Samira had been right. I was highly agitated, so much so that the nervousness had petrified me for most of the day and now had to rush everything.

Going from dressing to applying make-up, I still had done none of that, taking a deep breath I looked at the hour, I still had forty minutes before Damien would come, I had just finished showering. I could make it on time.

For some reason, I was incapable of dressing up first; I had to prioritize my makeup and then struggle to wear my clothes without smudging the makeup.

I opted for a dark red lipstick that was just as dark as my nails, mascara, and dark black eyeshadow with some highlighter on the right places, I slipped my underwear on and finally wore the dress, after a good ten minutes of self-induced struggle, because once again I had made my makeup first I was capable to put the dress on without ruining my make-up.

I looked at the time and was relieved when I saw the clock strike at exactly 8.30 pm. Immediately after that, the phone started ringing and Damien's name popped on the screen. I answered without hesitation and smiled.

"Hello?"

"Hello? Elide, I'm here." I walked my way out of the balcony to see a big black car parked outside, and Damien next to it with his phone on his ear.

"I'll come outside. I'm ready." Still extremely nervous, I hung up the phone. Exiting the apartment, I approached the car in front of the gates to see Damien standing there.

He was so damn big, and handsome, with his tailored black suit and the sexiest smile on his face. When he saw me, his smile got even wider, and he came close to me to gently grab my hand.

"You look amazing," he said, bringing my hand to his lips and kissing it softly.

"Thank you. You don't look bad yourself."

"Shall we go?" I asked, and he shook his head.

"How could we go if I still haven't done the most important thing?" I frowned, confused.

"And what is that?" He hadn't uttered an answer, just trapped me in his big brawny arms and hugged me, while bringing his lips to my forehead to kiss it in such a tender way I felt like I could melt.

"I've missed you Elide"

"I missed you too Damien" I closed my eyes and smiled, he was like a big strong, and sometimes very intimidating teddy bear, I chuckled to myself at that silly thought.

"What are you thinking?"

"You are a big teddy bear," I said, and he frowned, confused. I laughed furthermore at his confusion, refusing to include any additional explanation.

"Can we go now?" I asked and kissed him quickly on the lips.

"Mph sure," he said, still kind of confused.

The drive to the restaurant was silent, but not uncomfortable, it was tranquil and pleasant perhaps it wasn't exactly silent since soft jazz music was coming out from the speakers and the soft hums from Damien that was quietly singing the songs could be heard. I stared at him, who still had a smile on his face. He had changed too, I could tell.

He looked happier too, and I wanted to think that I'd had the same effect he had on me.

After a good forty minutes, Damien stopped his car in front of an extensive building. We got out, and he communicated with a man that was assigned to manage the car of the customers and then gave his keys to him.

The restaurant didn't have any big sign on it; it was just a really beautiful villa surrounded by an extremely beautiful vineyard. By the amazing sent that was an Italian restaurant.

"Follow me," Damien placed his hand on the small of my back and kissed me on my left temple, he directed me inside the building where we were welcomed by a smiley waitress, she looked at me then at him and then her eyes fell once again on him.

A fake cough from Damien pulled her back from her trance. My face didn't change, but deep down, I was laughing. I just didn't want her to think I was making fun of her, so I restrained myself. After all, who wouldn't be staring at this man?

"Uh s-sorry, you must be Mr Gresham and Miss Chima, right?" She asked while a blush of embarrassment crept on her face.

"Yes," we said simultaneously.

"Please follow me;" Damien took my hand, squeezing it softly. Her eyes lingered a little too much and when she realised, she looked up at me. Her cheek reddened, and it forced her to look away.

She grabbed two menus and walked, almost darting, to direct us to our table.

The table was on the rooftop and there wasn't anyone but us and a pianist, playing what I was sure was Claude Debussy: Suite bergamasque. After all, it wasn't hard to recognize that piece.

Even though we were outside, it was cosy. We sat down far away from the pianist and the waitress handed us the two black menus.

"If you aren't really sure about what to order, the menu is here. Take all the time you need. If there is anything you'd like to drink, I will bring it right away," she explained and instantly all her clumsiness disappeared, mutating into an extremely professional worker.

"What is the best red wine available?" Damien asked, while looking at the menu.

"Is Gaja sir."

"Then we take that." He glanced at her with an unexpressive look.

"I'll get it immediately, if you excuse me." The waitress, that noticing that small tag on her uniform, was called Miriam said. We looked at her distancing herself from us silently for a few instants to then look at each other.

"Did you realise she was checking you out the whole time?" we asked in unison.

"Me?"
"Me?"

"She was checking you out?" we examined once again. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Who knows? Maybe she likes us both?" At the end of the day, his gaze lingered exclusively on me.

"I truly think that she was only looking at you Elide, everyone was looking at you. Every man on the 1st floor was staring." I laughed, thinking he was over-exaggerating, but he was not smiling.

"Don't laugh, I'm not joking, you are a beautiful woman Elide, is not unreasonable that people look at you." There was a slight hint of irritation in his tone, but that irritation wasn't directed at me. I was sure of it.

"Are you jealous, Mr Gresham?" I inquired, putting my elbow on the table and placing my hands under my chin.

He stirred closer to me, bringing his face closer to mine.

"Oh, very jealous, because when I see those men staring, I know what they are thinking."

"And what are you thinking, please enlighten me Damien:" I inquired teasingly, I couldn't care less about some man who I hadn't even noticed.

"I'm thinking of how would you would look with smudged lipstick, and naked, while you ride me."

"I'm wondering what colour are your panties, and I'm sure they are matching with your bra, I want to how quickly I can rip them off you and have you naked on this table with your legs open wide for me while I eat your pussy and you moan my name." He whispered, his lips inches away from mine.

"I am wondering how you would look while you try to walk with cum dripping down your legs, your ruined panties in my pockets."

"But since this is not possible, we will have to wait, we can spend this hour talking" He straightened himself placing his back on the chair with a smirk on his face, I clenched my legs breathing softly, he knew I was aroused as hell, hell that was his plan from the start.

Before I could reply, Miriam came with a bottle of wine that she quietly opened and poured into our glasses.

"Should I leave it?"

"Yes," Damian answered.

"Are you ready to order?" The previous conversation with Damien had distracted me way too much. I looked up at him waiting for him to answer for him.

"She will take some 'Rissotto alla Crema di scampi' and for me 'gnocchi alla sorrentina', after that some prime rib for the both of us and for dessert Gelato al pistachio once again for the both of us." I looked at him as he said everything in the most distanced way ever, but slow enough to let Miriam write everything down.

"Everything will be ready as soon as possible," she said, and glanced one last time at the both of us before leaving.

"So you said you wanted to talk?" I asked, raising my eyebrow, making it appear as if he wanted to talk about something serious.

"Well, yes, I am sorry Elide I don't mean to upset you with my words but I want to know something." He looked at me and if it wasn't for the hint of a smile on his face, I would've thought he was being dead serious.

"I'm waiting"

"What do you exactly mean when you called me a giant teddy bear?" He asked, still serious, but ‌I couldn't help it. I busted out laughing. He looked at me completely lost, but he was still smiling.

Taking a big breath and a sip of incredibly good wine, I stopped laughing.

"What is so funny?"

"It's not me! It's you. Your faces are funny!" In reality, when I was nervous, everything made me laugh but his face was genially funny, especially because he was never this expressive.

"So, can I have an answer?" Pulling myself together, I nodded and explained to him that it was because he was not only extremely tall, but his way of showing affection was through touch and that I really loved his hugs. He smiled at me while I explained it.

"‌This was the first time they compared me to a teddy bear, I'm not complaining though," He said with a smile.

Miriam eventually came with my risotto and his gnocchi and left us alone. The pianist was now still playing Debussy, but this time was Rèverie, years of listing to the many piano lesions of my brother were at last useful now.

"The Pianist seems to like Debussy:"

"Yes, I've noticed. Did you play the piano?" He asked with curiosity. I shook my head, sipping once again some wine while eating the amazing risotto. He waited patiently for me to finish chewing my food.

"No, my brother did. I remember the afternoons when he would play in the living room and I was studying there. He was fantastic. He still plays from time to time, did you play?"

"Yes, always liked it, I begged my parents to make me learn it, the piano was my favourite instrument," There was a piano at his summer house but it hadn't been used.

"And as for recently do you play?" He shook his head.

"I was always busy with work, no one but Tiffany liked classic music, or music at all ‌so I avoided playing until it just became something I knew how to do but never did,"

"So tell me how is your brother, do you two get along fine?"

"No, not recently. We don't truly talk much." I shifted uncomfortably, staring down at my plate. It had been a cute evening, and I didn't want to ruin it by telling him the reason we don't talk was the relationship we had.

"And why is that?"

"Just him being grumpy, I guess;" I said shrugging.

"How were your parents?" I asked casually.

"They were good people, hardworking and always nice. They've always been there for me, you know? You always need support from your parents no matter what." He explained.

"Absolutely." I nodded in agreement. "My parents are like that, too. There is always this misconception that African parents are always stern and cold with their children, while in some cases, this is most certainly true, and mind you, they are Nigerians. It wasn't true for me. The same goes for Samira. Her parents are just as supportive. Samira is my best friend."

"By the way! Have you tried to talk to your friends?" He shook his head, his smile fading a little.

"Tried to reach out to them, but they didn't replay, it is understandable, perfectly understandable, not everyone will wait for you, I just wish I did things differently and it wasn't until you that I realised how lonely I had been for this whole time," I grabbed the hand he placed on the table and caressed it.

"Well, maybe they changed number... if it's okay for you could you possibly tell me how was your best friend?"

"Zahid Selim, he's Arab we met in college, he was studying medicine, he really wanted to become a psychiatrist and I studying business, to take over my father's company with Javier Romero who was studying law and now owns a very successful firm, they were truly amazing friends always there for me, maybe not the nicest people you'd encounter but yes, they were cool."

"I remember once when it was exams sessions. let's say we were all doing our best, we were passing hours studying, but not that motivated, to fix that issue we made this bet: who got the highest scores on all his exams was going to get money and one thing the loser owned and he wanted."

"Who won?"

"Zahid. truly we had been dumb to think that we could beat him Zahid. He was extremely good with tests. He was truly smart and hardworking:"

"So what did he take?"

"My watch, and not some random watch, it was a costume made by Cartier, I bought another, wait I'm wearing it now, it doesn't look exactly like the one I had nevertheless, I liked that watch."

"From Javier, it took a really expensive bottle of liquor from Ecuador, it had struggled to get it. Needless to say, we acted like sore losers for the entire semester and vowed to never bet again."

Our dinner kept going smoothly. I liked how Damien was telling me interesting stories about his past. Eventually, the time for the dessert came, and that ice cream was so good that I asked Damien if we could ever come here again.

Eventually, before going, Damien asked the pianist to play Bluebird- by Alexis Ffrench. It was a short romantic piano piece that I had heard for the very 1st time at that moment.

"Dance this with me," he said.

"B-but I can't dance"

"Don't worry, just follow my movements"

Damien took my hand and wrapped his free hand around my body. I placed my head on his chest and closed my eyes, while I felt him caressing the small of my back and kissing my head.

●●●

Ultimately, Damien paid, and we got out of the restaurant entering his car

"This is the best date ever:" I told him truthfully.

"And do you think we could make it better?." He asked, placing a hand on my thigh.

"Yes, come to my place. I am about to show you how much better I can make it" I whispered in his ear

Don't forget to vote, hope you like these new chapters! Have a nice day!