Impossible Dreams Ch 05

"Oh, Nick..."

"You've been patient and I can never be grateful enough for that. But if you'll let me, can we go steady?" Such an archaic phrase, but that somehow was the first that came to mind. Those couple seconds felt like the night was passing by before Dottie started breaking into tears, presumably overwhelmed from my asking plus bringing the flowers.

"Yes. Yes! YES!" Without hesitation she exclaimed her affirmations. I hadn't even proposed and she was that overjoyed as she gave me a kiss. "You don't know how much I've wanted this."

"I hope you don't hate me for putting this off," I said, wiping the tears from her face with my handkerchief.

"It was probably for the best. You've seen a lot more things than I have."

"That makes me feel a lot better. Hey, let's put those roses in your car and get in here before they give our reservation away." That was a lie, I told them that she'd probably be a few minutes late (expecting her to get somewhat dolled up). I did tell her 7:15 after all.

We went in and over the course of the next hour and 20 minutes enjoyed our four course meal, the birthday girl was serenaded by a violinist, had a dessert on the house, got to know each other even more, talked pop culture, a few other things. But the other elephant in the room had yet to come up as we started to talk sports briefly. "Speaking of Jesus Santiago, did you hear he got sent down to the Canaries the other day? The Meerkats got him from free agency but have too much depth at his position and there had been rumors about them trading Robinson to make space for him."

"No kidding." She didn't keep up with the business of sports other than how well the teams did. She was an athlete herself, but only recreationally. But she had a vested interest as he was one of her celebrity crushes.

"Would you like to meet him?"

"Really?! How?"

"Remember my business trip to Dallas? in December?"

"Yeah."

"It was actually an industry job fair. I put in an application with about 75 teams teams."

"Wow, so many in only a couple days?"

"I even was interviewed by several."

"I mean, I knew you knew people here and around sports, but that's pretty good!"

"Well one of those was a general manager job. That was the closes to the big time that was open that I was qualified for."

"Does that mean you're moving away? And you want me to come with you when I finish college?" She started getting a little concerned. Not the direction I anticipated the conversation to go.

"Did you hear the local news the week after New Years?"

"Nope."

"Well there was a story about a young man... who..." I couldn't contain the tears of joy building up in me even though I was already in the position a couple months.

"Go on, tell me."

"Who was going to be the next general manager of the Canaries."

"Oh my Gosh. Nickie!" Dottie almost sounded annoyed and whiny. "When were you gonna tell me?"

"I, uh, was gonna call you the Saturday after I got back but then the Thursday prior, they asked me to help out with a couple of baseball business things since the Meerkats were making other organizational operational changes. And I got so swamped in that that I'm surprised I was even able to text you. By the time last week came around, I wasn't just going to leave that on the note I left without warning."

""That's amazing!" I exhaled with relief.

"I was going to ask you out regardless of that, but this makes it way better for us. Plus, I wanted to share that glass of wine with you." A great value $40 1998 zinfandel out of the heart of the Sonoma Valley - a Carlisle brand Piner-Olivet Ranches zin. Though I'm barely a social drinker, if it weren't a first date (I'm treating it like one), I would go with one of the Niagara wines or from the Finger Lakes in my travels, I have been recommended so many, but these get the high marks. Each of us only had a glass, but it was another bottle I could add to my "offer to guests collection" if I ever had company. This made eleven bottles I could offer across all wines and alcohol.

"I'm surprised you drink anything."

"I sample things periodically at other peoples houses so as to not seem rude. I just take it in shot glasses."

"Shot glasses?"

"Ah, you haven't been over to a Fratelli function yet. The Balkan men in the family drink local moonshine from Croatia in a shot glass warmed on the stove. The first one for a 16-19 year old young man is like a right of passage, sometimes as young as 14."

"Oh dear."

"Yeah. It's a social thing." So I was used to using a shot glass. It was better than boozing myself 'til it was drunk.

"I've never actually had rakija because it just reeks of a stench indescribable. my Polish half does spiritus, but that's more like a spirit gum to me."

"It's amazing you didn't become an alcoholic if the rest drink all that stuff."

"Anyway, lets get take it easy now that I have the receipt. Here's a room key, 1207." The top floor was where they kept their best suites that they offered with this "spring fling deal" and had it been without the promotion, no way in hell even with my new salary was I going to spend it just for a birthday for someone i hadn't been seeing for two hours officially. "And don't get any ideas."

~~~

"Don't you worry about a thing, Nickiepoo." I thought he must have worked up the courage to get a little extra familiar with me. I wasn't holding my breath, but I wouldn't mind it. I remember him saying something about him only being in one relationship for about 8 months. But I don't think he did anything more. He could probably have easily been able to be with any woman he wanted, the handsome fuck. I was close to not being a virgin with Harley, but I told him I wasn't ready and he expected that. But the thought of being an older man's first was super hot.

The crazy thing is I love him so much that I haven't sworn in front of him like ever. Okay, yeah he's heard me swear in the classroom when I was talking to friends and stuff. But never when we were alone and not even in messages to each other. He was so perfect and clean mouthed I kinda took after him when we were together. Maybe it was the respect I had for him as a substitute - worked with us but came down with an iron fist when he had to. And he was a champion for me when Harley wasn't being nice to me. Part of me wishes he would've told Harley off.

But if we could go beyond making out, I'd call it a win for me. If I'm being honest, Harley and I didn't get much further than second base ourselves, so it would be nice to have that again. Nick is such a straight shooter that I don't know if he'll have the nerve. It helped that if anything were to happen tonight, my first class isn't until 12:30 tomorrow. "Hey Nick?"

"You alright?"

"Yeah I wanna get something from the car first." I had a change of clothes at the ready just in case.

"Okay we'll see who gets there first then."

I actually also had a couple of unmentionable surprises in there that I was sure if I would use in addition to emergency accessories such as a spare pair of tights in case I found a run in them. Or maybe they would come in handy if he hasn't explored fetishes yet. I mean that is pretty common and even if he didn't have any, I could get him into something simple. As much as I love tights, I don't go out of my way to get dressed to the nines more than a few times a month just because I want it to feel special when I look my best. I mean I can still look great on other nights without having to be so formal and even though we live in a colder city, it still gets pretty warm in the summer.

As it turned out, I got to the room first and OMG was it gorgeous! Even if he had to find a discount (and I wasn't about to ask) I wanted to cry. I never had anyone, and I mean anyone take such good care of me like Nick did. I see he'd already been here long before dinner because there was a scent of peach in the air and an array of rose petals on the floor and the bed. Did I just walk into the room I was going to get laid in?