Baewatch - Xavier Neal Page 0,5
“Despite the fact I promised myself I wasn’t going to tell anyone this story other than Fatima, my best friend, I will tell you.”
He immediately smiles victoriously.
“On the condition…”
Ax’s grin remains regardless of the interjection, which is an intriguing surprise.
“That you tell me your worst first date in return.”
“Done.”
His swift response causes me to smirk.
“You might as well know now, I’m like the ocean, babe. Deep and open.”
I can’t resist the urge to poke the statement. “You know how awful that sounds?”
“What’s wrong with being deep and open?” Ax barely pauses prior to him hastily nodding. “Oh. Yup. I hear it now.” An uncomfortable yet light-hearted cringe crosses his face. “Not my smoothest shit.”
More snickers are stolen out of me causing his grin to fully return.
“However, if momentarily making an ass out of myself keeps you smiling like that, I don’t mind cultivating a new habit.”
A blush creeps into my cheeks at the same time there’s a pounding in my ears.
That’s not the irritating disorder known as tinnitus rearing its ugly, unpredictable head again.
No.
That’s my own heartbeat demanding I hear a message I’ve never heard before.
Ax doesn’t shy away from his bold statement nor does he seem to worry if it’s come on too strong or too sly or too anything. He simply continues to smile and motions his head towards me to continue. “What made Stanley the worst? How could he have possibly topped Johnny Utah, whose name, I want on record, is being dropped respectively for comparison purposes only.”
“Do you think it’s weird for us to know this many Keanu Reeves movies off the top of our heads?”
“Nah. Guy’s a goddamn national treasure. It should be a crime to not know this many.”
More laughter escapes us both while I happily shake my head.
“Back to Stanley…” Ax leads, reminding me I still have his full attention.
“He arranged for us to have a picnic in the park, which sounds super sweet and super cute-”
“Romantic.”
“It would’ve been had he not orchestrated the entire thing just to be able to bring his pet owl, Valentine, along.”
Ax’s crystal gaze widens at the same time he leans a little closer. “Whoa. Hold my board. He brought his owl on this date?”
“Not only did he bring his owl, he spent most of the night wooing and cooing at it, only stopping to ask me uncomfortable questions that – given the line of interrogation – felt like he was searching for approval regarding interspecies dating.”
The laughter that leaves my spontaneous date is coated in bafflement, appalment, and amusement. “That is…unrealistically awful.”
“Oh, it was very real. And very awkward. And so bizarre that I abandoned ‘normal’ online dating and went for a private company highly recommended by Jade, my old college friend, since it’s where she met her husband.”
“Huh,” he hums out at a lower volume. “I think it’s crazy that people don’t just meet people anymore.”
“It’s harder for some.”
“Yeah, I get that, but it’s like being out on my board. I can get a good idea what the waves are like based on the predicted weather patterns; however, until I’m out there in it, I don’t fully know what’s going on. How truly calm or choppy the shit might be. It’s the same for dating. Sure, you can chat online, exchange photos, you know study the meteorologist’s best guess – aka what some computer algorithm thinks – but nothing beats that moment you get in the water. Nothing can properly anticipate how you feel when you’re in it. Water could be perfect and your heart not be in it. Water could be raging, and you crave the challenge that day. I get some people need the comfort of examining a situation like that before putting a toe in…,” a small casual shrug bounces his shoulders, “it’s not me, I guess. I prefer looking out into those waves and testing the water myself. Call me old fashioned.”
“I wanna call you a lot of things right now, yet old fashioned is not one of them.”
Ax lets the corner of his lip curl upward. “Are they at least good things, or did my whole ‘meet people living life instead of typing it out’ speech kinda kill the magic?”
“It didn’t kill a damn thing.”
His eyebrows dart to the dark night sky.
“It’s rare for me to meet a person who prefers to meet people out and about being people.” I give his hand a comforting squeeze. “Personally? It’s my preferred method as well, but work often gets in the way, and