The Hacker and The Heroes

The First Date (Part 1)

Nadia's hands smoothed down the front of her dress as she looked in the floor-length mirror. For the hundredth time, she worried that the red would be too much. After all, Tony had never actually said where they were going tonight. Still, Nadia felt it was relatively safe to assume they would be going out to a nice dinner based upon his personality and past. That probably sounds judgmental or superficial, but she had nothing else to base her wardrobe on.
    Her hair was lightly curled but had an old cowlick springing up again from her hands running through it so many times. Those same hands which were uncharacteristically adorned with modest rings and a press-on French manicure. Nadia hated how long nails felt on her keyboard when she coded, so she often bit them down to the quick when she was in deep concentration. Therefore, it was incredibly rare that they were anything more than a bland mess of hangnails. For once, she had attempted to embrace her 'feminine' side, but she was not so foolhardy as to think that a full on manicure would last with her lifestyle.
    Normally she would wear some semi-casual shoes since she absolutely abhors heels, but the length and fit of her dress, unfortunately, really was meant to be paired with heels. Due to that, Nadia had (rather begrudgingly) donned her feet with a pair of heels that had been lying forgotten and unworn at the back of her closet. Plus, Nadia found herself rather keen on impressing Tony. She had seen the beautiful women that normally accompanied him in tabloids, and it made her feel as though she needed to step up 'her game'..... not that she really even had much game to begin with. Nadia happened to know a scientific fact that she fully intended to use to her advantage tonight- when women wear heels, there is a 25% increase in their buttocks' size. Hey! If those other women had that naturally occurring beauty, she felt she was completely justified in using her knowledge to level the playing field.

    Nadia found herself shaken from her thoughts when there was a resounding knock on her apartment door. After taking one last glance at her lipstick in the mirror, she threw her clutch bag over her shoulder and staggered to answer it. As Nadia grasped the bronze knob, she took one final stabilizing breath before swinging it open.
    On the other side, where she expected to see Tony, there were instead three dozen roses that appeared to have a suit attached.
    "Roses for My Rose. I bought far too many, I know, but when I was looking for something to match your splendor, I came up short," Tony admitted as his head slowly appeared from behind the bushel. He had a smirk on his face that made it even more difficult for Nadia to stay steady in her heels.
    "Come in! Come in! Let me put these in water, and then we can take off," Nadia called as she motioned for Tony to follow her into her apartment and towards the kitchen.
    "Take off our clothes, I hope," Tony murmured from behind her. In response, Nadia simply shot him a look over her shoulder. "I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I promise to be a perfect gentleman tonight. It's just- the opportunity was right there, Darling. I had to take it."
    Nadia chuckled under her breath, and her eyes gleamed in merriment as she attempted to stifle her amusement.
    After a few moments, when the flowers were properly seen to, they exited the apartment. While exchanging casual banter, they descended the exterior stairs to Tony's car.

A/N:
A light-hearted place to leave everything until the next update.
Question:
Do y'all prefer shorter chapters with more frequent updates, or longer chapters that are less frequent? Furthermore, I would just like to say, that if y'all have any constructive criticism then I would love to hear it. This is my first book, so the whole thing is a learning experience. Not to say that I won't still be learning on my tenth book. Learning is lifelong.
❤️, A.