C H A P T E R 6 4
I thought a lot about how I was going to ask him out and I couldn't come up with anything. It wasn't everyday that I had to plan something special for a special someone. It was actually the first time that I had to do something like this.
But then I decided that a way to a man's heart was through his stomach and I knew how much of a foodie Ethan was and I knew what I had to do, all thanks to Keith and his magical hands.
I was going to cook for him. I was going to set it up prettily which would look romantic and then I was going to ask him out. Picturing this in my mind made me so giddy for the evening. I couldn't wait to get started and pour all of my feelings for him in the dish I'd make.
I had already told him to get off work a little early that usual so that we could have our special dinner before everyone else.
After an hour or two after lunch I was going to start with my cooking and I had asked for me to be alone in the kitchen and for there to be necessary ingredients around so that I wouldn't have to waste my time searching around for things.
I was going to make a full three course meal for the both of us.
I was confident and sure that he would love this.
When it was time, I bounded down the stairs, a big smile on my face as I imagined how he would react to me cooking for him.
My smile disappeared when I saw Ethan in the kitchen, eating. "What're you doing here?"
"Eating." He said, his mouth stuffed with food.
"I thought you ate out today because you didn't come during lunch time."
"There was a lot of work to be done so I didn't have time to eat. Now I'm free so I don't have go back."
Well, crap.
"And this had to happen today?"
"What do you mean?"
I sighed.
"Nothing, just finish up quickly. You must be hungry."
He nodded and I left. I'd have to wait till he finished up.
Fifteen minutes later, I went back and saw that Ethan had now finished eating but was just sitting there, scrolling on his phone.
"Ethan, you finished eating?"
He looked up. "Yeah."
"Then what are you doing here? You should go to your room and rest."
"I'm not sleepy. I'm actually feeling a lot energetic despite having worked a lot today."
"Why aren't you tired?" I muttered under my breath. "You should go."
He looked at me confusedly. "Where?"
"Anywhere. Just not here."
"Why?"
"Because the helpers are going to clean up here."
He looked around at the shiny clean kitchen. "It's spotless here, though. And I've cleaned up after myself."
"That's just on the surface. You don't know how many bacteria and germs must still be present on it. They need to deep clean it."
"I don't recall them ever deep cleaning here."
"You aren't in the kitchen twenty four by seven."
"But I know what happens around here."
I groaned. "Please, Ethan. Please, please leave."
"What are you doing here?"
"Nothing."
"I'm not going anywhere."
I sighed. "Why are you so stubborn?"
"Why can't you just tell me why you're making me leave?"
"It's a secret, okay? I have plans."
"Well carry on with your plans. I'm not going disrupt it."
No! I had ordered all the ingredients fresh this afternoon and I didn't want to wait for some other day to make it. I wanted to cook when everything was still fresh so that it would exude its utmost flavor and taste.
I wanted this to be a surprise.
"Ethan," I sat next to him with big eyes and my puppy dog face. I put a hand on his arm and continued, "Please let me have the kitchen for myself for two hours."
He widened his eyes and mimicked my look. "No."
I groaned again. "Then don't complain if it doesn't turn out to be that romantic or surprising! And if your answer is no, I'm going to blame you for it!"
He blinked. "What?"
I stood up and headed over the kitchen counter to start on making beef tenderloin with red wine sauce. I searched up for recipes and I found this to be easy and an elegant dinner with a special someone.
As I was sorting through the ingredients, I felt Ethan's presence next to me. "Oh. You were going to cook for me. You're going to ask me out today."
"Yes," I said quietly. "But you kind of ruined it for yourself."
"You could've done it any other day."
"I ordered these ingredients this afternoon. They are so fresh. I didn't want it to go to waste."
He nodded. "Sorry. But don't worry, I won't let this come in the way of my decision, I promise."
"If you say so. I would've still preferred it to be a surprise though. I didn't want to do this just for the sake of asking you out. I genuinely wanted to cook for you and make you happy."
He smiled and stroked my hair. "Then that's all that matters."
"So now that you know, let me work on this."
"Let me help." He volunteered.
"No, I want to do this on my own. Besides do you know how to cook? Keith was a God in the kitchen. I miss him so much." I said, getting an apron for myself.
He cleared his throat. "I don't think admitting to missing a man who liked you in front of the man you like is flattering to that man." Then he took the apron from me and slid into it. "I'll show you how good I am at cooking." He said, tightening the knot at the back.
"No...I told you I was going to do this."
"And I'm not going to listen," he said adamantly. He took off the scrunchie on my wrist and turned me around so that my back was facing him. He gathered my hair, his fingers smoothly running through my hair like a gentle caress and tied my hair back in a decent ponytail. "You can help."
I had everything planned out meticulously but he was going to ruin my plans.
I whined a little about how this wasn't supposed to be like this but he had already started with the sauce. Grudgingly I joined in making it.
Two hours later, which would have been an hour and a half had we not played with the food and broke into an impromptu food fight or fought over the quantity of ingredients added, the beef tenderloin sat prettily in our plates.
I had set the table while he cleaned up the counter which we had made a mess of.
"This looks good!" I said, poking the beef with my fork.
"I bet it tastes better than whatever Keith had made and fed you."
"Ethan, Keith is a chef. It shouldn't be the case that you are better at this than him because he's good at this and because this is his profession, likewise how you are better at business matters than him. We all have our own area of expertise."
"But I am good. You take a bite and tell me." He argued.
"Fine, shall we start?"
"We shall."
We dug into our meal at once and when I chewed on the it, I could barely hold back my surprise. Ethan really was good at this. Keith had never made beef tenderloin for me but I knew it would taste better than this. Ethan and I were no chefs but this was pretty decent. Keith was too perfect.
"See? It's so good. I love it." He gushed. "I just realized I was so hungry."
"Me too. We should cook more often, maybe, if you ever get the time."
"We will." He promised.
"Here." I held out my fork towards him. "Eat."
He smiled and took that bite. "The sauce is really delicious," he commented.
We were no longer eating from our own plates. We were sharing even if we had the same thing on our plates. It was a delightful evening and I didn't think I could've cooked better than what we both did.
After we were both done, Ethan helped me with the dishes after which it was dinner time for the others.
We escaped upstairs and I invited him into my room to sit out in the balcony and gaze up at what few stars we could see or marvel down at the beautiful expansive estate of the Jenson's.
We had laid out blankets and snuggled closer into some warm ones.
After we had a long conversation about space and the unknown during which I learned that he had an obsessive interest with it, I thought this was the perfect moment to ask him that question. "You already know that I planned this dinner to ask you out, so...would you go out with me?"
He knew the question was coming as the night progressed but he still looked surprised.
"I came up with an idea and you might not be entirely happy with it." He said after a few seconds.
"I think I'd be fine as long as you give me a chance."
"I'll give you three dates. These dates aren't just any normal dates.
In these three dates you have to prove to me that you are sincere about your feelings.
I don't know how you're going to do this but I know that what you'll have in mind for us will tell me how much thought and heart you put into it. You can take your time planning them."
"Sounds like a business deal."
"Sorry about that. As you already know, I'm a businessman. We don't involve emotions when there is something we can lose or gain. These are my efforts to protect my heart."
"But feelings aren't something you should treat with a business approach."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"What happens after these three dates?"
"I score you. And if it's higher than seventy-five percent, I'll be the one to ask you out, properly."
"You're enjoying this a little too much. I feel like I'm giving a college test. And what if I don't get higher than seventy-five?"
"I'll think about that later. Oh, and there is a rule."
I looked at him in anticipation.
"You can't kiss me on any of those dates. No intimate bodily contact of any kind."
I scoffed. "As if. You were the one who always jumped me."
"Did you perhaps forget the kisses you stole from me whenever I showed up late at night in your room when you thought I was drunk enough to not remember it the next day?"
My cheeks turned so hot, I could have roasted some beef tenderloin on it.
It completely escaped my mind that he had admitted to been drunk only for the first few nights. I was embarrassed. I had stolen kisses and murmured my apologies to him, but to my great relief, I hadn't said anything about my secret. I felt like a sex offender. No, I was a sex offender.
"I'm so sorry."
"Its fine but I don't want you to kiss me when I'm not conscious, not aware of what is happening to me or under the influence of alcohol."
I nodded. "I really am sorry for taking advantage of you all those nights."
"Hmm...it wasn't exactly taking advantage because I was sober and I didn't push you away. But then again it was because you didn't know that."
"I'm really, really sorry."
"It's fine."
I was still a lot embarrassed. I shuddered every time I thought about it.
"We should go to bed." And then I rephrased my sentence because it sounded like I was implying something else as well. "To our respective beds...in our respective rooms."
I heard him snicker behind me as I got up to gather the blankets and pillows.
I wasn't going to rush the dates. The next day, I sat down with a pen and a paper and jotted down good ideas for dates. I didn't want to be superficial. I knew Ethan wasn't after something extravagant.
Last night's dinner proved that. Even something as simple as cooking together could make him happy.
I spent the whole day thinking about what I could do. Even when I was doing something else, the three dates looming ahead were always in the back of my mind.
I thought about his life. He was an ideal college student. He told me that he never had a girlfriend in college, never did anything fun or went to parties. Although I had been on numerous parties with Olivia, it was something that Ethan did not get to experience.
So it was a little hasty decision but I knew where I was taking him on our first date. A wild college party. To show him something he hadn't seen before. I was sure he would like to try something new.
I searched up nearby colleges and with Amelia's help located Daphne's house.
She was a student in a nearby college and had a party at her house this weekend.
She was Amelia's friend's little sister.
She told us we could join them although I knew that even if we weren't invited and had barged in there no one would've noticed.
When the weekend arrived, I told Ethan to dress up casually and to have his schedule free for the evening. I chose to wear a wine red dress which ended just above my knees with a halter neckline.
When we arrived, Ethan was stunned to say the least. He really hadn't expected me to bring him to a party.
"Did you seriously just bring me to a high school party for our date?"
"I know it's weird and you probably hate it right now but I just thought about how you told me that you didn't go to parties during your college days and I didn't want you to miss out on that.
Even though I'm not a big fan of it myself, but still I think it's important you experience this.
And it's not a high school party, the host is a college student. "
"This is not what I had expected." He said. "You surprise me."
"Come on, don't judge it just yet."
We entered the house and it was pretty packed. Ethan had never been around crowded places much and I hoped he wasn't feeling claustrophobic.
"Are you okay?" I yelled over the music.
He nodded. "Where are we going?"
"Let's just get some drinks first."
I led him to the bar which had a lot of cans of alcohol. I handed him one and we sat on the stools. I looked at him to analyze his reaction.
"It's so loud in here!" He said, eyeing the crowd dancing.
The air was a mixture of hot sweat and I hoped he didn't hate it.
"I've never been to such a party before."
"Yeah, I figured that much. The only parties you must have attended are boring business parties."
"This is different."
"Did you not even go to a club?"
He pressed his lips together. "Not my scene."
"How do you know that when you didn't go to one?"
"I just thought it wouldn't suit me."
"Let's dance?"
"There?" He asked, looking at the packed crowd with practically no space to squeeze in through.
"Yeah, it'll be fun." I hopped off the stool and held out my hand for him.
He placed his empty can on the table and placed his hand in mine. I led him in the middle of the room and he looked around, a little panicked.
"How to dance...I-"
I smiled and leaned up to his ear. "It's okay. Relax. I know you're probably worried how you'd look to other people but trust me, no one's going to remember even if you did the worst dance in history."
"I just know calm ballroom dancing. Nothing like this."
"It doesn't matter."
I pulled him close and guided his hands to my waist and rested mine around his neck.
"So...how do you feel?"
"A little uncomfortable." He admitted, still a little self conscious.
"Shit. You told me no intimate physical contact." I was about to step away from him but he tightened his arms around me.
"No, it's not because of you. Actually you're the only thing making me slightly less uncomfortable.
And no, this does not fall under the category of intimate physical contact.
" He leaned a little closer until the side of my head was grazing his cheek.
"I've never been in this environment. It's a little overwhelming but I'll be okay. "
I nodded, suddenly finding myself incapable of words as my nose touched his neck. We were hugging, kind of, but awkwardly shuffling to the music.
After some time I felt him loosen up slightly as the crowd somewhat receded. He pulled away and started to dance. Although his movements were a little stiff, I laughed and joined him too.
We were having a pretty good time. As the night progressed and we had a couple of drinks and Ethan was a bit tipsy, he became a lot more comfortable.
We danced beyond the point of being intimate.
We spent some time outside at the pool area to get some fresh air while eating pastries we found in the refrigerator.
I hoped Daphne wouldn't mind to see two absolutely delicious pastries gone.
By the time I decided that we needed to get home, it was past one in the morning.
I called the driver because Ethan was a little too drunk to operate his phone.
He leaned on me heavily as we sat on the front porch steps.
I should've known when it was too much alcohol for him.
I hadn't drank as much as he did. Now he had his head on my shoulder and his eyes closed while I put my arm around his waist to ensure he wouldn't fall.
Every now and then he would murmur something against the skin on my collarbone and I had to suck in a breath. He still wasn't out of his dancing phase because he asked if I wanted to dance with him again a few times.
Once the car arrived, I hauled him inside with some help from the driver. He was sleepy, I noticed rather than being wasted. I guess him working late at night all those days finally caught up to him.
When we reached the mansion, I put him to bed after taking off his shoes and making sure he was in a comfortable position to sleep.
With a kiss to his head, because although he told me I couldn't kiss him, it was on the forehead. Forehead kisses were harmless. I whispered good night to him and left the room.
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