I knew that it would get to this point. At some time or another, every relationship did.

With some women, it happened two hours into the first meeting … in which case I was running in the opposite direction. No two people needed to exchange life stories over the first cup of coffee or beer they ever ordered together.

And apparently, with Samantha, the time was now. It didn’t mean I wanted to get into all the personal stuff, who ever wanted to relive their fuck ups and sordid past, but for her … I’d make the exception. I don’t know if I’d ever been so ready to be forthcoming with a woman before.

I sighed, twining my fingers with hers as I started. “If we’re going to go there, I’m allowed to touch you. My last relationship, if you could call it that, was about six months ago. She was a local graduate student, we dated for a couple of months, nothing serious. She was too young, and I was too uninterested. It might not be what you want to hear, but there is the truth.”

I hesitate to look up, not wanting to see her reaction.

“Jake, look at me.” Her soft voice sounded from across the table, and I met her dark eyes. “I’m not doing this to shame you or get dirt, I just want to know where you’ve been. What your life has looked like, because I want to know you. Thank you for being honest with me.”

Nodding, I kind of saw her point. “Well then, since you want my past, it’s not a very storied one. I’ve dated … a lot, but nothing serious. A few months here or there, no next steps, nothing that ever made me want to pursue it into another level. I’ve focused on my business a lot, and just kind of went about life with the flow that I always have. It might sound stupid, but you’re really the first woman I’ve felt a real connection with, and I’m not just saying that because I’ve seen you naked. Although … goddamn, that was a fun experience. Samantha, I don’t know what to say … I just, there is something here. So there is the truth. I have no skeletons, sure I’ve probably been a jerk and dumped my fair share of wonderful women because I was an idiot, but I’ve never cheated. I’ve never been engaged or lived with a woman. I’ve slept with women, and that’s as far as I’ll go. But, I’m an open book. Because I like you. So if there is anything you’d ever like to know, just ask.”

I think a fly went into her mouth with how far down it was hanging. “How do you manage to do that? Take my expectations and blow them right out of the water?

“I get it right about seventy percent of the time. Don’t forget the zoo … that started off well until I crashed and burned.”

She smirked, squeezing my hand. “To be fair, Lennon did have quite the meltdown.”

I toyed with the napkin in my lap, trying to figure out how to ask my next question. “So now that you know about me … can you tell me a little bit about your past relationships?”

Her face contorts from one of teasing happiness to a far-away, masked loneliness. I know it won’t be easy, but we have to talk about it, like she said. I need to know what I’m getting into … because as I’d said, I did care about her. I was interested in pursuing this, much further than I’d ever thought about pursing anything with any other woman.

“It’s really only one relationship. Sure, I dated in the flirty, kind of teenage way before I met my ex, but before him it was nothing real. I met Derek when I was nineteen, at Madison in our sophomore year. He was … my first love. I loved him completely. After we graduated, I had no idea what I wanted to do, so when he was offered a job out in Seattle, I went with him. More like followed him, I guess. After we got out there, our relationship changed, even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself. I’m not sure what happened, but he just wasn’t … present, I guess. I hung in there, thinking that if we could only make it to him proposing, to a wedding, to something, then it would all be all right.”

A sad smile crosses her face, and I can feel the pain in her voice. I can see how ignored she felt, and I instantly want to slam my fist into this Derek guy’s jaw.

“I found my job at Mount Rainier and fell in love, so Seattle did give me something. Two things, actually. Two years into living out there, I got pregnant with Lennon. It was a massive surprise, but for a little at least, it seemed to bring Derek and I back together. He was supportive and excited, and I thought it was finally the thing that would make us a family. Except six months after she was born, as I was trying to juggle being a new mother and holding down a job and not going insane, he just checked out. Started talking about traveling to foreign countries, and spreading his wings. I really tried to make us work, it absolutely kills me that Lennon will have to grow up with two parents who were never married and are no longer together. But by her third birthday, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t sit in that house every night with a complete stranger. We didn’t love each other anymore, and I was doing more harm to my daughter staying with him. So I left.”

She shrugs, and it looks like she’s trying to shrug the heaviness of everything she’d been through off of her shoulders. Sadness comes off of her in waves, but there is something else there too. Relief? Freedom? Something resembling the two.

I take her hand, the one woven in mine, in my other hand, encasing it. “You made a really tough decision, but one that was better in the long run for you and Lennon. Thank you for telling me that … I know it wasn’t easy. Any man who doesn’t give you all of the love and attention you deserve, both you and Lennon, doesn’t deserve you. I’ve seen how you are with that little girl, and any man …”

I have to break off, because I feel myself getting angry. She’s not even my kid, hell I haven’t even spent that much time with her, but I saw how awesome she is. I have never understood how someone could bring a child into this world and not be completely enthralled with everything they did.

“Anyway, now that we got that off our plate, literally … what’s for dessert?” She smiled, her expression breaking up the invisible cobwebs of the past on her face.

She needed me to transition us. So I did. “And now we come to the most important part of the date, because it will determine the probability of me asking you out again … are you a chocolate cake or cheesecake kind of person?”

Samantha contemplated me for a second, our hands still holding on to the other. “You’re asking me out no matter what, let’s face it. But I’ll go with the cheesecake.”

I winked, loving her confidence. “A girl who knows what she wants and can order the right thing too, I knew I picked well.”

We finished up our dessert and then walked to the car, the night balmy. It was one of those perfect summer nights, one where I would have liked to take her to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to sit and watch the lights of the city. But I knew she had to get home, and the date had already been so damn near perfect I didn’t want to ruin it.

I drove her home, taking the time to get out of the car and follow her into the building.

“You don’t have to come up, it’s okay. You know you can’t come in …” She looks so beautiful as she timidly tries to let me down.

As much as I’d like to lift the skirt of her hot-as-fuck dress up and plunge into her in the middle of this lobby, I know why I can’t stay with her tonight.

“I’m a gentleman bringing you up to your front door, can’t I do that?” My motives were so not that pure, but I didn’t want to walk away just yet.

“Okay.” She wove her fingers through mine as we walked to the elevator.

We rode up in silence, our hands the only things connecting us. How badly did I want to push her up against the wall? So fucking badly that I had to bite my tongue to remain a good boy.

As we arrived on her floor, Samantha took her keys out of her purse and led me out, walking to her door just a few short steps from the elevator.

“Thank you for a really great date.” She turned to me, her chocolate eyes smiling contently.

I didn’t respond. Instead, I gently pushed her up against the wall, taking both sides of her face in my hands before I laid my lips on hers. I’d waited all fucking week to kiss her, to taste her, to feel her … and I was taking full advantage of this moment.

She had the most kissable mouth, soft and full with just a little bit of fight. I explored her lips lazily, tangling our tongues and plunging mine in deep, almost slowly fucking her mouth with my own. A small moan worked its way up her throat and into mine, and a sizzle of electricity held me by the balls. My fingers felt the smooth skin beneath them, itching to move south.

I broke off the deep, intimate connection and placed a kiss on the tip of her nose before moving away. I didn’t trust myself not to try and get her naked in the middle of this hallway.

“Good night, Samantha. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

She still stood there as I backed away, a little dazed as she watched me get back in the elevator.

Hell yeah, it was a really great date.