Fanning The Fire Marshal's Flame

Worst Date Ever

She took a long drink of her milkshake through the straw and watched with a neutral expression as Stavros entered the diner and sat across from her at the table.

“What you did was dangerous, stupid and disrespectful,” he spoke quietly, his fury radiating off him.

“What you did was disrespectful, ignorant and it pissed me off,” she took another sip of her milkshake. “You should leave before I get even angrier, and you end up wearing my milkshake.”

“We have a date.”

“We had a date.” She corrected him uncaring he was furious. “I’m not one of your floozies you think you can order around. This is why I didn’t want to go out with you, Stavros. I knew the minute I said yes, you would no longer be interested.”

“What are you talking about? Are you a mind reader now?”

“No but I don’t need to be. I said yes to you. You got me in the car, spoke a handful of words and then ignored me for twenty-odd minutes. We were both there. You know what happened as well as I do. If I did such a thing to you, I’d be fish food. This was a mistake and it’s not one I’ll make a second time.”

He stared at her as if contemplating her words and then shook his head, “Come, I will drive you home.”

“No. I don’t want you to drive me home. Leave me alone Stavros.”

He punched the table, and she gripped her milkshake to keep it from spilling over. “You will get in the car, now.”

“You can kiss my lily-white a*s,” she said feeling her own anger on the verge of exploding.

“You do not know who you are arguing with.” He looked ready to murder her where she sat.

“I know very well who I am arguing with, Stavros. I simply don’t care who you are. I won’t let any man treat me the way you did and are doing now. I don’t like your anger.” She watched as his fist uncurled on the table and he closed his eyes as if struggling to control his temper. “Stavros, piss off.”

“Car, now,” he argued. He leaned forward, “you will get in the car, and I will drive you home to your father’s house in the Queens or you can come back to my place, and we will finish this discussion in private. I will not leave you alone in the late evening in this borough of New York City. Make a choice, home, or my place but either way, you go in my car.”

“And how are you exactly going to make me?” She lifted an eyebrow as she made a loud sucking noise on her straw as she reached the bottom of her milkshake.

He motioned to one of his guys who moved his jacket out of the way to show a g*n.

“Seriously. You’re going to pull a g*n on me in a diner?”

“Six, actually.” He leaned back, his blue eyes narrowed and angry. “I have six men, all armed and ready to do what it takes to put you in the car.”

“You’re saying you’ll shoot me if I don’t get in. Sounds counterproductive to me. If you shoot me, I’m dead and not getting in the car.” She laughed mockingly at him and noted his surprise at her lack of fear.

“No.” he shook his head. “I’ll shoot the man who made this burger,” he motioned to the empty wrapper, “and the lad who made your milkshake.”

She looked around and noted for the first time they were alone in the diner and the staff working the counter appeared uncomfortable. “You’re an asshole.”

“Not the first time I’ve heard this insult. Let’s go.”

“I want to go home.”

“Fine with me, this night is a bust anyway.”

She put her trash into the garbage bin and shook her head. Her taste in men had not improved over the last eight years. She needed to just learn to stay home. She followed him to the car, aware he was double-parked and appeared uncaring. His security flanked them, and he hadn’t lied when he threatened, he had six men.

She wondered how much of it would show up on the evening news if she beat the s**t out of all of them in the middle of the street. She paused and considered it earnestly.

“Get in the car,” he commanded quietly as if aware of what was in her head. “What is the address?”

She gave it and then slid and made her way along the leather bench, noting one of the security was now sitting in the back with them, blocking her exit in case she tried to jump out again. “This is starting to feel very much like a kidnapping.”

“The kid part is right,” Stavros grunted as he settled beside her shaking his head. Under his breath in Greek, he muttered, “I should not date women so much younger than me. It’s as if I’m babysitting.”

His words stung and she turned to glare at him and with an angry scowl, she responded in Greek, “and I shouldn’t date men twice my age because it would appear manners, unlike wine, don’t improve with age but seem to go out the window like your memories.”

He blinked at her and c****d his head, “you speak –”

“Your file on me wasn’t thorough enough. My mother was Greek. My dad might be as Irish as they come but my mom and her family are Greek. I spent almost every summer in Greece with my grandparents before they passed when I was in high school.” As his ears reddened with anger she made a face, “don’t worry, I tuned out your earlier conversation. My mind was focused on how to get out of this date from hell.”

“Date from hell?” his accent thickened as he spoke in his native tongue.

She would normally have found it sexy but now she was angry with him. Forcing her into a car at gunpoint was not an endearing action. “Date from hell.” She reaffirmed. “I spent three hundred dollars on my outfit only to be ignored for twenty-five minutes, threatened with guns and now kidnapped.”

“As my woman you need to learn to wait patiently.”

“As my own woman,” she pointed to her chest, “I know I don’t have to stay anywhere I’m not comfortable. Just because you are head of a powerful family, Stavros, doesn’t make me fear you to the point I’m going to take your s**t. When you drop me off at my home, it will be the last time we see each other.”

“Is this so?”

“Yes.”

“You think you can simply walk away from what we have?”

“Are you threatening me?”

He threw his head back and laughed at the way her eyes flashed like cold, sharp emeralds in his direction, “no, my little love, it was not a threat. As much as you are pretending you are angry, you like this chase. You will go home tonight, crawl into the tiny little bed you have in your father’s house and think of me, and you will feel invigorated and excited and,” he reached out and tapped her nose, “you will feel regret.”

“Regret?” She slapped his hand away from her face. “My only regret is going on this farce of a date.”

Her phone rang in her pocket, and he shook his head. “No. You can make all the calls you want when you are home. For now, you are giving me your undivided attention.”

She threw her head back and laughed, “oh my god, that’s rich coming from you. You spent twenty-five minutes on the phone pretending I wasn’t even in the car, and I’m supposed to ignore a call from my father.”

“How do you know it’s your father? The phone is in your bag.” He mocked her.

“Special ringtone. My dad’s is the song playing.” Mysterious Ways by U2 was her dad’s favorite song. He used to sing it to her mom.

He waved at her, “answer it.” He paused, “speaker.”

She took her phone out and answered it wanting to punch Stavros in the junk as Corry had mentioned earlier, “hi dad. What’s up?”

“Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be, okay?” she frowned.

“Because I just got in from my shed and you aren’t here. You didn’t say anything about being late tonight and it’s not like you to not give me a heads up.”

She groaned, “Dad, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think. I saw Diarmid earlier and told him I’d be out. It didn’t dawn on me he wouldn’t tell you. I had a date but I’m on my way home.”

“You told Diarmid?”

“Yeah, I saw him leaving the lawyer’s office today. He asked me if I’d be home for dinner and I said no because I had a date.”

“I got caught up working on a sculpture and Diarmid, the last time I checked in on him, had files all over the living room, two laptops going and I’m not sure he’s blinking at this point the way he’s focused on his work.”

She laughed at the description. “He did say he is a workaholic.”

“Alright, but are you okay? You’re coming home early if you were on a date.”

“I’m fine, dad. Let’s just say had I been home, and you and Diarmid both had been working, I would have still had more conversation with the pair of you than I did with my date.” She gave Stavros an angry glance and he returned it equally annoyed. “I’ll be home in about twenty minutes.”

“Okay. I’ll see you soon. I love you Little Lita.”

“Love you too,” she hung up. “Satisfied?”

“No. Who is this Diarmid fellow?”

“An old friend of my father’s. He just moved back to New York from Boston. He’s staying with us while his condo is under repair.”

He nodded at her explanation, “why did you agree to go on a date with me?”

“I was having coffee with the girls, and they told me I was being a coward. They were right. I was. I don’t like the notion of dating because it ultimately will lend to me being in a kind of relationship where I am at risk of being emotionally vulnerable. You were a safe bet to try out whether I could actually date someone.”

He narrowed as if he caught the underlying insult, “why was I safe bet?”

“As I said to the girls, the minute I agreed to date you, you would no longer be interested. They said I was only avoiding it because I was scared. In the end, I decided at most it would be one date and I would have the experience of the date without the emotional entanglements. As it stands, we didn’t even make it to the date, and you were not interested in keeping my company. I was right. They were wrong.”

He sat back as if he’d been chastised by her words. “Lolita, I apologize.”

“Save it for someone who believes you,” she shook her head angrily avoiding his gaze and looking out the window noting the familiar neighborhoods as they drew nearer to the Queens.

He reached out and turned her chin, “Lolita,” he held her gaze, “I am sorry. It was rude of me to leave you unattended on our first date. I will make it up to you.”

“There will be no opportunity to make it up to me, Stavros. I’m usually a one and done kind of girl. It was a mistake to stay with you as much as I had.”

He shook his head, “you understood the conversation I was having earlier?”

“Understood, yes. Listened to it, no. I know better.” She lied.

“My son was doing a job for me for the first time. He is eighteen. He is an idiot.” Stavros rubbed his face, “if I don’t walk him step-by-step through using the toilet, he pisses up the wall.”

“I didn’t realize you had a kid,” she frowned.

“Two of them. I was married once and then I wasn’t. We divorced when the boys were five and three. They live in Greece.”

“Huh,” she nodded. “Who knew?”

“Not many people in America,” he admitted. “I married my ex-wife because she was beautiful from an approved family and did as she was told. She is, sadly, as intelligent as a rock. Six years into the marriage I knew it wasn’t going to work when she told me she wanted a third child because she wanted an even number of children.”

Lolita frowned at him, “three is an odd number.”

“Mm,” he gave a wry smile. “I had never loved her, but I did try to make the marriage work but for whatever reason, her statement on this particular occasion made me realize how much I’d simply let pass out of duty. I could not do one more conversation where I needed to use crayons to explain a simple thought. She is now happily married to a great guy who has been a good stepfather to my boys. Unfortunately, one of my boys inherited her intelligence. He is big and strong and can fight but his head is full of rocks.” He sighed, “thank god he’s the youngest. I don’t know what I’d do if I had to leave my business to him. I think I’d dissolve the entire operation just to avoid it.”

She couldn’t help the giggle escaping her lips at his words, “surely he isn’t so helpless.”

“The call this evening was because he brought business to my house in Greece. Not off-site. To my house. He is a very emotional sort, so I had to very gently and with great instruction provide direction to get the work away from my personal residence.”

She was laughing now knowing exactly to what kind of work he was referring. “Oh dear.”

“Again,” he leaned forward and pressed a gentle and surprising kiss to her forehead, “I apologize for not paying you the attention you deserve. I will do better on our next date.”

She looked away, “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Of course, it is,” he grinned at her, his lips pulled back widely. “I am not a man who gives up easily when there is something worth having. You,” he cupped her cheek warmly, “are worth having.”

As they pulled up to the house, he looked out the window and frowned, “who is the giant man on your lawn?”

She looked over her shoulder, “oh, that’s Diarmid.” She squinted as she watched him speaking angrily into his phone, “he looks pissed off.”

“He is your father’s friend?”

“Yeah, it’s just Diarmid.” She tried to pretend the man who was furious outside had no effect on her.

The car door opened, and the security agent held his hand for her. By the time she was out of the car, Stavros was already out, around the back of the vehicle and standing in front of her. Before she could take a step, he wrapped her in his arms, and was kissing her passionately.

Responding to him wasn’t a problem for her, surprisingly. The man could kiss and as she almost melted against him, he chuckled when he pulled away. “I will call you to set up our next date.” He pressed one more kiss to her forehead and then motioned to the house. “Go.”

She was bemused as she stumbled up the walkway, aware she’d just been thoroughly kissed in public by a man who had only ever kissed her once or twice in bed. She didn’t kiss. Not ever and her hand was on her lips as she cast a glance over her shoulder at his smirking visage. What the heck had just happened?