by J. C. Allen
As we continued down the road, I wondered if Derek had any idea of where we were. It was a pretty abandoned place, and it wasn’t entirely out of the question that he’d gotten lost in his mind about later tonight and simply failed to see the exit. I mean, heaven knows how much I’d spent the day dwelling in my own head.
I opened my mouth to say something when I saw a large sign ahead. The sign read “OUTLET CENTER” in large print and above it, in small letters, was most likely the official name, but I couldn’t read it as we drove in. I glanced ahead, seeing a large movie theater and a sign for a Medieval Times restaurant. Given the lack of other businesses in the area, only one question made sense.
“Are we going there?” I asked, pointing to the sign.
“I was thinking we could,” he said with a shrug. “Roost said he shops here a lot and thought it’d be fun for us.”
“It’s massive for an outlet store!” I said in awe as I continued to stare.
“Hope that’s a good thing,” he said.
“Maybe not for your wallet,” I said, teasing him.
“I’m sure my wallet can handle it. Now let’s go have some fun.”
The first place we stopped, because of course we had to, was a large book store. I couldn’t believe how big the store was as I walked down the aisles of books. I stopped, seeing an author duo that I loved had released a new book, and picked it up to read the back.
“Faes and centaurs, huh?” Derek murmured behind me.
“Yeah, these two usually write dark urban fantasy, but I guess they decided to do something more high-fantasy with this one.”
It wasn’t quite biology and evolution and other high-minded subjects, but in a lighter time and in a slower world, I’m sure that I would have already read this book by now.
“Urban fantasy and high-fantasy?” Derek said, as if I had just said humans could have one head or five heads. “What’s the difference?”
I looked over my shoulder, smirking. It occurred to me that the better analogy was to say Derek understood the different types of fantasies about as well as I had understood guns before today.
“Same difference between the Underworld movies and the Lord of the Rings movies.”
“Oh!” Derek said, smiling in understanding at the explanation. “Why didn’t you just say so?”
I rolled my eyes at him and went on reading the back of the book, letting the silence answer his question for him.
“Isn’t a fae just, like, an elf?”
I gave him a coy smirk.
“Isn’t a Honda like a Harley?”
Derek made a face and I nodded vigorously at the expression he gave.
“See? That reaction, right there?” I said. “That’s how some readers feel when you ask a question like that.”
“Pretty big difference,” Derek grumbled. “Guess I was a bit off, huh?”
“Toe-may-toe; toe-mah-toe,” I said back to him as I finished reading the blurb and decided that, yes, I was definitely getting this book. “Now… you aren’t going to judge me, are you?”
“Not so long as you never try to compare Hondas and Harleys again,” he rebutted with a playful grin. “Heavens. You might as well say a glow in the dark stick and the sun are the same thing.”
I rolled my eyes, set the book along with my other selections, and started off.
“I’m serious! I’ve always felt so nervous being a reader. Even before I was… well, before everything that happened, it was like I could feel people judging me for liking to read.”
“Why would I judge you for liking something?” he asked, seeming genuinely bewildered.
Truth be told, even I struggled with the question.
“I dunno,” I said. “Some people have teased me for liking fantasy and romance, I guess. When I was in middle school, some girls found out I had a thing for berserker romance and—”
“Berserker?” Derek asked.
I felt my cheeks burn hot at that. This one was a little more understanding that Derek did not understand, but… well, even for all that we had shared between us, or perhaps because of it, this was going to be a fun conversation. Especially in public!
“You know…” I said in a low voice, practically whimpering with embarrassment. “Like… like, wild warrior men. All carnal and bestial, like predators, and… you know, berserk!”
“And you—what?—got off to those types of characters,” he said, raising an eyebrow and grinning at me. “I see. I see!”
“Shh! Shh! Derek, oh my… shut up! Not so loud!”
He laughed at how red my face turned, and while I would never admit to enjoying it, I think he picked up on the fact that there was a certain enjoyment in the embarrassment of it all.
“I don’t mind, as long as you let me read them after,” Derek winked.
“What? Really?” I gaped. “You? Reading… reading these types of books?”
“Oh! Who’s judging who now?” he stared, feigning hurt. “I’m so hurt!”
“I am not judging you!” I protested. “I—”
But before I could add anything else, he moved his mouth to mine, giving me a quick kiss. It was his polite way of saying “hush.”
“Don’t worry, I know you aren’t,” he said. “That being said, romance isn’t my genre of choice. For, well, reasons you know and don’t need rehashing, it hasn’t always been something I could believe in.”
So if it’s not his genre of choice…
“Do you even like to read?” I asked.
“When I have the time,” he said, surprising me a bit. I had never pegged Derek as a reader, most especially since his room was somewhat devoid of books and the like. “I haven’t read a lot recently with how crazy things have been, but I like action and mystery mostly. War books and stuff like that. My mom was the one who was super into horror and vampires and stuff, and I guess growing up that close to those things I got sort of… I don’t know.”
While I was stunned and surprised, this made me like and love him even more. I didn’t know how that was possible, but I was realizing Derek was perhaps a bit more intellectual than he liked to let on.
Interesting. The layers are even thicker than I imagined.
“What?” I asked. “What about the horror and vampires?”
He sighed and shrugged, blushing a little. It was almost too cute to handle.
“They’ve always freaked me out, I guess. That and science fiction, too—that was my dad’s thing. I suppose Dustin was pretty much into all that stuff, but maybe all that hype around those things in the household drove me to take interest in other stuff.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I said with a reassuring smile. “So long as you found your own stuff to like, right?”
He smiled back, nodding.
“Here,” I offered, taking his hand. “Let’s go find some books that you’ll like more, too. You deserve to have a ‘to-be-read’ pile, even if it’ll never be nearly as big as mine.”
Derek laughed at that, said something about a woman making a “mine is bigger”-statement, and then allowed himself to be dragged along.
With that, we spent over an hour at the bookstore and came out with a bag full of books. Derek had said he’d have bought more if we had more space to put them in. Even still, glancing at the bag, I felt we had maybe gone a bit overboard—not that I actually could worry about it.
Besides, how many times would I get to go to a bookstore and leave with a ton of books? I smiled, realizing that with Derek in my life, I could probably do it a lot more than I was thinking. As corny as it sounded, I began imagining the idea of “quiet date nights” where we’d get to just sit in bed, read, and then spend half an hour discussing all of the things that we had read over the past hour. It was…
Of all the things that we had done and discussed, it was easily among the most romantic.
Corny? Maybe. Captivating? Most definitely.
* * *
“So, should we check out Medieval Times?” Derek said. “Pre
tty hungry if you ask me.”
“Yes!” I said, smiling widely. “Nice little cap to our night!”
We made our way to the entrance and I stared in awe. Even the entrance was fully decked out to look like a castle. I glanced over at Derek, seeing that he was already buying tickets. I walked over, seeing that he paid for a celebration add-on.
“Celebration?” I asked, glancing over. “For what?”
“I just put in our anniversary,” he smiled. “But I figure we could just celebrate us today.”
“I mean… has it been a month?” I said. “Could we qualify it?”
“I don’t think technically speaking, it hasn’t been,” he added. “But that’s fine with me. You know why? Because I’m in no rush with you, babe. I’ll slow down time and stop it for you.”
“Aww, Derek,” I said, leaning up to kiss him. “Thank you.”
I smiled, taking the special lanyard that came with the extra add-on. By now, I had completely forgotten about any outside dangers, any imminent threats, and even the fact that Derek would not be spending the night with me.
“We also get a free photo with the king,” Derek said, grinning.
“The king, huh? Aren’t I already with him?”
“Well, someone dressed like a king. Feels more official that way.”
We both laughed as we made our way to the entrance, took our photo with someone who looked like a real life Burger King mascot, and then headed inside. I glanced around, amazed at how detailed everything was.
As we were shown our seats, I looked over to the stage, seeing a balcony where I assumed the royal members would sit. I glanced over at Derek, who was looking at me.
“What? Is something wrong?” I asked, wondering if I had something on my face.
“Nothing at all,” he smiled, shaking his head. “Just appreciating that you are having fun.”
“Of course,” I said, taking his hand. “Are you as well?”
“Definitely,” he said. “This place is awesome! Plus, the food sounds amazing. I mean, I’m like Roost at heart, so any food is good food to me. All sounds good to me!”
“It does,” I said, glancing around when I noticed something typical missing. “No silverware, huh?”
“Nope, gotta eat with your hands, it’ll be more authentic,” he said.
I’ll eat anywhere and any style with you.
We continued to look around and before long, the lights were dimming and a waitress came over to take everyone’s orders. The waitress had us all cheer for our knight, booing the opposing team. I chuckled as Derek stood and hollered at the opposing team, excited at how into it he was getting.
It was akin to watching someone cheer for their favorite college sports team. I was certain an element of it was Derek trying to get his mind off of anything from the morning and afternoon, but if it worked, who was I to say anything?
“Is this high-fantasy enough for you?” he asked with a smirk.
“It’s certainly Medieval,” I offered with a laugh. “More realistic than Lord of the Rings!”
“Aw,” he said. “At least I tried, right? Do I get points for using it in a sentence, at least?”
“Yes,” I smiled, kissing his cheek. “Lots of points… for trying. But don’t worry, you’re winning overall.”
He grinned at that like a little school boy who had just discovered Mom had packed him a brownie for dessert. I chuckled at how cute he was. Rare was it that a man could both be cheek-pinching cute and dynamically hot and sexual, yet here he was, doing both—all in the same day.
As the lights dimmed more, I glanced to the stage as they introduced the knights and began the show. With the celebration passes, we were given first access to our seats and had gotten the front row. I watched the beautiful horses as they passed, enjoying the sights and show.
It was the perfect escape from the harshness, toughness, and tragedy of our daily lives. Only for a short period longer.
“Wow, those horses are so beautiful, aren’t they?” I said.
“They really are,” he agreed.
The rest of the show was incredible. I had enjoyed watching Derek just lift his chicken breast and dig in, even if my initial, ill-advised reaction was one of a bit of revulsion. Deciding that that was what we were supposed to do, I joined in, and said repulsive reaction vanished in favor of how juicy the breast was. In fact, we both had a good laugh at how messy we were by the end of the dinner.
When the last of the games started, the knights gave roses to lucky audience members. One of the knights threw one at me, and Derek move his hand over my shoulder. I turned to him, giving a bemused look at his apparent jealousy.
“Are you jealous?” I laughed. “They’ve given flowers to a ton of women, I’m sure.”
“Just playing the part of a historical man, right? You know: ‘My woman’! Grunt-grung, ugh-ugh! Me protect! Me defend! Me fight with honor!”
I broke out into hysterical laughter at that. Just. Perfect. So damn perfect, Derek.
I don’t know how you do it, but I really do love you so much.
The last of the show ended and we were given our pictures before leaving. I looked at it with awe at Derek’s smile, thought even I looked half-decent, and decided this was getting hung on his fridge. It was kind of barren, anyways, so I was doing him a favor by doing this.
As we made our way back to the bike, the realization that I wouldn’t have much more time with Derek before he had to leave hit me. And given that, there was only one more destination to be had—and it wasn’t here.
“Where to now?” Derek asked. “There’s a few other places we can go. Think we have about an hour and a half left, so we could—”
“Can we go back to the condo?” I asked, squeezing his arm.
“Oh?” he raised an eyebrow, knowing full well what would happen now that we had our energy and a little bit of excitement going on. “You sure you don’t want to do anything else?”
Take a wild guess, Derek Knight.
“I’m sure,” I pressed my body against his for emphasis. “I think the better question is, are you sure?”
“A-alright! No time like the present, right?” he laughed, coughing nervously. “Let me, uh, let’s get this baby rolling!”
With that, we were back on the bike and heading home in no time. I smiled, squeezing his waist, reliving the day and how amazing the date had gone.
And then I frowned, realizing that Derek was going to be gone in no time as well.
While it was true that I had been apart for him many times while he went out on dangerous missions, even going so far as to lock me into a building so I couldn’t do anything, I still felt sheer nerves at this. Something about the raised stakes, the lack of anything else to do on the date, and now feeling I had a part to play were combining to make my mood in that moment hell.
I needed something, anything to keep me relaxed, even if Derek couldn’t be there. I needed… I needed comfort.
“Derek?” I called over the bike.
“What’s up?” he called back.
“Do we have time to stop somewhere?” I asked.
“Sure, where do you want to stop?” he asked.
I had a small idea. It wasn’t much, and I wasn’t even sure that I’d use it. But it was nice to know it was there if needed later tonight.
I gave him the directions, guiding him through the night and to a movie store set to close just ten minutes later. As we stopped in front of a small movie shop, I slid off the bike first, hurrying inside. He glanced up, seeming curious about the shop, and moved off the bike to follow me inside.
“You okay?” he asked.
I felt bad for him, because I didn’t want to bring his mood down any further, and yet it felt as if that was exactly what I was doing here.
“Yeah, I wanted to get a movie to watch tonight while you… well, you know,” I said, not finishing the sentence.
“What movie?” he asked, seeming curious and eager to not dwell too much on what “
well, you know” was.
“Something my dad would put on for me every time he left for a business trip,” I said, looking through the children’s movies.
“Oh?” he asked, watching me.
I found the movie and slid it over to show him. He looked down, seeing an old DVD copy of “The Land Before Time” and looked up at me, raising an eyebrow. I smiled, taking the movie back and headed towards the register. The less talking I had to do while I did this, the better.
“Huh, a 90’s classic,” he said with a smirk. “Good. Didn’t know you went that far back.”
“Oh, hardy har, because I’m not allowed to remember something if I was less than a year old or before my time, right? So what if I do?
“No, it’s fine,” he said. “I liked the move too, actually.”
“Well, in that case, maybe we can watch it together sometime.”
“You mean, we will watch it together soon.”
I nodded, smiling softly, and finished the purchase. We moved back to the bike and I slid behind him, wrapping my arms tightly around his waist as he hit the ignition. We weren’t too far from the condo now, and I couldn’t hold back the sudden excitement that filled me.
I couldn’t wait for Derek’s touch. I couldn’t wait to have him naked again.
I couldn’t wait to have him alone and to hold onto the moment in the hopes that it would last forever.
“Anywhere else we need to go?” Derek asked.
“Home. Pronto,” I answered, rubbing my hand over his crotch and squeezing what was beginning to grow down there.
“H-home it is!” he called, hitting the acceleration.
Derek was always a man of his word, and his promise to drive safe was true… but only in the most technical sense of the word.
He didn’t speed past red lights… but he sure pushed the yellow ones. He didn’t speed… excessively. He didn’t take turns that sharply… although suddenly, left turns with multiple cars meant he had leeway to turn even after it became red.