Texas Was You

Zack picked me up at 7:30 on the dot. Before he left he told me to wear something nice. I was wearing a solid black dress that was low cut but showed no cleavage. The sleeves of the dress came half way down my upper arms. The length of the dress was long enough to be classy, but short enough to be sexy. The small of my back was exposed with the cut out in the dress. Personally, this was my favorite dress and I did not get to wear it enough.

When doing my make up, I did my best to cover the bruise, but it was still slightly visible, despite using concealer. My eye shadow was neutrals, simple and elegant. I curled my hair just enough to give it loose bouncy waves. I smiled at my reflection; I looked good for a second day in a row. Woo! New personal best! I grabbed my black heels out from the back of my closest. I slipped them on making me a good three inches taller. I spritzed myself with my favorite perfume as there was a knock on the door. Deep breath Caty, deep breath.

I opened the door, revealing Zack in black slacks and a black button up shirt. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows showing off his colorful arms. It was all accented with a vibrant red bow tie. His hair slicked back with the perfect amount of gel. I don’t know whose jaw hit the floor first, but we both stood in awe of each other.

"Wow!" Was all he could muster out and his eyes scanned me up a down a few times. I felt the blood rushing to my face. He stepped into my apartment and I closed the door behind him. My heels clacking on the tile with each step I took. "You look absolutely beautiful." He turned to face me.

"Thank you Zack. You’re incredibly handsome, if I say so myself. Never thought I’d dig a bow tie, but you changed my mind." I giggled and he flashed me a toothy grin.

"You ready to go?"

"Just have to do one more thing, and then we can head out." I said disappearing into my room. I dug for my red clutch and put the necessities in it, ID card, keys, credit card (you never know). I went to grab my cell phone. I frowned. Throwing it against the wall did more than shatter the screen; I could not even get it to turn on. I tossed it back on the bed; I would have to deal with it tomorrow.

"Ready!" I walked back in to the living room and Zack was still standing in the entry way where I left him. He opened the door for us.

"Let’s get this night started!"

I slide into the passenger seat of his BMW before he closed the door for me. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, tossing it to me before he slide into the driver’s seat.

"Be our DJ for the night, beautiful."

"I’m honored!" I ignored the beautiful comment. I found a song right off the back. Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC. "I have to warn you, I have, as what I call, Musical ADD." He laughed and raised an eyebrow waiting for an explanation. "I have trouble listening to the full song and end up getting distracted by the titles of another. So I apologize now if we only end up hearing the first 15 seconds of every song."

"Totally understand. Good choice by the way." I eventually stopped fiddling with his phone and just let shuffle take over. I was quite sure he was getting annoyed.

We pulled into the restaurant. Zack parked the car and helped me out. The butterflies in my stomach began to feel like pterodactyls. I straightened my dress after standing. Zack offered his arm to me; I wrapped mine with his as he led us inside. I was not use to this, not use to be treated like a lady, but I enjoyed it and was not going to complain. Walking into the restaurant, Zack talked to the maitre d before we were led off to a table in the corner. A beautiful bouquet of roses sat in the middle of the table. I glanced around, our table was the only one with flowers. Zack pulled my chair out for me to take a seat before joining me on the other side. Our backs faced the restaurant, the ocean in front of is, the sun had just set and night began to fall across the ocean.

"Impressed?" Zack was studying my face as our waitress was pouring us two glasses of wine.

"I didn’t expect all this." I met his gaze, a smile played on his lips, making me smile even more.

"I’m glad. By the way, the flowers are for you."

"Uh… what if I told you I was allergic to roses." Zack’s face fell instantly, I could see him fretting, his eyes gave him away.

"Oh my god! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know! Here, I’ll get the waitress to move them!" He rushed trying to signal the waitress. I busted out laughing and Zack’s face went blank.

"I’m kidding! I’m not allergic! I just wanted to see what you would do. And for the record, it was priceless." I managed to get out while trying to calm my laughter. Zack pursed his lips together but he smiled at the same time.

"That was evil! Funny, but evil!" He said with a laugh. The waitress came back and took our orders for all three courses at once. "So tell me about yourself, besides the fact you’re a jokester."

"Like what?"

"Tell me about your life when you were in Texas. I can assume you haven’t lived much of one since you moved here." He was right.

I told him about me, even things I had never told Jason. I told him about my home town, which actually was not San Antonio; it was just easier to tell people that. How it only had a small school district where most of my teachers had also taught my brother who was 12 years older than me. He asked about my brother and my parents. My parents were the greatest anyone could ask for. My mother was a paramedic and dedicated her life to it and teaching the skills required to become one. My father was a peace officer, starting off with the county police department then retired from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Both were volunteer fire fighters. They didn’t bring in a giant income, but they did their best to provide for us. My brother was an alcoholic, who had never been married and never had kids. He had his flaws, but I still loved him.

That’s when the deeper stuff started to come out. I explained how I lived with my aunt during the summers as a child because it was cheaper than a baby sitter. I was fumbling with my napkin by this time, but couldn’t stop talking. I told him how my cousin and uncle molested me during those summers. But whenever I called my mother and begged to come home, she always said ‘just a little bit longer’ she had no clue what was going on because I never told them. Zack reached across the table to hold my hand, rubbing his thumb across the back of my hand. He didn’t say a word; he just let me talk and listened.

I finally asked him to tell me about himself when our entrée arrived at the table. He launched into his life. He told me about him getting into music, meeting the guys, his time in school and his hellish ways. When he started telling me about the band, I was in awe; his life on the road fascinated me. Traveling the world, doing what you love.

Dessert finally made its way to the table. I was quite excited for it. Our waitress placed my cheese cake in front of me. I took a bite and it took and act of congress for me to not scarf it down like a pig.

"Zack, I have to say one thing," I paused and something flashed in his eyes, but it left just as quickly as it appeared. "Okay, maybe two things." I took another bite of my cheese cake. "First, this cheese cake is downright heavenly. Second, I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact you are in Avenged Sevenfold. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t google Avenged this afternoon after you left just to make sure."

"Does that bother you?" He reached across with his fork and snagged a small bite of my dessert. My jaw dropped in disbelief. "You’re right it is good!"

"How dare you!" I joked. "You’re lucky I like you." I blurted out.

"Really now?"

"Ugh," I groaned. "Your black magic is at work again! Yes, you have spiked my interest quite a lot, and I like your company."

"Well, I like you too. But I think you already figured that one out. But you still haven’t answered my question." I had thought about it. If this went anywhere, the touring would throw a wrench in the gears. Plus, how loyal was this guy? This may be a make or break answer, I feared.

"Slightly… But I guess I’d deal with things as they come up." We sat in silence; I stared down at my plate, pushing left over crumbs around with my fork. I guess that was a break answer. My heart already hurt, I don’t even know this guy, but he has dragged me into his tornado.

"So… what I picked up on is that you’ll give me a chance?" my head shot up, our eyes meeting, his eyes mimicked his smile.

"Yes, I’ll give you a chance. Hell, you know too damn much about me already just to let you walk away. And if I haven’t scared you off yet, I don’t think I can." I laughed. "But like I told you earlier, I’m a wreck."

"Let me be the judge of that."

Zack paid the bill before walking me to the car. The car ride was a quiet one, not awkward but a comfortable quite. His music played softly in the back ground. I enjoyed this. I was upset when we finally pulled up to my apartment. We sat in silence in the car, I could tell he did not want to drop me off yet either.

"Walk me up?" I halfway begged.

"Of course, I already planned on that." That I was definitely not use to. We reached my apartment and I unlocked the door, but didn’t go in.

"I’d say text me, but my phone is" Zack’s lips were pressed against mine before I could finish my sentence.

Notes

Woop date night, I would love a date like this, but it's the single life for me right now. So I'm excited from the next several chapters to come. Have some good stuff in the works and can't wait for you too read it!!

-ForAVengeance