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On Monday the next day, David figured out a way to show John that he was a changed person, but it would only work if John would be willing to see the change. He went to work at the law firm like normal and spent twelve hours in the office. Afterward, he stopped by John’s house before going home for the night.
He pulled up in front of John’s house and took a deep breath to help alleviate some of his nerves. He’d faced down some of the toughest men in college hockey without breaking a sweat, so he could approach his friend.
After he knocked on the door, it only took a few minutes before he heard movement. Taylor looked at him with widened eyes when she spotted him on the porch.
“David, this is a nice surprise. What are you doing here?” She waved him in and shut the door behind him.
“I just came to talk to John about something. He’s here, right?” He’d seen his truck parked in the driveway, but there was always the chance that one of their buddies had picked him up.
Taylor nodded and gestured towards the kitchen. “Yeah, he’s helping Christopher with his homework right now.”
David winced. He hated interrupting their family time. He hadn’t thought this all the way through, but now that he was here, he might as well get it over with. It shouldn’t take that long... At least he hoped it wouldn’t.
“Is it okay if I borrow him for just a moment?”
“Of course,” she told him before walking towards the entrance to their kitchen. “Baby, David’s here. I can take over with Christopher while you two talk.”
David popped his head in and gave John a small one-sided smile. “I’ll wait for you in the living room.” He thought it would be a good thing to get his thoughts together so he didn’t seem like this was coming out of nowhere. He didn’t get that extra time, though, since John followed right behind him.
“What’s going on?” he asked, concerned.
“I’ve been thinking of what you said last night—about showing you that I’m a different person. I want to take Carrie out.”
“Out?”
“A date,” David clarified. “I want to take her out on a date. I want to spoil her and treat her the way she deserves.”
John’s eyebrows rose in shock. “A date? You haven’t been on a date in the entire time we’ve known each other.”
David ran his hands through his hair. “I’ve never wanted to before.” It was the truth. He got what he wanted from women in the bedroom. There wasn’t one woman that made him feel even an inkling of what Carrie made him feel.
“Wow,” John said quietly. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts for a few moments before he looked David in the eye. “And you can honestly tell me that you’re more interested in Carrie than any of your other... hookups?” He shuddered at the word but kept his gaze focused on David as if he was ready to catch his friend in a lie.
David didn’t blink. “Yes. I want so much more with her.” His voice didn’t waver.
John stood up straighter. “Then you have my full permission to ask her out. All I ask is that you keep the PDA to such a minimum, so bystanders will think the two of you are related.”
David rolled his eyes. “I’ll see what I can do.” He’d had the taste of her imprinted on his taste buds ever since Saturday night. He didn’t think it was possible for him to be near her without wanting to touch her, but he would try for his friend.
David heard Christopher’s laughter ring through the house and gave John a grin before gesturing towards the kitchen.
“I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing.” He shook his head in disbelief. “If you’d told me last year that you would be living this kind of life, I would’ve thought you were crazy.”
John scoffed before nodding his head. “You’re telling me.” He looked like he still couldn’t believe it.
David pulled him into a one-armed hug before patting his back. “Talk about a big change.”
John seemed to understand what David was saying without him needing to come right out and say it. If John, a pretty big ladies’ man just last year, could change for the better then so could David.
~~~
EVEN THOUGH HE WAS dog-tired and wanted more than anything to go back to his apartment and pass out on his bed, he needed to get something else done first. He stopped at a florist shop that was just about to close and grabbed a single white rose. He knew they were her favorite.
Then he drove to her dorm.
He dazzled a freshman into letting him into the building (part of him didn’t like how easy it was to get in) and went up to the room that she shared with Lex. He could hear something that sounded like the TV on the other side of the door. After he knocked, it took just a few seconds for someone to open the door.
It was Lex.
“Well, what do we have here?” she asked as she looked from his face to the rose and back again.
“I wanted to see Carrie and ask her something. Is she here?” He couldn’t see her behind Lex, but he didn’t let that get him down.
Lex let him sweat for a few moments before giving him a wide smile and letting him through the doorway.
“She’s in her room. Carrie!” she shouted.
“What?” He heard Carrie call from her room.
“You’ve got a visitor!” she called out in a sing-song voice.
“If it’s Asher, tell him to go to hell!”
Lex rolled her eyes. “Get your ass out here!”
David was nearly bent over laughing at their hysterics when Carrie came out of her room.
“David?” He could tell that she was shocked.
“I’m not Asher so do I need to go to hell, too?” he asked with a smirk.
“Just forget everything you heard. What are you doing here?” she asked with a blush. Her eyes finally drifted down his body and landed on the rose that was in his hand. His eyes were too busy taking her in—she was wearing the tightest yoga pants he thought he’d ever seen paired with a short-sleeved shirt that hugged her body in all the right places. She had to repeat herself to get his attention. “David, what are you doing?” He shook himself out of his trance perusal. He was worried that he might’ve offended her, but the laughter that he could see in her eyes showed him how much she enjoyed the way he had looked at her.
“I wanted to give you this,” he told her. He handed her the rose and was pleased to see her cheeks flush even more at the simple gesture.
“You came over here just to give me a rose?” she asked incredulously.
He grinned at her. “I wanted to soften you up before asking you something.”
“What?”
“Will you go out on a date with me?”
He heard a squeak, but he was pretty sure that it hadn't come from Carrie. They both turned to Lex who was standing to the side with her hands over her mouth.
“Forget I’m here,” she whispered.
Carrie laughed before turning back to David.
“You want to go out on a date? With me?” She seemed like the entire idea itself was ridiculous.
“Yes. I want to take you out to dinner this weekend.” When she remained too quiet, he got nervous. Would she actually turn him down? “What do you say, sweetheart? Will you go out with me this weekend?”
She seemed to blink herself out of wherever her mind had gone. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Saturday? Seven o’clock?” he asked her.
She blushed. “That’s perfect.”
He questioned whether or not it would be appropriate to give her a kiss, but said fuck it. If he had to go the rest of the week without seeing or touching her, he wanted to leave her with something to remember him by.
With a glance at Lex (who didn’t look like she was going anywhere), David stepped toward Carrie and cradled her face between his hands. He leaned his head down and brushed his lips over hers in a gentle, but still arousing, kiss. If Lex hadn’t been right there, he would’ve been tempted to pull Carrie into her room and have his way with her, but as it was... he wasn’t a big fan of voyeurism.
He pulled away and gave her another kiss on the forehead. “I’ll see you Saturday.”
“Okay.”
He gave Lex a smile before walking out the door. He might’ve been tired before he went to John’s, but now he was wide awake.
~~~
THE MOMENT THE DOOR shut behind David, Lex moved closer to Carrie and started slapping her shoulder excitedly.
“Oh my God, David Clarke just asked you out on a date!”
Carrie laughed even though inside she was just as happy and eager for Saturday to come.
“I know. It sounds so juvenile, but I think he actually likes me. Like really likes me,” she said through her wide smile.
“That man’s got it so bad for you,” she told her knowingly. “If he’s asking you out, does that mean he’s got it all figured out with your brother?”
Carrie hadn’t even thought of that. She hoped that the fact that David wanted to take her out in public meant that he was ready to show everyone that they were together. Especially her brother.
~~~
SHE GOT HER ANSWER Wednesday afternoon.
She was just leaving the social work building when she saw John standing at the bottom of the stairs.
“You know it’s against the rules to use the school’s system to stalk me.”
He rolled his eyes and gave her a small laugh. “You’re so funny. Just to be clear: I didn’t look you up again.”
She lifted an eyebrow at him in disbelief.
He raised his hands in defense. “I didn’t.” Then he added, almost under his breath, “I just printed off your schedule before.”
“John!” She slapped his shoulder.
He laughed loudly as he followed her to the coffee shop where she was going to grab something before her last class.
“How’s the engagement going? Taylor leave you yet?” she asked him jokingly.
“Har har. No, she hasn’t left me. It’s going really well. We’re still ironing out the details—especially the date—but overall, I feel good about it.”
“That’s good.” She knew that there was a reason that he had waited outside her class for her, but she didn’t want to push him. He would speak when he was ready.
When they got to the shop, she recited her order to the barista, but before she could reach for her wallet, John was already handing cash over.
“And then just add a medium iced mocha with caramel,” he told the lady.
“Is that for Taylor, or are you deviating from your normal drink choice?” She was his sister; she knew his drink order off the top of her head. He always went as basic as he could go. He tried to stay far away from the complicated orders.
“Yes, it’s for her.”
Once they had their drinks handed to them, he led her over to a small table in the corner of the shop.
“There is something I wanted to talk about with you real quick.”
There it is, she thought to herself.
“What is it?”
“What are your thoughts on David?”
Her eyebrows came together in confusion.
“David? Why do you ask?” She wanted to make sure that they were on the same page before she opened her mouth. She didn’t want to incriminate herself.
“He mentioned something to me about asking you out.” He watched her closely as he spoke. She made sure to keep her expression neutral, but a flush threatened to creep up her neck at the thought of David actually talking to John about her.
“Did he?”
“He did. He asked for my permission.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What did you say?”
“At first, I was against it, but he swears that he’s not going to treat you like any other girl he’s been with, and I actually believe him. I just wanted to make sure that it was okay with you. I know that you used to have a small crush on him, but I don’t want you to feel obligated to go out with him if you’re no longer crushing on him.”
She had a pretty good brother, she thought to herself.
“Thanks for checking with me. He actually already asked me out, and I told him yes. I really like him, John.” She whispered the last part.
He gave her a small smile. “I’m glad.” He took a deep breath. As if to make sure she was telling the truth, he watched her for a few more seconds. “Just know that if he ever hurts you, I’m going to kill him and then bring him back to life just to kill him again.”
She shook her head, but part of her loved the fact that he would go to the ends of the earth to protect her. She couldn’t let him know that, though. She couldn’t let that go to his head.
“Whatever you say, big brother.”
~~~
SHE TEXTED WITH DAVID on and off throughout the week and was even able to get a phone call squeezed in once or twice, so she was glad to see Saturday come. She was excited about their date tonight and to be able to spend time with him uninterrupted. Maybe they could even end the night at his place, she could only hope.
With Lex’s, and a little bit of Asher’s, help she had the perfect date night outfit picked out. Since David had told her to dress semi-formal, she had on a tight red dress that went to the middle of her thighs. It had lace long sleeves with a deep V going down the front to give David a good eyeful of her cleavage. She paired the outfit with her red pumps and made sure to leave her hair down just like she knew he liked it.
Lex helped her curl her hair and put some light makeup on so that by the time seven came around and David knocked on the door, Carrie looked like she’d spent hours in a salon chair. The look that David gave her—like he’d been knocked breathless—was worth every moment.
“How does our girl look?” Asher asked him with a knowing smirk.
“Wow,” David whispered before he cleared his throat to speak louder. “You look beautiful, Carrie.”
“Thanks. You look amazing too.” It was true. He had on a dark brown sweater that made his eyes pop and paired it with black dress pants. His hands looked like he’d spent the whole day running his hand through the strands. Knowing him, though, she wouldn’t have been shocked if that was the case.
She said goodbye to her friends before following David down to his truck. She was weirdly pleased with all the jealous looks she got from girls that clearly wished they were in her place. She wanted to call out to everyone that passed and tell them that David was hers, but she didn’t know if he would be okay with that. She was glad, though, when he grabbed her hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“So, where are we going?” she asked him when they were in the truck.
“What do you think about Italian?”
She looked at him knowingly. “That’s my favorite. Are we going to Romano’s?”
He winked at her. “We are.”
She closed her eyes as she pictured their endless breadsticks. “You sure know how to impress a woman.”
She saw the side of his mouth raise in a self-satisfied grin. “It would please you to know that you’re the only woman I want to impress.”
“Aw, you’re too sweet. I bet you say that to all the girls, though.” Only part of her was joking. It was still hard for her to accept that he hadn’t been with anyone seriously before.
“You know that you’re the only girl I’ve ever wanted to take out.”
She shook her head slowly. “Why am I finding that so hard to believe?”
He gave her a hard look. “Believe it, sweetheart. No girl has ever fascinated me as much as you do. Do you know that I’ve never been with, or even had an urge to be with, a girl more than once?”
She shook her head.
“I never wanted to give any girl the wrong idea before, so if I slept with them, I tried to steer clear afterward. No sleepovers and no going back for seconds. I’ve already broken the first rule with you, and I really want to break the second.”
Butterflies erupted in her stomach at his words. She wanted to pinch herself to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming—it just didn’t feel real.
“I have to say... I’m very flattered to hear that.”
“How are classes going?” he asked her after a few moments of companionable silence.
“Good. Now that I’ve done all of the core subjects, I’m really enjoying diving into the social work classes.”
“You’re going to be a great social worker,” he told her.
“You think so?” Sometimes she wondered if it wasn’t the right profession for her. She wondered if maybe she had too big of a heart to deal with those tough cases that were sure to eat at her.
“Of course. Those kids need someone like you, someone that is going to look out for their best interests and make sure that they’re safe. No one is going to fall through the cracks with you on their case.”
Unbelievably, she felt tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. He immediately noticed.
“Shit. Did I say something wrong?”
She shook her head. “No. You said the exact right thing. It just means a lot to me that you think that.”
He grinned at her. “It’s the truth. Every word.” He placed his hand on her knee and gave her a reassuring squeeze. He left it there for the rest of the car ride.