Chapter 4: Exploring the possibilities

Beth and I left the office quickly. We were both anxious to get away from the smirking faces, whispers and giggles that were going around our department.

We walked side by side through the halls and waited for an elevator in silence. We gave each other nervous glances and small smiles of anticipation until we heard the ding of the elevator announcing its arrival on our floor.

We walked in and quickly pressed the button to go down to the garage level where we could get into our cars. As the doors closed we both breathed a sigh of relief and then burst out laughing as we realized that we both had the same exact reaction to the release of tension that we felt by getting out of the office.

By the time the doors of the elevator opened Beth and I were pretty much under control. We were still a bit giddy, but for the most part we were acting fairly normally again. As the doors opened I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. She squeezed my hand back and that was all the confirmation that I needed to feel good about what had happened up in the office.

As we got near her car I asked, "Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do? Should we go to my place?"

"That is very tempting, but let's actually go out first. I'm afraid that I may not be able to control myself if we are alone right now. I want to take you out and have some time together."

"Are you trying to turn this into a date?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes. I am," I replied seriously. "I have never taken you out on a real date and I want to spend tonight with you, not as a friend or a co-worker, but as my date. Does that sound stupid?"

"No. I think that's great. I would love to out with you as your date."

"Good, because all I want to do right now is be with you."

"Me too. I thought that we would never be together after I saw you and your sister last night. I was sure that I would never want anything to do with you again, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I was so convinced that you were just like the other men that I have known that I just assumed you were on a date with another woman. I just want you to know that I'm sorry about the way I acted. I promise that I will talk to you the next time I'm unsure of something between us."

"Good. You can always ask me about anything and I promise to tell you the truth. You are totally forgiven for thinking that I lied to you. I can see how you would think that I did. Please don't worry about that anymore."

"Thank you. I just feel foolish about it."

"Don't. It's over and done. Now I just want to start over. I'm taking you out on a date for the first time and I don't want you to spend the evening worrying about that. Let's have fun." I really wanted our first date to be memorable, but not in a negative way.

"Okay. Let's go out then. Where do you want to go for dinner?"

"Do you like Mexican?"

"I love it."

"Let's go to Nacho Mama's."

"The place in Canton?"

"Yeah. Ever tried it?"

"No, but several people have recommended it to me before."

"Let's go there then."

"Sounds great. Can we stop over at my place on the way though? I really want to change out of this outfit and put something more comfortable on."

"Okay. We can leave your car there and I'll drop you off when we're done."

I followed Beth to her apartment and waited in her living room while she got changed. She was actually pretty quick about it, but she did a nice job making it look like she was in there all day getting ready. I whistled in appreciation when she came back in to the living room. She was wearing jeans and print blouse along with some casual shoes. The casual nature of the clothing didn't matter though. The jeans showed off her legs and ass perfectly and she had touched up her makeup and fixed her hair. The makeup got rid of the tired puffiness that she had before and she pulled her hair back in a simple ponytail with a few wisps of hair escaping and caressing the sides beautiful her face. My heart was pounding painfully at the sight of her. We needed to get out of there quickly or we'd never leave.

"I'm all set," she said. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"You were actually pretty fast, and it wouldn't matter how long it took you to get ready if the end result is this good. You look beautiful."

"Thanks," she said with a smile. "It's just jeans and a shirt."

"On anyone else it would be no big deal. On you it's sexy as hell. We better go before I change my mind about tonight's menu."

"You're sweet. We could stay in if you want."

"I do, but let's go out anyway."

"Okay. Let's go."

She grabbed her purse and keys as we headed toward the front door. As she locked the door I took a moment to admire her from the back. Damn, she was sexy. How did I ignore that ass all of this time in the office? I planned to spend a good amount of time getting acquainted with it later.

"All locked up," she said as she turned from locking the door.

I stepped up and gave her a brief kiss on the lips. "Thank you," I said.

"For what?"

"Just for being my date. I can't remember the last time I felt this good about taking a woman to dinner."

"It's my pleasure to go with you. I have been hoping you would be interested in me for a little while now."

"Have you now? That's news to me."

"That's because you're blind," she laughed.

"I must be. It took me all this time to even notice you as a woman rather than just a co-worker."

"Better late than never."

"I agree."

We took my car and headed over to Canton which is a neighborhood in Baltimore that had recently gone from a blue collar middle class area of town with mostly run down row houses to an up-and-coming chic place for the 20 and 30 some-things to buy and renovate houses. A friend of mine bought a row house there for under $40,000 and renovated it several years before this and now it was worth about $300,000. Not a bad return on investment.

Nacho Mamas was on the main square in Canton and we were very lucky to find a place to park on the street near the restaurant. We walked hand in hand for the half block from the car to restaurant and talked about the city and places we like to go. Once again I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of things that we had in common. We liked most of the same places and things in town.

There was a few minute wait to be seated in the small Mexican restaurant, but that wasn't unusual. We waited by the bar and each had a frozen margarita while we waited to be seated.

"What have you got going on this weekend?" Beth asked me.

"The only thing I have planned is going to the Maryland vs. Georgia Tech basketball game on Saturday afternoon."

"You lucky bastard. That's going to be a great game."

"Do you want to go with me? My friend Brian, the guy that I share the season tickets with, is going out of town on business this weekend and can't come," I replied.

"Are you serious? I would love to go with you. I'm not poaching on your time with the guys am I? I wouldn't want your friends to be mad at you for taking me rather than one of them."

"It's no problem. I usually go with Brian, so the other guys don't expect me to take them very often. I'm happy to have you with me if you want to go. I know you are a real Maryland fan and I like that. I might have still asked you to go if you weren't a Maryland fan just because I like spending the time with you, but since you are a legit fan there's no doubt that I want you to come with me."

"Count me in then. I can't wait."

We talked all through dinner and I had a great time with Beth. Most of our conversation was just fun stuff. Our conversation didn't get too deep or anything. The only time we talked about our relationship at all was when Beth asked me about my family. While I was telling her about them my sister, Heather, came up.

"It's nice that you get to spend time with your family. My parents don't live here and my brother is still in college," she lamented.

"It is nice. I like doing things with my family, but I don't seem to have as much time for family stuff lately."

"You and your sister Heather obviously find time to hang out."

"We get along great, but we don't see each other as often as either of us would like. The only reason I was having dinner with her last night was because I wanted an outside opinion on something."

"Like what?"

"Like you."

"Really? You had dinner with your sister to talk to her about me? Why?"

"I realized that I am interested in you for more than our past friendship and I thought that you might feel that way too. I wanted to get her opinion on what I should do because you and I work together. It's not often that I will date someone in the office. It complicates things."

"I know. I thought about that too. So what did she have to say about all of this?"

"She asked me how I felt about you and a bunch of other rather pointed questions and then proceeded to tell me that basically, I was a moron if I didn't give it a shot with you."

"Obviously you took her advice."

"Yes. She was very convincing," I replied with a chuckle.

"I am going to have to meet her so that I can thank her for her support."

"I'm sure she would love to know that she made all the difference. I'll never hear the end of it from her. Can you imagine the hell I am going to go through with her if you and I ever get serious? It will be unbearable."

"Well, don't worry about that. If things happen then they happen. I imagine if we ever did get to the point where she could really turn up the teasing with you then you probably wouldn't even care anymore. I know that's how it would be for me. 'Tease me all you want, ' I'd say. I'm thrilled how things have come out."

"Wow. What's this? A purely positive attitude from you? I better not tell anyone in the office or they will probably have me committed," I joked.

"Very funny, mister..." She and I joked and talked all the way through dinner and another round of drinks. We had a great time.

She did slip back into her "bitch" persona, but it wasn't directed toward me. Outside the restaurant when we were done eating we were walking back to the car and a group of pretty drunk guys was coming the other way down the sidewalk. They were talking and laughing amongst themselves and generally being obnoxious like drunken guys usually are. They weren't paying any attention to us walking the other way and one of them bumped into me which in turn pushed me into her.

Beth couldn't help herself from saying something to the guy. "Watch where you're going, asshole," she said to the guy.

"Fuck you," the guy spat back at her.

"Screw you. The next time you want to get drunk and be a jerk, do it at your own house so that other people don't have to be bothered with you knocking them over."

"It was an accident, lady. Get a life."

I decided at that point to jump in before it got even uglier than it already was. "Come on, Beth. Let's just go. It's not worth arguing with him."

She reluctantly agreed and we managed to avoid further confrontation and get back to the car.

"That guy was an asshole," she said to me when we were in the car and on the road headed toward her place.

"Beth, calm down. He was just some college-age kid that had a few drinks and wasn't looking where he was going."

"I know. It just pissed me off that he ran right into you like that and had no intention of even apologizing."

"He was rude, but not worth getting upset over. You take things too personally."