The Way We Burn

Twelve: Gigi

"Isn't this like, your fourth date in less than a week?"

I couldn't fight the giant grin that instantly took over my face. Ella and I were tidying up the bar before we opened and she was taking it as her opportunity to grill me about Bennett Sullivan. Not that I really minded. There was plenty to gush about.

We'd seen each other three more times since that initial date night. He'd made good on his promise for a fancy dinner the very next night and then, two days later, we went out to lunch before he had to report for another thirty-six hour run. Now here we were at the end of that, and Sully had promised to come in after he finished up. I'd tried to tell him he should likely go home and rest instead, but he insisted, and selfishly, I didn't put up much of a fight.  I wanted to see him. As of late, I always wanted to see him.  Somehow, I already missed him. And as much as it annoyed my usually black heart, this man gave me butterflies like I'd never felt before. I wanted to feel that as much as humanly possible.

"Does it count as a date if he's coming to my job?" I asked teasingly. You could bet you're ass I was counting it as a date, but Ella didn't need to know that. Toying with what she thought she knew was oh so much more enjoyable for me. "I mean, he literally works down the street. Not like he's going out of his way."

"Must be some insanely good D to have your commitment-phobe ass already this strung up," Ella mumbled with a smirk just as taunting as mine had been. We'd been friends since we were teenagers, she already knew the game I was playing, and she was intent to play it right back.

"Okay, A," I began, thrusting a sassy hand onto my hip, "I am NOT a commitment-phobe."

"Gi, you barely stay in one place longer than six months, let alone with one person. What's your record? Like six weeks?"

"Okay and? I'm a free spirit and, when it comes to dating, we can't all be an instant Happily Ever After like you and Derek okay? I just..." I trailed off, taking quick note of all the 'situationships' that resided in my past. There was nothing stable, nothing to write home about. Yeah, I'd met some nice guys, and if it was a different world, or I was a different kind of person, I definitely could've settled down with one of them by now. But there hadn't been any that made me feel like that was something I genuinely wanted to do. And who wants to settle when it comes to forever? "I just haven't found anyone worth committing to, okay?" Ella opened her mouth to respond but I pushed on. "And as for the first part of your insinuations, I know nothing about his 'D', thank you very much."

Ella cocked one offensively disbelieving eyebrow and let out a scoff that sounded more like a quack. "Bullshit."

"I'm serious!" I exclaimed. "We haven't slept together, I swear."

I mean, maybe I knew slightly more than nothing. Our lunch date ended with me straddling him in his truck, dry humping and making out like horny teenagers, but that was as sexual as things had gotten thus far. And truth be told, I wasn't upset about it. My libido wasn't exactly thrilled by the cage she was being kept in, but my heart was happy.

It was kind of nice and definitely a far cry from the kind of 'dates' I'd usually found myself on. Don't get me wrong, I was dying to get acquainted on a more... intimate basis with Bennett Sullivan's firehose, but it also felt really nice to know that I wasn't just some notch to be added to his bedpost. He definitely wasn't that for me, which was strange in and of itself, but I was really trying to just go with the flow of whatever was happening between us. He genuinely wanted to get to know me and I, him. He genuinely cared about who I was at my core and what I wanted out of life. He asked about my past, my adventures, my dreams for the future. He asked questions and he listened to my answers. He really listened. In the last four days, this man had put more effort into getting to know me than anyone else had in my twenty-odd years on planet earth. There was more gratification in that than any orgasm I'd ever had.