The Stars in the Sky

Chapter 11: Soup

I had never picked a guy up on a first date like this before, I realized, as I headed up the steps to Will's farm house, wearing a sleeveless, long, navy blue sun dress that reached my ankles, and rope espadrilles. Sure, I had picked up guys before, I had asked out guys before, I had initiated sex with guys before, but this felt a different and more intimate: to walk up to his home from my room and get him for dinner. It was funny, I lived on the same property as his parents (although I still had not met them); this was simply not a normal date.

Although I bet he asked me to come over because it was more convenient than him hanging around the bunkhouse, I thought that it reflected the strange balance of our relationship. I mean, I met him when he was naked and angry and then he immediately saw me almost-naked. He made the first move on me by making it clear what he wanted to do to me, but I made the actual first move by kissing him. He killed a snake for me even though he knew that I did not kill animals, because it would protect the children visiting the ranch, which I wanted more. In other words, there was a teeter-totter aspect to whatever we were—he didn't have all of the power and neither did I. We weren't the type of couple for him to be in charge of everything, make all the arrangements, and come to my door with flowers, sweeping me off of my feet.

He had already given me candy, though.

Having learned my lesson to not barge in on the first day, I lifted up my fist to pound on the door, but it opened and Will was standing there, looking down at me. Fuck me, handsome boy. He was wearing a dark blue, plaid, western-style shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots, very cowboy, but on him the clothes looked like they belonged, rather than a costume. His biceps and shoulders filled out the shirt, and he smelled fresh out of the shower.

I was so amused to be dating a cowboy. I wondered where his cowboy hat was?

Before I could do anything, he grasped my wrist firmly, but gently, pulled me in the house, closed the door, pressed me to the wall, and kissed me, the whole length of his body pressing into mine. Naturally, I kissed him back and it was YUMMY.

"Hello to you, too," I said, when I could breathe again. He smiled and kissed my forehead and then took an evaluating look at my face.

"Did this hurt?" he asked, tracing my eyebrow piercing.

"A little," I said, "but it was also a total rush. I understand why people get all sorts of things pierced, because it feels like a high."

"I get the idea of pleasure mixed with pain, darlin'" he said, looking at me intently.

I shivered, but it was not a cold night.

He traced his finger along the tattoo down the inside of my arm, and then continued, "Let's go get some dinner before we don't make it out of here."

We walked over to his truck, which was now clean. I felt honored that he had washed it for me. He opened my door and helped me up, Gentleman Will in the house. Trixie came bounding up to go with us, and he let her up into the truck bed. To add to the list of new experiences that I was compiling this evening, I could add that I had never been on a first date with a guy and his dog before.

As we drove down the bumpy dirt road to the freeway, I filled him in on the parts that he missed with the kids from California School for the Blind. He wanted especially to know how Clarissa liked everything, and he seemed to really care that they all had a good time.

I didn't notice where we were going until we pulled up to a restaurant in Buellton, a small town near the ranch.

"Pea Soup Andersen's?" I asked, incredulously. This was a kitschy traveler's mecca, had been here for decades, and featured signs everywhere with a couple of cartoon mascots that were splitting peas for split pea soup. Will gave Trixie some water from a bottle and tied her to the side so she wouldn't go anywhere while we were eating.

"The soup's vegan," he said.

Omigod. He could really be sweet.

We walked through the tacky tourist shop, filled with everything from dried split pea soup to sentimental garden signs, and made our way to the old school diner in the back.

The pseudo-traditional, Danish outfit-clad hostess seated us at a dark, naugahyde booth, old fashioned water glasses were placed on our fake wood table, and we ordered (me, soup and beer, him, pot roast and beer).

While Will was not a chatterbox, by any stretch of the imagination, he was interactive, attentive, and polite, and I relaxed into a fun date. We ate, we talked, we laughed. Will paid, and we left the restaurant, giving Trixie some attention before we headed back to the ranch in the truck.

Well, it was a fun date until he made an asinine comment, as we pulled in the compound, about the upcoming Presidential election, showing that he liked what a potential candidate — and coincidentally, a complete idiot — was saying. 

And then he revealed that he voted for Bush.  Twice.

Excuse me? How could he? There was no way that anyone sane would agree with this candidate and no way that I could be with someone who voted for Bush. It was a litmus test and Will failed.

What was I doing with this guy? Was I blinded by his body? We were such polar opposites. This was not going to work.

"I can't believe you think that," I snapped, and stalked out of the car. He let Trixie out and walked over to me and looked at me.

"I could say the same thing about you," he said sharply, with some amusement under his anger.

"Will, I don't know what we're doing. We shouldn't date. We don't have anything in common."

"Oh no? I think we do," he started to say, but I interrupted.

"Don't talk to me," I snapped, and started to walk back to my room.

He hustled in front of me and stood there, blocking me, stopping my progress, holding up his hand.

"We talked about this, Marie. You're not gonna agree with me on a lot of things, and I'm not going to agree with you. So what? Take it out on me," he invited.

"I'm not going to hit you, Will, even though you deserve it."

"That's not what I'm talking about. This is the part where we have angry sex."