Caleb 69 - Integration
Sarah:
I walked toward the door to the suite. Arnie was waiting for me downstairs. I'd told him not to come up since the valet charges were expensive and we were going straight out in any case.
"If you're not coming back tonight," Caleb said, "let us know so we don't worry. Other than that, you are your own boss. And, if you and Arnie want some alone time, the other suite is all yours. Better that than putting yourself at risk in some dark alley or parking lot."
I nodded to Caleb, feeling my face heat once more, and left the suite making for the bank of elevators just down the corridor.
It took a few minutes for the elevator to arrive. My stomach was in knots. I really liked Arnie. I'd only really met him just over a week ago, the night of the fire, but he just seemed to be perfect for me. He was totally different from Trevor.
Trevor was a wannabe - someone who relied on his father's reputation and money to get anywhere, not that that was going to do him any good since his father had been killed. I did kind of feel bad for him about that, but once I'd heard what was going on in Trevor's head, I didn't want anything to do with him. I'd been becoming more and more uncomfortable with him pressuring me for sex recently and, after that dinner we had, I wondered what I'd ever seen in him.
I know Caleb had told me that the amulet didn't make me stupid, but things seemed so much clearer now I'd gotten rid of it.
The elevator pinged as the doors opened and I stepped inside and pressed the button to descend to the exit of the hotel.
Yes, Arnie was totally different from Trevor. For one thing he was honest. He told me that he'd been crushing on Caleb and that he, himself, was much more interested in the person he was with, rather than their sex. However, when he'd first seen me, something had changed. We'd spent a couple of hours at his birthday party, sitting in his car in the garage, just getting to know one another. I'd shamelessly listened into his thoughts and, when I'd heard in his mind that he was trying to work up the courage to kiss me, I took the initiative.
He wasn't a bad kisser, but I guessed he hadn't had much practice. Not that I was that experienced, but we fairly quickly figured it out between us. Had that been Trevor, he'd have been ripping at my clothes and trying to get into my pants. Arnie, however, contented himself with just holding me, stroking my head, and back as we kissed. He was gentle, despite the need I could feel in him.
I shook my head as the elevator doors opened.
I needed to stop comparing Arnie with Trevor. I guessed it was because Trevor was my first real boyfriend. It was probably natural I would compare the two, but there was no real comparison. Arnie was a gentleman, a nice guy. Maybe he wasn't as rich as Trevor's family was, but that didn't matter.
I walked out of the hotel and saw Arnie sitting in his car, pulled into the waiting area. The valets were giving him dirty looks, but since he was collecting someone from the hotel, they didn't seem inclined to tell him to move on.
Arnie spotted me and I saw his face split into a grin and then he looked properly. I saw his jaw drop. I smiled to myself as I heard his thought, even from here.
"She's beautiful,"
he thought, thinking to get out of his car to open my door. Unfortunately for him his body seemed to like what he was seeing too.
"Shit - I can't get out with a boner."
I grinned at him as I picked up that thought. While he was still arguing with himself about being gentlemanly, and opening the car door thus revealing his 'predicament', I'd crossed to the car, opened the door myself, and gotten into the passenger seat.
"H..hi," he said hesitantly as I got in and turned to him.
I grinned at him. "Where are we going?"
"Do you like seafood?" he asked, hopefully.
I nodded. "Love it," I said.
"Great," he said, and put his blinker on and pulled into traffic.
"How was your talk with the agent?" I asked.
"It was actually pretty good," he said. "Caleb had already told him most of what I did. There were some questions about the pre-flight checks we did, and the flight itself. He asked me to talk him through from the time when the prop fell off to when we got picked up."
I felt him flush a little, remembering being held by Caleb.
"Then he spoke to my dad for a while," He went on. "They went over the paperwork for the Cessna, the maintenance reports and all that kind of stuff. He seemed satisfied with what we'd got, although I guess he's going to go to the company we rented the plane from and investigate there.
"They are apparently going to try and recover the wreck next week. I have no idea how, but I'm sure they'll figure it out."
"And how are you?" I asked, knowing that I'd be in pieces if I'd been in a plane crash. It had seemed to be no big thing for Caleb. I saw from his memories that he had known that, no matter what, he could have used his powers to make sure both he and Arnie were safe. His main concern had been not revealing his powers to Arnie.
"I'm okay," Arnie replied. "While it was happening, I just fell into my training you know. Like my dad always says, 'when the pressure's on, you don't rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training.'"
"That sounds profound," I said.
"I think he read it somewhere," he explained. "But it's kind of become a mantra of his. It's why he trains pilots so hard for emergencies, in addition to the obvious requirements. But it was after, you know, when we were on the ground, that it hit me what could have happened."
Once more he flushed as he remembered standing shaking with Caleb's arms around him. The feeling of comfort and safety he'd felt at that moment had been amazing. I realized that Caleb must have used his powers to soothe him.
I decided to change the subject before the silence got awkward.
"So, you didn't tell me where we're going," I said brightly.
"My uncle and aunt own a seafood restaurant," he said.
"Really?" I asked impressed.
"They're not my real uncle and aunt," he explained. "My dad is an only child, like me. But I think Dad worked with Uncle Leon before I was born, and they have been friends ever since. I grew up calling them Uncle Leon and Auntie Ellie. Their daughter Emily and I used to play together as kids. I've not seen her for a while; she went travelling. She's a couple of years older than me."
"Childhood sweetheart?" I asked only half joking.
He snorted. "Hardly," he said. "We were good friends, but she's not really my type, and nor am I hers."
"So," I asked innocently. "What is your 'type.'"
I was expecting a flip answer, such as 'you are', but his face scrunched up a little as he thought about it.
"I don't really know," he said honestly. "But I know what it isn't. I meet someone, and I'm either attracted to them, or I'm not. I've tried to figure out what it is that I'm attracted to, but I can't. I just know when it happens."
We stopped at a red light and, while we were waiting, he looked across the car at me.
"What about you?" he asked.
As I looked at him, a yellow sporty looking car pulled up alongside us at the lights. There were two youngish men in there. The driver looked over at us, and began revving his engine, obviously wanting a race.
I wasn't particularly into cars. I remembered Trevor having this kind of interaction with idiots at traffic lights when we were in his car. He loved it, being able to show off.
Arnie, noticing that I was distracted, looked over his shoulder to see what I was looking at. The boys were gesticulating and the driver revving his engine. Arnie looked in his rearview for a second and then grinned.
"Watch this," he said, placing both hands on the wheel and looking across at the boys.
Instantly my impression of him dropped. I'd thought he was better than getting into this kind of pissing contests with people at traffic lights.
The lights changed and the yellow car hared off. We didn't move for second, and then Arnie pulled away at a normal speed. I was about to say something when the world lit up in red and blue and a police cruiser that had apparently been sitting behind us, pulled around us and set off after the yellow car.
Arnie grinned at me.
"Idiots like that shouldn't be allowed cars," he said. "They didn't notice a marked police cruiser as they pulled up, and then want to race? Either that's an unmarked police car trying to entrap people, or they are really that stupid. Either way we were not getting involved."
"Is this a fast car?" I asked looking at the car for the first time.
"Yes and no," he said. "It could easily do over one hundred miles per hour, but what's the point. I fly a plane almost every day at nearly one hundred and eighty miles per hour. Its much safer, and legal."
"Safer?" I asked with a small smile.
"I guess that doesn't seem the case after what happened this morning," he said, "but flying, on the whole, is much safer than any other mode of transportation."
A few minutes later we passed the yellow car, pulled up by the side of the road, with the police cruiser behind it. I looked over at them as we passed. The driver, whom I thought I recognised from somewhere, glared at us as we went by. I couldn't resist a little smile.
Less than ten minutes later we pulled into the parking lot of what looked to be a small family run restaurant. The parking lot was completely packed but he drove around back, into the 'staff only' parking lot, where he parked behind two cars, blocking them both into spaces.
He got out of the car and all but sprinted around to open my door. I stepped out and moved aside so he could close the door. He offered me his arm as we walked back into the main parking lot and to the main entrance to the restaurant.
"Normally," he said, "I'd just go in through the kitchen."
As we stepped up to the door he opened it and held it while I went through. A warm ambiance hit me and delicious smells assaulted my nose making my mouth water. I'd not eaten since breakfast and my stomach growled loudly.
Arnie grinned at me as I felt myself flush.
"Hungry?" he asked.
"I could eat something," I said, looking him up and down. It was his turn to flush.
"How about you wait until after you've had dinner?" a female voice came from behind me. Arnie looked up in surprise.
