LISA

“DAMN, WHY AM I SO NERVOUS AND WHY ISNT THIS DRESS FITTING.” I have been trying to zip it up for the past few minutes, but the more I pulled it up, the tighter the dress felt, squeezing the air out of me.

“I don’t know. Maybe you need to just give up on the dress and choose something else.” Jamie said. She came over to show her support while the babysitter took care of Carlie downstairs.

“I can’t just give up on the dress, it’s my lucky dress!”

“Or you get lucky in a dress.” she snickered.

“Right. Get out of here.” I tossed a pillow at her.

“Why are you trying to wear your lucky dress? You’re not supposed to try and impress the guy you hate.”

“True, but wasn’t the point of this date from hell is to get him to fall for me long enough to leave you alone? For me to do that, I have to blow his mind.”

“Or blow something else.” Jamie snickers again.

“Oh, knock it off.” I roll my eyes.

“Just wear your go-to black dress. I think you look great it in it and so will he.”

“I guess I could do that. I better hurry up, he’ll be here in twenty minutes.”

True to his word, Callum showed up right on time. The doorbell chimed at precisely 8 o’clock.

He didn’t miss a beat, did he?

“Shit he’s here.” I panicked. I heard the babysitter open the front door and greet Callum. The conversations were too muffled so I couldn’t listen to what they were saying to each other.

“Want me to go down there and keep tabs on him?” Jamie suggested.

“No, it’s okay. I’m ready I think. How do I look?” I asked nervously.

“Like he doesn’t know what’ll hit him.” she beamed.

“Wait, is that a good thing?”

“Yes, now go! I’ll be right behind you.”

“Okay.” I exhaled as I braced myself. “Let’s do this.”

I picked up my clutch purse and ambled down the staircase towards the sound of Callum’s voice. It was a long descent with shaky legs, but I made it finally.

I walked towards the living room where I thought he was, only to find a sight I didn’t expect. Callum was sitting down on the carpeted living room in his suit, next to Carlie, watching a cartoon with her. It was one of her favorite ones to watch. She had so many, I lost track of what she was into on a daily basis.

Callum leaned in and asked her a question about what the show was about, and Carlie’s face lit up as she animatedly explained the millions of things she loved about it. Her mouth was moving a mile a minute which only made him grin widely and laugh harder than I’ve ever seen. He’s portrayed nothing but a calm, cool and collected persona. This was quite a change.

A surprising one at that.

Sensing my presence, Callum glanced back towards my direction, and his smile dipped briefly before turning up again.

He stood up quickly and brushed the carpet lint off of his suit pants, “Sorry about that. Didn’t realize you were finished getting ready otherwise I would have greeted you properly.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled walking towards him.

“Good evening, Jamie.” He called towards the top of the stairs, and Jamie nodded in return. Jamie played her role of spectator slash bodyguard well.

“Shall we go?” I asked, ready to get this evening over with.

“Right-o.” he agreed and placed a light hand on the small of my back ushering me towards the front door before I turned around.

“I’ll be back Carlie-bug. Listen to Jane, and when she tells you to get ready for bed, you need to listen to her.” I instructed as I knelt down.

“Okay, mommy.” Carlie glanced up at me partially before turning back to watch her cartoon.

“That means take a bath and brush your teeth. Got it?”

“Okay.”

“Alright, give me a big hug. I’ll be home in a couple of hours.” I held my arms wide open. I can’t believe I was going to be away from her. Not a day goes by where I’m not with her, so this was a weird feeling.

“Bye, Mommy.” Carlie got up and ran to me to give me a quick hug and a peck on the lips.

“I’ll be back by eleven.” I notified Jane, our regular sitter. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Bye, Call-yum,” Carlie waved hesitantly and then on an impulse ran to Callum and looked at him with wide eyes.

He knelt down just as I had done earlier, “Goodnight Ms. Carlie.  Thank you for letting me watch the telly with you.”

“Mommy, he talks funny.” Carlie giggled at Callum’s choice of words. You couldn’t help but find her blatant honesty endearing which only made Callum chuckle also.

“I meant to thank you for allowing me to watch your favorite television show with you.”

“Oh.” Carlie giggled.

“Be good okay?” he said and put a hand on top of her head, messing up her hair a little.

“Okay, Call-yum.”

He smiled at her one last time before turning to me, “Ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

****

The ride to the restaurant was relatively quick, so we didn’t get much of a conversation in other than the usual small talk topics about work, the weather and how we were both doing generally. He took me to this lovely restaurant with a rooftop bar that shared the same building with a posh hotel in Downtown Los Angeles called Love Me Hard. 

I had been dying to go here, but I haven’t had the time to make the commute as traffic was always a buzz kill on weeknights. Weekends were the only option but the weekend was also the only time where I could spend more than just a couple of hours with Carlie before it was her bedtime and there was no way I was going to waste precious moments.

“I love it here,” I whispered taking note of the décor and architecture as we walked towards the entrance. It was amazing.

“I’m glad I made the right choice.” he smiled.

“Thank you for taking me here,” I said quietly.

“You’re quite welcome,” Callum answered as he held the door open for me.

“How many?” the hostess asked.

“Two please,” he answered.

“Okay, we’ll be able to seat you in just a few minutes, but you are free to check out the rooftop bar, just make sure you come down in a bit.” the hostess informed us.

“Thank you. We’ll do that.” he ushered me towards the elevator and pushed the R button.

“I’m sorry if I didn’t say this earlier, but you look great tonight.” I found myself saying.

Callum glanced down at his black suit before looking at me with his crisp blue eyes and smiled, “Thank you. I forgot to mention you looked ravishing tonight as well.”

“This ol’ thing.” I laughed. “It’s my standard go-to.”

“What’s that saying, every woman has to have a little black dress in her closet.”

“Yeah, something like that.” I agreed.

The elevator dinged, and the cold steel doors slid open, beckoning us inside. We zoomed up past twenty floors that were part of a hotel the restaurant belonged to and landed on the rooftop. The elevator dinged again before the doors slid opening, signifying for us to exit.

The roof was just as amazing as the restaurant. Music was playing, there was a reddish hue to the lights, and there were a couple of dozen patrons already engaged in their individual conversations, all I assumed were waiting for their own tables to be ready.

“Do you have a drink of choice?” Callum asked as we walked over to the bar area.

“If I go out, which is hardly ever but when I do, I typically order a mojito. Like this dress, the mojito is my go to drink.”

“Interesting choice.” Callum acknowledged before he turned to the bartender, “Aye, good sir. I’ll take a gin and tonic, and the lady would like a mojito please.”

“Coming up, sir.”

“Carlie’s a real charm, you know. I find her absolutely delightful.” Callum muttered before glancing my way, and he held a slight smile before turning his attention back to the drink coaster he fiddled with.

Those eyes and smile to match are going to be the death of me.

The bartender placed our drinks carefully down, and I grabbed the mojito and sipped it through the straw, “Thank you, she’s everything to me.”

“But you don’t mention people that are important to you, eh?” Callum asked before practically downing his drink all in one go.

“It’s not like that. I just didn’t feel the need to bring her up and to be frank I was protecting her.” I said as I finished my mojito quickly.

“I think we should head back down to the restaurant lobby. I can hear you better down there,” he stated instead. “Protecting her from what?

“From my foolish decisions. She’s already attached to you, and she’s only known you for what like five minutes? I was trying to prevent that. I don’t want her to get attached to people and have them leave, and then she’s the one left hurting. Wondering where they are and if it was her fault. I don’t want that for her.”

“You don’t want that for her or for you?” he asked as he pressed the down arrow button.

“Both. I don’t date because no one’s been good enough for her or for me.”

The elevator chimed, and the doors opened wide. Callum pressed the L for Lobby button as soon as the doors closed shut.

Callum closed the distance between us and I was practically leaning back against of the elevator walls, “No one? Not even me?”

“Callum…look…”

He held up a hand to my face, “Shh. No more excuses.” he whispered before running his thumb lightly across my bottom lip. He leaned in closer, our bodies brushed up against each other.

“Callum, no we can’t…”

My protest drowned immediately by his lips on mine, wrapping his arm around my waist pulling me tightly against him. His lips were quite the surprise, and I wanted more of it. He deepened the kiss a few seconds later, a groan escaping, tongues playing a little dance. Callum placed a trail of kisses along my chin and started nibbling towards the crook of my neck before returning to my mouth.

He didn’t take his sweet little time, his tongue forced its way between my lips hungrily with a promise of more, if only I let it. I moaned in approval as his right hand moved to my waist before sliding under my dress and up to my breasts. His other hand slid down to my ass and behind my leg pulling it up so that I could wrap my leg around his hips while my other leg kept me balanced. He pressed his groan firmly into me until I backed into the wall with his hardness very evident.

He groaned again as he ground his hips into my core and a part of me wanted to stop this before we did something we both regretted but the deprived part of me won out and wanted him to keep going. My hips answered his slow, methodical thrusts with their own gyrations.

All I could think of at that moment was how it would only take a few seconds for him to just rip my panties off, unzip his pants and thrust into me as hard as he could but I didn’t.

A few seconds later we were interrupted by the chiming of the elevator, notifying us that we were a few seconds away from the doors opening and getting caught and possibly thrown out at the trendiest rooftop bar in Los Angeles.

“Fuck,” he muttered against my mouth and let me go quickly so we could adjust our clothing and exit the elevator onto the lobby of the restaurant.

“Suddenly, I’m not hungry,” I admitted when we found ourselves back to where we were initially.