The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 105

"Thank you." She inwardly gushed at how detailed his memory of the first date was as she sniffed the roses.

He had wanted to create a similar experience to one they’d had before so she wouldn’t be nervous but surprisingly, she looked even more nervous. He glanced at her pale knuckles as she held her purse with a little too much grip and smiled.

"All these years and you’re still nervous in my presence? Let’s count the stars." He teased her.

"Nervous? Why would I ever be..." She attempted to deny it and failed. She would freely do anything in his presence a day ago but somehow becoming his girlfriend had drained her of all the confidence she had.

"Let’s count the stars." He held a hand out to her and stood up, inviting her to come with him. She placed her palm in his and let him help her up, frowning in confusion.

"There are no stars tonight."

"Yeah, that’s a bummer." He agreed but led her to the edge where they watched them the last time nonetheless. "However, stars are not the only beautiful things."

"What else?"

"You." He kissed her cheek, making her chuckle, and when an explosion resounded from nearby, he pointed at a blast in the sky. "And these fireworks."

Her eyes widened when it became obvious why he had brought her here. He had recreated every moment and made up for the only missing detail. She watched as the fireworks exploded, filling the sky with bright-colored blasts.

When their gazes collided, he was confused. "That’s not an impressed smile."

She nodded. "Damon, we cannot relive the past. We both know what came out of it."

"An amazing son?" He cupped her face, knowing what she was worried about. "We don’t have to worry about negative history repeating itself. Back then, we were young adults without much experience in life apart from our horrible families. They easily took advantage of this to pull us away from each other but right now, would anyone take us for fools?"

"I don’t think so." She searched his eyes.

"They wouldn’t, because we would see right through them and kick their butt." He leaned in cautiously, subtly letting her know what he was about to do and giving her time to pull away if she wanted to. She placed her hand on his shoulder and closed her eyes in invitation, letting him lock his lips with hers.

All her worries from a moment ago faded along with everything else and for a moment, it was just him and her and the sound of fireworks exploding in the background, and that of her heart racing. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him, fighting himself not to let their kiss spiral into something they couldn’t do in public.

He kissed her gently even though he wanted nothing more than to ravish her, for them to lose themselves to the fiery passion building up between them, but he stopped. Her eyes were full of love when she opened them and looked up at him.

"I love you." He couldn’t stop himself from whispering.

Her eyes glistened and she blinked her emotions away. "Promise me something."

"Anything."

"Promise me that no matter what happens to us, you will always be there for our son." She demanded. It was not the right time to talk about anyone but the two of them but she couldn’t let it escalate without making sure Angel wouldn’t suffer any loss. "That even if we were to somehow become worst enemies, you would not abandon our son. Can you promise me this?"

"No." He pulled her closer, seeing the question in her eyes. "I can only promise to be there for both of you. Not just our son. And no matter what happens, I would never consider you my enemy. I would still be there for you and our son whenever either of you needs me."

She was reassured hearing it from his mouth. With the newly found reassurance came the urge to tease him. "What if I broke your heart or stabbed you in the back?"

"In that impossible case scenario, I would punish you." He threatened, then his eyes darkened. She only realized what he had thought about when he spanked her. "It’s been years since we went on a date and that’s all you can think about?"

"It was only a question!" She burst into laughter, admitting it was not the right thing to ask on an overdue date. She poked his chest in jest. "Let’s not think about it anymore, okay? Our food is here."

He turned to the door and sure enough, their waiter was back with a food trolley.

"Are you ready for your favorite steak?" He enticed her back to the table.

"After a dance." She grabbed his hand and led them a few steps away from the wall. She had been wanting to dance to the romantic tune playing but didn’t have the courage to, and now that the air was clear between them, she found her nervousness silly.

"As you wish." He placed his hand at the small of her back while holding her hand with his, and slowly led the dance. She twirled and stopped right in his arms, ending the dance with a kiss on his lips.

"That’s all?" He had to admit it was too short.

"That’s all you get tonight, mister." She seductively walked off and returned to her chair, and he could only follow suit.

...

When she said that was all he could get earlier, he had thought she would change his mind if he seduced her. Alas, he got hit with her firm belief against fooling around on the first date. It was not their first date but he understood her logic. Although they wanted to explore beyond the dinner date, they both secretly felt the need to relive the rest of the first date, which had ended in him dropping her back home and spending the next few hours on a video call because they missed each other too much.

So, after their meal—and several more dances under the dim light—he drove her back home. She kissed him when the car stopped. "Thank you for tonight."

"Thank you for ageeing to do this." He wanted to kiss her again but Angel ran out of the house with Gabriel tailing him.

She laughed at his bummed expression as he got out of the car and opened the door for her.

Gabriel took her hand and twirled her around, making her frown.

"What do you think you’re doing?"

"Ensuring my sister has been brought back in one piece." He shot a stern look at Damon.

She laughed as she picked her son up and hugged him. "The friendship between men is more complicated than history classes. One minute, they are colluding to make a living hell out of my life and the next, they are up against each other."

She was yet to complete her thought process when Gabriel and Damon bumped shoulders as a form of whatever truce they had reached.

The latter came over and hugged both of them.

"Goodnight, you both." He kissed Angel’s forehead then Avery’s lips.

"Urgh, how cheesy." Gabriel groaned and looked so bored he was about to pass out.

"You can go right ahead and admit you wish you had someone to kiss goodnight." Avery teased him. Sure enough, he took Angel from her arms and offered him chocolate candy. "I couldn’t give you this before but your mother is back now."

She appreciated the fact that he had kept her rule in mind. "Thank you for taking care of him."

"Why would you thank me? It only makes sense for the uncle to take care of his nephew when his parents want to go out and have fun. When’s your next date?"

"Tomorrow, if she says yes." Damon gave an impossible answer.

Deciding she had no business discussing logic with a man who wanted nothing but to spend the whole day with her and another who couldn’t wait to sit his nephew for an eternity, she led Angel back into the house.

_____

"Tell me all about your date." Came the expected question from Chloe and Mina the next morning.

"You woke me up so early just for this?" She complained. They had come nearly tearing down the door to her room and it was all for gossip?

"What do you mean ’just for this’? There’s nothing more important than knowing whether you had fun last night, okay?" Mina looked like she was about to whip out a bucket of popcorn to listen to the whole story.

"We had dinner." She kept it short, making the women look at her like she had committed a crime.

She was rescued by a nanny who ran towards them, but she wasn’t bearing good news. "Ma’am, there’s a woman outside demanding to see you. I think she’s Dorthe D’Aboville."

"They never stop, do they?" Mina growled.

"Didn’t Gabe take them all away?" Avery wondered, while Chloe shot to her feet to deal with her.

They got to the gate at the same time and sure enough, Dorthe was waiting for them in fury, trying not to explode when she saw Avery. She knew Mina and Chloe wouldn’t budge if she asked to talk to Avery in private so she simply spoke up.

"You are a D’Aboville, do you realize that?" She started.

She knew what Dorthe was trying to say but she feigned shock. "I appreciate you accepting me so early but Damon hasn’t popped the question and probably won’t any time soon."