Chapter 7 Sunday Night
SUNDAY NIGHT
“How do I look?” Amber tosses her hair over her shoulder and purses her lips. She’s wearing a slinky black slip dress and no bra (thank you, God), her hair curled and her cheeks glowing with some sparkly, bronze rouge.
“You look like you belong on the cover of Vogue,” I tell her, putting an arm around her waist and kissing her.
She hums softly against my lips, and smiles widely. “You smell so good,” she says, putting her nose to my jawline and inhaling. “Oh my god, this is like-” She sniffs again and sighs. “Like the ultimate sexy man smell.”
“Well, thank you, honey.” I dip my face into the crook of her neck and nip at her skin, and she shrieks, her hands sinking into my hair with a laugh.
“Your beard!” She keeps laughing as I pull back, and quickly leans in to press another kiss to my mouth. “It’s so tickly.”
I run a hand over my stubble that isn’t really stubble anymore, and balk for a second. “I probably should have shaved, you look so gorgeous and here I am looking like a lumberjack.”
“No,” she says, shaking her head and draping an arm around my neck, stroking her hand along my jaw. “I like it like this.”
“I’ll leave it then.” I kiss her forehead, and grab my glasses from the side table, slipping them on before retrieving our coats from the hooks on the wall.
I help Amber into hers, and the way she tilts her head as I help her into it shows off the graceful length of her neck.
I can’t help leaning in to plant another kiss there, which earns me a soft little laugh.
Thankfully it’s dark now, real dark, and we’re once again sneaking out to my car like delinquents. Amber casts a lecherous grin into the back seat, sticking her tongue out as she turns back to me.
“Maybe we’ll need to take the backseat for a spin again tonight?” She says with a laugh.
I leave her in charge of the music selection as we drive along the dark streets, and she introduces me to her favourite songs, talks about concerts she wants to go to, her hand on my thigh the whole time. Every now and then I’ll wrap my hand around hers, and she snuggles into my shoulder.
It feels so nice.
Too nice.
When we reach the restaurant, the parking lot is barely occupied, and I don’t recognise any of the cars here. Fairy lights hang in the trees, illuminating the coloured leaves, the porch of the rustic building decorated with flickering lanterns.
“This is so cute!” Amber’s eyes are lit up with delight as I open her door for her. “It looks like something out of a fairytale!”
“It’s very nice, very private, and the food is amazing.
” I slip an arm around her waist as we head inside, where a friendly waitress greets us with a big smile.
I’m paranoid, looking for a hint of judgement in her face, but there isn’t one.
I scan the other faces nonchalantly as we are led to our table, and there’s no one I know, not even anyone I faintly recognize.
Amber clearly doesn’t see anyone either, because she remains relaxed in my arm, smiling up at me. She’s even more magical in this light, soft and glowing like she’s lit from within.
“Here we are,” the waitress says as we reach a table at the back by a large window overlooking a garden flecked with lights. “Now, would you like any drinks to start?”
“Do you have Dr Pepper?” Amber asks, and my stomach does another one of those stupid flips. Of course she can’t drink anything stronger than that, because she’s not even 21 years old yet.
The waitress doesn’t miss a beat, and nods. “We sure do. And for you?” Her gaze lands on me, and I hastily clear my throat.
“Oh, uh, I’m driving, so I’ll be responsible and have a Dr Pepper, too.”
“Not a problem, I’ll bring those right on over and take your food orders.”
Amber smiles at me indulgently as the waitress leaves, and reaches across the table to take my hands. “You can start breathing again now.”
“What?”
She giggles, shaking her head. “You looked so damn guilty when we walked in here, and just now, with the drinks order?” She lifts a hand to stroke my cheek.
“Stop it,” she murmurs, and runs a thumb across my lower lip.
“I’m so happy I’m here with you. And I will have you know you are the most handsome man in this restaurant. Trust me. I checked.”
My cheeks flush with heat, and I can’t help but smile, taking her hand and pressing it to my lips. “And you are without a doubt the most beautiful woman here.”
“Mmm, I don’t know.” Amber’s lips twitch pensively and she looks in the direction of our waitress. “She really makes that outfit work.” She turns back to me with a grin when I chuckle. “Come on, she’s cute.”
“She is, she is.”
Amber tilts her head, sweeping her hair over her shoulder, and looking down at the menu. “Now, I am starving because all I ate today was some omelette and some cum, so-” She gives me a devilish grin when I choke out a laugh, and bites her thumb nail between her teeth. “I mean it is true.”
“In that case you probably should eat a steak, give you your strength for tonight.”
“Ooh, that sounds like a promise,” she says, her eyes lighting up.
“I guess I’ve been doing a pretty bad job of looking after you, huh? Not feeding you right. I should work on that.”
She reaches for my hand again, and shakes her head. “No, you’ve been doing a really good job of looking after me. So good that I don’t think any man is ever going to measure up to you.”
My heart does a wobbly leap, and in that moment the waitress returns with our drinks. We give up our orders - Amber does decide on a steak, which makes me smile - and once the waitress leaves, Amber eyes me from over her drink as she puts the straw in her mouth.
“This is probably the nicest date I’ve ever been on,” she says with a coy smile.
“Where do young men take their dates these days?” I huff out a laugh. “I guess they don’t take y’all to the drive-in theatre anymore?”
Amber giggles. “You know, those are actually making a comeback.”
“Oh, well, everything that was once old will be new again.”
Amber rolls her eyes. “And there you are calling yourself old again.”
I throw my hands up in defeat. “You’re right, I promised to stop. But you know, I didn’t pick you up from your house or buy you flowers, so is it really a date?”
“I guess you could always send me flowers some other time,” she says, resting her chin on the back of her hand.
“I’d need to know your favorites first.”
She laughs softly, and runs her hand through her hair. “Well you can’t send me those. They don’t sell my favorite flowers in stores. Tulips are nice, I like those two-tone ones.”
I reach across the table to take her hand. “Hold on, what are your favorites though?”
“It’s kind of silly.” Her cheeks flush a little pinker.
“My grandparents live upstate, and behind their house there’s all these orchards, acres and acres of apple and cherry trees.
We used to go there for spring break when I was a kid, and the fields would all be in bloom, like a sea of white and pink.
” She shrugs, taking up her glass in her manicured fingers.
“Apple and cherry blossoms were always my favourites. I still try to go up there in the springtime, it always makes me happy.”
“That sounds beautiful, honey.”
She nods, taking a sip through her straw.
“So,” she says after she swallows. “You said some pretty intense things over the past couple days.”
Unease instantly settles on my shoulders, and my cheeks burn with shame. “Amber, I, uh, I wanted to apologise for-”
“I’m going to stop you there.” She gives me a soft smile. “I wasn’t saying it because it was bad. I would have told you if it made me uncomfortable.”
“It… it didn’t?”
She shakes her head slowly, her eyes dropping to my hands as she reaches for them.
“I, uh, I wasn’t expecting this, I mean, this.
” Her eyes widen for a moment as she says it, and now her cheeks are burning bright red.
I realise Amber is nervous. “I liked you, obviously, and had a stupid crush, but… I never expected it to… feel like more?”
The question hangs at the end of that sentence, and her eyes rise to mine. My stupid old brain takes a beat to realise what those words and this look mean. What she’s telling me. What she’s asking me.
Amber wants more.
More of me, of us, of all of this, and I hate myself for the way my heart starts to rattle at my ribcage like it wants to jump straight out of my throat and into her hands.
Because yes, I want more too, I want her forever, I want her in my house and in my bed and sitting beside me in the car singing along to her favourite songs until I die.
But I can’t. Because I want more, I can’t.
I fucked up. I thought it was just my heart on the line here, that my own stupidity had led me into an entanglement that would have me mournfully watching stupid Hallmark movies while drinking too much whiskey for a few weeks.
I’d feel sorry for myself, sure. I’d get over it eventually.
But Amber, Amber? I can’t break her heart. I can’t do that to her. I can’t send her off tomorrow with regret and tears.
Shit. No no no, bad, BAD. Shut it down, Rembrook, fucking GENTLY.
I force my face into an understanding smile, and stroke my thumb over her knuckles. “I know what you mean, honey. I think, when you experience a kind of dom/sub dynamic for the first time, and it feels good and safe, it’s normal for that to be quite intense.”
She nods, taking another sip of her drink. “That makes sense.”
“The talk, the dirty talk, the possessive talk, it’s all part of, I guess, my thing.” I jerk my shoulders into a little shrug. “Part of the scene, you know?”
“Mhmm.” Amber licks her lips. “Yeah, it’s all, like, roleplay?”
“Kind of, yeah. I mean, yes exactly that.”
Her mouth shifts into a crooked smile. “You've always been into role-play?”
“No, just with you.”
“Hmm, I like that.” Her eyebrows twitch together pensively. “Is it always that way? Different things with different people?”