by Cherry Kay
“I don’t pay any attention to it. Dan is still a good guy and he is one of my best friends. I just know that it has to be hard for him, so I try to take that into consideration with things.”
The food arrived and Denise was blown away by the portion sizes that this place offered. She had always been under the impression that fine dining restaurants were notorious for giving you tiny portions and charging you an arm and a leg for them, but this place was different.
“All right, let’s dig in,” Rick said.
Denise took one bite of her entrée and she was in absolute Heaven. This was by far the finest meal she had ever had. It was amazing.
“Oh, my God! That is divine,” Denise said. She could not hold back her approval.
“I know, right? I love this place,” Rick said, shoveling a mouthful of food in his mouth. Denise loved the fact that Rick was a guy and wasn’t trying to be all fancy and suave. He was just happy being rough around the edges.
The waiter returned just then holding what looked like a very expensive bottle of wine. Denise had noticed that their champagne was running low, but she hadn’t figured they would order another bottle and she hadn’t heard Rick order one. He seemed as genuinely surprised as Denise was by the arrival.
“Compliments of a Mr. James Gogh,” the waiter said as he poured the bottle in two brand new glasses.
“Oh, James is here!” Rick said, he looked around a second and spotted his friend sitting at a table in the corner of the restaurant.
“Who’s that?” Denise asked.
“That is my friend James. He is a big real estate developer, and we grew up together. I haven’t seen him in a long time. I’ll have to say hi to him before I leave.”
“You can go now if you want to,” Denise said.
“It’s fine,” Rick replied.
The wine was an aged Merlot and it was exquisite. Denise was starting to feel slightly tipsy and she figured she had better slow down, but it was so tempting to eat everything in front of her. At the same time, she had to project the restraint of a lady and be urbane, but a part of her thought that Rick wouldn’t have cared if she’d chugged the whole thing. He would have thought it was a hoot.
“So, you guys grew up together?” Denise asked.
“Yeah, he actually lived just down the block from me. He was actually one of the better soccer players in our school. He and I had so much fun dominating our high school team. We led our team to the state championship.”
“Wow, but he didn’t follow you into college ball?”
“No, he decided to hang it up and really concentrate on the business world. He went to Harvard Business School and then started getting into the real estate game. He is brilliant,” Rick said.
It was fun to hear Rick singing praises for his friend like that. It showed that he never forgot the people he knew growing up.
After they finished their meal they moved into the bar area where James had motioned to Rick he would be so they could chat a bit.
Denise found James and his wife Lily, a former supermodel who still looked like one, to be very charming.
“How’s it going my friend? Long time, no see,” Rick said, slapping James a heavy high five followed up by a bro hug.
“Just living the dream. I see you’re doing the same. I can’t go anywhere without seeing your ugly mug or hearing your voice in an interview on TV nowadays, it seems,” James joked.
“I’m just happy to still be playing and having fun,” Rick replied modestly.
“So, is this little lady keeping an eye on you to make sure you are staying out of trouble? You have to watch this guy—he’s slick.”
“She is on the job,” Rick said.
“I love your dress,” Lilly remarked to Denise.
“Oh, thank you. Yours is gorgeous, as well,” Denise replied.
She and Lilly moved slightly to the side to have some girl talk. Lilly was very interesting. Not only was she a former model but she had actually opened up her own very successful modeling agency. She gave Denise her card just in case Denise wanted to try a different career. Denise was totally flattered and wasn’t sure if Lilly was serious or not, but it made her feel good all the same. Denise decided she could never handle the pressure of being a model, and she loved to eat way too much. It just wouldn’t work for her.
“How did you get involved in journalism? Is that something you always wanted to do?” Lilly asked.
“Yeah, I’ve always loved writing and researching. I love to talk to people and learn about their lives. So it has been a pretty perfect fit for me,” Denise said.
“That’s awesome. It’s important to run after your dreams,” Lilly said.
“How about you? Did you always dream of being a model?”
“I did, actually, but I never thought it would be a reality. I was a bit of a late bloomer. I was always too skinny growing up and then my freshman year of high school, puberty hit and I shot up a foot and filled out in all the right places. I became much more popular after that,” Lily joked.
“But you decided to go into the business side of it?”
“Yeah, I’d been modeling professionally for five years and just decided that it was no longer as exciting to me. I get bored too easily and I just had to go for something else.”
“Well, that’s great though. I’ve always felt people should have more than one dream.”
“Yeah and I love running the business and I love to mentor the young girls up and coming in the business. It’s great to pass along what I’ve learned along the way to them and to see them develop into major talents in the game. And modeling is very much a ruthless game; don’t let anyone tell you differently.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Denise said.
Rick looked over and smiled at Denise. He seemed as if he was glad she was making a new friend and getting along with people that he knew.
She was glad as well. It felt good to mingle with this side of the world.
Chapter Four
After they left the restaurant they swung by Rick’s place so they could grab a quick change of clothes and move on to the next part of the date. Rick had told her the plan beforehand, so Denise had packed a small bag with some other clothes in them. She felt a little weird about being naked in Rick’s place.
His place was beautiful and styled in a way that totally reflected his personality. It was like each room was a different part of him and she found that she was catching glimpses of who he was much more easily than she had when she was just asking him random questions.
His living room was decked out in family mementos. The walls were lined with pictures of him growing up and of his parents and grandparents. Denise wanted to delve into this area a bit later on and she hoped that she would have the chance to. When the time was right. The story was basically done so she didn’t want their time together to still feel like an interview. She wanted it to just come out and flow naturally.
His bathroom was bigger than her entire living room. It had a stand up shower, and a Jacuzzi area with a Jacuzzi big enough for six or seven people. Denise wished she could have hopped into the Jacuzzi right then—it had been a while for her.
After they changed, they headed for the carnival that was in town. Denise hadn’t been to a fair in a few years, and she was excited. It was the one kind of place where you could let your hair down and just be a kid. You could play games, you could ride the rides, and stuff your face with as much junk food as you could keep down. The carnival would always hold a special place in her heart from childhood. She was excited.
As soon as they walked through the gates, she took a huge breath of the carnival atmosphere and the scents. She closed her eyes for a second to take in all of the sounds.
When she opened her eyes Rick was smiling at her.
“What?” Denise asked.
“I’m just enjoying watching your pretty face. You haven’t even done anything here yet and you’re already having a blast.”
“Well,
it’s impossible to not have fun here,” Denise said.
They decided to get their feet wet with a few games. The first one they tried was the basketball toss and after three attempts at the game Rick did not win anything. Denise tried her hand and didn’t fare much better. Next, they moved on to the baseball toss. The game appeared so simple to just knock over those bottles, but for some reason the bottom right one would not fall over.
Of course, Denise knew just like everyone else did that these games were all fixed and run by con artists, but it was still fun. That was the only reason people played these games—they were a blast, even when you lost. But sometimes they arranged it so you did win, unless it was just pure dumb luck. She wasn’t really sure.
After playing several games, Denise decided that she had to have a funnel cake, even though she wasn’t remotely hungry. Rick didn’t protest, as he got one as well. He mutually understood that when you are at a carnival you have to indulge in junk food whether or not you were actually hungry or not. That was all there was to it.
“I had almost forgotten how much fun this is. Some of my best memories of childhood are my dad taking me and my sister to the fair. It was always a blast. We would ride all the rides, like we would make it a mission to go on every single one. We would get there as soon as they opened and just keep going.”
“That’s awesome,” Rick said.
“Yeah, we would even ride the big rides that my mom said were too dangerous and would try to refuse us to go on. But when Mom wasn’t there, Dad would let us ride them all.”
“Your Mom didn’t go?”
“No, she never wanted to do things like that. She did when I was really little, but as we got older, she just decided that she didn’t want to. She suffered from major depression and nothing the doctors did to help her ever really worked. By the time I was a teenager, it was becoming rare to see my mom even getting out of bed.”
“Wow, that’s rough.”
“Yeah, but it made me pretty self-reliant. My dad worked a lot and my sister and I were often left to fend for ourselves. I mean, my mom was there, but she was usually asleep or passed out drunk.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Rick said. It was nice to see that he genuinely cared.
“I’ve only told a few people in my life about any of that,” Denise said.
“Well, I’m glad you felt comfortable enough to share it with me,” Rick said.
“Me too,” Denise said. She hugged him softly and laid her head on his shoulder. He hugged her back. His warmth felt good and she was glad that she was feeling closer to him.
They decided to lighten up the mood with some carnival rides. Denise had always loved fast and crazy rides—she was a rollercoaster junkie—but it had been far too long since she had gone on one. She made a mental note to stop working so much and to get back into doing things that she loved to do. She was discovering by being with Rick that there was so much of her life that she was constantly missing out on nowadays. Somehow she had allowed herself to get into a bit of a rut and she had lost touch of so many of the things that she used to enjoy.
The first ride they decided to go on was the classic Ferris wheel. Denise had always loved this ride in particular because it was just so relaxing. It was one of the oldest types of rides that existed at carnivals and she always liked to start her carnival experience with that one.
“I dunno. The Ferris wheel? Isn’t it kind of boring?” Rick joked. “There is no rush!”
“It’s plenty of a rush for beginners. Besides, its romantic,” Denise teased.
“I’ll agree it is romantic. We are going to be way up in the air all alone in a little car. Let’s do this thing,” Rick said.
The operator locked them in the seat and they waited for him to do the rounds of the other cars as the ride took them slowly notch by notch up in the air. Denise loved to see the ground falling farther and farther away from them beneath. It was kind of hypnotic and she remembered the feeling of this from when she was a kid. She actually remembered going to the carnival and riding the Ferris wheel on her first date ever. She was thirteen and had gone out with Joey Schrader. Denise’s dad was there with her sister Debbie, but they both tried to give them their space. It was pretty sweet, especially since Debbie was two years younger and curious as could be. She drilled Denise with questions about the date for days and Denise kept her wondering. As the girls got older they were able to talk freely about boys.
The ride started moving and Denise had to close her eyes to feel the wind moving through her hair and over her face. It felt freeing and like she could at any moment jump out of the seat and continue to just float away. It was bringing back the feeling she had when she was a kid and the world was hers for the taking. She still felt that way to a certain extent but she found as she got older that it was not quite as cut and dry as that anymore. There were so many things in life that did not turn out the way you planned and survival meant always having at least a few back up plans ready and being able to move to them.
Denise wasn’t quite where she wanted to be with her career, but it was coming along. She could see herself getting there eventually, but it was taking longer than she had anticipated. That was the thing she had learned early on that actually derailed people from achieving their goals—lack of persistence. The key to success in anything she had discovered was daily persistence and hard work that slowly accomplished the primary objective. Most people wanted it now and were unwilling to put in the sacrifice to make it happen. They would start strong but get discouraged and then give up altogether. It wasn’t easy. Denise was living proof of that.
But because of her persistence she’d had the opportunity to meet Rick Thompson. She was actually riding a Ferris wheel with Rick Thompson. The whole thing was enough to make a girl’s head spin around. He was an amazing guy and she was already starting to see that there might be a future with him, but she tried to quiet that type of noise in her head. She didn’t want to get too attached to a guy who she was on a first date with, although she could consider the first evening they spent with each other to be a date.
It had ended with a sweet kiss, hadn’t it? Did that make it a working date? Was there even such a thing? She wasn’t sure how she wanted to think of it, but regardless, there was no reason to feel that this was necessarily going to be bigger than it was. That was the lie she had to focus on because otherwise she was going to start to feel differently and act differently. Rick was going to pick up on that vibe and he was going start to weird out possibly. She might have been jumping to conclusions, but she didn’t want to take the risk on that just yet.
“Wow, you were right. This is romantic,” Rick said.
Denise opened her eyes. Rick was flashing her that sexy smile of his as he put his arm around her. His shoulder felt so strong, yet soft and comforting behind her. She loved that Rick was able to be affectionate without making it weird. She had dated guys in the past that for whatever reason automatically assumed that affection had to entail some level of sexuality and even if they didn’t mean to they came across as creepy. Rick wasn’t like that at all. She felt really comfortable and safe with him.
“You see, you should listen to me,” Denise flirted.
“I do listen. I’m all about taking in feedback,” Rick said. “I totally believed you, but I was also really surprised.”
“You’ve been on a Ferris wheel before right?”
“Of course, but not since I was a kid. By the age of twelve I had graduated to the edgier stuff like The Hurricane and The Casino Ride. Those rides are fun.”
“Oh, we will get there. Trust me. The night is still young,” Denise said.
“So, are you an adrenaline junkie like me?” Rick asked.
“I like to think so,” Denise replied.
“What is the stupidest dangerous thing you ever did when you were a kid?” Rick asked.
Denise looked at him like he was crazy.
“What?” Rick asked laughing.
�
�That is the most random thing I have ever heard. Oh, this is so romantic on the Ferris wheel. What is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done?”
Denise couldn’t keep it together. She and Rick enjoyed a nice laugh as the ride brought them back up high in the air; they enjoyed those few seconds where they were on top of the wheel and they could look out high over the city for miles. It was a breathtaking sight and it was gone too soon, as the ride dipped back down to complete the ‘round and ‘round cycle.
Denise found herself wondering if the ride always moved in the same direction or if they switched it up. She had never really noticed before, but it seemed like the ride always went backwards for some reason. She was not aware of a time when she had ever noticed it going forward. Why was that?
She had to laugh at her own idiotic musings. The strange things that popped into her head sometimes were cause for alarm, she thought. She was here with the sexiest guy in the world and they were having a romantic evening, but she was thinking about a banality about a carnival ride. She thought if she should share this with Rick, but decided that he didn’t know her well enough yet to tolerate that level of weirdness.
“Uh, oh. The train to paradise is slowing down,” Rick said as the Ferris wheel began to slow its decent.
Denise always felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as the ride ended. It always seemed to be over far too quickly and to go too short. And it was always different. It was almost like they just randomly decided when the ride would be over and Denise started thinking about how unfair that was. She was wondering if the alcohol she’d had earlier was coming up with some sort of delayed effect because she was thinking about some fairly silly things.