Seeds of Tomorrow

46

"Ooh, you have a date?" Gwen teased Victor as he straightened the collar of his brown and black Charlie Brown polo in the mirror.

Victor furrowed his eyebrows, bewildered, "It's not a date," he told his teenage stepsister.

"Then what is it?" Rosie asked with a large grin.

"We are just going for a cruise in my car. And maybe dinner," he replied.

"So like a date?" Gwen laughed.

Fernando clicked his tongue at the girls, "Y'all leave Victor alone," he scolded with a playful grin, "Let him get ready for his date in peace."

"It's not a date!" The girls exclaimed in unison, giggling.

Victor rolled his eyes, trying to play it cool but was an anxious mess inside. He didn't even know how to date as Raquel had been the only woman he had ever been with. He was tempted to ask his pops for advice but didn't want to admit that yes, maybe it was a date. Also, he and his pops were completely different personalities. Pops was boisterous, confident, and comfortable around women. Victor...was shy, lacked confidence, and perhaps a little introverted.

So he decided to find Madison. She was easy to talk to and didn't crack jokes like Pops.

"Just follow her lead," Madison said with a smile, "Let things happen naturally. That's my only advice. Who knows, maybe it will work out for you."

Sighing, he nodded, it sounded reasonable enough. Damn, he wished he'd inherited some of his father's cockiness.

Ashley lived about forty minutes south of him, just outside of Vancouver. His hands were far too sweaty the entire drive despite the AC blowing cold and t-tops off. As he neared her townhome, he rehearsed his arrival. He would meet her at her front door, walk her to the car, and open the door. It seemed like a simple interaction yet he had played and replayed it countless times in his head.

Victor parked in her driveway and let out a heavy sigh before walking up to her front steps. His legs felt like spaghetti. Man, how had his pops ever had enough confidence to not question himself when it came to women and why hadn't he inherited said confidence?

Ashley answered the door dressed in a form-fitting black dress that showed off her shapely thighs with an oversized cardigan that hung loosely over it. He caught a glimpse of a large tattoo tattoo on her upper thigh but diverted his eyes to keep from staring.

"Looking firme," she told him with an easy smile. Victor was ever grateful he was brown because he was blushing like a mother fucker.

He looked down at his Cortez sneakers, hiding his smirk, and shook his head, "You look good too," he mustered out, peeking up long enough to make eye contact before glancing back at his Monte Carlo.

"You ready?" She asked, startling him from his awkward eye fuck of his car.

"Yeah, yeah let's get rolling," Victor said, trying to conjure up his inner pops... Which...was not happening.

He opened the door for her, careful not to look too hard at her thigh tattoo again, not that he could see much beyond the bottom quarter inch. It looked big though.

"Wow, you keep this really clean," she told him as he turned the key.

His ears burnt, "Oh yeah, I got it detailed this morning," he told her sheepishly.

Victor fell quiet, putting the car into gear. When he asked where she wanted to go, she said they could just drive and see where they ended up. Seemed like a solid plan.

He hopped on the freeway with no particular goal in mind and simply drove. They didn't talk much beyond surface-level conversation though Victor's mind wouldn't shut up.