Escaping RiverCreek

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Double-Date Time

On the drive to Applebee's, Tara and Cory both barely speak for a few minutes. Neither one was still unsure of what to say about what occurred back at Tara's house, not until Cory finally just blurts out what he's thinking. "Well, your mom is something else, isn't she?"

"Uh, yeah, and thank you for not running off. She can pick up that you're shy. Take advantage of that."

Shifting gears, Cory takes a millisecond to reply, "Oh."

Tara shifts her body away from the window. She decides to try something her mother suggested.

"Did you get a good glance at me standing there or running in only a bath towel?"

Cory's eyes say it all when she witnesses them grow. It now dawns on him why her mother warned her to run back upstairs.

"Uh no, I missed it," he teases back, hoping to get Tara to keep playing along.

"Well, what if I give you a little preview of what you missed by unbuttoning my blouse and letting you get a decent look down my tank top?"

Cory can't resist dropping his jaw when he sees from of the corner of his eye that Tara is slowly pulling her jacket back and unbuttoning the top three buttons on her blouse. As she listens to him huff, she pulls back away to the door, lowering her head with a seductive smile glowing toward Cory.

"Wow, just yeah, holy hell," Cory mumbles, wanting to take his eyes off the road, but he knows he can't since black ice is horrible.

"Maybe some other time I'll let you get a much better view," Tara teases as she buttons up her blouse, zipping her jacket back up.

"Anytime you wanna. I won't complain." Tara chuckles and knows it has been effective when she stares over at Cory's khakis and notices that he's trying to hide the fact that it has had an obvious effect on his desires.

Now that the tension is finally broken, the couple drives into the heart of town, where they notice that Rick and Kayla are just pulling into the parking lot.

"Wow, I figured they would've been waiting on us," Cory admits, curious as to why they are just arriving a few cars ahead of Tara and himself.

Cory parks beside his friends.

"Ready to eat?" he asks his date, looking over at her with a soft, comforting look in his eyes.

Mesmerized by the glow of his eyes, Tara finds it difficult to speak. "Y-yes, I am ..." she's able to muster up as she waits for him to travel around the front of the Celica to open her door to take her hand, helping her out.

"Thank you. I love how you do that for me."

"You're a lady. You should expect that respect."

Once he closes the door gently behind her, Tara softly places her hand on his cheek to distract him for the first kiss of the evening.

"Woah! Get a room, you two," Kayla teases when Rick helps her out of the Man-Van.

Cory and Tara ignore the mockery and continue to kiss. He wraps his arms around her in hopes of making it feel more romantic.

"C'mon, let's get our table," Rick whispers, seeing his friends embraced in their moment.

Feeling her body wanting to give in to the temptation to forego the date, Tara finds a way to break away from the moment where her world is at a standstill.

"Oh, wow, that was better than the first time, but we better get inside. I think they went on in," Tara's able to mutter, touching her lips with her icy hand.