Save Me

Sixteen

“You know this is really annoying, Rose,” she huffed through the receiver, “My café no longer smells of coffee but of flowers.”

I chuckled, “You could’ve avoided that if you’d just go out with me.”

I’ve been pestering Danielle for a date all week. It was Thursday now and I had made it a point to myself that I would not stop sending her flowers at the café until she goes out with me. When I had sent her a dozen of roses on Monday, she had called to thank me but politely declined my offer for dinner. Though Ciara texted me that Danielle had been flattered and happy and had thought that it was a sweet gesture and the others did tell me Danielle was a bit of a hopeless romantic though she had a hard heart. Today, I decided to go overboard and not just buy a dozen of white roses, but five baskets of the flower and have it be delivered at the café.

“Whoever told you that I liked getting flowers?” she said, hearing a liquid pouring in the background.

“Ciara,” I said and laughed when I heard her yelp at her workmate.

“Falen, you i***t, that was supposed to stay between us,” I heard Ciara say in the background and I heard Danielle laughed maniacally, and then she spoke, “What if my answer is still a no?”

I sighed, but I was still determined, “Then you’d get more roses coming in.’

She groaned, “You know at first this is just so thoughtful but now it’s irritably annoying.”

“Yea but then maybe you’d get too annoyed and give in,” I pointed out, leaning over at the Rivers’ counter to fix mine and DJ’s lunch.

“Meh,” she mumbled, “Crazy.”

I grinned, “Only for you.”

I heard her groan again andI chuckled and then I heard her sigh, “You really won’t stop, wouldn’t you?”

“Yep,” I replied.

“Fine.”

My eyebrows raised as I watch DJ descend from the stairs, “Fine?”

“Pick me up later at seven pm.”

My eyes widened and then she hung up. I blinked, looking at my phone. How exactly was I going to plan our date in this amount of time? I finished the chicken paella just as DJ sat down on the counter. I placed both our plates and silverware absentmindedly before us. DJ stared at me with his innocent bluish gray eyes, confused.

“Daddy?” he asked, “You’re acting weird.”

I ran a hand through my hair, “You’re Mom agreed on a date with me.”

His face lit up. He knew all about my pursuing of his mother to a date. Actually, he was my number one fan. He said it would be cool if Danielle and I got together and maybe he could finally get a normal family, “That’s awesome!”

“Yea,” I said, taking a bite of our food, “But how am I gonna prepare for it?”

“Prepare for what?”

We both whipped our heads to see Edwin. He was wearing black slacks and a tucked in gray polo. His black hair was now neatly cut, much different to my long hair that now tends to curl up and stick to the back of my neck because of the length. I brushed the ones that had covered my eyes.

“For mine and Danielle’s date.”

He sat beside us, a plate already in hand and getting a portion of our lunch, “Dude, don’t you already have an idea in mind when you were trying to ask her out?”

I nodded, “I do. But that really required a lot of time.”

“Improvise,” he replied lamely, “Look. I have the rest of the day off. Shanna and I are going out later. But that would be later in the afternoon. You can take the rest of the day off. I’ll explain to Dad why we’re one man short. And you know that it isn’t much of a problem because we already have Zachary.”

I grinned and when I finished lunch, I bit both of them goodbye, also thankful to Edwin. I rushed home but didn’t enter my house first. I went to Robbie and Angel’s house. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Angel in the kitchen, making lunch.

“Angel?” I said once I entered.

She smiled, “Hello, Falen. No work?”

“I took the day off,” I said and went to explain to her the reason why, “And so, I wanted to cook her dinner but with my lack of time, would it be too much to ask you?”

“To cook for both of you?” she asked with a smile, “Where do you want me to pack it?”

“Would a picnic basket be too high school?”

She laughed and then shooed me with her hands and I thanked her before heading out again, to the port where you could borrow boats and sail them in the lakes for fishing. I arrived there to see a lady with her blonde hair tied in a high ponytail and she was wearing a pink dress and reading a magazine and chewing bubblegum. I cleared my throat and her attention snapped to me, at first her expression was confused and then a smile appeared on her face.

“Well, hello sweetheart,” she greeted, leaving the desk and walking over to me, “What makes you come here?”

I scratched the back of my neck, “I was wondering if I could borrow a boat?”

“I’m Arisa Simons by the way,” she said, extending a hand, “I really don’t know much about this business, my uncle just left me in charge for awhile.”

“So you can’t have me borrow a boat?” I asked, panicking.

She laughed, “I can. Just sign all of this paperwork and pay three hundred dollars for the rent. Is this overnight?”

“Sure.”

She raised a brow, “Boat date huh? Who’s the lucky girl?”

“Danielle Rivers,” I answered, signing the paperwork, “Could it be there by two?”

“Camille?” she squealed and surprised me with a hug, then glared, “Make sure you don’t hurt her like the last one did. Oh and I’ll try to get the boat by the lake at two, Mr. Rose.”

I thanked her and then headed out, buying another set of white roses but this time, I brought it home. I called Robbie if I could borrow his old beat up truck that he only uses when he goes out fishing with Gerry or the next door neighbor. He agreed with me and I placed the all the roses there. By two, Arisa had called me to tell me that the boat was already at the lake and I thanked her, and then drove to the lake to set up.

Upon seeing the sleek black powerboat, and settled everything on the dock. By the time I was finish, it was already ten minutes till six. I looked at all the setting first, seeing everything settled for my actual first date with a decent girl. I mean, sure I took Monique out for dinner on our first date but I really didn’t put much effort to it because at the time, I only liked her because she had a hot body and well, I had hormones. I headed back home to shower and changed into dark jeans and a dark red button down shirt. I combed my hair, brushing it up, I badly needed a haircut but nah, and nobody cares. I grabbed the keys of the boat and of Robbie’s truck, thanked Angel for the dinner she made us and then drove to the Rivers’ residence.

“Falen,” Rachel greeted me with a bright smile, “Finally earned the date?”

“Not earned, Mum,” Danielle said, appearing beside her mother, “He annoyed me to agree.”

I chuckled and looked at her, like really looked at her. She looked like an angel. She was wearing a white dress that cascaded down above her knees and a gold belt on her waist, her now long wavy black hair was tied into a messy bun, with only a few strands on her face. There was minimal make up but still, she was beautiful.

We bid goodbye to her family and all the way to the lake, she kept pestering me on where we were going until she saw the lake. She looked at me questioningly and I just smiled warmly at her, before grabbing the picnic basket and pale blue blanket before opening her door. I still didn’t answer any of her questions and it was clear she was getting annoyed but when she saw the boat, she looked at me with awe.

“You rented one for our date?”

I smiled, “I wanted it to be special.”

I climbed in first, setting the basket and blanket at the side before helping her out. She stood in awe when she saw all the white and red petals on the floor. The wind breezed by and she looked at me with overwhelmed eyes but they quickly turned into the usual haughty expression that I had gotten used to, “You know how to drive this thing?”

I just shrugged and went inside to turn on the boat. She followed me and watched with curiosity as I ignited the boat to life. I drove around the lake, laughing and watching as Danielle seemed to be filled with childish joy as the wind blew by her. She turned to me, her eyes lighted with joy and a radiant smile. I finally stopped the boat in the middle of the lake, turned the light post over to the dock, settled the blanket on the petal-filled floor and pulling out our dinner. She sat in front of me as she took in the contents of the basket.

“A picnic on a boat?”

“Well,” I mumbled, a blushing creeping on my face, “I wanted it to be different.”

We started eating, conversing about her café, how it all started and why she chose it and why the heck she chose the name ‘DC Café’ since it seemed so cliché, using her own initials. She just laughed and told me that ever since she was a kid and had her first sip of coffee, she always wanted to own a coffee shop, and she had named it DC Café. The name just stuck until she finally made her dream come true.

“You know,” she started, taking a bite of our dessert, “You know so much about me, too much actually. And I know close to nothing about you.”

“You know my name. Why I came here,” I replied lamely, “What my job is. You know me, D.”

“Falen,” she said, her voice soft, “You know that’s not what I mean. I want to know who you were.”

I looked at her,you would freak out when you find out who I really am. I sighed, deciding to tell her the truth about my life, but not about who I really am, “Like I said. My parents were separated ever since I was fourteen. I came to live with my Mom, along with my younger siblings and my older brother lived with Dad. Mom got married again but he was a douche and they had a kid, Caryle. But they got divorce and a few years later, Mom got married again. This time with the right guy. They have a daughter, Kathryn.

“I was a working student during my high school years. I needed to support Mom and my little sister. My younger brother was also deranged. So I had to help Mom with him too. I never asked my Mom for anything, I was the one who paid all the things I needed. By college, Dad had picked me up to go back to Boston. He wanted me to take up business. I didn’t. I wanted to build houses. But he wouldn’t let me. I had no choice. But I still rebelled.

My voice started cracking, as I remembered the night last year, the night that I took my brother’s life, “One night, I was out on a party. The next day was supposed to be important, Dad was meeting some sponsors from Singapore. He wanted me and my brother present during their conference. I didn’t want to go, so I got myself drunk. I was living with Dad then so he found out. He sent my brother to get me. And, during the car ride, he, he didn’t see the truck coming. I survived, but Addie-.”

I couldn’t continue. My voice was already close to sobbing and I restrained the tears to fall from my eyes. I couldn’t cry in front of Danielle. I couldn’t cry on our first date. Danielle walked over to me and wrapped her arms around me, “It’s okay, Falen.”

“My father,” I choked, “He blamed me for my brother’s death. And I blame myself too.”

“It’s not your fault he didn’t see the truck.”

“But if I didn’t go to the party, if I, if I followed my Dad,” I protested but she shushed me.

“Nobody’s perfect, Falen,” she whispered, “We’re bound to make mistakes at some point.”

I looked at her, like really looked at her. Her face wasn’t really that perfect. She wasn’t flawless like actresses that I used to had flings with. But her cheekbones were prominent on her face. Her eyebrows were perfectly shaped and her lashes were long and black. Her nose wasn’t too straight either, but they were okay enough. Her lips were full, pouty and sexy in some ways and yet again, I resisted the urge to kiss her. And then I looked at her eyes, those big, the richest color of blue, eyes.

“Stop looking at me like that,” she murmured.

“Why?”

“Because you two have the same eyes,” she whispered, “Gray and mysterious but so alluring.”

I couldn’t make up my mind on who she meant. But I scooted closer to her, until our face were inches apart, kissing distance. I looked at her seriously, marveling at the dark blue specks she had in her eyes. My eyes flickered down her lips, “I might kiss you.”

I watched as her jaw clenched and her eyes closed for a briefest instant, “I might let you.”

Slowly, I leaned in, wanting to close the gap between us. But at the exact moment my lips were about to touched her, she turned to left and I ended up kissing her cheek. When I pulled back, she turned to look at me with an apologetic expression, “I like you, Falen. But I don’t want to rush into things.”