Rise of the Dunamy (7 page)

12

S
ofia began thinking about what to wear since the second she nervously accepted Lucian’s dinner invitation. She finally decided to go all out and wear a dress that made her feel as exciting as Lucian did. It was a beautiful, sexy, feminine dress, which was not at all her style. She had managed to talk herself into purchasing it by swearing she would one day use it for some sort of undercover work. She didn’t know when she would be doing any, or if she would be doing any; she just knew that she was going to buy that dress. Sofia realized the second she put the dress on that she was going to buy it because it would make her feel like a woman. She had seen it and knew that wearing a dress like that would make her look and feel amazing. That dress would make people look at her in a different way than she had allowed anyone to look at her in quite some time.

Growing up, she had never fully embraced her good looks. She had certainly taken advantage of them for a short time in her youth, but she hadn’t ever gone out of her way to learn how to enhance her look. She had learned the basics of using makeup, but after the incident with Mateo she gave up on such pursuits in order to spend more time on her studies. Her natural beauty was always present but she stopped putting in extra time to accentuate it. Blue jeans and t-shirts were the dominant fashion trends throughout the scrapbook of her life. Her look had been one of the easiest ways that she could go about keeping from attracting too much attention from boys, which left her with even more time to study. She had done what she could to mask her natural beauty at times, which often proved to be a difficult task, but tonight was different. Tonight she wanted Lucian to see just how enchanting she could truly look. Her only concern was that she wasn’t extremely comfortable wearing makeup, or its application. Realizing she could do far more damage by trying to overdo, she decided it was best to stick with the basics she was comfortable with and hope for the best.

Just as Sofia finished sliding her dress into place and adjusting all of her voluptuous parts, there was a gentle knock at the door. From the instant that his knuckles made contact with the metal of the door, she began to tingle with excitement. She couldn’t help but smile as she made her way through her apartment towards the door. She tried to control herself, and made every attempt to force her face to stop making a corny little half-grin, but it was futile. Not wanting a replay of her earlier embarrassment in the morgue, she gave in and allowed her brightest smile to take over her face.

She swung the door open, and there he stood. He was wearing a pair of designer jeans with a tailored blue silk button up with the cuffs rolled once. His hair was gelled up in his “faux-hawk”. His head was down, as he had been staring at his two-tone blue and black dress shoes while he waited for her to answer. He looked up at her with his perfect smile, his eyes lighting up as she came into his view.

“Wow, you look insane! That dress looks amazing on you.” He declared with a wide smile as he leaned in, giving her a gentle hug. “And damn do you look nice with so little makeup!” Sofia’s heart fluttered as Lucian successfully eliminated her biggest concern.

“Well, thank you. You look great, too.”

“Are you ready to get going or do you need a minute?”

“No, I’m ready. We can get going.” She said, closing the door behind them as she moved out into the hallway. As they headed down the hall towards the elevator, Sofia stopped abruptly and began searching her purse.

“I just need to head back really quick. I need to grab my gun.” Sofia had not left her apartment without her weapon since the time she received it in the academy. “I’d hate to think of what might happen if we ran into the cannibal gang if I didn’t have it.”

“How about you leave it behind? You just relax, and trust that we’re going to have a good time, and that we won’t need your gun. I promise I’ll take care of you. You just need to trust me.” Not wanting to make him think that she didn’t trust him to take care of her, and feeling pretty confident in her hand-to-hand skills, Sofia opted to move ahead instead of going back to her apartment.

“And let’s try and keep the shop talk to minimum tonight. It’s gonna be impossible for me to keep your mind off of things if you keep talking about them.” He said with a smile as he extended his hand for her to hold. Sofia nodded in agreement as she interlaced her fingers with his and they continued down the hall.

As they approached the opening for the elevator, Lucian reached out and thumbed the button. Sofia was becoming increasingly more uncomfortable about not having her gun with her, and looked back over her shoulder to her apartment door. Lucian, noticing her tension, gently caressed her chin and guided her eyes to his saying,“I promise you’ll be all right. You don’t need to be nervous; we’re going to have a great night.” Lucian held her face there for a moment as they gazed into one another’s eyes. He slowly leaned in and gave her a short, sweet, soft kiss. As their lips parted, the elevator arrived and their evening began.

13

“I
s it cool if we walk?” Lucian asked as they stepped out into the warm evening air. “I figured it’d be a good time for us to talk a bit. Plus, I’m not a big fan of driving.” He scrunched up his nose a little at the very thought of the idea. “Too many people out there that should never even be allowed to look at a car, but they’re out there driving like jackasses.”

“I don’t mind. It’s a nice night for it.”

“I did tell you how good you look tonight, right? You really do look great. I feel a little underdressed.” Sofia felt her cheeks begin to glow brightly. She just smiled back at him.

“Thank you.” She said shyly, “You look great, too. Although, I imagine you can probably fit in anywhere you go no matter how you dress.”

“Well, that’s true.” He said unabashedly. “It’s pretty easy for any guy I guess; assuming he puts some level of effort into it. If I put on a pair of nice shoes and my shirt is ironed, I’m pretty much good-to-go for every occasion.”

“Pants probably help.”

“Well…I guess that really depends on the scene.” He quipped, raising his eyebrows at her humorously.

“You go to a lot of places where pants aren’t a requirement, huh?”

Lucian pretended to think it over for a moment before replying, “Nah. I suppose not. You’re right. Nice shoes, ironed shirt, and some form of lower body cover and I’m on point for any party.”

“Well that, and that pretty boy smile of yours.” She said, coaxing a confident smile from Lucian.

“You like the smile, huh?” He said, pointing to his mouth. “This business right here took some work, you know? Back in high school my smile was busted. It was all, awkward and forced, way too toothy at first, then no teeth at all. Embarrassing as it is to admit, I used to practice smiling in the mirror to try and get it right. This ain’t natural.” He said flippantly and pointing again as he flashed his beautiful smile.

“Oh, I’m sure.” Sofia replied sarcastically. “I doubt there was ever a time when you weren’t adorable.”

“Oh you better believe it. I was a big ol’ nerd in high school.”

Sofia made a strange face at him, unable to envision him as anything but the most popular person in any situation.

“I still am, actually. I just do a better job of hiding it than most. Back then, I was pretty advanced in terms of height and stuff, I was just never drawn to sports all that much, so I didn’t really bulk up. I was good at sports; I just didn’t feel the need to play them. My mind was more geared towards science. It didn’t help that I was unbelievably socially awkward. Damn near socially incompetent. I really think that’s the best way to be, anyway. I mean, who wants to peak in high school, right?” He chuckled.

“Plus it pushed me into my studies since I wasn’t wasting my time with ridiculous extracurricular activities.”

“I agree with that; about peaking in high school. I was pretty much the same way. One thing I find very hard to believe, though. I find it almost impossible to believe that you weren’t cute in high school. I mean, you look like you could still pass for a high school kid now. I’m definitely going to need some visual evidence.”

“Good luck with that. Let me know what you come across. Don’t be surprised when you don’t find anything. I may have been the only person you’ll ever meet that successfully dodged every possible picture in high school. You should just take my word on that. I was really good about not letting people get pictures of me.” Lucian had a very pleased look on his face as he recounted some of the moments of his youth.

“What’s with the smile?”

“Ahh, you know, memories from back in the day. Good times.”

“So high school wasn’t the hell for you that it was for so many other kids that weren’t all that popular?”

“Well, I was a nerd, but I wasn’t really all that unpopular. My friends and I didn’t really get picked on all that much, except for like, 9th grade. Even then we actually did a pretty good job of sticking together and staying off the radar of the older kids and the bullies. Made us more difficult to attack. It’s a popular method in the animal kingdom, you know. Like with antelope. The way they travel in large herds for protection from lions. The size of the herd acts as a natural deterrent to attackers, and when the herd is attacked, the percentage of survival for each of the members goes up. Plus, we weren’t afraid to bite back, you know. We could handle ourselves if we really had to. Anyway, that only lasted for about a year. Once we got to sophomore year, we all started filling out pretty good. When that happened, people just kind of backed off.”

“What were your friends like?”

“We were all pretty similar. We were into games and sciencey stuff. There was me, Matt, Dave, Pat, Tommy. That was our core group, then we always had a few other people around. Matt was a real outdoorsy, woodsy kind of guy. Dave was really bright— artistic as hell. Pat was off-the-charts smart. You couldn’t beat that kid when it came to anything having to do with thinking. Scrabble? Trivia? Whatever it was, he was gonna beat ya. Tommy was a combination of everyone else really, just probably nicer than any of us. One of the sweetest guys ever. Everyone really had lot’s of different people they hung out with, we just always kind of ended up together. The times we spent together outside of school were some of the best times I can remember.”

“Well that’s nice to hear. You hardly ever hear about people enjoying their time in school anymore. Kids are so caught up in cliques and drama that they forget that it’s the only time they will ever have so little responsibility. Do you ever talk to them?”

“We try, but it’s tough. Tommy and Matt moved off. They both got married and have families. Dave is off trying a little bit of everything. Pat’s probably curing cancer or something,” Lucian said with a chuckle. “How about you? Did you realize how great those times were, or was it all drama and cliques?” He prodded.

“Well, for me it was more responsibility than most. I did have a good time though. Probably not as many as you, but some definite good times. So where are we headed?” Sofia asked.

“I was thinking we could go catch a flick.” As quickly as she could process the words, her stomach began to tighten. Things had started out so well and now he was going to drag her to some ridiculous movie where they would sit in silence for hours? Was this to be the bulk of the evenings’ plan? Why had she gone out of her way to get dressed up for this? Sofia considered going back to change clothes for a some more appropriate attire as she slowly stopped walking and began looking back in the direction of her apartment. Lucian continued walking past her a few feet before turning back to her, his face baring a mischievous grin.

“Totally kidding!” He said, raising his hands in defense. “You look like you’re ready to knock the crap outta me.” She realized that she must have been showing her displeasure more than she thought. Sofia tried to mask her surprise as best she could.

“No!” She shot an embarrassed smile up at him as she began walking again, giving him a gentle shove as she passed.

“Jerk.” She exclaimed softly as Lucian began to laugh.

“Stop it. You’re not funny as you think you are,” she said playfully.

“Sure I am.” he proclaimed “It was funny to me, and that’s what’s really important.”

Sofia let out a sigh of relief as the tension that had begun to build in her neck now released. There was still some hope that the date would go as well as she had imagined.

“I was actually thinking of heading over to the Fernbank Museum for martinis. How does that sound? I know it’s a bit of a hike, and you’re dressed a little too amazing for a train ride, but I think we’ll make it. Trust me, it’s well worth it.”

“Much better, actually. I don’t mean that to sound ugly, but the movie thing set the bar pretty low.”

He laughed. “I know. I thought you might at least get a little kick out of it. I guess not. Made me laugh, anyways.”

“Well, I guess it’s funny now, just not so much a minute ago.” The two continued on, each laughing a little to themselves as they thought about Sofia’s reaction.

“So, I guess questions about what you do in your free time are a little unnecessary.” Lucian said jokingly.

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, I’ve seen how much time you spend at work, and how many times you’ve come in after a day off with a better idea of what you should be doing in a specific case. I assume that means that any time you spend away from work is spent thinking about work, if not actually doing work.”

Sofia had never really thought about how little time she spent not doing work.

“Well, I guess that when you love what you do, it’s really not an issue to just keep doing it when you aren’t getting paid for it. I really love making things safer. I like that I’m spending my time making the world a safer place for the people I care about. If you think about it, I really don’t spend as much time working as I do indulging in my favorite past time. The only part of it that I consider work is when I’m filling out paperwork. I even get into that a little sometimes. It’s a way for me to relive solving the case.”

That was the first time that she had ever thought of her job in that way before. She always just thought that she took her job very seriously, but it really was the thing that she enjoyed the most. She didn’t feel that she was missing out on anything by having such a lack of a personal social life. What she truly enjoyed, and wanted to do at all times, was make the world a better place.

“I mean, even with the trouble we’re having with this cannibal gang, I enjoy the chase. All of the trouble we are having right now is just going to make it that much sweeter when they slip up and we catch them. Which reminds me, I thought of something today I meant to ask…..” Glancing up at Lucian as she spoke, she realized she had allowed herself to meander into a conversation about work. “Oh, right. Sorry.”

“It’s cool. I know you can’t help but go back to it. I was just hopin’ I could keep your mind off it for a little while.”

“Just interrupt me when I start doing it, or make a noise or something.”

“Does that sound like me? Interrupting; makin’ some rude ass noise to stop you from talkin’? Nah, I ain’t doin’ all that. You talk, I’ll listen. If I can’t get your attention off dead people, I’m not a very good date anyway.” In typical Lucian form he had made something she had done seem like something he was responsible for. His comments also successfully caused Sofia to make a conscious decision to resist the urge to talk about the case for the remainder of the night.