A More Glorious Dawn

Chapter Two

Marcus arrived punctually at five p.m. to pick Violet up for their date. She was so excited that she had been ready to go at a quarter past four and had sat in front of the television waiting for the time to pass. She'd secretly hoped he'd be early. Geraldine had come downstairs at four-thirty and saw Violet dolled up in front of the television.

"Whew!" Geraldine exclaimed. "Hot date?"

"I've got a date tonight, yes," Violet admitted. "He's picking me up in half an hour."

"Half an hour and you're already ready to go? I've got a date tonight too. We're going to see The War of the Worlds."

"Who is she?" Violet asked, surprised by Geraldine's lack of prying into the identity of her own date. It was probably because she already knew.

"Business major on the volleyball team."

"We sure do like our athletes in this house, don't we?"

Geraldine shrugged in response.

There was a knock at the door and Violet's stomach dropped to the floor. She opened the door and Marcus stood there, dressed in a pair of clean blue jeans, a navy-blue button up, and a rain jacket.

"Hi, Vi. Hi, Geraldine," he said, peering around the doorway at a halfway horizontal Geraldine with her arm up to the elbow in a potato chip bag.

"Want to come in?" Violet opened the door a bit wider to allow him the option.

"I was thinking we could get going to be sure to get a table," he replied. "Are you ready to go?"

"Are you kidding? She went to bed last night in those clothes. She's been ready all day." Geraldine shoved a handful of chips in her mouth, never taking her eyes off of the television.

Violet could have growled at her, but she settled instead for a glare. Geraldine ignored her.

"Let me just grab my coat."

Marcus walked Violet to the passenger side of his car and opened the door for her. Before she climbed in, she pulled him in and kissed him quickly on the lips. Marcus blinked a few times, surprised at the gesture.

"You look really nice tonight, Marcus. For what it's worth, I wanted to do that last night, but I didn't want to distract you," Violet admitted, keeping her cool only on the outside.

"That was probably for the best," Marcus replied. He then pulled Violet in and gave her a kiss right back. "I wanted to do that last night, but I didn't want to distract myself."

Violet cleared her throat. "That was probably for the best," she repeated. They started laughing in unison before climbing into the car and heading for the restaurant.

"Are you sure you don't want to go see the movie? There's still time to change your mind," Marcus asked.

"On our last date I made the mistake of allowing you free reign of choices for the evening and you mistook my generosity for disinterest." Violet winked.

"Only because who the hell doesn't like ice cream? You have to admit that from my point of view that seems an unlikely explanation."

"Well, to answer your question, I'm quite sure I'd rather not watch a movie about aliens coming to destroy everything we hold dear. It's terrifying and unrealistic."

"Use your imagination, Vi. Not all movies have to be hyper-realistic," Marcus teased her.

"I must admit, though, that the idea of people traveling outside of our solar system seemed completely fantastic and unlikely until only recently," Violet said, immediately noticing the change in Marcus' demeanor. She was horrified with herself. "I'm sorry for that, Marcus. I don't know what I was thinking."