"Have you flirted with him?"
"No, kinda. Okay, so enough about me. Back to wooing. Those things you mentioned. Those are all things my brother has done for you, right?"
"Yeah. He has. And I don't know how to feel about him. Like one minute he acts like he is in love with me, the next he acts like he hates me. And then he tells me my lips are his bliss and puts bliss candy on my bed and gets my phone out of jail."
"And how is Dawson wooing you?"
"That's just it. He's not. He's sweet. He's snuggly, he makes me hot. We have amazing sex. Like it's amazing. And that's why it's now complicated. I can't resist him, even though I'm still mad at him. I am complicating it. I swore I wouldn't with him til I got things straight in my mind, but then he starts kissing me, and I just can't help myself. And the other night when I was kissing Jake, I'm sorry about that. I decided I was going to be a slut, just have fun with boys and not feel anything. But I can't do that either. It's just not me. And I'm supposed to go on a sorta date tonight with Aiden, and I'm excited about it, but worried. I'm babbling, I'm sorry, I'm just so unbelievably confused."
"It's okay. Boys are confusing. Tell me all this stuff my brother did, I don't know about all of it."
So I tell her. Spill my guts, about the lunch, the four leafed clover, the dances, the toast, Keats, Brooklyn, how he was mad at me, tutoring, how I feel when he kisses me, how I feel when he purposely doesn't kiss me, all of it."
"Wow. How could you not want to be with him?"
"Because it's complicated. I thought he was a player at first, so I purposely didn't let myself like him. But that day, when I say his face in the goal, I swear to you, I fell in love with him. When we were on the ferris wheel and he kissed me, I felt like I'd died and gone to hottie heaven, and when he told me he was going to ask me to marry him at the top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset someday, it was like too amazing to believe."
"Top of the Eiffel Tower, sunset was his idea?"
"Yeah."
"Wow. You kinda seem like you already know who you like. Maybe love."
"I'm trying to fight it. My last two experiences with love have kinda been letdowns."
"Yeah, but you have to keep trying until you get it right." She hugs me and says, "We're kinda pathetic, huh? So what are you wearing to dinner tonight? The place he is taking you is like kinda fancy. He'll probably wear a suit."
"Wanna come help me pick out a dress?"
"Yeah. I'd like that."
And I'm thinking maybe her and I can be friends. Seems like we've both been pulling the short straw out of the barrel of love. Also, I HAVE to talk to Brad.
While I'm getting ready, Dawson texts me.
"Oh shit," Peyton says, looking at my phone. It's Dawes. He wants you to meet him for dinner."
"What do you think of this one?" I ask her. Coming out in another dress option.
"That's the one," she says. "It looks romantic."
"This is what I was going to wear Saturday night. For the picnic and movie." It's a cream strapless dress, layered over the basic cream silk is cream colored chiffon with little silk flowers sewn to it. Its very simple, but the detailing on the dress is amazing. It's tied at the waist with a simple black ribbon. With it I wear bright fuchsia pumps, a fuchsia enameled bracelet and carry a black clutch.
"You should wear it tonight. It's kinda Audrey Hepburn looking. Very romantic. And definitely the black feather earrings. Makes it look tres chic." She grins at me. "So what are you going to say to Dawes?"
"The truth. One thing about Dawson and I, we have been brutally honest with each other."
Me: I can't. I'm going out for dinner.
Dawson: With who?
Me: Aiden. We're combining tutoring with some french food tonight. We have been studying food words and cuisine related things.
Dawson: I think Aiden likes you, and it sounds like a date.
Me: It's tutoring with food. And remember, I'm single. I can go on dates. You can too if you want.
Dawson: I only want to date you.
Me: Someone asked me today what you are doing to try and woo me back. To make me forgive you, make me fall in love with you. Do you think you're wooing me?
Dawson: I'm pretty sure I wooed you last night.
Me: Sex is not wooing.
Dawson: Oh :( Me: Yeah. Please think about whether I'm really even what you want. I know sex is good, and we have a nice friendship. I just don't know if you like me enough to woo me. Cuz I haven't really seen it.
Dawson: So you're gonna date me and Aiden?
Me: Well, a little competition never hurts.
Dawson: I hate you right now.
Me: And I love your honesty. If it's any consolation, I have hated you quite a bit recently too. But still, I love you. I just don't know if it's enough. It's up to you. (This part, I want to shake Keatyn. A lot of this stuff ended up in Love Me, and that was such a tough book to write. I seriously wanted to wring Keatyn's neck and smack some sense into her. How could she not see how awesome Aiden is? But at the same time, I understand. She wants to make it work with Dawson. And sometimes you choose the easy route in life. Aiden isn't going to be easy. He's going to question her, make her think, push her. In good ways, ultimately, but she doesn't know that now. In fact, she thinks he just wants to be her friend. Because that's what he keeps telling her.) Dawson: :( I can't believe you googled me!
6:30 pm Aiden texts me at 6:30, saying he's downstairs.
I walk down the big staircase, and he's watching me. I feel like I'm making a grand entrance at a ball or something. Now presenting, Miss Keatyn Elizabeth Monroe. I just need a little dude standing here with a trumpet.
Aiden is wearing a suit. This one is charcoal grey with skinny chalk colored pinstripes. He's wearing a pale pink dress shirt with a white french collar and cuffs. Very appropriate. And looks so very handsome. I know I go on and on about his appearance, but I can't even say much more. He looks perfect. Like a dream. When I get to the bottom of the stairs, he walks toward me, grabs my hand and says, "Vous tes belle, mademoiselle."
"You look pretty handsome yourself." And then I notice his tie. It's pink and has little black Eiffel Towers sketched all over it. "We going a little overboard on this whole Paris theme?" I ask him, pointing at the tie.
He chuckles, "Believe it or not, I got this tie as a gag gift. This was my family's way of giving me shit because I barely passed french. Like I got a 70.2 as my grade. I told you. Fate. Come on."
We sign out, and then he leads me to his car. Uh, his car is just as gorgeous as he is. Okay, maybe not, but the car fits him.
"Is this your car?" I ask, stupidly.
"Yeah, do you like it?" And it was just a simple question. Not a brag, not a hell yeah, I'm hot, and my car is amazing, like a lot of guys would.
"I do. But it's hard not to like Maserati. This is the GTS, right?"
"How do you know that? Most girls don't know cars."
"My step dad has one. He likes exotic cars."
"My dad does too. Guess we have something in common." He walks me around to the passenger side, opens the door, and lets me in.
No boy has ever done that for me before. Really, no boy has ever taken me on a real date before, now that I think about it. Like Dawson and I went to dinner a couple times, and he has excellent manners, but he never opened the door to his BMW for me.
He walks around and gets in the car next to me.
"So tell me about your parents. What do they do?"
"Well, my dad started a small tech firm when I was younger. They wrote a lot of the software for internet search engines. He sold the company about six years ago. Did well. Mom does a lot of volunteer work, and they travel a lot. Something they had always both wanted to do, but dad worked long hours, and they didn't do it as much as they wanted to. Now they are enjoying his hard work."
"That's cool. So um, do you want to hear about my parents?" I think I want to actually tell him.
"I already know who your parents are, Boots." He grins at me.
"Uh, how...?"
"It's not that hard, silly. I googled you, you came up. Plus, you look a lot like your mom. Although I saw a photo of your dad, and you have his eyes. Like he had that same cool purplish color eye. It's unusual. I'm sorry about him, by the way. Your mom and Tommy seem happy though. And your little sisters are adorable."
"I can't believe you didn't say anything. That's usually all people want to talk about when they know." Then I stop and think. "I can't believe you GOOGLED me! When did you do that?"
He reaches over, grabs my hand out of my lap and holds it on the stick shift under his. "This past weekend. When you went to Vancouver. I might be slightly obsessed with you."
And I might be slightly obsessed about the way his hand feels on top of mine. The way he presses down on it slightly when he shifts. It's like he's in control. And for some strange and very surprising reason, I find this very comforting. No, comforting isn't the right word. I feel, like he's taking care of me, kinda, like the old fashioned version of how a man is supposed to be. It's like with Brook and Dawes I felt like I had to drive the relationship in a way. I had to know where it was going. With Aiden I have this wonderful sense of powerlessness. It's kinda thrilling.
"So what do you think about that? Does it freak you out or anything?"
"Uh, no. Why would it?"
I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know. Some people just kinda do. So, uh, your sister and I had a good talk today. She even helped me figure out what to wear tonight."
He looks happily surprised. "Really? How did that happen?"
"We started talking after dance about Dawson and the whole it's complicated. And then we talked about wooing. What you said made me think."
"And what did you come up with?"
"So far, Dawson is not wooing me. He's also not thrilled about our field trip tonight."
"You told him we were on a field trip?"
I laugh, "Naw, I told him it was tutoring with food at a remote location."
"So you lied?"
"That technically would not be a lie. And no, I didn't. I told him it was a date. It seems like it's a date."
He downshifts, stops at a light, looks over at me, pulls my hand up to his mouth and kisses it.
Then he pushes it back on the stick shift, revs the motor, slams through the gears. And I must admit, it revved up my own motor.
"You're driving too fast." I say as he slams the gears again, making the car purr.
"I know. It's fun, huh?"
Okay, so I have to gush. OH. MY. GOSH. Is he SEXXXXYYYY or what? Him, the suit, the tie, the car, the adrenaline rush, the google search, all of it.
He is, well, he's the God of all Hotties, for sure. (Yes, he is!) We get to the restaurant, and he opens my car door, opens the restaurant door, pulls out my chair for me. He is quite chivalrous. But then they hand him a menu written in french. French is like his Achilles heel. His one weakness. And it's adorable if you ask me. Plus it's good to know he has at least one weakness.
"I like that you suck at french," I tell him.
He slides his chair over closer to mine, and he tries to read the menu to me. And he doesn't do half bad. We figure out what we want, and he attempts to order. And I maybe had to correct him a few times, but he did good. And it was adorable that he ordered for both of us. As Grandpa would say, His Momma done raised him right.
Damn, did she ever.
The waiter takes our menus away. Aiden holds my hand and gazes into my eyes. I've never felt so important or like what I had to say was so important. Like you know how lots of times you're talking to a guy and his eyes are looking everywhere but at you? Then they will glance back at your face, to verify that you are still talking, then they look down and stare at your boobs, to verify that they are still intact. And then their eyes sort of get that dazed look, and they continue to stare at your boobs, and you want to scream, Uh, hello, I'm speaking with my mouth, not my cleavage, you wanna just occasionally glance up?
Aiden's not doing that. I have his full attention.
And he sure freaking has mine.
I also realize that his pull on me is not as shocking. Like when you go stay up in the mountains, and you get acclimated to the altitude. I'm sort of being acclimated to his magnetism. Like I'm not quite as tongue tied, I'm able to think more clearly.
He flashes his smile at me. "Why are you glad I suck at french?
"It makes you more human," I stupidly say. Oh jeeze, I'm an idiot. "I mean, uh, I wouldn't have gotten to come here for dinner if you, um, didn't, right?"
Clearly the air is still thin here at the top. It's affecting my brain. (LOL) He reaches out, pushes my hair behind my ear, like he's done it a million times, "I just now noticed your earrings. The feathers are very cool."
"Thanks. You look quite handsome tonight yourself. You look extremely good in a suit. And whoever tailors them for you is also quite talented. It fits you meticulously."
"It's cool you notice that. And I wanted to look nice for you. So I know you and Dawson are complicated, but what about Dallas? You were kissing him in the video."
"Dallas and I are very not complicated. We're friends. We smoke together sometimes, and then we kiss. It's no big deal."
"When we go out, there will be none of that."
"We're not gonna go out."
"You can't fight fate."
"I can give it my best shot."
He runs his thumb across the palm of my hand, and I shiver. "You're silly. Pretty soon you won't be able to resist me." (Who can resist a hottie god?) The waiter sets down our appetizers. A traditional French onion soup along with sauteed escargot served in a mushroom and red wine sauce.