New Beginning - A Bucky Barnes Story

Chapter 8 - The Date

Bucky spent the rest of the day doing research on Adriana. He asked EDITH to find out what her favorite place to eat was, what she liked to do during her off time, what her hobbies were, and other relevant information. EDITH scanned public records and also accessed Adriana's phone to find those information. Bucky knew he wasn't supposed to do that. Sam would kill him. But he didn't care. He needed to find as many information that he could so that it would help him when they go on dates. At least he would know what to talk about with her, and where to take her on dates to make sure she was happy.

He had decided to give her a call tomorrow. He didn't want to call on the same day he got her number. He didn't want to seem desperate. But he found himself almost calling her several times that day. Every time he almost called her, he instead opened his browser and started searching for things to do on a first date. He ended up reading on articles about dating. What was the norm and what was not. He found things have changed a lot in the dating area since he last dated someone in the 40s. It was mind boggling. For example, it wasn't considered normal to bring flowers on a date. It was considered old fashioned. He found it preposterous. He decided that he would still bring her flowers. But maybe not on a first date.

After all the articles he had read, he decided that for the first date, he would just take her out for coffee. Nothing too formal or serious. Just a couple of hours of talking, getting to know each other, in a casual environment. And he chose not to take her on a lunch or dinner date because just having coffee would give either of them more opportunities to bail out of the date, in case it didn't work. Bucky thought he would never bail out of a date..actually he had bailed out of a date..but that was different, he didn't really like the girl, he would never bail out on Adriana, but he knew, she might bail out on him.

After finding out a lot of information on her, he made the decision to take her to a coffee shop not far from where she worked. She spent at least 4 times a month there during the weekends, according to EDITH. So she must feel comfortable there. Hopefully it would make her feel more comfortable talking with him. And it would hopefully make it easier for him to tell her the truth about what he did to her father. He decided to tell her about it on the first date. Make it fast, like ripping off a band-aid. If she hated him after that, it would make it easier to forget her as they had only gone on one date. Hopefully she wouldn't hate him and would give him a chance. But he was prepared for the worse. No matter how hurtful it feels.

It was 8 pm when he finally finished reading articles on dating. He decided to give Sam a call, letting him know that he had succeeded getting Adriana's number, and he also wanted to ask his opinion on something. His mind was elsewhere when he accessed his phone. Instead of dialing Sam's number, he dialed Adriana's. He realized it too late. He didn't want to hang up on her, that would be rude. So he just waited while his phone rang her number. His heart pounded so fast. Adriana picked up on the fifth ring.

"Hello." She said.

"Uh..hello Adriana..it's Bucky. Sorry for calling at this hour." Bucky said.

"Oh..hi Bucky." She sounded surprised.

"It's okay. It's not late for me. I don't usually sleep until 10-11..you know." She continued.

"Oh okay, that's good." Bucky's heart rate slowly returned to normal.

"How are you?" Bucky asked.

"I'm good. Just watching a bit of TV." She said. "How are you?" Adriana asked.

"I'm good too. I..uh..was just wondering..would you be free tomorrow after work? Maybe we could go out, have coffee?" Bucky asked.

"Sure. I usually finish working around 5-6 pm." Adriana said.