A Typical Love Story

Chapter Fourteen: The First Date

Cesc grinned to himself pleased with what he had come up with, he had wanted to do something special for Penelope for their first date; he had planned it all out perfectly and he was glad that Diego was able to watch Lia for the evening.

Cesc had plans to take Penelope to a restaurant and then he had tickets for them to see Wicked since he knew that she had been wanting to see it.

“You look beautiful,” Cesc said pressing a kiss to Penelope’s cheek, he helped her out of his car hoping that she would like what he had planned.

Penelope blushed as Cesc passed the car keys to the valet and moved to lead her into the restaurant, he had opted to take her to a Japanese restaurant to try something new.

Cesc wrapped an arm around Penelope, he had never done anything like this before and he wanted to make this special; in the past he’d taken girlfriends to fancy dinners and picnics, he wanted to do something different with Penelope.

“Cesc… you didn’t have to do this,” Penelope said in awe that he had done this to her, she allowed him to pull her closer as they waited to be seated.

Cesc laughed and nodded his head in disagreement of what she had said, he kissed Penelope wanting to make sure that she wasn’t uncomfortable; she was used to people staring at her because she was a famous writer.

“Thank you,” Penelope whispered before they were shown to their table, it wasn’t what she had been expecting; she smiled watching Cesc move to pull her chair out for her.

Penelope sat down, she smoothed out her black scuba peplum pencil dress that she had paired with berry pointed patent stilettos; she had wanted to look nice for their first date wanting to look nice for Cesc.

***

“You got us tickets to see Wicked,” Penelope said to be sure that she had heard Cesc right, she had been wanting to see the show for ages but she’d had no one to go with; she had given up on ever seeing the show.

Cesc nodded his head, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders to keep her warm since the evening was starting to get chilly; the meal had been amazing and he was glad that they were having this date.

Penelope kissed Cesc’s cheek, she was excited to see this and she had no idea how he had pulled it off on short notice; he’d only asked her yesterday to have a date with him.

“Thank you,” Penelope said knowing that he could have just taken her for a fancy meal, she was surprised that he had done this for her.

Cesc smiled as they stepped into the Apollo Victoria theatre, he kept Penelope close as they moved into the foyer; he didn’t care who saw him with her only that it was clear that they were together.

“You don’t have to keep thanking me, I knew how much you wanted to come,” Cesc said smiling, he wanted to outdo the date that she had taken with Zach; he wanted to prove that he was a much better match for her.

Penelope kissed Cesc before they moved to find their seats, she had no idea how he had come up with an idea to do this; she felt honoured that Cesc knew so much about her and what she liked.

Cesc squeezed Penelope’s hand, he didn’t want to lose her as they moved towards their seats; they were sat in the upper circle and Cesc had gotten them good seats for the show.

“Here we are… row A, seats 19 and 20,” Cesc said smiling, he didn’t want them worrying about anyone sitting in the way, he wanted them to be comfortable and there was only a small wall before them.

“I still can’t believe you did this for me,” Penelope said sitting down, she smiled at Cesc as he sat down next to her; she took his hand and kissed his cheek surprised that he had managed to get tickets like this.

Cesc smiled, he couldn’t remember the last time that he’d had a night out like this; Daniella had never been interested in the theatre and much preferred to spend their nights out in fancy restaurants or night clubs.

“Why wouldn’t I? You deserve the best,” Cesc said sweetly, he kissed Penelope as the people who would be sitting next to them arrived; he ignored them in favor of kissing Penelope, he doubted that it was anyone that he would know.

Cesc found it slightly addictive to kiss Penelope, he didn’t want to stop and he didn’t think that he would ever get bored of kissing her.

“Cesc is that you?” Daniella said surprised to see her former fiancé kiss his best friend, she pursed her lips as Elie wrapped an arm around her waist and glared at the footballer.

Cesc pulled back from Penelope and took her hand, he gave it a squeeze before he turned to look at Daniella; he couldn’t believe that he was going to spend three hours sat next to the woman that had dumped him at the altar.

Penelope stared nervously at Daniella, she had a feeling that this was going to make her first date with Cesc awkward and she was going to regret getting involved with Cesc.

Cesc stared at the mother of his child for a moment, he wasn’t going to let this ruin his evening with Penelope; he was moving on with his life.

***

Daniella pursed her lips watching Cesc fuss over Penelope, he had never once treated her like that and she hated that she now had to watch him move on.

Elie held her hand making her look at him, he didn’t like the fact that Daniella was sat next to the man that she had left him for; he had her back and wasn’t going to lose her now.

Cesc completely ignored the tense looking couple next to him, he didn’t care what they were doing and hadn’t said a word to Daniella all evening; he didn’t even acknowledge her in an attempt to show Penelope that he wasn’t interested.

“What did you think?” Cesc asked handing her, his black jacket so that she wouldn’t be cold when they left the theatre and headed back to the car.

Penelope smiled gratefully draping it over her shoulders, she was a little relieved that everything had gone so well; she had worried that Daniella would cause trouble for them during the three hours that they’d been sat next to her.

“It was amazing… thank you,” Penelope said kissing Cesc, she couldn’t help but thank him for bringing her and not making a big thing about his former fiancée; she truly felt special that he had been so focused on her.

Cesc got to his feet and offered Penelope a hand, she took it so that he could help her to her feet; he didn’t even look at Daniella as he led Penelope away and up the stairs.

Penelope kept a tight hold of Cesc’s hand, the theatre was crowded and he didn’t wish to lose her before they stepped outside into the street.

Penelope was a little surprised when they did finally step outside, she shivered glad that Cesc had given her his jacket; she cuddled close to him, he held her close as they walked towards the car park.

“I really enjoyed tonight,” Penelope said looking up at Cesc, she was glad that they’d gone out tonight and she didn’t even care that there was a chance that tomorrow their pictures could be on the front of all the newspapers.

Cesc grinned, he kept Penelope close knowing that this was going to be the first of many dates for them; he would do anything to make her smile at him like this.