I googled date ideas.

It’s not really something I’ve thought about too much, other than your standard shit. Dinner…sex?

Mickey said we don’t need to do anything extra, and we can just hang out with each other.

Then she went and booked us for paintball yesterday because I mentioned it once when we were eating dinner this past weekend.

It was a kickass time, and I appreciated it so much. It was sexy as hell seeing her hunt down the other players too.

It was definitely hard to hold to the no sex promise that night.

We’re heading to Switzerland in a few days, but I want to plan something for her. Or just…I don’t know, I might not know what the hell I’m doing but I do know that one-sided stuff doesn’t last.

I’ve got enough to go up against, I don’t want to help along my own failure.

I’m learning that I’d be okay sitting at her feet and listening to her talk all day. It’s almost comical how quickly I went from telling myself I just wanted sex to settling into accepting that I want this to work.

I don’t want her to regret choosing me.

So I googled. And googled…and googled.

Only nothing said Mickey to me. Until I remembered when we were watching the 1969 Parent Trap and she said she liked older movies and black and white ones.

So, I figured, maybe she’d like to see one at a drive-in. Only…none of the ones within three hours were showing any.

I was going to say fuck it, then I remembered one of my teammates used to have a big movie night for his daughter every month and he used a gigantic screen in his house.

So, here we are.

“Can I take this blindfold off yet?” I’m leading her towards the front door of the house and Jack’s niece, who’s housesitting opens the door silently, stepping back for us.

I mouth thank you, and she mouthes back good luck with a thumbs-up sign, leaving quietly.

“No, you’re so impatient.” I tease, making my way through the house and stopping once we get to the basement stairs. “There are stairs so don’t rush.” We make it down without busting our asses and I turn the dimmer switch, bringing the lights up.

Fuck yeah, it’s exactly like I wanted it. There are twinkle lights hung from the ceiling because I wanted to have a starry effect since we couldn’t be under the stars.

The gigantic couch has heaps of pillows and blankets on it, basically the size of two or so king-sized beds together. I didn’t even know couches like this existed before I met Jack. A sofa pit or something.

I turn the lights back off and turn the dim string lights on, giving the room a subtle glow but not enough to interrupt the movie feeling.

I slide off Mickey’s blindfold and wait for her to say something.

I think I’m sweating a little bit.

This shit is nerve-wracking. How do people surprise people they like and do stuff all the time?

What if they hate it?

Since she’s still quiet, I figure she probably does. “I uh…I thought we could watch Casablanca. Or I read It Happened One Night was a good one, so I got that too.”

“You were listening when I mentioned old movies.”

“I’m always listening to you.” I murmur, running a hand over the back of my neck. “Do you want to? We don’t have to, I just thought…”

She turns around and grabs my hand, pulling me towards the couch. She scoots back on it, hair bigger and wilder than it started out this morning.

“Casablanca, please.” She grins. “Then get your ass over here and cuddle with me.”

I close my eyes and breathe out hard. Thank god. Guess I’m not total shit at this after all.

* * *

I last an impressive forty minutes or so before I start getting restless.

She’s all warm skin and her hair smells like honeysuckles, body pressed against my dick under the blankets, and I’m only a man.

The movie is good though. Just not good enough to completely distract me from her.

I’m propped up on some fluffy pillows and she’s sitting in between my legs, leaning back against my shoulder.

I trail my nose up the column of her neck, just breathing in her warm smell. She’s put her hair up in a bun and I’m finding her neck is a favorite spot for me.

“I wondered how long you’d be able to behave.” She shifts and it causes her to rub against my hard cock and I groan. “Your friend gave you away twenty minutes ago.”

“And you let me sit here in torture?”

“I love Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart has some funny as hell one-liners, and he has the whole internal conflict thing going on.”

“So this man is more important than me? Wow, I’m glad I know where we stand.” I scoop her and toss her to a different area to the couch and she shrieks, turning to me with her mouth open.

“That was so rude.”

“Was it?” I reach my arm behind me subtly and pinch the edge of one of the pillows. When she turns to settle into the couch again, I grab it fully and whack her with it.

Medium force though, since she wasn’t paying attention.

Somehow, the band she used to put her hair in a bun snaps and her hair halos around her head so quickly that it makes me crack up.

I’m still laughing until she smacks me in the face with a pillow.

“Oh, it’s war now.”

She ducks to the side as I swing another pillow at her and swings back, diving for my torso. It’s ridiculous how big this couch is.

We’re laughing and breathing hard and Casablanca is still playing.

After she gets me full on in the face for the fourth time, I decide it’s time to take her down. I toss my pillow aside and hook an arm around her legs, pulling them out from under her and putting her under me.

She looks up at me, still laughing, hair spread out haphazardly around her and in her face. We’d been laughing so hard that her mascara is smeared so she’s got these small dark streaks around her eyes.

My heart gets caught in my chest.

“What?” She giggles, green eyes sparkling. So different from that first night when she was crying over Hawk.

“Don’t leave me.” The words fly out before I have time to think about them and I close my eyes, cursing my own insecurities.

Good going self, an insecure man is so attractive.

She stops laughing. “What made you say that?”

I shrug, wishing I could disappear. Now isn’t really the time I want to get into the mental hell I was in last year. I’m better now, but when thoughts like that cross my mind, it’s a vivid reminder of how powerless and worthless I felt.

“Liam.” She strokes my face gently, making me look at her. “How am I supposed to get to know you if you don’t tell me the uncomfortable stuff too?”

“Let’s go with a surface level relationship, I like those.” I lean back on my knees, rubbing my chest. She raises up on her elbows and shakes her hair out of her face, giving me an unimpressed look.

“Why’d you leave football?”

Damn, she had to ask the one question that’s connected. Too damn perceptive.

“Can I choose a new category, Alex?”

“Nope.” She pops the p, rising up on her knees and pushing my chest hard so that I tip backward. I hit the tangled pillows and blankets, a little shocked.

“What the hell was—,” I decide to stop talking as she climbs over me, straddling my stomach. “Well shit, all you had to do was ask…”

“I’ve been thinking about what it’d be like when I finally feel you inside of me. What those first few inches will feel like, how much I can’t wait to feel your tongue on my clit, I mean - I’ve been wanting to just say scrap the waiting and it’s only been a week.”

I think my eyes are bugging out of my head.

“So, I would appreciate it if you’d drop the guard so we can get there quicker.” She shifts on top of me and I scowl.

“Me? What about you? I don’t hear you sharing any deep dark shit.”

“So it’s a serious reason then?” She narrows her eyes, and I roll mine, putting my hands underneath my head and staring at the lights on the ceiling.

“Alright. If this is what you want to spend our time on today.”

“We don’t have to. I obviously don’t want to force you to share if you’re not comfortable…but it would mean a lot to me if you wanted to tell me.” She smiles guiltily.

I’m learning I don’t want to say no to this woman, and that’s scary too.