Her Fire

First Date

I wake up and stretch. I roll out of bed and head downstairs for some breakfast. I sit down and begin to eat my bowl of cereal. I finish eating, set my dishes in the sink and I hear my phone go off. I retrieve it from the nightstand, unlocking it to a message from Axl.

"Good morning. I hope you slept well. I look forward to our date tonight and I will be coming to pick you up at 8pm."

'Ah, Tobias.' A smile creeps across my lips.

"Good morning. I did, yes. Thank you. I also look forward to our date. See you at 8. Have a good day at work."

"Great. I'm glad. See you then."

I go about the rest of my day on a cloud. I get to go out with Axl again. I'm so excited and happy and so many other things. Before I know it, it's 6pm.

'Wait! It's 6!' I yell internally, 'I have to get ready!'

I get some things together and go hop in the shower. I finish up and start on my hair. I get it dried and brushed out. I get my curling iron and start giving my hair some light curls. After a bit, I finally get it completed. I do my makeup in a natural fashion.

'Don't want to overdo it.' my brain tells me.

Now for the final touch, the dress. I found this gorgeous floor length black dress. It has a significant slit up the side, right up to my hip, lined on either side with a blood red satin. The dress is asymmetric and one shouldered. There is also a belt of the same satin as along the slit. It is absolutely jaw dropping and I even got a matching piece of satin to wear as a choker. As I'm standing there looking at myself in the mirror, my doorbell rings.

'Shit! It's 8 already?' I run downstairs towards the door.

"On the way!" I shout.

I reach the door, pause to smooth out my dress and open it. It's Axl. He stands there. Staring. I look at him and smile.

"Hello. Are we having a good evening?" His eyes snap up to mine.

"Uh, yeah. Hello. And yes, yes I am having a good evening. You look..." he pauses as if trying to find the right words, looking me up and down, "absolutely beautiful."

I blush hard, not only at his words, but also at the way he looked at me.

"Th... thanks." I stutter and mentally kick myself.

"You look very handsome yourself."

"Thank you." he says looking down at his well-fitting black suit. Oddly enough, with a blood red square in the pocket of his blazer.

"So, are you ready to go?" he asks holding out his arm, like he did the day he walked me home. I smile, slide my hand along his arm and say,

"Yes, I am."

He walks me to his car and opens the door for me. I get in and he closes it. He walks around the front of the car and gets in. He starts the engine and we set off to our destination. We arrive at the restaurant after a short drive. We walk in and get seated in a semi private booth. We give the waiter our drink order and begin to chat.

"How was work?" I ask him, sincerely interested in his well-being.

"Eh, it's work. Do you really want to talk about work?" he replies. I giggle and respond honestly,

"Actually, I mostly wanted to ask how you were. I just didn't want to seem too interested too fast." I look down, cheeks red, almost ashamed for admitting this level of interest.

'He is your soulmate. It's only natural.' my brain tells me.

'Yes, but he doesn't remember that.' I retort back at it. Axl reaches across the table.

"Hey." he says, and I look up at him.

"I like that you're interested." He gives me that half smile and I melt, and I can't help but give a small smile back. Our drinks arrive and we place our food order. Trying to break the awkwardness, I say,

"This is a really nice place. How'd you hear about it?"

"Oh, one of my coworkers told me about it. And when he described it, I knew that this was where I wanted to take you." he said looking into my eyes.

"Well, it's very lovely. And you'll have to thank that coworker of yours for me, for telling you about it." I say reaching up to place my hand on his. We sit in silence like this for who knows how long until our waiter arrived with our food.

"Thanks so much."

"Thank you." Axl and I say in unison as the waiter steps away. We both give a little laugh, and I look down at my plate.

"Oh, this looks so good." I tell Axl.

"Yeah, it does." he affirms. We dig in and continue with the smaller chatter as we eat. Some time passes and we finish our meals as the waiter returns to ask if we would like dessert. Axl looks at me questioningly.

"Um, can I have the Angel Food cake please?" I inquire.

"And for you, sir?" the waiter says, turning to Axl, looking at me he says,

"Same, please, thank you." He smiles at me.

"What was that about?" I ask.

"What?" he asks back.

"That look when I ordered Angel Food cake." I retort.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just used to know someone whose favorite was Angel Food cake, and I guess I was just surprised you chose that out of everything they offer." he stated simply.

'How can he remember that? Does he remember? Anything?' I think.

"Well, Angel Food cake happens to be my favorite as well. It's delicious." I deliver cheekily.

"I agree, it is delicious." he laughs. Soon after, the waiter reappears with the cakes and places them on the table. We begin eating, just enjoying each other's company. I look up at Axl and can't help but snicker. He looks at me.

"What?" he asks, curious as to why I was amused.

"Uh, you have whipped cream on your face." I tell him.

"Where?" feeling around his face trying to find it. I giggle,

"You just keep missing. Stop, here I got it." I reach up with a finger and wipe the whipped cream from the corner of his lips and, naturally as ever, just put it in my mouth. I realize what I just did, clean my finger and go back to eating my cake.

"Thank you." he says, looking a little distracted.

"No problem." noticing his full expression, I continue,

"I'm sorry, was that weird? Too far? I apologize." I sigh and look down, thinking I've ruined everything by accident. I wasn't trying to be sexual, I just instinctively put my finger in my mouth to clean it off.

'Geez, what he think of me now?' He must have noticed my change in demeanor and reached for the hand I had resting on the table.

"Hey." he spoke softly, and I looked up.

"Don't apologize. You were helping me. And yeah, the finger in the mouth, ooh boy." I looked down again, embarrassed.

"Makenna," I snap my eyes back to his, feeling some type of way about how he spoke my name.

"I could tell by your reaction to what you did that you didn't mean it like that. It just caught me off guard. I mean, come on. You, looking that that, doing that, I wasn't expecting it. It's not a big deal. I promise. It doesn't change how I feel." he said, now being his turn to look at the table. I blinked several times, fighting my brain and mouth to work together to form words.

"How you feel?" I question, confused.

"What do you mean?"