The next step

The date

Her closet had always been impressive. She owned quite a few designer items and had even gotten a few couture pieces over the years.

Fashion week in New York had always been one of her guilty pleasures.

She loved her wine, an occasional cocktail, but had never really taken to drug use, so clothes had tended to be a bit of an addiction for her.

'As long as the walk-in closet could hold it,' she mused to herself as she stood looking at her extensive collection of 'date night options.'

She reached up to the very top shelf. She needed a special additive for tonight. With her right hand, she moved the small, locked metal box over and instead, grasped a gentle marble box in her fingertips.

Pulling it down, she slyly grinned to herself, removed the lid, and took out one pill from the inner velvet-lined compartment.

She gingerly laid it on the mahogany island, placed the box back in its original location, and began to page through the dress collection.

Slutty. Demure. Romantic. Suggestive...'Ah. Here it is,' she thought to herself. Flirty.

The chosen dress had a sweetheart neckline, thin spaghetti straps, tapered waist and flared knee-length skirt. Perfect fake-date choice. She found a pair of matching kitten heels and proceeded into the bedroom to assemble the ensemble.

Mid height ponytail and satin mauve lips graced her beautiful face, and she marveled in the mirror as she ran through how the night should progress.

Arriving at the restaurant, she took in all her surroundings. An exit strategy was mandatory. She checked in and was promptly escorted to a reserved table in the back of the restaurant, where a less-than patient, well-dressed man was waiting. Once he caught a glimpse of his stunning date, his impatience diminished and was quickly replaced with a large smile.

Standing quickly, he graciously pulled out her chair. Once seated, she could feel his breath close to her ear. "You look amazing," he whispered, pushing in her chair.

She internally grimaced and squeaked out a "And you."

"They have the best oysters here. Chesapeake are my favorite, but whatever's in season...you can't go wrong here."

When the waiter arrived, he instinctively ordered his drink first and quickly backtracked, remembering he was on a first date. "And whatever the lady wants."

"A glass of house red would be great. Thanks."

The waiter nodded and disappeared to fetch the couples drinks.

Kris wanted to get right into the conversation and waste no time acquiring information about the unlisted properties, but seeing his facial expression, knew his thoughts were elsewhere.

They proceeded to cover all the bases of normal date night chit-chat. Parents, work, siblings; yadda, yadda, yadda. She coyly and briefly answered all of his questions, while reserving hers for mostly job related Q&A. She was more interested in finding out how he came to be the go-to of those unlisted properties.

"To be honest, I never imagined myself as a Real Estate agent. I wanted to be Astronaut Elvis."

The waiter arrived, set both drinks down in front of their prospective owners and pulled out his pad to begin asking questions, when he was immediately shooed away.

Mark took a quick drink, not making eye contact.

"I was never good at the family business, but was willing to learn and improve. I had always had aspirations of fame and fortune. I could have only one or the other." He let out a long sigh, as if his revelation caused him personal grief and he was attempting to delve into years of trama with his newly found therapist.

Internally, Kris was mortified of this development in the conversation, although a sweet smile remained plastered on her face. She had to make a conscientious effort to keep that smile, lest not convey an automatic 'wtf' type of expression - head c****d to one side, eyes bulging, both eyebrow and upper lip raised in a stuper look. wtf.

She allowed him to drone on, as she would anyone else who wanted to barf out all their secrets. Family or otherwise. Every once in awhile, she would let out an 'oh my' or a 'and what did you do?'

Same as his social media, he seemed to be comfortable with all things him.

"My uncle Johnny Maran..."

'Wait a tick, did he say uncle?'

"...he wanted me to go into real estate, so I could make a decent living while still benefiting the family. I'm sure the latter being the most important." He sighed again, took another drink and finally looked up. His nearly depressed facial expression was immediately replaced with a look of confusion.

She instantly realized that she'd f****d up and replaced her sweet plastered smile with something that had given away what she'd been thinking. She immediately mentally checked her face and thought this was as good a time as any to ask about the unlisted properties, albeit with a little discretion.

"So if I'm hearing you correctly, even though you wouldn't have chosen real estate as your profession, you've actually excelled at it while managing to achieve your goal of fame and fortune. Correct?" Without hesitation, she added, "So because of your reputation, you've been entrusted with the 'additional' potential sales of unlisted properties." She knew to stroke his ego and he was eating it up.

His face beamed and he raised his hand to the waiter, signaling for him to approach. His prideful expression continued as he ordered for both him and her, with only the slightest unselfishness as he dismissively asked her if she was 'vegan, vegetarian, or some other nonsense.'

Smile Kris. Just smile. She thought to herself as she made heaving noises mentally. She instinctively remembered, "And 2 more of these," she stated while making a motion at their drinks, "if you wouldn't mind."

As the waiter nodded and retreated, Mark reached down to the seat next to him and pulled up a manilla folder. "You said you're always in the market for a good acquisition.."

She smiled even sweeter and then read down the page of addresses and owners. Warfel Road. Bonsai Corporation. Janet Cox.

Her photographic memory made a mental note of the owner and she handed back the file.

The waiter returned a short while later carrying the oyster appetizer and the drink reorder. She enjoyed the appetizer, but was beyond ready to end the evening.

She looked up at him and giggled audibly, making a 'something on your face' gesture with her index finger. His eyes widened and he began to aggressively wipe one side of his face with his napkin. She giggled again and made the same motion on the other side of her face.

Flushed and embarrassed, he excused himself and made his way to the bathroom to investigate further.

Kris stood up, looked briefly around for prying eyes, and settled in the adjacent seat next to her dates'. She brought both of their drinks together, so as not to draw attention, and quietly dropped the earlier pill into his cocktail.

When he returned, his questioning gaze turned to a grin when he saw how close to him she would be. He slid back into his chair, and met her gaze as she raised her glass in a toast.

"To fame and fortune."

"To us," he quipped back.

They drank. He passed out. She left.