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“I want to,” Danielle said finally. “But we’re going to have to keep it really quiet.” Victor smiled slowly.
“It took him a month to find out you weren’t working at your old job,” he pointed out. “I think we can keep him from finding out we’re doing this—don’t you?” Danielle smiled back at him, but Victor could still see the doubt in her eyes. More than anything, he wanted to get up, walk around the desk, and kiss her—but he held himself back. They had to settle this between them, figure it out, without distraction.
“I think we’re going to find out,” Danielle said wryly. “What’s the worst he can do, anyway? I’m his only sister. He can’t kill me for dating you.” The way she said that—cavalier and at the same time not entirely certain—made Victor wonder just what she did think her brother would do when he found out she was dating him. They’d both worked so hard to stay out of the crime syndicates in Philly; was them dating each other just going to draw them both into the world they’d worked so hard to avoid getting enmeshed in?
*
Even as she made her way towards the front of the Franklin Institute, Danielle considered the possibility of calling or texting Victor and canceling their first real, proper date together. It technically isn’t your first date, she reminded herself. You had that one-night stand with him that turned out not to be a one-night stand, and then you had that date for your one-month anniversary working for him. This is your third date, if you want to get technical. But it was, she countered, the first actual date that they were going on together, since they’d agreed to start seeing each other outside of work.
Victor had put the ball in her court for planning the date. He had said she could choose where they went and what they did, and she’d ended up choosing the Franklin Institute for a few reasons, as the place where they would meet up and spend the first part of their afternoon together: first, she didn’t think any of Sam’s friends in the Bey family would be hanging out in the family-friendly space. They would be—she hoped—working in the afternoon, doing their usual thing in the clubs downtown, taking care of weekend business, whatever it was they did.
But then, too, she had—as a teenager—wanted to go on a date to the place; when she’d taken field trips there as a kid, it had seemed strangely romantic—especially the planetarium with its “the sky tonight” showing. Assuming everything went well, they’d make the show, stargaze a bit, and wander the exhibits that interested them both before moving onto the next item on her agenda for the date: dinner. After that, they would go back to her place—instead of going to Victor’s—and finish the date.
Danielle felt just as nervous about letting Victor come to her apartment as she did about meeting with him at all, in public, for a date; but she had spent the night before and then again that morning cleaning everything to be ready for him, and it seemed a big waste to do all that and not go through with her intention to invite him over.
She found him just inside, waiting for her; dressed in jeans and a casual, button-down shirt, Danielle thought to herself that it really wasn’t fair how good-looking her boss and date was. Before she’d gone home the night before, she’d made a stop at the mall, and bought herself a brand-new sundress to wear on her date—even though it was still summer, for a few weeks anyway, she could feel the shifting of the weather, and Danielle was pretty sure she’d only get one or two wears out of the dress before consigning it to the closet for the next six months.
But at least now you’re making the kind of money that lets you buy a sundress for a random date when you feel like it—that’s a big perk of things with Victor.
Victor spotted her approaching him and smiled, and Danielle saw the heat creep up into his eyes, the bright blue irises darkening as he took her in. She felt herself blushing and wasn’t even sure why—he’d seen her fully naked, and they’d had sex more than a dozen times already. Why should she feel self-conscious about being in a sundress in front of him? But she was. How does he make me feel this way? Giddy, shy...after we’ve already had sex, after we’ve worked together for a month and more...I still feel like a stupid teenage girl with my first crush.
She shook off the embarrassed thought and closed the distance between herself and Victor; Danielle wasn’t expecting the way he leaned in to kiss her lightly on the lips, but she wasn’t so surprised by it that she rejected the kiss. “I already collected our tickets,” Victor told her, pulling back and taking her hand in his.
Danielle smiled up at him, feeling her heart beat faster even as something deep inside of her seemed to relax all at the same time. They entered the museum and institute proper, hand-in-hand, and Danielle reflected—for a moment or two—that it was the first real date she had been on in a long time; of course, she wasn’t sure whether or not to count her outing with Victor from two weeks before.
They spent a while wandering through the institute itself, and Danielle kept an eye on the time; she wanted to make sure they were able to get to the planetarium in time for the show she wanted to see. “So, I’m curious as to why you picked here for our date,” Victor said as they watched kids playing in the SportsZone exhibit, smiling to themselves.
“You had to have come here when you were in school, right?” Victor nodded in response to her question.
“More than one field trip here,” he confirmed.
“Well, I always thought it would be a good place for a date,” Danielle explained. “And I really—really—wanted to take someone with me to the planetarium, especially.” Victor looked at her for a moment and smiled slowly.
“Stargazing?” She nodded.
“Since you can’t ever really see the stars in the city,” she explained, “I always thought it would be nice as a compromise.”
“We could go out of town sometime,” Victor pointed out. “Head out to the Adirondacks or somewhere like that, rent a cabin for a weekend, and do some real stargazing.” Danielle pictured it in her mind: probably in fall or maybe even winter, bundled up against the chill, both of them looking up through some kind of skylight, or maybe sitting out on the porch with one of those outdoor fireplaces near them.
Drinking wine, or mulled cider, or hot chocolate with a shot of Irish cream, toasting marshmallows and looking up at the stars together. It would be perfect—but it was also the kind of date that people only went on when they’d been together for months, maybe not even until a year. It was a long-term boyfriend-girlfriend kind of getaway, not the sort of thing that they should be planning when they’d only known each other maybe a month and a half.
“We’ll see where this goes,” she said, keeping her voice light. In truth, she wasn’t sure whether or not it would go anywhere; once Sam found out that she was actually dating Victor, not just working for him, Danielle was sure he would just pressure her more. He would want to get something, some kind of benefit from it. Just own up to it: you’re afraid he’s going to put you in the position to have to either break up with Vic or push him out of your life for good.
“Are you okay?” Victor had noticed the way her expression had changed at the thought, and Danielle pushed it out of her mind quickly, taking a deep breath. Here she was, on a date with a guy who showed every sign of being decent and caring—and who she already knew was great in bed—and she was worrying that she was going to have to either drop him for her brother or drop her brother for him.
“Yeah! Just remembered something—not important,” Danielle said. “Let’s go look at stars.” Victor smiled, giving her hand a quick squeeze, and she focused on enjoying the date as much as possible; Sam wasn’t about to take that from her, especially when he wasn’t even there.
They went into the planetarium together, and Danielle felt that giddy, almost shy feeling come back to her as the lights went down and she became fully aware that she was there, in the dark, with someone she liked; someone she was genuinely attracted to, looking up and waiting for the presentation to begin.
She reached out and found Victor’s hand, and as the stars began to come up, she felt her heart begin to beat faster again, and shifted closer to the man she was there with in the darkness, ignoring everyone else in the crowd, ignoring—almost—even the man speaking, explaining things as he went through the constellations. It was perfect.
“Where are we headed now?” They stepped out of the planetarium together, and Danielle found herself walking closer to Victor, right at his side, still holding his hand. It was a little early for dinner, but Danielle wanted—more than anything, in that moment—to get to the next stage o
f their date, and then take Victor back to her place.
“I got us a reservation at the Dandelion Pub,” Danielle told him. She checked the time on her phone. They had about half an hour until the reservation she’d signed them up for. “We could walk,” she suggested, “we have time.” After sitting at a desk most of the week, the idea of the walk—just over half a mile—actually appealed to her, and glancing down, Danielle saw they were both wearing shoes that were comfortable enough for the trek.
She hadn’t fancied the idea of navigating even just the institute itself in heels, so she’d worn sandals with a slight platform wedge to them; not enough to really feel like a heel, just enough to give her maybe an extra inch of height, and to make her dress look as good as possible.
