6 Chapter 6: Date Night
----------Six Months Later
The time period for her work as project leader had quickly come to an end. By the time the six months was over, she found herself feeling more at home than she usually did, and, after she left, Samantha couldn’t help but miss the constant familiarity of that horrible black coffee and Richard Washington’s company.
She found herself thinking about him often as she sat in her lecture room and completed the last weeks of the internship program she had been doing before the Washington project. Gerald seemed to treat her with both more contempt and more admiration at the same time.
She had successfully designed and illustrated both hers and Richard’s vision of the headquarters. This had led not only to the name of the art studio becoming more widely known, but also to an increase in higher-class clients.
Now, Samantha found herself outside the building of the office she had so often visited as an intern. She felt sheepish and intimidated.
Of course, there was no shame in a woman asking a man out, she tried to remind herself; this was the 21st century, for heaven’s sake! Women had to take what they wanted if they wanted it.
She and Richard had shared many late-night work hours together in the breakroom, and eventually his own office, as they talked about their plans both for the company design and their future.
However, at the end of those last weeks that she had there, the intimidating CEO had failed to even ask her out for so much as a cup of coffee. Samantha couldn’t shake the sense of rejection that she felt. It wasn’t until Barbara had reminded her that she could ask him out, too, that a new hope arose within her.
And so here she found herself stepping off of the familiar elevator and walking down the familiar path to his office suite’s front door. The receptionist paid her no mind, as she had formerly been used to Samantha walking in and out of the CEO’s office all the time.
After three consecutive knocks, she heard his sturdy voice tell her to come inside.
Once through the doors, Samantha’s eyes landed on the man immediately. His head hung low and his tired eyes stared at a bright computer screen.
“Hello,” she greeted him as she walked forward. She saw Richard’s eyes snap to her immediately, and then to the parcel in her hands.
“Samantha,” he greeted her as he stood up and walked to the front of her desk.
She shot him a bright smile. “Ryan told me you had been here since yesterday night.” She held the cup of homemade coffee and cookies up to him. “So I thought you might need a little pick-me-up.”
A deep frown settled on his face at the sound of Ryan’s name on Samantha’s lips, and she recoiled, taking it as a rejection. “If you’re busy, I can just leave it with K—”
“No,” he said too quickly, scratching the back of his head. “No, don’t do that. It’s just—no, never mind. Please, have a seat.”
She moved to the familiar leather seat near the sunniest spot in his office. The weather had turned cold recently with the approach of winter, and she was worried that he would become sick from the late nights he spent at the office.
“I know I’m not one to talk,” she acknowledged as she handed him the warm drink and opened the tin of cookies, “But you really shouldn’t spend so much time at the office so late at night.”
Richard let out a soft groan as the warmth and flavor of the coffee went down his throat. Samantha laughed at the face he made.
“Is it good?” she asked.
He nodded his head before replying to her. “If I don’t spend so much time at the office, how will I get gorgeous women to bring me hot beverages and homemade cookies?”
Samantha's heart thudded in her chest at the look he cast her way. His eyes were half-lidded and staring at her with the sort of look she had not gotten for a long time. It was the sort of look a hungry animal gave his prey, and she wondered if he knew just how sinfully he looked staring at her now.
she cleared her throat and tried to reorganize her thoughts.
She had been about to pass him a cookie; now, she raised her eyebrow at him and held it out of reach of his outstretched hand. “Women?”
His eyes went from the cookie to her eyes as he corrected himself. “Woman.”
She hummed in approval as she allowed him to take the treat. “Well…” She cleared her throat. “You could, I don’t know, maybe ask them out for coffee.”
Richard looked at her after he had bitten into the cookie. “Do you think that’s something a woman would be interested in?”
“Well,” She shrugged as she settled further into the couch, “I have heard that some women prefer to stay home and cook good food, you know.” She nodded at him as he averted his gaze. “Although I suppose they do prefer company, every now and again.”
“And…” Richard spoke slowly as he tried to follow her train of thought, “Would you… be one of those women who prefer to do those sorts of things?”
She nodded. “I happen to be.”
“And you would not happen to be in search of company, would you?”
She smiled brightly. “I would.”
“Tonight?” He asked hopefully.
“Tonight. 7 PM. Ryan knows where I live.”
-----------Samantha’s Apartment
Samantha gasped as she watched Richard pour an exceeding amount of oil into the pan. “What are you doing, you absolute fiend!”
Samantha stepped in to fix things, removing some of the oil so that the pan would be ready for stir-frying vegetables. He turned around mid-action, wondering what had gotten her so heated in such a short amount of time. He then stepped back as she took the chopping board from him.
“Sit over there, you—ugh,” She pushed him out of the way jokingly and began to wash the vegetables beneath the running tap.
“You know that you don’t have to wash them, right?” he said.
She only stared at him with wide eyes.
“…Right?”
His question garnered no reply from her; she just shook her head as she cut the veggies into pieces and threw them into the pan. How the man had survived this long into his adult years without basic cooking skills, she had no idea.
“You always have to wash whatever you buy from the grocery store, Richard,” she lectured him as she pointed the knife in his direction. He rose his hands as she gave him a threatening look.
“Okay.” He laughed as she continued working on the stir fry. “No need to get so heated about it.”
“No need!” She gasped in horror. “And if you get sick, what happens then? Hm? Hmmm?”
“Well,” He got up from his seat as he came to stand behind her. He purposefully invaded her space with the smell of his cologne, before backing away and grabbing two empty glasses to set the table. She shivered once he was out of sight.
“Then I would just hope that the woman who poisoned me would find it in her heart to nurse me back to health,” came his cheeky reply.
“Poisoned you!” She laughed loudly. “If anything, you are a detriment to yourself.”
“Hm,” He tapped his chin as he leaned against the countertop with his arms crossed. “That doesn’t sound like it will hold up in a court of law. What would the judge say when they learn you tried to poison your boss?”
“Ex-boss,” She reminded him as she added the veggies to the already-cooked chicken and pasta.
“Right,” He said, and she almost thought she heard a forlorn tone to his voice. “Well, that is something we might have to fix.”
Samantha tried to pay attention to both him and the food she was currently trying to plate delicately, but the latter seemed to take up all her focus.
Richard rolled his eyes; he seemed annoyed at not being the center of her attention. As soon as she had placed the pan back on the stove, he grabbed her by the buckles of her jeans.
She let out a small yelp as he twisted her to face him directly.
“Pay attention to me,” He murmured as he lowered his head down into the crook of her neck. “I came all this way just for you.”
Samantha’s heart began to beat out of control at his sudden movement, and she could only laugh at his child-like behavior.
“Would you rather I let you starve?” She boldly lifted her own hand and ran it up his arm and into his hair.
He mumbled something incoherent to her, and she asked him to repeat what he said. Richard lifted up his head from where it rested on her shoulder and looked down at her through half-lidded eyes.
“I said...” His voice ghosted over her lips as he leaned down slowly, and he was less than a hair’s breadth away when she realized she had stopped breathing. “I could always eat something else.”
And if she had been breathing at that moment, she knew her breath would have caught in her throat.
“Can I kiss you?” He asked lightly, looking up from her lips into her eyes.
"If you don’t kiss me right now, I think I may go mad," she said, nodding her head quickly.
He gave her a bright smile, and then his lips were on hers in a gentle caress.
It was the sort of kiss that left her breathless despite the gentleness of it—or was it because of the gentleness of it? Was it because he was so strong and had that demanding presence that she had expected him to be that unforgiving in all things?
But another gasp escaped her as he lifted her, his hands at her sides, placed her on top of the counter, and came to stand between her legs. They spent the rest of the night there in that kitchen—eating dinner, and engaging in various other kinds of activities as well.
