O ne week after her meeting with Agent Williams, Lance called Gabriella and profusely apologized for his actions on their last date.
“Hi Gabriella, it’s Lance. I thought I would call and apologize for my actions the last time we were together. I guess I had too much to drink and was not quite myself. I hope you can forgive.”
With some hesitation in her voice, Gabriella replied, “I guess I can forgive you, Lance, but it did upset me. Don’t treat me like an object to be groped.”
“I understand, Gabriella. I called, hoping you would give me another chance to redeem myself. It’s not like me, and I don’t want you to remember me that way. Do you think it would be possible to get together for a quick dinner or something?”
“I suppose we could do that,” Gabriella replied, hesitation obvious in her voice. “Everyone deserves a second chance.”
“Great! How about this Tuesday night? Does dinner at eight o’clock work for you?”
“That’s tomorrow. Yes, it would be fine, Lance. Where shall we meet?”
“Well, I hoped I could swing by your place and pick you up, to make things easier.”
“I would much rather meet you someplace until we get to know each other better. You don’t mind, do you? After all, I’m merely a woman alone in the city,” she said with a smirk.
“No problem, Gabriella. How about Raoul Aurora’s Bistro? It’s one of my favorite places.”
“Very well, I’ll see you on Wednesday at 8 o’clock at the bistro.”
I think I was standoffish enough so as not to raise any suspicions by seeming too eager to go out with Lance again. Hope he doesn’t turn into a jerk. But I have to carry through on my assignment, no matter what.
…
At 8:20 PM, Gabriella’s cab pulled up to the bistro. She tipped the cabbie and walked to the door. Lance noticed her immediately as she entered wearing her simple off the shoulder mid-thigh black dress. A small silver necklace added a touch of sparkle. The strapped black high heels accentuated her firm calves.
“Hello Gabriella. It was nice of you to accept my invitation,” Lance said as he stood to greet her and shake her hand. “I was afraid you’d changed your mind and wasn’t coming,” he attempted to say without showing the irritation in his voice for having to wait for another person.
“Well, you know once in a while it takes women a little longer to get ready. Thank you for waiting,” she said.
“Gabriella, thank you again for agreeing to have dinner with me. I don’t want people to think I’m a jerk,” he lied. “I want you to see I’m not a bad person. Do you think we can leave everything from the past in the past and start fresh again?”
“I would like to do that very much. Let’s focus on having an enjoyable dinner together. Do you have any favorite dishes?”
“The chicken Sambuca here is simply delicious. You should really consider trying it. Would you like a drink,” he offered.
Gabriella stiffened.
“No, no. I’m not going down that road again,” Lance said. “I’m limiting myself to my normal one drink a night. Like I said, my action during our first meeting was an anomaly. I’m not a bad guy. I’m having a bourbon, what can I get you?”
“A glass of white wine. I would like a Moscato if they have any.”
Lance waved at a waiter. They ordered drinks and dinner at the same time.
“So Lance, what have you been up to lately? Anything interesting going on with your job?”
“Oh, you know how most jobs are. Ninety-eight percent of them are routine. And in the Army, I can’t talk about the other two percent,” Lance said, grinning broadly. “How about you? Anything interesting going on at AI Concepts?”
“Pretty much standard stuff. Restarting the design of a new model of android to see how far we can take the technology.”
“That sounds exciting. And what’s your part in the entire process?”
“I work on skin development. Wow, when you say it out loud, it sure sounds boring. Most likely because it is. It’s number-crunching to find better formula mixes.”
“Not at all, tell me more about it,” said Lance.
“It’s like a cookbook. You change some spices and see what happens.”
He’s getting more information out of me than I’m getting out of him. It’s not the way it’s supposed to work.
“Lance, my job is so boring. I would prefer not to talk about it. I know little about the military, so your job seems much more interesting and exciting to me than what I do. I’m curious about one thing, however. My work environment is much like a large family.”
“Nice,” Lance interjected.
Gabriella continued, “We all like and respect each other, and do everything we can to help each other out when someone hits a tough spot in their design work. Is it the same way in the Army? You have all kinds of levels of rank. Does it help expedite things, or does it cause contention? Like I said, I have no experience with the Army and don’t understand at all how it works.”
“That’s a tough question. Sometimes it expedites things, and sometimes it gets in the way.”
“I don’t understand.”
“In some ways, it makes getting work done much more efficiently than in your lab. If I out-rank everyone in the room, there is no need to reach consensus. I give them an order, and they must follow it. Period.”
“But don’t some people get upset by you forcing them to do things?”
“Some do, but there’s nothing they can do about it. When I give an order, I expect it to be followed without question.”
“That seems like it would build up some level of resentment if people disagreed with you. But it doesn’t sound like they can argue back at you at all. Does it cause any problems down the line?”
“Yes, it may cause some personality conflicts and problems down the line, especially when it is my superiors giving me orders I take exception to.” Lance smiled.
“My gosh! What on earth do you do about the situation?”
“Well, when you’ve been in the army long enough and have sufficient rank, you can sometimes do an end-around to make things come out the way you would like,” Lance said, dropping a little bait for Gabriella to see if she would hit on it.
“Fascinating,” Gabriella said. “So you’re telling me sometimes, despite orders, you can make things work out the way you want them to.”
“Yes, indeed. Sometimes you disagree with people in higher authority, forcing you to do what you believe you need to do, rather than what you’ve been told to do. But look, the food is here. You’re going to love this dish, I know it.”
Okay, enough shop talk, I don’t want to press too hard on our first get-together. It might make him suspicious.
They both had an enjoyable time chatting about current events for the rest of the dinner.
“Gabriella, this dinner has been fun. I hope you’ll agree to do this again soon.”
“Lance, you have been a gentleman this whole time, and I noticed you held to your promise of only one drink. Quite commendable. Yes, I would like to have another dinner soon. You really are a nice guy,” Gabriella said untruthfully, but with a warm smile.
I’m learning how to play this game.
They walked out to the street. Lance flagged a cab for Gabriella.
“This has been a fun dinner,” Lance said.
He leaned over and gave her a slight peck on the cheek, withdrawing without waiting to see if she would return it.
“I’ll call you in a week or so,” he said, “have a wonderful rest of your night.”
“I will look forward to your call, Lance,” Gabriella replied as she stepped into the cab. “Have a good night.”
I think it went very well. I got a little bit of information from him on our first date. That’s a good sign, and I know he likes me. My little black dress didn’t hurt the situation either. We’ll see how this works out.