MERRICK: My assistant insists that I have to come to your door to pick you up. She’s already told me she will quit if I don’t do it.
KRISTINA: Your assistant bosses you around like that?
MERRICK: You don’t know Miss Wendy like I do. She scares me. So I think I should come to your door and pick you up. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do.
I looked up from my desk as Wendy, my assistant returned from the copy room. I really had a lot of work to get done, but I couldn’t tear myself away from the conversation with Kristina.
KRISTINA: You don’t own any axes do you?
I laughed out loud as I read her message. If I was some sort of ax murderer, I certainly wouldn’t have paid Patty thousands of dollars to join the Millionaire Matching group. I had to think of a clever response, though.
MERRICK: I live in a condo, so nope.
There were no clever responses that popped into my head. Every message I sent to Kristina, I tried to find the perfect wording. I tried to say just the right thing to keep our chemistry going.
KRISTINA: Fine, but I have cameras throughout my building. They will catch you if you bring your ax. It’s apartment 609. LOL
MERRICK: I’m excited to meet you. You seem like a fun girl, from your profile and from talking to you and texting you.
Turning the conversation serious was a little risqué, but I was willing to go there. I was supposed to talk to her a little before our date, but the more I text her, the more I felt like Kristina thought I was some sort of lame guy who did this a lot.
KRISTINA: I’m actually bald and short.
“Oh wow, she’s hilarious,” I laughed out loud.
“Who?” Wendy asked from her desk outside my office.
“This girl I’m going on a date with tonight. She just told me she’s actually bald and short. It’s an inside joke because I said I looked like George from Seinfeld.”
Wendy just rolled her eyes at me and went back to working at her desk. She didn’t seem the least bit interested in who I was talking to, but that was probably because she had witnessed a lot of women come and go in my life.
“This one just might be the one,” I hollered out at her as I came around my desk.
“What does she say about her mother?”
“What? I don’t know. I haven’t actually gone out with her yet?”
“Merrick, you are smiling and laughing like that with a girl you haven’t actually gone out with? Oh, no. And what do you mean by she might be the one? The one for this month?” Wendy laughed at her own joke.
“Nope, but I’m going out with her tonight. I made her give me her address so I could pick her up at her door and told her it was your idea.”
“She knows who I am?” Wendy asked surprised.
“Not exactly. I lied to her to convince her to give me her apartment number.”
“Oh, yeah. This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. She thinks you look like a television show character; you’ve lied to her already, and you’ve never met her in person. I won’t be holding my breath for you on this one.”
I had to laugh at Wendy. The way she said it did make things sound pretty horrible, but I was still optimistic about how our date was going to go. There was a repertoire between the two of us; a give and take even in the text messages. I had to hope that she didn’t have an apartment full of animals or some other weird issue that was going to turn me off instantly.
The rest of my Friday was busy, and I had to put my phone away so I could get some actual work done. I wanted to text Kristina every time I saw my phone and then talked myself out of it because I didn’t want to seem overly eager.
Me, seem overly eager? That idea was hilarious. I didn’t chase after women. I wasn’t the kind of guy who worried if someone was going to like me or not. This whole relationship was starting differently than I was used to, and I really liked it.
I pulled up in front of Kristina’s apartment just before six o’clock and had the Uber wait for me as I went up to get her. The high rise building was older than the one I lived in, but the deep brick looked well taken care of as did the lobby area. In New York, you either hired a car for a date or took some mode of paid transportation. In an effort not to look like a rich asshole, I chose the Uber option. Not as cheap as a cab, and not as fancy as a hired driver. I had probably spent way too much time debating which mode of transportation would be best, and I tipped the driver a hundred dollars to wait for me to come back down with Kristina.
The doorman opened the door for me right away without asking who I was, but there was a locked door that led to the elevators, and I couldn’t get through that one. I had to turn to the phone and find Kristina’s number to get buzzed into the building.
“Hello,” she answered right away after I dialed her number. “I’ll buzz you through.”
I quickly grabbed the door after the loud noise emanated through the lobby. I was nervous. For the first time in a very long time, I actually felt nervous about meeting a woman for a date. My palms were sweating, and I found myself pulling my phone out to check if I had anything in my teeth during the ride up to the sixth floor.
My heart pounded with excitement as I found apartment 609 and gently knocked on the door. First, I put my hands in my pockets, then I held onto them, then I decided on one hand in my pocket and one hand at my side so I’d look a little more relaxed and casual. My fingers shook a little as the adrenaline surged, and I tried my best to look casual while I waited for her to open the door.
The door opened slowly, and my eyes took in the absolute perfection that was Kristina as she stood in front of me. Her shoulder length red hair had small waves of curls in it, and the light from her apartment reflected off of a few strands. Her lips were plump and covered in a light pink lipstick, and my eyes stayed focused on them as she started to talk. She looked exactly like her photos.
“Well now, you don’t look anything like an ax murderer,” she said as she smiled at me.
“Hi,” I managed to get out.
What was wrong with me? I was a talker. I was known for sweeping women off their feet with my witty repartee and my sense of humor. I was the guy who could talk any woman into coming home with me. Yet there I was standing and staring at this woman like my mouth wasn’t capable of making words come out of it.
“It’s nice to meet you, Merrick,” Kristina said as she smiled and grabbed her coat from near the doorway. “Should we get going?”
“Um, yeah,” I said as she locked the door, and we made our way back to the elevator. “I hope you’re a drinker,” I managed to say.
“Why? Are you planning on getting me drunk?” She laughed.
Her eyes looked away from mine, and I couldn’t stop staring at her. She had on a little black dress that covered her curves like it had been designed exclusively for her body. Kristina wasn’t showing off a bunch of cleavage like many women did, instead, the dress went all the way up to her neck. The seduction was in how the fabric held against her body, and it was much more powerful than any overtly exposing dress.
Kristina glanced over at me as she waited for me to respond to her question. I knew I was supposed to say something, but yet again my mouth would not speak as my mind rummaged through thoughts of what this girl would be like in bed.
For years, that was all I had been concerned about; how would our night in bed be? I wanted to think like a real date, but I couldn’t just turn off my old habits. I pictured the tiny black lingerie that she probably had on underneath her dress. The feeling of it between my fingers as she lay back in my bed, and I slid each piece of clothing off until she was perfectly naked.
“Is that a yes?” She laughed.
“Oh, no. Sorry. I have a reservation for us at the Ice Lounge. I hope that’s alright.”
“Oh, yes!” she said excitedly and grabbed onto my arm. “I’ve wanted to go there forever but never had the nerve.”
As her fingers locked around my bicep, I felt a rush hurry through my body and felt
a throbbing that was very familiar to me. The unique thing was that I barely knew this girl, yet I was already throbbing and thinking about what it would be like to have her. This was going to be one hell of a first date.
“I’m glad you’re into it. I just never know what a girl is into.”
“Oh,” she said softly.
Kristina looked at me, and her face flushed red before her gaze turned away and she started to giggle. The sweet sound of her laugh and gentle embarrassment of my words were lost on me for a moment until I replayed what I had just said in my own mind.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t mean that I needed to know what you were into sexually or anything like that,” I fumbled with my words a bit. “I just meant I’m glad you’re into the ice thing. I’m going to be quiet now for a little bit,” I laughed.
Man, I just kept putting my foot in my mouth. I just couldn’t seem to get the words out in the way I wanted them. I certainly didn’t mean to reference anything sexual when we had only been thirty seconds into our date. Even I wasn’t bold enough to start a date off that way.
“It’s okay. I’m into all sorts of things; maybe I’ll tell you about them later.” She winked and then walked toward the doorway of her building.
Man oh, man! Did this girl just say what I thought she said? Kristina didn’t strike me as a woman who was wildly aggressive or flirty, so her comment had blown me away. Honestly, everything about her was blowing me away.
Suddenly, I worried that I really didn’t know how to behave on a real date, and I had been right about waiting to go out with Kristina. There was a distinct feeling that I could totally ruin things, and that put a lot of weight into what I said and did on the date. The more I thought about it, the less I talked. Thoughts of ruining something before it even got started weren’t at all how I normally looked at dating women. I wasn’t that kind of guy. I was the confident guy who didn’t care what he said or did because the women liked me no matter what.
This woman, though, this woman I wanted to like me. I wanted her to be as nervous as I was, yet she seemed to have everything together. An equal to me and my confidence, which wasn’t something I was comfortable with but was exactly what I had asked Patty to find me. There were no more excuses; I had to step up to the plate and see what might happen between this girl and me.
“By the way, that dress is incredible,” I muttered in the car on our way to the restaurant.
“Thank you,” she replied softly.
In such close proximity to each other, I felt pulled to her. Kristina’s eyes watched out of the car and looked upon the city, but I felt her gaze glance back toward me several times along our route. I had so much I wanted to ask her, but the silence seemed to fill the car enough for the time being.
It only took twenty minutes for us to arrive at the Ice Lounge, but it seemed like much longer. My conversation skills were tempered by all the thoughts running through my head. Each question I asked was lame, and yet she humored me and answered them anyway. The weather, traffic, and local sports teams were all in my normal first date repertoire but lacked any connection with Kristina. She humored me, looked my way and smiled, and gave me a sweet answer, but I could tell she was not impressed.
“Sorry, I’m really nervous,” she said as I helped her out of the vehicle in front of the lounge.
“Your hand is shaking.”
“I’m not usually this nervous. I have to admit I did finally get a copy of your profile from Patty, and I knew you didn’t look like George from Seinfeld,” she joked as we walked toward the building.
It was such a relief to hear her words. She was nervous. I was nervous. We were both extremely nervous. The uniqueness of our honesty was already something I had not experienced on a date.
“Umm, it’s okay to be nervous,” I said as I tried to put her at ease. “Are you still alright with going into the Ice Lounge? It’s going to be really cold in there, but they have some big coats we can wear.”
“Yes, I’ve wanted to come here forever.”
I put my arm around her and pulled her close as we walked into the cold building. At least I’d have a reason to be close to her for the next hour or so. The freezing temperatures had been a strategic ally in my date planning.
Chapter 6
Kristina
Merrick wasn’t nearly as cocky as I had expected him to be. In fact, he was really sweet and genuine in everything he asked me as we made our way to the Ice Lounge. I was so nervous, though; I could hardly stop my hands from shaking and was so embarrassed as he reached into the car to help me out.
Beth and I had practiced what I was going to say and how I was going to make it through my date with him, but I couldn’t have prepared myself for just how nervous he made me. It wasn’t even something I could put my finger on, just the combination of everything that made him the man he was.
Merrick’s shining blue eyes were too much for me, and I had to avoid looking at him as I stood next to him outside of the restaurant. But when he put his arm around me and started rubbing up on down to keep me warm, I just melted right then and there.
I didn’t care that I hardly knew this guy. I knew enough to try and relax a little. Even if he was a player like I had heard, it was alright with me. I didn’t need to find a forever guy on my first real date. We could just go out, have a fun night, and maybe even have a delicious night in bed. It was crazy that I was actually considering a one-night thing with this guy, and I quickly checked myself as I remembered that Patty had a rule in her club about no intimacy without a commitment. There would be no hot one-nighters I told myself and started to refocus on the date at hand. I had to get to know him. The real him, the guy he was underneath all the gorgeous good looks.
The idea that he also knew the same rules as I did was an instant relief for me. He wasn’t being nice because he thought he was going to get laid. This guy was actually being nice to me without the intention of sleeping with me; that made me like him even more than I already did.
He was handsome. Better looking than most of the men I’d ever gone out with, except the hot snowboarder I dated briefly a few years before. I was on the lookout for what was possibly wrong with this guy, though. How did a polite, good looking, rich guy like Merrick Stanley end up unmarried at his age? There were hundreds of eligible women who would have killed to land him and probably nearly as many who had actually dated him; why hadn’t he closed the deal?
“Let me help you with this coat,” Merrick said as he wrapped me in a floor length fur coat.
The bar was already chilly and we hadn’t even stepped into the icy back room.
“Eww, what kind of animal is this?” I cringed.
I really didn’t mean to sound like a spoiled brat or even an animal rights person. I knew ahead of time that the bar liked to give people fur coats to enter the ice room with. I’d had a friend who told me all about it. But it still really grossed me out when the coat was put on me.
“It’s actually fake fur ma’am,” the waiter said, which was a huge relief for me.
It was better than wearing a real animal’s fur but still made me feel like I was betraying all my liberal animal lover beliefs. I would have asked if they had other, non-fur coats, but I didn’t want to cause a scene with Merrick there. The coat wasn’t a big deal.
“You would think you could have found some warm coats that didn’t look like dead animals,” Merrick added and won my heart.
“This is fun,” I joked as we both walked behind the waiter and into the large ice covered room. The walls were literally made of huge blocks of ice, as were the benches and most of the other furniture throughout the room.
“Wait until I’m all hyped up on Vodka, then my personality really comes out.”
“I can’t wait.”
“We have thirteen different vodkas that you can choose from for your tasting as well as a list of preferred appetizers and desserts,” the waiter said as he handed us a menu.
My mouth wate
red as I looked at the menu. and thought about all the delicious vodkas they had to taste. I wasn’t a vodka specialist or anything like that, but I did really enjoy a nice vodka mixed with cranberry juice. Although, I wouldn’t dare try too many of their specialty drinks or I’d lose my ability to maintain my composure around the delicious man I was with.
“If you don’t mind, I’d just like to order one shot of each of the vodkas and one of each of the appetizers,” Merrick said without waiting.
“Sir?”
“Is that okay with you?” he asked me.
“Sure, I’ll eat the food. You drink the vodka.”
“Ha, deal.”
The waiter looked just as surprised as I did that Merrick had ordered so much. There was no way I was drinking thirteen shots of vodka or anything close to that. I could probably make it through two shots if we took our time and talked for a little bit, but by the third shot I’d likely have my clothes off and be dancing in the middle of our ice room. Being nervous and drinking never ended up very well for me; I always had a false confidence in what was going on and nearly always made really poor decisions.
“Did I tell you how stunning you look in that dress?” Merrick asked as we waited for our items.
“Yes you did, but you can tell me again.”
“That dress is amazing on you. It’s like someone took your exact measurements and hand-stitched it right there on your body.”
“Wow,” I giggled as my face turned red with embarrassment. “You’re good at the complimenting thing; that’s for sure. And yes, that’s exactly what happened. The lady was at my house all day stitching me into this dress.”
“I’m sorry. That was a little cheesy; it’s an old habit, but every bit of it was true.”
“I’ve got some old habits too, but none of them involve making people blush.”
“I make you blush?” he asked as he moved in closer to me, and his fingers intertwined with mine.
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