Blind Date Chapter Nine

In order to accommodate all the people who are asking me about when the next chapter comes out, I've created a Yahoo Group (Gods, Yahoo is like the Borg!): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mark_writings

This is the page of the group, If you would like to be notified when a new chapter gets posted please go join my group. {smile} I'll try and make sure there's fun stuff along with this.

Since everyone else is doing it. Here are a few stories I liked and would recommend in no particular order.

I walked into the apartment. Lance was laying on the couch watching something on the tv. He got up when he heard me walk in.

"Hey! What are you doing here? It's not even 5:30 yet."

I didn't reply, I just walked over to the other couch and sat down dazed. Lance got up, walked over and sat down next to me.

"What's wrong? Mark, please, remember, no secrets?"

I looked up at him.

"I got fired."

"What??" What do you mean you got fired?"

"Well things seemed to be going well, then a little before five I was called into the manager's office, they sat me down and told me that they were letting me go."

"What, without and warning or anything?"

"Yea, though I should have known something was up, cause about 6 months ago they let go my morning counterpart and phased out his position. I guess it was just a matter of time that they would do the same with the evening position. So they put me on 30 days adminitrative leavewith pay and then I will no longer have a job."

"What are you going to do?"

"Well I'll just have to find another job. Fortunately I get 30 days with pay, after that I've got about 4 months of money tucked away in savings, so I'm fine for about 5 months."

"There anything I can do?

"Not really, just be there for me as my boyfriend." I looked over at him and smiled.

"That I can do!" He smiled back and leaned in to kiss me. We sat there for a few minutes just kissing and holding each other untill Kiwi padded over to me signaling that he wanted to be walked. I pulled back from Lance, he was panting a little bit from the kissing. "Thanks sexy, I needed that." And I got up to go get Kiwi's leash.

Lance got up and followed me. "Are you going to be okay with this?"

"It'll take a few days, I'm sure I'll get over it. It's just that I've never been fired from a job before, it’s a bit disheartening and it just feels like I'm not worth anything."

Lance reach his arms around me from behind and gave me a squeeze. "Hey, you're worth more to me than anything! It'll be ok, you're a bright guy, you'll find something new. "

I squeezed his hands that were interlocked around my stomach. With that we managed to get Kiwi's leash out and we then walked out of the apartment. I took the lead with Lance walking along on my left. We walked to the end of the building and took the path between the two buildings down to the canal that meanders alongside my complex.

***Author's note: Here in Arizona we have numerous man-made canals to transport water from the northern part of the state down to the desert regions of the state -- they're basically concrete rivers.***

We walked along the canal, following it through the golf course that is next to my complex. We must have walked about 3/4 of a mile in silence before we started to head back. Halfway back Lance broke the silence.

"I could help you get a job!"

I looked at him. He had such a sparkle of hope in his eyes. "Thanks, that’s sweet. But I need to do this on my own. I need to prove to myself that I am worth something."

"I understand, I just want to do something to help." He tried to hide his disappointment from me, but he was failing. I could tell he was hurt by my turning his offer down. I looked around, there wasn't anyone else along the canal or on the greens.

Seeing that it was safe, I reached out to him and pulled him into a hug. He was obviously taken by surprise, but he didn't seem to mind too much. I gazed into his eyes. "You are helping. Just being my boyfriend who's there to support me and comfort me is more than anything the best thing for me."

He looked at me and managed to show a smile.

"Hey, I don't think I'd be taking this as well as I am if you weren't here for me. Having you in my life shows me that things are good. Maybe my losing my job is just something to help us stay together, who knows." I gave him a peck on the lips and then hugged him tight. After that he seemed to be better. We finished walking Kiwi and made our way back into my apartment.

Lance went and sat back down in the living room and started to watch Peter Jennings on the News. I walked into the kitchen, stepped into the pantry and filled Kiwi's food dish. I then grabbed some glasses and a bottle from out the the fridge and poured some wine into the glasses. I walked back over to Lance and was about to sit down next to him, but he shifted over to force me to sit up against him. I smiled and handed him his glass of wine and then sat snuggled up to him. He seemed to know that I didn't really want to talk about loosing my job, that I just wanted to be held and hold me he did.

We sat like that for a few hours, occasionally gettig up to refill our glasses. We watched the tv, talked about what we saw, about what the guys would be probably be doing. Around 7:30, Lance pulled me around to face him.

"Lets go get ready."

I was confused, we hadn't planned anything yet. "For what?"

"I'm taking you out for dinner."

"But…"

"But nothing! There's t be no discussion! Tuesday you took me out, now its my turn. Now go get ready!"

I got up, leaned over and pouted in his face to toy with him. He wasn't fooled, he just stood up in front of me, turned me around, gave me a gentle push and patted my butt as I went off to clean up and change.

I hopped in the shower, purposely leaving the bathroom door open hoping Lance would join me. But after waiting a couple of minutes it didn't look like he was going to so I proceeded to bathe myself. I finished up and go out of the shower and padded into the bedroom. There, laying on my bed were some clothes that Lance had pulled out of my closet. It was a nice combo, he picked a pair of my plaid Abercrombie boxers, a my GAP carpenter pants and my grey Kenneth Cole ribbed shirt. I dried off and put on the clothes along with a pair of black Sketcher boots, sprayed a little Eternity on and walked out into the living room. Lance was standing there playing darts on my dartboard. He had changed into a nice pair of kahki's and a red button down shirt. I snuck up behind him and wrapped my arms around him causing him to miss the board with the dart he had just thrown.

"Hey, I was doing good!"

"Oh, well if you'd rather play darts by yourself than have me snuggle up with you I'll go watch some tv in the bedroom." I started to pull away from him.

He grabbed my arms and kept me from letting go of him. "Oh no you don't!" I'll take you over darts anytime!" He then moved around to face me. We stood there for a second, just looking into each others eyes. Then as if drawn together at the same time, we both leaned in to kiss. Just as our lips gently collided there was a knock at the door. I groaned as I squeezed Lance into a quick hug and then seperated to go walk over to the door. Looking through the peephole I saw that it was Lonnie so I opened it up and let him in.

"You guys ready?"

I looked at Lance, puzzled.

"Yea, we'll be down in a minute." Lance replied.

"Okay, I'll be outside waiting." He stepped back out and closed the door behind him.

Lance walked over to me, handing me my wallet, cell phone and keys. "Lonnie's going to drive for us."

"So where are we going?"

"Nice try, this is my surprise for you. Have to cheer you up afterall, right?" He gave me a hug and kissed me just under my left ear.

I chuckled softly. "Keep doing that and I'll be jollier than St. Nick!" I then gave him a kiss on the top of his head. "Lets go, don't want to keep Lonnie waiting."

He gave me a squeeze, "Okay, lets go." With that he let go of me and led me out of the apt. Lonnie was down in the parking lot waiting outside the Explorer for us. We climbed into the back and headed out. Lance scooted down in the seat and leaned up against me. I wrapped my arm around him and just enjoyed feeling him sit up against me, the warmth of his body radiating through his clothes and mine. I sighed in contentment, just having him in my arms meant more to me than anything else. I gazed out the window and saw that we were heading towards north Scottsdale. I looked back at Lance to see that he had fallen asleep. I just sat there in awe, studying his angelic face as he layed there cuddled up next to me. I lost all track of time, I was just sitting there watching him sleep next to me until Lonnie brought me back to the real world by shaking my knee.

'We're here."

"Huh? Oh, ok, thanks man." I looked at Lance, I hated to wake him, he looked so peaceful and happy. I pulled my arm out from underneath him gently and softly stroked his cheek. "Lance, sweetie, we're here, time to wake up."

Lance stirred a little and slowly opened his eyes to see mine looking back down at him. "Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, did I fall asleep?"

I smiled, leaned down and gave him a gentle peck on the lips. "Yes you did, it's okay, I enjoyed watching you sleep. Anways, we're here."

He sat up and looked around, we were pulled up in front of the restaurant. He undid his seatbelt and opened the door and hopped out. I did the same. We walked in and it was a really nice place, the lighting was dark but not dark enough to make it seem seedy, just enough to give it an aura of mystery and romance. Lance spoke with the Matre'd and we were escorted towards the back. We were guided into a separate room. As I walked in I saw that there was just one table in the room, it wasn't a big room but the single table really drew your attention. It was elegantly set, with a few candles already lit and on each plate was a rose. We walked in, I didn't notice that Lonnie had taken a table that was right outside the door. The Matre'd didn't even join us in the room, he just closed the door after we walked in.

Lance quickly padded to the table. I just stood there taking it all in. He stood behind one of the chairs and pulled it out, motioning to me. I walked over and sat down , he helped me scoot in towards the table and thenhe went around and sat down in his seat. I was just speachless, this wasn't the dinner I was expecting. I didn't even hear him ask if I wanted some wine, I was just dumbstruck and kept staring at him. Lance brought me back to earth by poking me in the nose with the rose that had been laying on his plate.

"Hey, you with me?"

"Yea, sorry, I just wasn't expecting all this. Wow, no one has ever done something so romantic like this for me."

He just smiled and filled our glasses with some wine. There was a knock at the door and then a second later a water came in with our appetizers. He placed them on the table and left.

"Oh, I hope you don't mind but I pre-ordered our dinner."

I nodded that that was okay with me and picked up my wine glass. I lifted it up towards him.

"To the most wonderful man in the world, and here he is sitting across the table from me." He lifted his class and we toasted each other.

"To our future and may we always be together for it." He replied.

Tbc……….

Hey guys, hope you liked it! Sorry for the long delay, I've had to deal with some drama in my life. But I've slowly been working on keepint this story alive. I'm already busy working on chapter 10. I'm hopeing to be able to spend at least an hour a day working on Blind Date. That way I can at least get a chapter a week done. Thanks to everyone for their emails! And special thanks to Dale and Nick who have been there every day to cheer me up!