The road to love (editing!!)

Chapter 9 - A Little Wine and Dine (edited)

Jessie

"Thank you," I smiled at Dean as he pulled out my chair at the restaurant, La Romantica, placing his hand on my shoulder before going to sit down opposite me. I ignored the warm feeling where his hand had just been and nervously wiped my hands down my turquoise dress while looking around the beautiful venue, wondering why I did so much effort for an apology 'date'. I had again straightened my hair and was wearing a dress that was not my normal office style, as it was long and flowy and had thin straps over my shoulders. My shoes were strappy and silver, as was my dangling earrings and my thin bangles. All in all the ensemble made me feel feminine, something I had not been feeling since my mess of a break-up with Jake.

I nervously looked over at Dean, who was dressed in a pair of light blue jeans, a navy blue button-down shirt and a brown sports jacket. For an 'apology-non-date', he sure had pulled out all the stops. Picking me up at home, being a charming and polite conversationalist in the car, booking a table at such a nice restaurant. Ah heck, Jessie! Just enjoy it! I scolded myself before our waiter came to take our drinks order.

"Soooo," I piped up nervously while playing with the edge of the menu, "nice restaurant."

Dean smiled at me and I felt my insides quiver. "I thought I owed you a huge apology after that little smut article. You're the last person to deserve something like that, Jes."

"Apology accepted," I smiled back at him. "Now, let's forget about it and just enjoy the night out, ok?"

He grinned this time. "You make it sound like this doesn't happen often for you."

I just silently shrugged. Silence could be an answer in its own sense.

"No way!" Dean actually looked baffled. "A gorgeous girl like you? You have to have the guys falling at your feet and dates lined up every weekend. Don't tell me you are one of those 'hard to get' types?" he smiled while sipping his wine which the waiter had quickly brought over.

"No, not hard to get, just not really interested at the moment. I had a raw deal a while ago. Trying to stay clear of the opposite sex at the moment," I nonchalantly said, ignoring the blush I felt on my cheeks from him saying I was gorgeous.

Dean looked at me pensively for a few moments, before he took my one hand in his in a caring manner, but which only sent my blood boiling. "With the little I know about you, I suspect it must have been really bad for you to pull back like this. Care to talk about it? Or am I being too nosy?"

I shrugged and looked down at my small hand in his bigger one. "No big deal. Just thought I met Prince Charming, but he turned out to be a toad instead."

Dean watched me pensively. "The toad wouldn't happen to be that Jake guy I saw at your office the other day?"

I nodded my head, deciding I needed to pull my hand out of his now or risk overheating. I sat back against my chair's back.

"Ah, I had a suspicion he pissed you off big time! Remind me never to get on your bad side, ok? Though, you're really cute when you're angry," he winked at me.

I burst out laughing at his playfulness. "Way to make a girl feel good about herself, Dean!"

Just like that the nervous tension left me and we ended up spending a really nice evening together, just talking about everything – our families, our work, yes even our exes. Dean was intelligent and charming and had me in stitches with his tales about the pranks he and Joe used to pull on their babysitters. I learned that he was allergic to blueberries, loved to go camping, broke his arm falling out of a tree when he was 9 and wanted to be a race-car driver when he was 12. He learned that my nickname at school was Carrots due to the color of my hair, that my favorite color was green, that I loved to swim but hated to hike, which was my father's favorite pass-time but my pet hate. He also learned that I took ballet from age 6 and loved it, while I liked being creative – which lead me to my current employment.

Dean's favorite color was blue (hence the color of his car) and he hated the public attention he got from his 'bad boy' public persona. According to him, he really wasn't that bad, he and Joe just loved to have fun and somehow the papers labeled them as being bad boys because of it. Joe decided he liked the idea and had been milking the attention ever since. Dean, however, was not so much the one who loved-and-left the girls, that was more Joe's thing. He just hadn't found any girl who could hold his attention longer than it took for them to get their faces in the papers from being his escort anywhere.

"You'd be surprised what girls would do to get to be our dates to society events, Jessie," Dean smiled while taking another bite from his chocolate mouse desert. "I once walked into my room to find a girl, who I didn't know at all, laying naked on my bed, holding two tickets to an event... on a strategic place."

I giggled at that. "Surely you didn't say 'no' to such a... generous offer?" I took another bite of my baked cheesecake, enjoying the tangy taste of it on my tongue.

"I'm young and single... what do you think I said?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I burst out laughing, almost spitting out my desert in the process. "What? She gave me a good time and I took her to the event. It was a win-win situation." He grinned at me before taking a sip of his wine.

"If you are trying to convince me that you are NOT a bad boy, that story did not help your case, at all."

"That was nothing," he grinned at me. "Joe had it worse once. There was this girl, a model, who had a billboard put up right as you get to the Cape Town airport, with a naked picture of her on it, holding a picture of Joe in front of her. Strategically placed of course."

I smiled. "Of course."

"The lettering asked him to date her. My father was very upset about the whole thing. I mean, it's an international airport, can you imagine how many people saw that billboard every day? Joe was flattered of course, but my dad made him contact the girl through her modeling agency to take down the board. They did actually meet and ended up dating for six months, until she met a rich Italian on a modeling job and dumped my brother." Dean shifted in his seat. "So, would you like anything else or ...?"

"No, I've had enough thank you. It was wonderful."

Dean called the waiter over and gave him his credit card to pay for our meal, before he came to help me out of my chair, taking me by the hand and leading me to the car as if it was an every day occurrence. He drove me back home while telling me more about the project we were working on together. When we got to my house, Dean got out and opened the door for me before walking me to my front door.

I smiled down at my shoes as we walked the short distance. Wow, he was a gentleman. I had been sure they were an extinct breed.

I smiled up at him as we reached the door. "Dean, you really didn't need to offer me such a big apology, but I enjoyed tonight very much. Thank you." I moved to open the door with my key. As the porch light was on, but the house ones were out already, it meant my mom was asleep. Dean moved to put his hand on my arm to stop me and I looked back at him. His hand slowly trailed down my arm and he closed his warm hand around mine, turning me towards him.

"Jessica... " he started before lowering his voice to an intimate level and trying again. "Jessie... I know you are still man shy after Jake, but I would like have the opportunity to take you out again. I find you fascinating, funny, intelligent... so different from the girls I know and I like it. What do you say? Feel like risking your good girl reputation on another date with Dean Parker?"

I searched his sincere face and slowly a smile grew on mine. Ah heck. Why not.

"Sure."

______________________________________________________________________________________

A warm welcome to all my new fans and the voters out there!  You guys have no idea what you mean to me!  Hugs CTG