6 Ask Her To Go On A Date

The next day Derek knew he was going to go see her again. He had obtained her work schedule and knew when she would be there. He was busy with his own work, but took a lunch break just to go see her. Dressed up in a light business suit, Derek casually walked into Sub Haven after rush hour looking for his girl. There she was, making her lunch again.

"Mind making me that pizza sub you promised, while you're at it?" He requested.

Penelope looked up at him. She said nothing for a moment. Clearly, she was looking him over. Finally, she blushed and reached for a loaf of bread. She took some meat, put some marinara sauce and shredded cheese on it and threw it in the toaster. As it was cooking, she finished making her own sandwich in silence. Clearly, whatever concoction she was making wasn't on the menu.

Once the oven beeped at her, she pulled the sub out. Then, she added olives, green peppers tomato and more cheese. She topped it off with ranch dressing and held it out to him. Derek curled his nose up at the concoction. "Ranch on a pizza sandwich?"

"It's the best thing to put on a pizza! Try it. If you don't like it, I'll make you one with no ranch." She waved the sandwich at him, beckoning him to make it. Reluctantly he took it from her.

"Alright. I'll try it. But it better not drip on my suit." He teased. He saw Penelope cringe, almost in fear for a moment and quickly corrected himself. "I'm just joking." He waited for Penelope to take her own meal to a table and sat down in front of her again.

Derek could tell that Penelope was uncomfortable with his presence. He didn't care. Many times in his short life had he been forced out of his comfort zone to deal with somebody. "So what do you do for fun?" Derek asked her.

"Nothing really. I read, write and draw. That's about it." She said plainly.

"That's it? You don't go to the movies or hang out with friends?" Derek pried, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Penelope stared at him for a moment, clearly thinking of an answer. "Not really. I... prefer to stay home."

"You prefer?" Derek gave her an expression of "Are you serious?" He didn't really believe her.

Penelope shrugged, ignoring his expression. "I don't really have time for that stuff. Between work and home, I'm pretty busy."

Derek still didn't believe her, but slowly replied. "I see." Pausing to study her expression for a minute, he pondered what he was going to say next.

"What if I gave you a day off. Say, tomorrow? Would you go on a date with me?" He took another bite of his sandwich as he waited for her answer. This thing actually was pretty good!

Penelope startled and started coughing as a sip of soda went down the wrong way.

"You okay?" Derek asked.

Taking another long sip of soda Penelope nodded. "I'm fine. I'm sorry, though. I am not allowed to date anybody." She looked more surprised that he had even asked her. Who would ever ask her to go out?

"Well, we don't have to call it a date, then. How about an outing with a new friend?"

Penelope shook her head. "That's very kind of you. I'm not allowed to hang out with any boys, though. Like, at all. Besides, I need the money... for college..."

"Oh, so you're saving up for college?"

Penelope nodded quietly. Derek somehow sensed that this was not the truth. However, it was a valid excuse for a girl getting ready to start her Senior year in high school and he decided to drop that part. He ate more of his sandwich in silence before he had an idea.

"What if... I still paid you as if you were on the clock, and I took you to help me with some errands for the store?" Derek inquired.

"You don't take no for an answer, do you?" Penelope said annoyingly.

Derek smiled at her. "No, not really."

Penelope paused for several moments, seemingly studying Derek's face. "Mr. Filmore, I appreciate the offer. Really, I do. But I'm not a rebellious kind of girl. I wish I could say that it was worth the trouble I could get into if I were caught, but..." Penelope trailed off and stopped talking. She looked almost like she wanted to cry saying no, but then she shook her head and went back to having a blank expression. "It's just not." She finally said.

Derek's heart fell for a moment. "I'm sorry to hear that. Let me know if you change your mind?"

"I won't." She said almost coldly. "Thank you, though." The air was still for a moment. Derek worked on more of his sandwich and got ready to stand up and take his leave before he took his last bite, Penelope suddenly asked "Out of curiosity, though, why would you want to ask me out on a date anyways? Aren't you like, the richest guy in town? You could have any girl you wanted."

Taken aback, Derek hadn't expected her to ask that question. "Because I... I think you're beautiful! That and I think you're a sweeter person than you're letting me on to be. Plus, you make awesome sandwiches. And if I'm being honest, I'm not an overly huge sandwich guy." Derek said, waving the last bite of his pizza sub.

Penelope smiled at him. "I enjoy my job. It's a lot of fun, getting to see people smile at you all day. The positivity I typically get when I deal with my customers fills me with joy. I can't make that for our customers, because we don't really have a way to charge it in the system, but maybe some day, I will have my own sandwich shop or a restaurant or something where I can make yummy food to serve to people." She beamed as she relayed this information to Derek. Then, looking surprised at what she had just said quieted up again.

Derek nodded with a smile, ignoring a stillness that had just entered the air. "Well, this is a chain restaurant and I don't own the company itself. But I'm willing to bet that if you want to write your creations down, we can probably get some of them put on the menu, if you'd like. So you want to be a chef?" Derek asked.

Penelope relaxed, and thought through her answer before responding. "I don't know. It's more of a thought than anything. I really haven't figured out what I want to do when I grow up." She chuckled. "There are so many choices out there that it's hard to pick just one."

"I see. Well, Miss Penelope, I have to get back to my office. I'd like to come see you again and try more of your delicious creations. Is that OK?" Derek inquired.

Penelope laughed. "Well it's your restaurant. Come see me anytime you want and I'll continue to work on changing your mind about sandwiches."

"Sounds like a date!" Derek winked at her and finally got up to leave. If he couldn't take her out, he could still find a way to chip through her by visiting her at work.

"If you say so, Mr. Filmore. Just don't tell my dad that." she half joked. "Have a good afternoon, Derek."

"You too, Penelope. Caio." He replied, walking out the door.

Getting into his car, Derek smiled. He had managed to find out a few things about Penelope Marks. He couldn't take her out now, but he could tell how hard it was for her to say no. That meant, he could eventually get her to say yes. He felt confident that if he worked at it, he could get her to say yes. But how could he get around asking her out if the girl's parents were a worry? He surely didn't want to do anything that would get him into trouble with the law and end up in a newspaper.

Derek was an intelligent, resourceful man, though. He knew he could come up with something for sure. It would take some time and hard work, though. There was no way that if he walked into that shop and asked her every day that she would say yes. The restaurant and her creations were a way to get her to talk. He would have to find other ways to get her to talk. She said that loved reading, writing and drawing. Surely he could chip away at her by talking about those things while he worked out his plan.

It wasn't just the fact that he sensed something was terribly wrong in the girl's life and that he wanted to investigate and help her. He felt a strong connection to her that he couldn't explain. Over the years, he had dated many girls. Some were nice, but most just wanted to be with him because he had money. He never felt any real connections with any of them. Penelope, though... She was special. He didn't yet know how or why she was special, but she was.