to come out yet?” he asked, peering over the top at her.
Much to her annoyance she could feel laughter building up inside of her then. “This is not funny,” she replied, contradicting herself by laughing as she spoke.
“It is just a little bit funny,” he grinned, passing her a glass of wine.
She took the glass and sipped the contents, trying as hard as she could to give him a disapproving look.
The waiter returned to take their order and left them alone to enjoy their wine.
“The view’s not bad here,” Tom commented, looking out across the lake. The grounds were subtly lit up with some well-positioned lights which sparkled in the distance and lit up the water in the foreground. A lone duck entered the lake and paddled out across its surface, sending ripples across the water in its wake.
“It’s very peaceful here,” she admitted..
“There’s something about looking out across the water that can’t be beaten. Why is that?” he asked, turning his attention back to her.
“I don’t know, but I know what you mean,” she replied, gazing back at the view. There was a short silence then before she turned her head to look at him again.
“For what it’s worth, and don’t go getting bigheaded about this,” she emphasised, “it was a good choice to seat us out here.”
His face lit up with a smile. “Well you know, first dates, I mean pre dates,” he corrected, “can be a bit tricky. You never know if you’re going to get everything right. But I figure I’ve got a head start with you because I know you already.”
“You don’t know everything about me Tom,” she said with a guarded expression.
“True, but that’s why I brought us here, so that I can get to know everything.” She thought about what he’d said for a while before taking another sip of her wine. “So I guess that you were brought up in places like these,” he said, breaking the silence.
“Yes, I spent a lot of my time in the countryside,” she admitted.
“It’s hard to imagine that, growing up in the city I mean.”
“Where did you grow up then?” she found herself asking.
“Belfast. Not quite as picturesque as here. Well, not the places that I spent time in anyway.”
“Oh yes, I wondered about your mother’s accent. You seem to have lost yours,” she observed.
“Well I’ve spent a lot of time in London now and I kind of found that it helped me to get ahead quicker if I dropped the accent,” he explained.
She shrugged. “That doesn’t seem fair, but I suppose you're right.”
“I often think about going back to Belfast,” he commented, taking a sip of his wine. “I guess no matter what happens people always want to return to their roots at some point in their lives. If only for a visit. But Ma has moved to London now too and I’ve lost touch with everyone I knew there.”
Stephanie went quiet for a while and she simply stared at him with an expression he couldn’t quite read. He felt a little on edge and spoke again in hope that the conversation would flow once more.
“I’d quite like to live in the countryside though. I bet that you must miss it at times.”
She smiled and began to speak, putting Tom more at ease. “Well it has it’s advantages but you know I always had a fascination for the city. I used to look out across the lights in the distance,” she said, instinctively returning her gaze to the lights in the gardens, “and I wanted to be out there. Where everything was happening,” she laughed, feeling slightly embarrassed about sharing that with him. His eyes softened as they moved over the profile of her averted face.
“You know, I suppose that Belfast isn’t so different from London really,” he said. Stephanie turned to him in surprise. “Well, in some ways it isn’t, but in other ways…I don’t know, it has a similar feel about it.”
“So do you think that you will make London your permanent home?” she asked, at last voicing what she had been keeping in.
He searched her eyes. “It already is.”
“So you’re not tempted to move back to your ‘roots’,” she quoted him.
Ah, now he understood what had been bothering her. His heart jolted at the realisation. “You know what,” he replied, smiling warmly at her, “at this moment, no, not at all.” His eyes clung to hers and he hoped that she had got the message that he was sending her. She gazed back and only looked away when the waiter returned with their first course.
“Did you visit London much when you were a child?” Tom asked when the waiter had disappeared back into the restaurant.
“Not much,” she replied, “but I did have a rather fantastic aunt who used to take me there sometimes. We would go to stay in one of the big hotels and she would take me out in the evening, allow me to drink champagne with her and stay up late with all her friends. I thought I was really grown up,” she laughed.
He smiled, trying to picture it. “I had an uncle like that. Only he introduced me to the pleasures of a good whiskey and a cigar. Gave me a few good tips on how to win over a woman too,” he added boldly.
“And did they work?”
“I’ll let you know,” he grinned. She raised an eyebrow and returned to her food, unable to stop the smile that spread across her face as she glanced down. He watched her and his grin grew.
The main course came and they spent most of it sharing stories and anecdotes from their past. Stephanie was surprised to find that despite their differing upbringings they had a considerable amount in common. They fell into easy conversation and Tom was engaging and entertaining as well as being attentive to her replies. Although the food was delicious, Stephanie seemed to taste little of it as she found herself taking more pleasure out of the conversations between herself and Tom. Finally desert was brought to them and Stephanie had to admit to herself that the evening had turned out considerably more enjoyable than she had anticipated.
“We’re on dessert already,” Tom observed, “and I still have a whole lot more questions I’d planned on asking you.”
“Planned?” she smiled.
“Yeah, you know the usual questions you should ask on a…pre date.”
She chuckled. “Go on then, ask away.”
“What’s your favourite food?”
“Err, apple pie and custard, oh and I am a little partial to a bit of chocolate every now and then,” she replied.
“Yeah? Home cooked comfort food then.”
“You sound surprised,” she pointed out. “Did you think I was going to say caviar and lobster or something?”
“Well…err…” he nodded.
She laughed. “What’s your favourite food then?”
He liked his lips with the thought of it. “Definitely my mother’s homemade Irish stew. It’s a secret recipe but I figure she could make millions if she ever sold it!”
Stephanie found herself smiling yet again; in fact she hadn’t been able to stop herself from smiling all through the meal.
“Next. Most embarrassing moment?” he continued.
“Disguising myself in an old mac and sunglasses springs to mind!” she replied.
He cringed. “Yeah. Moving on. Life changing moments?”
“My first job as a journalist I would say,” she replied. “You?”
He watched her intently then for a while, trying to decide whether to voice the immediate reply that entered his head. Putting down his spoon, he moved his chair to her side and she watched him with some reservations. He put his arm on the back of her chair, resting his hand lightly on her shoulder.
“Meeting you,” he finally replied. She looked suspiciously at him. “You don’t believe me? Listen Stephanie, despite what you think I don’t say things I don’t mean. Especially things like that! It isn’t easy for me to say how I feel, particularly to you.”
She looked surprised. “To me? Why?”
He hesitated for a moment before replying. “Because you’re so…special and…I don’t know, it daunts me sometimes.”
Her heart suddenly went out to him and her face filled with emotion then. He lifted his hand to gently brush her hair from her face.
“You’re so beautiful Stephie. I don’t think I’ve ever told you that have I?” She simply watched him, not trusting herself to speak. “I just keep coming back to you. Not that we don’t see each other all the time at work of course,” he continued clumsily, realising that he wasn’t expressing himself well. “But I don’t mean that, I mean…” she cut him off suddenly by putting a finger to his lips.
There was a moment then when they both looked at each other in surprise, all the more so in Stephanie’s case as she only realised what she intended to do seconds before she removed her finger and replaced it with her lips. She moved her head towards him slowly but with purpose, although their lips only met with the briefest of touches to begin with. He was so surprised by her action that it took him a couple of moments to react. After her lips lingered on his for a while however he reached up and ran his fingers through her hair, urging her not to move away. He moved back slightly then to look into her face before returning his lips to hers and tantalising her with a series of feather light kisses which left her whole body tingling with pleasure.
“You’re magic Stephie,” he murmured against her lips, “I’m so completely hooked.”
She suddenly wanted to be closer to him so she shifted her upper body to press it against his, bringing her mouth into full contact with his in the process. He’d never before felt as thrilled as he did then by her eager submission to him. She opened her mouth, hungry for more intimate contact, and he suddenly had the most divine experience of the warm, moistness of her mouth. He had to fight then to keep control of himself for fear of frightening her away or ruining the moment. He began a gentle exploration of her mouth, teasing and tasting, pulling away and then closing the gap to bring them even closer. A warmth began to spread between them then from one to the other; and when she eventually pulled back from him both of them were gasping for breath. As they sat there watching each other’s reactions a sudden realisation came across their faces. They both wanted each other equally. He could feel the heat emanating from her, just as she could feel it from him. The space between them seemed to crackle with electric energy and he no longer had any fears that this was a spur of the moment accident on her part.
“Come here,” he said, taking hold of her hand and pulling her towards his lap. She went to him without hesitation, sitting sideways across his legs and reaching out for him again. He wound his arms around her body and pulled her as close as he possibly could against him while they resumed the kiss. This time however neither of them was holding back and their mouths collided together, their lips sliding over each other’s in passionate abandon. Suddenly she lost track of where his hands were, they were all over her, in the same way that her’s were all over him. They couldn’t seem to get close enough to each other and when she felt his hands slide up her back, underneath her blouse, she was unable to stop herself from crying out for him.
“God damn it Stephie, you’ve got me shaking!” he exclaimed, tearing his mouth away from hers and fighting for breath. “I want you so damn much!” She watched him with a pained expression as she bit her lip and tried to clear her foggy head.
“I think I should sit back over there again,” she said eventually finding her voice.
He nodded. “I think that would be wise.”
She moved back to her chair but he didn’t let her put much space between them as he placed his arm back over her shoulder and rested his head against hers. They looked out across the lake together while he stroked the skin of her shoulder and upper arm.
"Would you like a coffee Stephie?" he asked suddenly. She shook her head, not wanting to interrupt the moment.
“I give you express permission to scold me severely if my hands happen to wander again,” he said, turning his head to watch her.
Stephanie laughed. “I think that would be a little hypocritical of me considering my behaviour during the last couple of minutes!”
“Hell! Don’t say that! You’re giving me ideas to start it all over again,” he exclaimed. “And I get the feeling that if I did, I’d wind up going a hell of a lot further right here on the terrace!”
She giggled. “I can’t imagine what kind of a commotion that would cause in the restaurant!”
He smiled and kissed her on the cheek. “Come on Cinderella, time to get you home.”
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