The Alpha and The Fool novel Chapter 22

“Relax,” Sade said as I paced the room.

Relax? How could I relax when I was waiting for Dean to come here so I could ask him on a date. An actual date. Me.And him.

“This was a bad idea. What was I even thinking?”

“It's a fine and so was your thinking. You only have to relax,” Sade insisted.

Easy for her to say. She wasn't going on a date. My stomach tightened painfully, and I was pretty sure I was going to get sick soon. The knock on the door nearly made me jump right out of my skin. Sade shook her head at me and opened the door.

“Hey, Sade right? I heard Nic was looking for me,” Dean said.

“She's right here,” Sade said, opening the door as I contemplated jumping out the window.

“Hey Nic, everything okay?” He asked as soon as he saw me.

“Hey and oh yeah I’m fine,” I said with a dismissive wave. “ how did your shift at the hospital go? If you're too tired still we could talk later,” I added in a rush.

“No, you won't. Don't be a coward, Nic,” Sade said before leaving the room.

Dean watched her curiously before turning back to me. “What's going on?”

I blew out a breath, ran my hand over my head. “I was, uhm, thinking that if you weren’t too tired from work or didn’t have other plans we could...uhm, maybe, if you wanted to, we could uhm, perhaps go out, and uhm do something.” God, I felt like an idiot.

A grin spread across his face. “Are you talking about a date?”

My face warmed, and I shrugged. “Uhm, if you want to.”

“Why wouldn’t I want to?” He said, half laughing and again, I shrugged. Why did people do this? I felt so stupid. “We go now or do you want to get ready?”

“Well, the movie doesn’t start yet for a while.”

“Okay, so how about we meet up at the front of the house. When do we need to leave?” He asked, actually looking a little excited about the idea. Strangely, that helped calm my nerves.

“If we can trust Google, in an hour. It’s the movie theater on Sanderson Street.”

Dean seemed to think. “Yeah if the movie starts a six, leaving here at five-thirty is more than enough time.”

“Good, so in an hour then.”

Yet again, he smiled, but this time added a wink. “I guess I better go get ready then,” he said and left.

When he was gone, the nerves returned. I should get ready to, but how should I get ready? Should I do the makeup thing, or clothes, what kind of clothes should I wear? “This is so the last time I did this,” I complained.

I stared at my closet for almost fifteen minutes before calling Sade, asking, okay maybe begging, her to come back and help me. She did and only teased me a little, but in the end, I was ready, and I didn’t feel like I was painted up like a clown. In fact, I was dressed more or less like I was on the first evening of the meetings. The same dress I wore when I first met Dean, but the shoes were flats instead of heels.

“Don’t worry about the boys,” Sade said as we left the room. “I told them you wouldn’t be leaving for yet another hour.”

The breath rushed from my chest, and I relaxed. “Thanks.” I was no way in shape to deal with Jon’s teasing.

“You’re welcome, and have fun.” Sade waved at me before leaving.

I walked down to the front of the house, and I was surprised, Dean was actually dressed up as well. He wore dress pants and a button down shirt in a casual business style. It was so different from how I usually saw him dressed, I almost didn’t recognize him.

“You look great, Beautiful,” He said, giving me a one armed hug.

“Thanks, you too.”

“So what movie are we seeing?” He asked as we left the house.

“That superhero one with all the heroes in it. Brook told me you wanted to see it,” I replied and got into the passenger side of a small gray car Dean lead me to.

“Oh yeah, I’d wanted to see that one for a while. I suppose you’ve already got the tickets, so I’ll get us the snacks.”

“Deal, but not too much. We’re going to eat after the movie,” I told him, buckling up.

He looked at me with eyes wide. “You’re going to feed me too? You are so freaking awesome.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the happy/excited look on his face, and we drove to the theater. Thankfully to Sade’s insight to get the tickets beforehand so we wouldn’t have to wait in line. Dean swore he could eat it, several boxes of candy and still have room for dinner. I didn’t want to test that theory, so we simply went with some popcorn and drinks. The movie was alright, and Dean seemed to enjoy it. Though more than once, I caught him glancing over at me for some reason.

Afterward, we went to the restaurant. It was Hawaiian, though I wasn’t exactly sure what could be considered Hawaiian besides pineapple. The lights were dim, and the decoration Polynesian or what I assumed was Polynesian. “This is awesome,” Dean said as we sat down to our table. “I’ve always wanted a reason to come here.” Again, I couldn’t help but laugh at the excited look on his face.

“Why not take a girlfriend?” I asked and cringed, hoping I didn’t sound jealous, because I wasn’t. It’d be idiotic to think he didn’t date before meeting me.

He grinned but shook his head. “Nope.”

“Really?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah, I mean I guess you could say I’ve had a few girlfriends but…” he shrugged. “They were never anything serious and didn’t last long, and none of them were worth spending the money on a meal here. Glad too, now it can be our place.” He smirked at me.

I shook my head, grinning at him, deciding I’d order a kabob. Though, now if I was honest, I was curious about this past girlfriends. Was he some kind of player or maybe a commitment phobe. He didn’t seem like either to me. Yeah, he was a terrible flirt, but he seemed to kind to just go around breaking hearts. Hating that I’d probably sound like a petty, jealous girlfriend, I cleared my throat. “Uhm, why not—the girlfriends, I mean.”

Dean grinned, gave the waitress our orders. “What about them?”

“Why weren’t they serious or last long?”

“Well, various reasons. Can you please some don’t think I’m a lovable idiot, but just an idiot,” he said with a mocked expression of shock that got me to laugh like he wanted. “That was a big part of it. A lot expected to get a version of Ryder. Some got fed up I wouldn’t play their games, and others wanted more than I was willing to give. And, of course, none of them were you. So the longest I usually spent with a girl was a week, maybe two. What about you? How many exes do you have in the closet?”

“The closet?” I said in a laugh. “You saw me, Dean. I was trying so hard to be a guy that anything that didn’t put me in the guy box was squashed.”

He looked totally shocked. “But still not one? Not a kiss or flirting, or interest?”

I shook my head. “Nope, they all saw me as one of the guys, and if anyone new said anything, it never got to me.”

Dean shook his head. “Your pack is seriously messed up.”

“Or maybe not all are willing to risk a broken nose to approach me,” I teased.

He grinned, “Well if they were willing to put their nose on the line then none of them were even worth your time.”

We laughed as the waitress brought us our meal. The food was great, and we left so full, I thought I could fall asleep. Dean took my hand when we got out of the car and walked me back to the house. “Tonight was really fun,” I admitted as we stood outside. I had no idea why I was so nervous.

“Me too,” he said. “Of course, you’re going to give me a goodnight kiss, right? Cause, ya know that’s always how dates end.”

I laughed. “Uhm, sure, but I thought maybe we could talk a little more before it ends. I wanted to talk to you about some things.”

Dean gave me a slightly suspicious look. “That doesn’t sound too good. What things.”

“No, it’s good,” I said quickly. “It’s just you’ve done so much for me. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know where I’d be right now, but I can promise you it wouldn’t be a good place. I can’t thank you enough.”

He squeezed my hand. “You don’t need to thank me, Beautiful. I’m happy I could be there for you. That’s what mates do.”

“I know, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about. Hopefully somewhere more private. I’m pretty sure I saw at least, Brook spying on us from a window.”

We both laughed. “Yeah, she and the others think I’m going to screw this up somehow.” He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. “No one believes in me.”

“I do,” I told him, seriously. “Let’s go find some place to talk without an audience.”

“Lead the way, Beautiful.”