23. Callum

The bell rangand I shook my head all the way over to the front door because I knew it was going to be Addison.

Sure enough, I opened it to find him standing there with a fresh haircut, dressed nicely and a bouquet of flowers in his hands.

“I hope you’re ready for the most perfect date ever,” he said in greeting.

I laughed and took the flowers he brandished at me, shaking my head once more.

“This is your own house,” I reminded him. “No need to ring the bell.”

“I never got to do this when you were living elsewhere. Just let me have it.”

I looked him over.

“Oh, I’m not complaining. Just know I’m going to be expecting more of this in the future.”

I sniffed the flowers.

“I’ve never been given flowers,” I added. “It’s nice.”

He beamed and offered me his arm.

“Ready?”

“Yes,” I said, grinning.

I placed the flowers on the side table since they were in a little baggie of water and took his arm, allowing him to lead me out to the car.

“So, what’s on the schedule?” I asked.

“I figured we should do the classic thing; dinner, then a movie, then if you’re feeling it, we could go back to my place for drinks,” he winked.

“We’ll see. I might want to go back to my place instead.”

He chuckled.

For some reason, I was a little nervous. Whatever it was about Addison’s excitement, it was filling my stomach with butterflies and when he sat across from me in a beautifully lit restaurant a few minutes later, the feeling was magnified by the way he looked at me.

He shook his head.

“I’m the luckiest guy on the planet,” he informed me.

I blushed and Addison reached across the table to take my hand.

“All these months,” I said, “and somehow, I missed out on what dating you would be like until now.”

“And how is it?” he asked.

I shrugged self-consciously.

There was something nice about how much he wanted to take care of everything. I could tell that he wanted to spoil me and it made me feel special. No wonder all the girls I’d dated had wanted to be swooned. I was pretty sure I hadn’t held a candle to the way Addison was treating me. Not my fault, I had never felt so strongly about any of them as I did now for him.

“It’s nice,” I finally managed.

“Is that all?” he teased. “I’m going to have to up my game.”

Our food arrived then and I was finally able to tear my gaze from Addison’s sparkling blue eyes.

“Oh,” I said, looking at the extra rare steak.

“You didn’t order that,” Addison added.

“No, but I’ll eat it.”

“No, let me wave down the waiter,” he said.

We ended up having to wait for my meal to be remade and Addison insisted on waiting to start eating, which meant his food got cold by the time mine arrived. He didn’t complain but I felt a bit bad anyway.

“I don’t think we’ll make that movie,” he said as we ate. “Should we just see what’s on when we get there?”

I nodded.

“I don’t mind what we see.”

We didn’t rush through dinner or desserts, and it was still really nice. On top of that, the restaurant didn’t charge for my meal, so I really couldn’t complain. We still made it to the cinema and only about thirty minutes later than we were planning.

The next movie playing was some family comedy about a couple going on vacation. I’d never seen any ads for it and didn’t know what to expect but that was half the fun, especially with Addison’s arm around my shoulders, keeping me warm in the cool theatre.

About halfway through the movie, he leaned close to my ear.

“This movie sucks,” he whispered.

“I agree,” I whispered back. We hadn’t laughed once.

“Want to fool around?”

I glanced around quickly. Addison’s hand was already moving sensually along the back of my neck.

There were about five other people in this theatre, but I hadn’t wanted to be so ridiculous since I was in high school. Wanting to make out in a movie theatre kind of stopped once you became an adult. Yet here I was, suddenly getting a raging hard-on.

In answer, I turned, catching his lips against mine.

We made out for the rest of the movie until Addison’s hands were wandering too much and mine was pressed against the bulge in his pants and we had to pull ourselves apart.

“Let’s go,” he said the moment the ending music was playing.

We were out of there before the credits were even playing and laughingly got into the car hoping no one noticed the obvious bulging in the front of our pants.

Instead of driving, Addison turned to look at me.

“So, did you decide?” he asked.

“On what?”

“My place or yours?”

I laughed and shoved him.

“Ours.”

Chuckling, he finally pulled out of the lot, taking us home.

Inside the door, I wanted to put the flowers into a vase first, but Addison didn’t let me.

He pulled me insistently to the bedroom and I didn’t exactly fight too hard.

We left the lights on the whole time and my stomach did somersaults every time I caught the way Addison was watching me.

On my back in our bed, he took his time practically making me lose my mind before pressing into me,

“God, I love you so much,” he whispered. He didn’t need to. I already knew.

I reached up and pulled his lips down to mine because the way I was feeling, the emotions alone, added to the pleasure he was giving me, was almost too much to face.

I clung to his shoulders, overcome as he pushed into me relentlessly until we were both crying out.

We held each other through every last tremor.

Finally, he collapsed on top of me weakly and I kept my arms and legs around him because I didn’t want him to let him go just yet, not even to pull out.

Maybe it was crazy but it felt like we were one now and being that way physically gave me peace.

I wanted to tell Addison the way he made me feel, but it was indescribable.

He turned his face toward my neck with a happy, peaceful sigh.

“Nothing went the way I was hoping it would tonight,” he murmured. “Dinner was late and cold. The movie sucked.”

I chuckled.

“And I love how that didn’t matter because we were together.”

“Best date I’ve ever been on,” he agreed. “We should do this again sometime.”

“We will,” I promised.

And I knew we would, again and again, for years to come. I had no doubt of that.

This was only our beginning.