50 Shades of Family

Confessions

Alexander's POV

I want Phoebe to be my girlfriend. In fact, I plan on asking her tonight on our date. Three weeks of morning coffee meetings and casual dates ever since I met her family, I think it's about time to slap a label on things.

As long as she doesn't look at me any differently after I show her my baggage.
I look at my reflection in the mirror. My black slacks are hung low but held up by a belt which my light blue button up is tucked into. My sleeves are rolled up my arms and the top of my shirt is unbutton just a tad.

Asking her to be my girlfriend, and spilling my secrets, is making me more nervous than having to meet her dad. For the second time.

Phoebe's POV

Alexander told me this morning at our morning coffee meeting that he has a huge date planned for us tonight. It's not going to be like our casual ones, which makes me really excited, and he gave me specific instructions to dress nice. He also asked to meet him at his apartment.

I'm dressed in an metallic gold and black dress with black heels. My hair is teased in a bump on top of my head and pulled away from my face. I tell my parents that I'm going out for a date and after my father goes into this long speech about how I better return to the house a virgin I practically sprint to my car and head toward Alexanders apartment.

I park my car, hurry to the elevator, and once I reach his floor I take a deep breath to compose myself. Who knew I could get so worked up over a fancy date? I calmly walk to his door and notice it's cracked just a tad. When I push it open, my heart stops.

There stands Alexander with one hand stuffed in his pocket while the other one is holding a single white rose in front of him. His eyes immediately lock with mine and he smirks. "Hey, baby."
I'm speechless.

"Hi." I whisper and try to smile. Not only am I speechless but I am so overwhelmed with emotion I forgot how to function. He walks over to me handing me the rose and kissing my cheek.

I take notice of the apartment for the first time since walking through the door. The lights are dimmed and there are what smells like vanilla candles on every surface; the bar, kitchen counter, in table, dinner table, coffee table, piano, mantel, and anywhere you can think of. There is a path of red rose petals leading to the table and then forming a circle around it. It is like a dream date. Or at least like a picture of the ones you see on tumblr.

"You did all this?" I ask as he pulls out my chair and then places a platter of baked ziti in front of me as well as one platter on his place-mat. "And you cooked?"

"Yes. It took a few hours and a lot of matches." He takes a seat. "And I just pulled dinner out of a box." I laugh and pick up my fork to try the boxed dinner.

"Champagne?" I look at the bottle in his hands and eye him wearily. "I won't tell, and I'm only offering one glass." He reasons and I shrug my shoulders.

He reaches over to fill my glass but doesn't stop half way, after the bubbles fizz away he continues to fill it to the brim. I burst out laughing and so does he. "So an actual whole glass full?" He shrugs and fills his glass to resemble mine.

"And maybe then some." He winks. We quickly dig into our dinner and make small talk.

"So, you've met my parents, am I ever going to meet your parents?" Obviously they aren't here now. If they are, this date is going to be a little weird. He sighs and takes longer to answer my question than I intended. But once he has his answer he seems to have to form the right sentence with perfect words.

"For your sake, it might be best to hold off on meeting them for a while." I nod my head in understanding. He mentioned before he has a complicated household.