Chapter 42. A fun night out

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Paul locks the door and walks towards the stairway. I follow him but I can't help myself from asking.
"Is the elevator broken?"
"Look, I am claustrophobic and I don't want to hear anything about it."
I giggle and I try not to say anything, but I really can't help it.
"I can help you with that you know. Maybe this way I can repay you, for everything you are doing for me."
"It's a lost cause, as I've tried to fight this, but I just can't feel comfortable with the thought of not having a way out of a place, at all times."
"Well, that's the thing. I can help you with that, you only need to see that even if you are stuck in the elevator, nothing bad can happen. You will press the emergency button and only wait for someone to let you out, the only thing we have to work on is how you deal with the waiting time."
He turns back and smiles at me, but without answering.
We walk for 2 blocks and then we take a turn to a street that is rather busy and he takes my hand to help me down the steps leading to a semi underground pizza place.
"This way, the food here is out of this world."
I follow him in and we enter this tiny little restaurant, that mostly works as a take away, but the few tables that they do have are all full, so he makes a sad face looking only too cute. Then he smiles and his dimples are showing making him look even more cute.
"Let's grab something to eat and we can go up to my apartment, which is not far from here. My roommate should be home too, so we should take her something as well."
I was about to say no to him, but when he mentioned his female roommate, I felt comfortable with the idea and I agreed.
We brought half the menu along with us, enough to feed the whole building and we walked to his apartment which was only a block away. He turned the keys to his door, but it was dark once we got in, so obviously his roommate was out.
"Stephanie?" He called.
"Well, I guess she is not home yet. She should be here any minute now, so just give me a minute to wrap her food in a towel, to keep it warm."
I hoped this Stephanie girl, would be home soon, as I didn't feel comfortable enough to be here all alone with Paul. Alexander wouldn't also like that and I don't want to cause unnecessary tension between us.
Paul's apartment is decent, but not even close to how luxurious and spacious my own was, not to mention Alexander's which was like the ones you see in the movies. I look around and there are pictures of him and a lot of people practically in every corner of this place.
"That's Steph." He says, showing me a smiling brunette in his arms, in one of the framed pictures, on a bookcase shelf.
"So you two aren't only roommates."
"No, Stephanie is my best friend. We've known each other since college and when we graduated, we decided to move to New York together and try our luck. I was lucky enough to immediately find a job in a rehabilitation center and two years ago, I started my own business. I can say I am in a good track and things are looking up for me so far. On the other hand Stephanie wasn't as lucky. She is working in this law firm, in the public relations department, but she is not happy about it. The working hours are long and the money is not that good, but what's worse for her is that she is not doing what she wants to do, nor feeling appreciated."
"Why don't you hire her then? You did say you would hire me."
"I wish I could, but I don't have enough patients yet to justify me hiring Steph, but I would need a psychiatrist, to take over the patients that therapy couldn't help and they needed medication."
"Oh, I see. but I am telling you I am not ready yet. To be able to help others I have to help myself first."
"Yes, I know what you mean. For some people it works when they deal with other people's problems, giving them strength and consolation to their own issues."
"Yes I know, but not for me. I get too involved with my patients, so I need to be strong, as I get unavoidably affected by their feelings and it's not something I can handle at the moment."
"I know exactly what you mean, although it gets easier by the years. Or so they told me." He smiles and I smile back.
"This pizza is amazing!" I say while talking with my mouth full.
"Isn't it? What about the pasta? I swear this place will put my cholesterol levels out of the charts."
And we both laugh, when the sound of a key trying to open the door, but not succeeding, interrupts our laughter.
"It's Stephanie. Give me a minute."
He walks towards the door and opens it for her.
"What took you so long?" She says giggling, obviously intoxicated.
"Steph you are drunk."
"You don't say! It's not like you need to have a degree to figure that out." She laughs.
"Oh my God, you are completely wasted."
"Oh, you have company. Hi!" She says in a squeaky happy voice. "She is very beautiful, well done there Pauly" She says to his ear, but not even close for her words to sound as a whisper, she was quite loud, which made Paul blush.
"She is only a friend." He says rubbing the back of his neck, showing me he is feeling just as uncomfortable as I do.
"If she is a friend, why haven't I heard of her? So what's your name, beautiful friend of my friend?"
"I am Claire. Nice to meet you."
"The Claire? Paul's patient, that he won't shut up about?"
"Steph, I think that's enough. Go get a shower or something and if you feel any better and you think you can control yourself, you can join us. I brought you lasagne."
"My favorite! Yeiii! I'll be back." And she says that last part, imitating Schwarzenegger's voice from the Terminator movie.
"Sorry about that."
"What does she mean, when she said you won't shut up about me? I thought you were a professional." I say annoyed.
"I am Claire, please don't be upset over this. She might be drunk at the moment but I do appreciate her knowledge greatly. She finished college a semester earlier and her grades were insane, so I had to talk to her, as I was so nervous I was treating a professional psychiatrist for the first time. She only made it sound weird because she is drunk."
When Stephanie returns half an hour later she is still buzzed, but we had so much fun talking together and I haven't laughed so hard in ages. This was so precious for me and I am so happy I didn't decline Paul's invitation.
We talked about the time her and Paul were college students and all the crazy things they had done with their close group of friends.
I never thought of Paul like a fun guy, as he looked too serious in his pastel color conservative clothes and his very looked after appearance. He had fair hair and dark blue eyes and he looked around late twenties, but I had heard Stephanie earlier saying he was 31. Same age as Alexander.
Stephanie is now asleep on the couch. Paul puts a blanket over her and I tell him I must get going. He follows me to the door and he takes his keys from the table.
"I"ll drive you to your car. It's pretty late and I don't want a beautiful girl like you, walking out there alone."
I agree with him, as it was indeed quite late and I did not realize how time had passed so quickly.
"Thank you for a wonderful night." I tell him.
"No, thank you for allowing this. I had an amazing time with you and I would love to take up on that offer to help me with my little issue." He says smiling.
"Sure, I'd love that." I smile back.
"Tomorrow I have this charity dinner I have to go to, but what about the night after that?"
"Sure. I'd love that." I say not realizing I had just said the exact same thing that I said seconds ago, in the exact voice tone and only when he started laughing, I realized how funny that sounded.
"Ok, I love it that you love both of my suggestions." And we burst into laughter once again.
When we reach my car, he bends over and kisses me on the cheek, but that was an awkward moment and he lowers his eyes, grabbing the back of his neck again, which is obviously his thing when he feels uncomfortable.
"I am sorry, it's too soon to be so intimate with you. I take it back." And he bends over again and he sups the kiss back from my cheek in a reverse sort of mode, causing us both to laugh again.
"Goodnight Paul."
"Goodnight Claire, see you Sunday night."

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