Where Would I Be Without You

Chapter Six

The whole day at work, I could think of nothing more than the sweet words of Mason telling me that he wanted nothing more than to be with me, but it would be wise for both of us to have at least a few dates under our belts first. I agreed, reluctantly, but knew it was for the best. However, his mention of other dates, held so much promise that I was excited to finish work and get home. However, it was only nine thirty, and I had a production meeting. This was going to be a long day.

On my lunch hour, I saw a text from Mason. It simple read: Have a great day at work. It was enough that he was thinking of me that I had a smile on my face the rest of the day that got everyone I worked with to ask me what was up. I felt it was too soon to exaggerate about Mason when I had just been boasting about Steve. Yet, if he came to my work party tomorrow night, I did not want there to be any confusion. Therefore, I simply replied that my new boyfriend Mason had put it there. Only two out of all the other females gave me the evil eye and reply of; I thought his name was Steve. I just looked at them as if they were confused. Luckily, for me, I worked with people that never bothered to remember my boyfriend's names nor did they really care who I was seeing or dating. They just cared if I got their time cards correct for HR and if their vacation request time was put in.

The drive home was tedious with traffic due to the baseball game going on in the Rockies Stadium. Thinking of Mason had made me completely forget that I needed to take an alternate route home to make my drive easier. However, I wouldn't give up living downtown for anything, so I puttered through the constant stop and go while thinking about Mason. I kept thinking about his eyes and the way they spoke their own language of love; his smile, which often exposed these two cute dimples on his cheeks, and the most important memory of all, the way that he kissed me and how it sent me into a tailspin of elation.

I only got three car horns to 'move it lady', while I was lost in thought over Mason. So when I pulled into the apartment building parking lot to my assigned spot, I felt overjoyed when I could see his apartment from the lot, and his light was on. That meant he was home and hopefully done with his work. Maybe he would want to stop by for a drink or watch a movie. As I took the elevator in my building up to my floor, I wondered things like, what is his favorite movie, color, food, and the all-time silly girl notion of what does he dream his perfect wife to be? I know, a bit too soon for all these thoughts. Well at least, the last one was a bit too serious, too soon.

When I got off the elevator, from thinking about Mason, I felt as if I was walking on air all the way to my door. As soon as I unlocked the door and walked in, I stood there with my door wide open and a deer caught in headlight look. There on my small kitchen table for two, was my bakery cake out of the box, two small plates with forks on them, two unlit white candles in crystal holders and two glasses of milk. My kitchen table is just off the view of my doorway, ten steps or so from my window seat, the very seat that now held a gorgeous seat cushion with a huge blue bow and a note. I called out. "Mason? Marion? Aunt Heather?" Any one of them could have done this. However, I said Mason's name first because he had joked about sharing the cake and getting me a window seat cushion so that I could watch his 'naked dance' as he called it.

I finally closed my front door behind me when no one answered out. I dropped my purse on my side table, walked over, and picked up the note, which was obviously written by a man. 'Something soft to rest your butt on while you watch me.' With a smiley face.

I walked over to the kitchen table and there was another note on a small white piece of paper, it simple read. Call me if you want to share that cake tonight.

I rushed over to my cordless phone and dialed in the direct number to the building maintenance. Mason answered on the second ring. "That didn't take long. You just got home. I saw you pull up and park while I was fixing a tenant's stuck window that overlooks the lot."

His voice was cheerful, and it sounded like he was just as happy to see me as I was him. This was too good to be true. He was either the most romantic man I had ever dated, or I was in some kind of dream that I have yet to wake up from. Maybe I haven't woken up from the night after my family birthday dinner. That thought caused a shiver, so I pinched myself.

"Amber? You there? I can hear you breathing." He sounded worried so I responded quickly.

"I'm here. Sorry. I guess I am a bit stunned. The cake, the cushion, where do I start? It's all very..." I let my voice trail off.

"I know romantic. Does it make me sound any more like a man if I tell you my younger sister helped? She stopped by earlier and wanted to know what was new. I told her about you and your birthday tomorrow. She did the investigative work on the cake. Found the bakery you ordered from and picked up the cake. She actually found the cushion too. Sorry, I would like to take claim to that..."

I stopped him before he went on. "Hurry your ass up over here and tell me then. And Mason?"

His voice held a bit of laughter. "Yes?"

"I missed you today." I let out that sigh that he made me feel as if I was lost in a lustful paradox.

"I missed you too." He hung up and I barely had time to brush my teeth and fluff my hair when a knock on my door had me running out of the bathroom.

"Your door was unlocked. Not very safe." Then he turned and locked the door.

"In my defense, I was a bit surprised. The cake and candles, the milk, the cushion." I took the steps to close the gap between us, and before I could kiss him, he had me wrapped up in his arms kissing me like a hungry man. I quickly wondered if date number two was too early for hanky-panky. At least, my whohaw wondered. My mature female, needs to grow up brain, told my whohaw, not tonight dear, just a few more dates. Mature parenting sucks, even if it is to your own body.

When we pulled away from the kiss, he looked into my eyes as he stroked the side of my face, letting his fingers linger down to my neck. Then with a soft voice, he admitted to me. "It was all my sister's idea. A good one at that with the reaction I just got."

"I haven't even met her, but I know I like her already." I smiled up at him.

"You'd love her. She's smart, funny, sweet but not a push over. She's the one sister I really connected with. You know. We talk about everything. I always check up on her and she does the same with me." He looked as if he was remembering fond memories of his sister while talking to me, and that touched a soft spot in my heart. At one point in our lives, Bethany and I were great friends, not just competitors in our mom's love and affection. She won out at an early age, so I quickly gave up trying. I still loved Bethany as a sister, but Marion and I had that sister connection that kept us best friends as long as we have been.

"Hey." I pulled his arm over to the table. "I'm starved. Let's eat this cake."

He let me lure him over to the table, where he quickly pulled out a chair for me to sit down in. My small oak wood dinette and chairs were a simple thing, but with the cake and candles, it felt grand. He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit the candles. "I have to confess. I don't smoke, so my sister bought me this to have on hand to light the candles she bought. Does it seem weird? You know. That my sister did this?"

"Not at all." I replied as I watched him sit. "Just the fact you told your sister was enough for me. If she did all the sidebar work to make it happen for you, I think that is really sweet. However, you are setting the bar a little high on our second date."

He laughed and grabbed my hand to hold. "Then perhaps I had better take some notes on what is expected of me and keep my sister on standby for help."

"That would be a wonderful idea." I smirked with a glint of sparkle to my eye. "You are going to love this cake. The bakery down the street makes a wonderful chocolate cake. You should taste their muffins too. To die for. And their holiday pies, they are about the only thing I insist I get to bring to holiday parties."

Then he looked me in the eye, leaned forward out of his chair, gave me a soft simple kiss on my lips and said the next thing that made me make that ah sound. "Nothing is sweeter than you."

Then he sat back down in his chair and took a bite of cake; he muttered out before he swallowed. "I think we need to make a muffin run there this weekend, maybe Saturday if you are free."

Well, not only would I make myself free; I was already thinking about what to wear and which booth I wanted to sit in that was quiet and cozy. However, I never responded so I finally took a bite of cake, and as soon as I swallowed it with a drink of the milk in the glass on the table I replied. "Mason, that would be really nice."

"So this is date two. Tomorrow after your work is date three. Perhaps I should give you Thursday and Friday off and make Saturday date four. Then if you are up for it..." He paused as I was giving him the pouty sad girl face.

"What's wrong?" His voice held genuine concern. I was good, no great, at the pouty girl face. It even won me a part in the high school play for a, don't laugh, poor sad girl.

I let him off the hook quickly with a teasing laughter. "Who says I need a night off? Work goes so much better if I know I have a boyfriend to come home to."

"Then we should make plans for Thursday and Friday." He smiled over at me with a serious look to his face. Could he be feeling what I was feeling? It was as if neither of us could not get enough of each other.

"That would be nice." My voice trailed with the word nice on an elongated note.

We did not decide right then and there about what to do; it was as if just knowing we were going to do something together that made both of us relax and polish off two pieces of cake and two more glasses of milk. When we were done, he cleared the plates and glasses and began to wash them off in the sink with dish soap and set them on the dish rack next to the sink.

I had to tease. "You know, watching you do dishes is like porn for a woman, only it would be more erotic if your shirt was off."

He stopped washing a glass, set it back in the sink, and took his shirt off and flung it towards me, almost knocking the lit candle over. We both started to laugh at my quick reflexes to grab the shirt in midair with my left hand while catching the lit candle in my right. I blew both candles out and watched him turn back around to the sink. As soon as he did, I held his shirt up to my nose and breathed in deep. His cologne scent of something fresh was on it mixed with the smell of his skin that intoxicated me. Without him turning, he talked to me with his back to me.

"I saw that in the window reflection." Then he turned to me, soapy dishcloth in one hand, chocolate-covered fork in the other, and a very nice set of muscular abs and chest muscles that made me swoon. Through his window was one thing, in my kitchen doing dishes, I was in trouble.

"You look busted." He joked.

"I feel busted. That's not me. A normal me. Smelling your clothes." Then I paused. I might as well warn him now. "Ok. I... I have a secret." I raised one eyebrow and looked at him with my head diverted down but my eyes slightly looking up at him with my head tilted. He seemed to be waiting patiently for my secret. I finally got out the words. "I don't always do the common sense thing. Sometimes I do really stupid things. Maybe even immature." The last word eked out of me slow and long.

He shrugged his shoulders and tossed the fork in the sink. "Who doesn't." Then he walked over, motioned for me to stand. I did, and then he picked me up while I started to giggle, and he carried me to the kitchen countertop. He set my butt on the counter and stood between my legs with my head in his hands. "Where would I be without you right now? Sitting on my couch watching the game? Trolling on the Internet for a girlfriend? Fixing some old farts whatever that is broken? Instead, I am here with you, and you are the most mature thing I want to think about. I've done a lot of stupid things in my life, ask my father. The night I put you to sleep naked in your bed after watching you do whatever it was that you were doing; I couldn't stop thinking about you. You are real, and I like what is happening here."

I said it as I felt it. "Gulp."

"Sorry too much, too soon." He sounded worried, but I wasn't. What he just said made a hell of a lot of sense. We were two lost souls looking for our mate, and fate put us across the building from each other. I would have wanted the first time he met me not to be a drunk naked passed out stupor, yet he didn't hold that against me. I needed to tell him everything, about Steve, my mom's control and inability to love me just as I am, my need to have Marion in every part of my life, which meant he would have to love her just as much, and my crazy aunt, my perfect sister, all of it. For now, I grabbed his head, slammed my lips against his, and began kissing him with all the craziness I felt deep inside of me; that feeling caused tangling tongue and heavy breathing.

It took several minutes before I realized that things were going to progress too far, too soon, and we both knew that taking this a bit slower was better for making something out of this. I felt his excitement, and I knew my own was off the charts molten mess. We both seemed to pull away at the same time, and we pressed our foreheads against each other while breathing hard. I finally found the words to speak up.

"I think I should be the one to question, where would I be without you? My common sense doesn't become me. It takes me for a joyride from time to time, and I end up in a lot of trouble. I have a confession to make."

He laughed at my reference. "What is it?"

"Well. You may not like this. Ok. Here it goes. Tomorrow, after I am officially thirty, I need to act more grown up. Be responsible. Take a college class. Volunteer. Do things that are thought through and not spur of the moment, 'hey that seems like a great idea'. I think you might find me rather dull after I turn thirty."

He laughed with a soft sound and then held my face as he looked into my eyes. "Doubt it. But hey, if you need a support group in this new challenge, I'm up for it."

It was as if the gates of heaven opened up, and a spotlight shined down on him while angels sang, and heavenly music cued in. Therefore, I looked at him questioningly and asked. "Really? You want to help me be a better person?"

"Only if you do. I like you the way you are, and I googled you. Sorry, force of habit. Had a few crazy girlfriends in my past; you think your Steve guy is crazy, I can one up him. Besides I couldn't take you on Sunday to meet my parents if I didn't. House rules for all of us kids. Besides, I could do a little growing up on my own. Maybe we could help each other out."

I was shocked. Ok. Not about the Google thing because it was almost a prerequisite to dating anymore. Perhaps I would not be in so much trouble if I had done that with Steve. Admitting to crazy girlfriends didn't shock me because with his looks and the way he carries himself, I was sure he attracted everything, even the odd ones. It was the fact that he already wanted me to meet his parents. He talked about how formal his family was as we tried to create a diversion last night from other things. Talking family seemed to quickly cool both of us down. It felt good to be with a man whose family was as judgmental, competitive, and crazy as mine, although his did seem to have a lot more money and structure. I guess you don't have to be poor to be dysfunctional, rich people do it just as well.

"Hey Mason. I'm glad things are turning out much better for me. Only a week ago, things were a bit different."

He lifted me off the counter and set me on my feet. "We should probably try to find another distraction for a bit, before we get too excited again." I had to agree. I found him a bit too irresistible, and talking about life seems to put things back into perspective for us.

I grabbed his hand to pull him towards my front room to try out the new window seat cushion. He grabbed his tee shirt off the chair as we walked by. We sat down in the window seat facing each other and looked at each other in the face. I felt my demon girl side get bothered by the fact he put his shirt back on, as my mature woman side agreed, it was for the best.

"Your sister has good taste. It's soft, and I like the blue silky fabric."

"I told her that your favorite color is blue."

I looked at him inquisitively. "How did you know that?"

"Blue curtains, light blue couch, blue comforter and when I folded your laundry, most of your clothes were in shades of blue. My sisters told me that a woman's favorite color would show in her clothes and how she decorates. Having three sisters, I do learn a lot about women."

I laughed. "Then you are already broken in and know the game rules. Gosh, you're going to be an easy boyfriend. Wait here. I am going to grab some cushions to lean against instead of the wall."

I walked over to my couch to grab some decorative cushions off, and before I could turn back around to walk over to the window seat, Mason stood there right in front of me. He pulled my body into his, causing me to drop the pillows, and he started to kiss me. When he pulled back, he joked. "Not a good idea to bend over in front of me right now."

We both stood there staring at each other with an internal battle of taking this date so much further. Then I spoke. "Well, I'm not officially grown up until tomorrow."

He replied without hesitation. "Yet, something tells me we might want to wait a few more nights. You mean more to me than an overnight quickie."

"Really?" I was taken aback. A man was stopping me from being stupid.

"Besides. One day to thirty is just a day. If you really want to do the mature thing, not that I do, but I know it will be better for both of us if we did, then waiting a few more days would be better, don't you think?"

So it's now that I meet the mature man I need in my life, yet all I wanted to do was something stupid like sleep with him sexually on only our second date. I knew it never ended well sleeping with a man too soon. However, with the kind of sexual attraction we both seemed to be having, how could I wait? I plopped my butt down on the couch in my work pants and Crawley blue polo shirt and crossed my arms in front of me, started my pouting routine and breathed out a huge puff of air.

He let out a light laughter and sat next to me. "It's not so bad. You're Catholic, I'm Catholic, although from the sounds of it, we both don't practice it. It's just something about you makes me want to establish something more. I guess what I have to tell you next might make sense as to why I am doing this." He paused for a big intake of breath. "My last four girlfriends ended poorly. All of which were more sexual attractions then any friendship. I jumped in with guns loaded and fired. In other words, it was nothing more than sex. With you, I feel it. The connection. The desire to make it more than just sex. I guess we could blame my sister and her Catholic lecture of don't you dare, and you better wait and make sure. Kind of lame, especially for a man my age?"

I took a second to think about that, and I turned my body towards him then looked at him straight in the face. "Not really. Actually, it's pretty smart and self-controlled. Something I lack a lot of at times. Hey..." I reached out and held his hand. "Let's pick a number and tell ourselves that if we make it to that date number than we can lift the restriction of sex. What's your favorite number?"

"Two but that would make it tonight." He flashed a wicked smile and winked.

"Ugh. Ok. Mine is two too." We both started to laugh. Then I asked. "Pick a number between one and twenty."

"Twenty. That's too long to ask me to wait." He looked shocked, and I started to laugh.

"Seven. Luck be a lady that night. Date seven and if we decide that night that we can be mature adults after, well you know, then we will have a go at it."

"Oh I won't just have a go at it; I will conquer and succeed."

"Men!" I could not put much more thought into that comment because he started to kiss me and wrap me up into his arms. When he pulled away, he pulled me into his body on the couch while sitting; I clicked on the TV and asked what he liked to watch. He replied with a simple 'anything with you', so I handed him the remote. Not that I would always do that, but we were just starting out on this dating thing. I had an impression to make.