Date Night

It had only been six days since his rescue from the cave, but to David it seemed almost as though a lifetime had passed. So far he'd only had one nightmare about the experience, but it had been a terrifying one, and he knew that there would be others. He had woken up screaming, and both his dad and Madison had come running to check on him. He had finally convinced them that it was nothing and they had gone back to sleep, but he found himself unable to rest any more that night.

Returning to school was easier. It was almost comforting to slip back into the routine of classes, practice, and lunches.He had seen all of his friends of course, and they helped to keep his mind off of what had happened in the caves. When he'd seen Addie again they had made plans to meet up tonight, and he found that it was one of the few things he found himself looking forward to besides magical research nights. In that distant past life of last week it might have terrified him, but now he found himself almost giddy as he parked his truck in the gravel parking lot in front of her parents' B&B and got out.

He had worn his best t-shirt and the only pair of slacks that he owned. Between that and his freshly washed and combed hair he looked almost respectable. With a crooked smile he knocked on the door and waited.

Reginald Carpenter (Reggie to his friends) heard a knock at the door. As he was, at that moment, going over the appointments for the next week, he knew it wasn't a guest - at least, not with a reservation. Rising from his seat at the kitchen (and erstwhile office) table, he walked to the door and opened it.

Ah. It was that night already, was it? Reginald said nothing, just stared at the young man darkening his doorstep.

Within the space of about five seconds, virtually all of David's new-found confidence evaporated. He found himself staring up at the man in the doorway and realized he should probably say something.

"Ummm... Hi. I'm uhhh... I'm David?" The way it came out sounded more like a question than an introduction.

Reggie stared, and said nothing.

David looked around, partly to avoid the man's insistant gaze, and partly to glance at his surroundings and make sure he hadn't somehow ended up at the wrong house.

No, this was definitely the place. Besides, it was all alone on this back road through the park. there weren't even any neighbors.

"So... uhhh..." David said after a moment of further silence, "Sooooo... Addie and I were gonna... ummm... is she here?"

Reggie raised one eyebrow at the "Addie and I were gonna". He still said nothing.

David felt sweat beginning to form on his forehead and neck despite the cool evening.

"Ooook... so, I think... I mean I was just... This is the Carpenter residence, right?"

David forced himself to close his mouth and stop talking before he said something he might regret. He briefly wondered if this man might possibly be something supernatural, possibly a zombie or a ghost or something. At the very least he was too tall to be a gnome, so that was a good thing.

Reggie's eyes flicked briefly to the sign at the door that said Midsummer Night's Dream[i], and beneath that [i]Donna and Reginald Carpenter, Owners, then back to David's face. He blinked once, slowly, then spoke.

"So. You're here for Galadriel."

David stared blankly for a moment, frozen like a small woodland creature facing a hawk.

"For... Oh! Yes! Galadriel. Right. She said to come pick her up at 6:30. Is she... home?"

From out of sight of the doorway, there came snorting. The snorting turned quickly to giggling, and upon hearing it, Reggie's lip twitched involuntarily into a smile. He tried hard to fight it back for a moment, then doubled over in laughter.

For a moment David was baffled. What was... Oh.

"I... ok. Yeah."

He stood there awkwardly for a moment as Addie and her father laughed themselves silly, completely oblivious to him for the moment.

"Ok. Yup. I get it. That was... ok, actually that was pretty good."

He smiled despite himself, completely unable to work up any real indignation at being had.

Reggie nodded in agreement, then backed up and gestured for David to come on in. Addie was standing next to the doorway, hands over her mouth as she laughed. She was wearing tight-fitting dark jeans, with a red blouse with a gathered neckline and white polka dots. A matching scarf tied up her hair, and even her shoes and lipstick were the same shade of crimson.

Reggie took a place at the table. "Okay, so, ground rules?"

David followed the Mr. Carpenter into the house and smiled when he saw Addie. She was gorgeous, even more so than usual, and David was momentarily distracted before her dad's voice called him back to Earth.

"Oh... yes, right." David said, approaching the table, trying to sound nonchalant. He was still trying to regain his footing from the door incident.

Reggie's eyes crinkled as David's lit up, and he tried unsuccessfully to put on his Stern Father Face. "Okay, so, here's the deal: Go out, have a nice time, Addie's got my credit card in case of emergencies. David, I'm going to need your cell number, and the number of at least one parent, dealer's choice. It's not a school night, so try and be back by 11. If you're not going to be back by then, call first, but there'd better be a good reason."

He screwed his face up, obviously thinking. "Let's see, what else... No unprotected sex, no hard drugs, no drinking and driving? Basically don't be an idiot."

Towards the end of Reggie's list, David's face started to turn bright red.

"Um, yes, sir. Of course. I mean... We won't."

He nodded enthusiastically to stress the point that he considered it an honor to be entrusted with this man's daughter and that no, he would not hurt, lose, or impregnate her.

"Here, I'll write down the phone numbers..." he said, reaching for a nearby pen and scrap of paper.

Once he had the number, Reggie nodded, and added it to his phone. "Okie dokie, then, get on out of here!"

Addie grinned, said "Bye daddy!", and grabbed David's hand to pull him towards the door. She was also blushing strongly, and wanted to get out of here before her dad could embarrass her further.

"ok, umm... It was nice meeting you sir!" David said as he was pulled, somewhat alarmingly, out the doorway. As the emerged onto the gravel path and the door closed behind them, David turned around and looked at Addie again, his heart thudding.

"You... you look beautiful," he said, then gave her a sideways grin, "You two nearly gave me a heart attack."

Addie's blush continued, but she smiled. Nervously, she glanced back at her house, then at David. "So, uh, I kinda have some of my own ground rules too. But if you wanna go first, that's okay."

David found himself blushing also, but he did his best to stay calm.

"Oh, no, of course, go ahead. Whatever you want. I mean, I want you to enjoy yourself and feel comfortable, so... Fire away!"

"Okay, well, I guess the most important is that, um, sex is not... y'know, that's not gonna happen. It's not, like, a remark on you at all, I just... it's not gonna happen. Like, so if that's a dealbreaker, then let me know and..." She shrugged.

"Oh, god, no!" David said, possibly slightly too quickly.

He paused for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts. Addie's admission had caught him off guard, but it certainly wasn't a problem. In fact, he was actually somewhat relieved that the pressure had been taken off in that regard. Not that he wouldn't love to... but that wasn't what this was about.

"I mean... that's not... I just... I think you're cool. And gorgeous. And funny. I love seeing you, and I want to get to know you."

He was blushing deep red now, and found himself somewhat unsure of what to do with his hands.

"Anything else... that's completely up to you."

Addie's grin was like the sun breaking out of the clouds. "Okay, cool. That was kinda it, actually. I've... just had some bad reactions to that one before, so I was worried." She started walking towards his car, then shyly extended her hand for him to take.

"Oh, I guess I do have one other one - no chick flicks, okay?" She made an exaggeratedly disgusted face.

David laughed and held up three fingers on his right hand.

"Scouts honor," he said with a grin, "I think The Grandmaster is still playing if you like Kung Fu flicks."

He reached out and took her hand lightly. Her fingers were cool compared to his and his head grew slightly light at her touch.

He had a feeling that whatever they saw, he wouldn't be watching a whole lot of it anyway.