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CHAPTER 10
Inervously drummedmy fingers on the steering wheel as I stared up at the entrance to Madeline’s building. Tonight was our first date, and I’d spent most of the week swinging wildly between excitement, and stomach twisting nervousness. Adair had done his best to try and soothe my nerves, but he had been forced to spend most of the week in Sacramento attending fundraising dinners and a couple of interviews on local news stations, so he hadn’t been around enough to really help. Marcus, on the other hand, had been a constant source of negativity. He kept asking me if I wassurethat I wanted to go on a date with Madeline, and I’d taken to ignoring him when he started in on how he was just trying to look out for me.
Marcus and his problems with betas were his and his alone. I wished that he’d had the same kind of childhood that I did, but he still needed to work on moving on, especially if Madeline could potentially become a part of our pack.
I was definitely getting ahead of myself, we hadn’t even interacted outside of the coffee shop or rescuing her from the club. Maybe I wouldn’t even like Madeline, or she wouldn’t like me. I was atrocious when it came to flirting and dates, so tonight might be the only night that I got to go out with Madeline Zhao.
I was in the middle of convincing myself not to make a big deal of the whole night when the door to the building opened, and Madeline stepped out. All of my prior thoughts fled from my mind as I watched her descend the stairs to where my truck was parked. It was a chilly November night, so she was dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a fluffy white sweater, a dark green jacket was tucked under her arm and I realized that it matched the beanie that she wore on her head. She looked cute as hell.
She grinned at me as she opened the door to my truck. “Hey stranger,” she greeted me as she slid onto the bench seat next to me.
“Hey.” Was all I could say, and immediately kicked myself.Hey? Really Rio? Get your shit together.I scolded myself as I pulled away from the curb and onto the busy San Francisco streets.
“How was work?” That was a bit of a better question, a good opening for conversation at least.
“It was good, I’ve got a new client so I’ve been pretty busy putting together clothes for her.” I knew that Madeline worked at Poleman’s but my experience with them was next to none. Adair had worked with them briefly during his election campaign when he was running for Congress. But he had no need for them during this election cycle because Mortie had hired Mina to handle everything about Adair’s appearance, and while I didn’t care for the woman, she certainly knew what she was doing.
“May I ask who the client is?” I wasn’t sure if that was confidential information or not.
“It’s the Chairwoman of the San Francisco Omega Academy.” Madeline shrugged her shoulders. “She’s scary as hell, and has a packed full docket of events for the next two months. I’ve been running myself ragged trying to get everything together.”
“Sounds like a night out is exactly what you needed.” I said as I pulled the car onto the freeway.
“You have no idea,” Madeline replied and looked out of the window. “Where are we going anyway?”
I hadn’t told her our destination, partly because I wanted it to be a surprise, and partly because until last night I had no idea where to take her. Adair had finally stepped in during our facetime call last night and had listed off a ton of things to do at night in San Francisco. I was definitely cheating a bit by asking Adair for help. But I also knew that Adair was the best with women out of the three of us. Marcus could get by with just his accent alone, but when I tried I usually devolved into a stuttering mess. It was a constant source of amusement to my fellow packmates. It had taken almost a year and a half of being a part of Adair’s pack for him to finally lose his patience and kiss me.
If I hadn’t somehow gathered the courage the morning after the chaos at Saints & Sinners, I would probably have never asked Madeline out.
“I figured you might like to go to the aquarium and then get dinner afterwards?”
“The aquarium?” Madeline breathed and I knew, in that moment, that I’d made the right choice. Slanting a glance in her direction I found her looking at me with wide-eyed excitement.
“Have you ever been to the aquarium before?”
“No, my class in middle school was supposed to go, but I didn’t make it that day.” The way she phrased it was odd, and the excitement on her face died away as she was lost in some memory. I was just about to ask if she was okay, when she blinked a couple of times and her blindingly bright smile was back.
We pulled into the parking lot that was just a short walk away from the aquarium. It was just after four, but thanks to daylight savings it was already nearly dark.
I hopped out of my truck and circled around to Madeline’s door, opening it for her. “My lady.” I gave a stupid mock-bow and held a hand out to her and instantly regretted it. Madeline would probably think that I was the biggest idiot in the world. When I finally glanced up, however, Madeline just looked amused, if not a little charmed. Her brown eyes sparkled as she slid her warm hand into mine and let me help her out of the truck.
“Why thank you, sir.” She said, matching my energy and instantly making me feel better.
I shut the door and kept a hold of her hand as we exited the parking lot, making our way towards the aquarium. Once we stepped inside, I was suddenly grateful that the aquarium sold evening tickets. The aquarium was quiet since all of the children had already gone home for the day with their parents. Adults milled around in small groups and couples strolled through the dim corridors hand-in-hand. I gave myself a little pat on the back, suddenly feeling much better about our first date than I did an hour ago.
We took our time, looking inside of each of the tanks and admiring the fish. I watched as Madeline took pictures with a cute expression of concentration as she played with the settings on her phone. The crowning feature of the Aquarium of the Bay, however, was the long, fully immersed, tunnel that was nearly three hundred feet long. Madeline’s gasp of awe was worth every bit of anxiety that I’d been feeling all week.
“Isn’t it amazing?” I asked as I followed her inside of the tunnel, which was dark except for the blue glow from the surrounding tank. Sharks and other fish swam above, oblivious to our presence, and I could see that a huge seastar had adhered itself to the wall of the tunnel again. As we came closer I could see the little tendrils that made up the underside of the creature, all moving in sync to slowly pull itself up the glass.
“I love it!” Madeline exclaimed as she zoomed in on the starfish’s underside and took a picture, making sure that the flash was turned off so that she didn’t startle any of the fish. “This has been the best first date so far.” She gushed, and my chest swelled with pride.
We took our time in the tunnel, and I pointed out fish for her to take pictures of, but soon enough I was starving. I figured Madeline was starving too, if the growl of her stomach was any indication.
“You ready to get some food?” I asked and tugged her out of the tunnel. We headed towards the exit, my brain already fixed on getting us food.
“I’m starving, I was afraid that I was going to have to break into one of the tanks and eat some of the fish.” We shared a laugh as we walked up the hill and back to the truck.
“Is dinner a surprise too?” Madeline grinned at me as we buckled up.
