Chapter 14: Date Night

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Anya's P.O.V.

I felt girly in my polka dot skirt and off the shoulder gypsy styled blouse. I had exchanged my heels for red ballet flats. Julian would surely not be taking me to a fancy five star restaurant on such short notice. Then again was it really as spontaneous as it had seemed, maybe he was planning on asking me all along. I shook my head. I had been the one who had arranged the time. This line of thought cleared up and was replaced by several other useless ones. Was I really that nervous?

We drove in a comfortable silence, collecting our thoughts for when we would be sitting opposite each other at the table. The restaurant wasn't five star, nor was it a diner or a family restaurant, it was a classy place with a warm atmosphere. A man playing a Saxophone stood on the small stage at the back of the restaurant, it was a saft soulful sound and you would never imagine that that same instrument could be responsible for Jazz.

"Do you have a reservation?" the hostess asked.
"No." Julian answered and I saw us searching the city for a restaurant.
"Follow me then." the hostess replied to my surprise.
She led us to a small round table outside. A stretch of sidewalk had been fenced off for outside dining.
Julian proved to be a perfect gentleman.

"Can I make one request please?" I asked after Julian had placed our orders.
"Fire away."
"Can we please not talk about the mission or anything or anybody team related."
"That sounds fair. What do you want to talk about then?"
"Well we hardly know each other. Let's start small. How old are you?" It shocked me to realize that we have been living alongside each other for more than a month and I didn't even know something as simple as his age.
"I'm 25 and my birthday is 7 May."
"21 and 29 September."

Conversation flowed continuously from that point on and by then end of the main course I had found out that Julian had grown up in an orphanage and we had laughed at the stories of how he had driven the matron up the walls with his practical jokes. However a few days before his 18th birthday a joke went horribly wrong, a boy got hurt and died in the hospital. This had been when the Orginization had stepped in. A few minutes of silence followed the story as Dessert was served. I had told Julian about my Russian father and Irish grandmother. How my father was
an only child, who's parents had died not long after he had immigrated to America and how my mother's family had disowned her for marrying him, but not about their death. I had touched my childhood, but had stopped at the age of 15. Now seemed to be the correct moment to broach that subject, if ever there was such a thing as a correct moment for telling someone of a dead relative.
"I never spent any length of time in one orphanage, I was sent around from one foster family to the next. The meager amount of cash from my parents life insurance that paid out last year and I paid off my student loan." Safe to say that even the delicious Sundae couldn't even brighten up the turn that the conversation had taken.
"How had they died?"
"They always had these regular date nights and one night when they were on their way home a drunk driver crashed into them. He was somebody important I guess because he was never charged with anything more than reckless driving. That was why I had decided to study law."
"I'm sorry that I had pulled you onto the wrong side of the law. I would like to offer to take care of him."
"No, just leave him be."
"You sure."
"Yes. I've made my peace with him. I was sent to many different psychologists and the only thing they had ever said that had stuck in my head was that if I worked continuously towards revenge that I would have nothing left after I had achieved it."
"So you are okay with being one of us? bring a criminal?"
"Yes, we are working against other criminals at the moment and I find what we do more effective than arguing in a courtroom."
"We won't be going after criminals all the time. Someday they might bring us a mission that involves innocent people."
"I know, but let's cross that bridge when we get there. The hostess seems to be anxious to give us the bill."
Julian scooped the last spoonful melted ice cream into his mouth and waved her over.

We drove back, talking about nothing substantial. Julian parked in the garage and we walked up to the front porch. This would be were kiss goodnight or I invite him in for coffee and seeing as we both live here it seemed an odd thing to do.
"This is an odd situation. Do I invite you in or what?" I laughed.
"Let's improvise." Julian replied and held the door open for me without any further explanation.
I soon found out that his idea to improvise was actually well thought out and that he might have put much more thought into it than he had let on.
We drank coffee in the kitchen and then he walked me up the stairs, to my bedroom door.
"Goodnight then." Julian greeted, looking unsure for the first time since we had returned from the restaurant.
"Goodnight, Julian." I smiled and kissed him on the cheek.
I opened my door and went in, smiling at Julian one last time before closing it. I sank down to the floor with my back against my door. My heart was racing and my cheeks were flushed. I heard Julian"s door close. I have been on a few dates before, none had been so spontaneous and unconventional and none had left me feeling this way. I stood up, deciding to go to sleep before I ruined the night. I would worry about consequences tomorrow or even better, after this mission or whatever you'd like to call it.

The next morning I woke up to find four white Daisies and a short note in front of my door. The note read: Thank you for the great conversation and beautiful eyes that I had the pleasure of staring into last night.

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