chapter 6 (the date)
Nov. 12th, 2002 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smackenzieSam and Peter Baron (he of the thankfully-not-scratched Miles Davis CD) had locked the doors of Play It Again and were blasting Warren Zevon on the sound system when Aurelian came to get Sam for their dinner date. Peter had been at the store long enough for Bruce to trust him to close up, count out the register, and lock the drawer in the safe in the back office, and Peter's Sunday night social activities seemed to consist mainly of eating hamburgers and watching "The X-Files" with his roommates, so he didn't mind working the closing shift, even though it was only until seven.
Sam didn't have a usual Sunday night social activity, although sometimes Spencer would call him in the middle of "The X-Files" (which she watched partly because she had a crush on Agent Scully) and bitch about it, which meant if he wasn't watching it he had to turn it on. He got to see more half-episodes that way. Sometimes he talked to his mom on the phone. But no one seemed to be much interested in doing anything Sunday night, because they all had to get up and go to work Monday morning. So he didn't mind having the closing shift either. And besides, tonight he had a date.
(He hadn't told Peter Baron or Bruce or anyone at the store. He'd mentioned it at rehearsal Saturday morning, because Teddy asked, but all he said was a very casual "We're gonna grab some food after I get out of work tomorrow." No one but Spencer knew Sam thought of it as a date.)
Aurelian had to knock on the door three times before Sam noticed he was there and let him in. He and Peter had been too busy yelling the words to "Werewolves in London" across the store at each other. Peter could count money and sing at the same time, although you couldn't really call what he was doing "singing."
"Hey," Sam said. He shoved the door closed behind Aurelian and locked it out of reflex. "Damn, it's cold."
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah, just give me a sec. Hey, Peter, I gotta go, ok? My friend's here, we're going out to eat."
"You have a friend?" Peter asked, feigning surprise.
"One. My mom pays him. This is Aurelian. Aurelian, Peter Baron."
"Hey," Peter said, nodding and going back to his cash drawer. They could hear him singing under his breath.
"He's singing to the money," Sam told Aurelian. "He's weird that way. Let me get my coat and clock out and we can go get food. I'm starving." he went back to the office, leaving Aurelian among the R&B CDs while he fetched his coat and signed out. "Night, Peter," he said on his way out again. "See you... when are you in again?"
"Tuesday. I think we overlap by three hours or something. Bruce put me on late closing shifts to make up for that kid bailing on us." He shrugged. "Means I get to sleep late. See ya."
"Ok. Bye. Don't forget to lock the door behind me."
It was quite cold outside. Sam shivered as they left the record store and the first winter breeze ruffled his hair, and then he swore at it. He should buy a winter hat. He'd look dorky but at least he'd be warm.
"Fuck, is it ever cold," he said through chattering teeth as they walked down the pedestrian street. Other stores were either closed or closing, as were some of the little cafes, but pubs were open, if full of more eaters than drinkers, and the Indian restaurant on the corner had a couple waiting outside. It was a small restaurant with hardly any waiting space inside, and when it was full and there was a waiting list, the hostess pushed people out into the street to get them out of the way of the waiters.
"I drove here," Aurelian said. Sam blinked at him, impressed.
"You did?"
"Yes."
"Where'd you park?"
"In the garage on Morrison. Turn left." Sam turned obediently, and half a block later they were at the garage.
"Wow," Sam said. "This place is usually full. You must have some kind of good car vibe or something."
"Or something," Aurelian admitted. "Can you give me directions to the Cattle Drive?"
"From here? Uh... probably not." Sam blushed a little, embarrassed. "I hardly ever drive around here, I take the bus. And if someone else is driving I'm not paying attention to where we're going. You got a map? I can read maps."
"I have a map."
By that time they had found the car, and Sam swore again, this time in awe and something approaching car lust. He wasn't a car freak by any stretch of the imagination, but he was enough of an aesthete to appreciate a classically beautiful model.
"Fuck me," he said softly. "That is a damn cool car."
"She's a 1971 Volvo 1800E," Aurelian recited with pride. "Temperamental and small, arrogant far beyond her size, and very proud."
"Damn. Check out the tiny fins." Sam ran a hand over the car's little chrome-edged tail fins, which were smooth and shiny and looked like new. The whole car looked like it had just rolled out of the showroom - its baby-blue paint fairly glistened in the harsh light of the parking garage, and the glass over the tail lights and turn lights winked at Sam.
He had to bend down to look in the window and wasn't really surprised to note that the back seat was too little for anything other than a very small (and not very wiggly) child, or two bags of groceries. But damn, was it a cute car.
Aurelian had driven it to show off, Sam knew, and to take him out in style. He really liked this guy now. He could have done without the car's girly paint job, but that was easily forgiven when you looked at the lines of the thing. He hadn't even known Volvo made sports cars, and said so.
"They did," Aurelian told him. "Would you like to get in it, or stand here all night and stare at it? I'm sure we could have something brought up, if you were hungry."
"Smartass," Sam said, still staring at the car. He ran his hand over the roof, down the back window, over the little trunk and the rear bumper and across the tail lights, then walked around to rub the hood. He wondered briefly if it looked like he was stroking the car like a lover, and that made him blush pink again, and he pulled on the passenger door handle to open it. It was locked, of course.
"Perhaps you should wait for me to unlock it, yes?" Aurelian grinned as he unlocked the driver's side, opened the door, slid into the seat, and leaned across to open Sam's door. Sam got in.
It really was a small car, and Sam was not an especially big guy. The roof was low. He pushed the seat back and stretched out his legs.
"Nice," he said. He looked at Aurelian, who seemed pretty well squished, and tried not to laugh. "You look a little cramped, dude."
"The only problem with this car, aside from its terrible handling in the snow, is that it is a little short for me."
"Yeah, it's pretty small. But it's so cute!" He grinned. "Cute" was not a word Sam used that often, except as it related to girls or babies. Although Aurelian had refered to the car as "she," so maybe it wasn't as odd as it sounded to him.
"Map in the glove box," Aurelian directed. "Tell me how to find this restaurant of yours." Sam popped the glove compartment open and extricated a map of Eden, a glove, a map of Pennsylvania, and something that looked like....
"Dude. Why do you have a condom in your car?"
"I don't know." Aurelian glanced at it. He seemed genuinely surprised. "I've never had sex in this car, it's too small. The stick shift is also a bit of a problem."
"Should I... what do I do with it?"
"Keep it."
That just made Sam blush harder, but he stuck it in his coat pocket. You never knew when one of those would come in handy. Besides, it had the name of a sex shop printed on it - Point of No Return - and if it turned out that he'd never use it, he could always give it to Teddy as a calling card for the shop, or to Scott as a gag gift. Or he could always leave it on Bruce's desk at Play It Again, that would certainly be good for some laughs.
He peered at Aurelian out of the corner of his eye and hoped he'd get a chance to use it.
Of course, as soon as his mind started wandering those paths he started to panic, which was bad, so to redirect his mind away from all that (sex!) (with a guy!) (for the first time!) (help me, Jesus!) he unfolded the map of Eden and tried to find Van Dyck Place, where the Cattle Drive was.
They only got lost once trying to find it, because one of the roads they needed to be on was one way the wrong way, which of course wasn't marked on the map, and in trying to get around it they ended up someplace else entirely. Aurelian was amused. Sam was annoyed at himself, but he was also hungry, and sometimes hunger made him cranky.
By the time they found the restaurant and found a place to park it was past eight and Sam said that if he didn't eat something soon he was going to pass right out. Aurelian thought that was funny too.
The Cattle Drive looked full but they got a table without having to wait any longer than five minutes. Their waiter's name was Ross and after he handed around the menus and recited the specials he vanished, for which Sam was acutely grateful. The whole date thing was starting to sink it. Really sink in. As in, "Holy shit, I'm on a date. A real date. With restaurant. And a kiss good night. Don't panic."
"'Scuse me," he said, and got up and made a beeline for the men's room, where he splashed water on his face and told his reflection to calm the fuck down. He took a leak, washed his hands, and went back to the table, feeling a little calmer.
"Is everything ok?" Aurelian asked, sounding a little concerned.
"It is now. I just had to remind myself not to wig. I mean, I've never been on a date with a guy before." Hadn't they already had this discussion? "Let's talk about something else, ok?"
words: 1,812
total words: 24,217
(the point of no return actually belongs to cici. dom's boyfriend jimmy works there. i'm just borrowing it for this one thing.)Ó
Sam didn't have a usual Sunday night social activity, although sometimes Spencer would call him in the middle of "The X-Files" (which she watched partly because she had a crush on Agent Scully) and bitch about it, which meant if he wasn't watching it he had to turn it on. He got to see more half-episodes that way. Sometimes he talked to his mom on the phone. But no one seemed to be much interested in doing anything Sunday night, because they all had to get up and go to work Monday morning. So he didn't mind having the closing shift either. And besides, tonight he had a date.
(He hadn't told Peter Baron or Bruce or anyone at the store. He'd mentioned it at rehearsal Saturday morning, because Teddy asked, but all he said was a very casual "We're gonna grab some food after I get out of work tomorrow." No one but Spencer knew Sam thought of it as a date.)
Aurelian had to knock on the door three times before Sam noticed he was there and let him in. He and Peter had been too busy yelling the words to "Werewolves in London" across the store at each other. Peter could count money and sing at the same time, although you couldn't really call what he was doing "singing."
"Hey," Sam said. He shoved the door closed behind Aurelian and locked it out of reflex. "Damn, it's cold."
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah, just give me a sec. Hey, Peter, I gotta go, ok? My friend's here, we're going out to eat."
"You have a friend?" Peter asked, feigning surprise.
"One. My mom pays him. This is Aurelian. Aurelian, Peter Baron."
"Hey," Peter said, nodding and going back to his cash drawer. They could hear him singing under his breath.
"He's singing to the money," Sam told Aurelian. "He's weird that way. Let me get my coat and clock out and we can go get food. I'm starving." he went back to the office, leaving Aurelian among the R&B CDs while he fetched his coat and signed out. "Night, Peter," he said on his way out again. "See you... when are you in again?"
"Tuesday. I think we overlap by three hours or something. Bruce put me on late closing shifts to make up for that kid bailing on us." He shrugged. "Means I get to sleep late. See ya."
"Ok. Bye. Don't forget to lock the door behind me."
It was quite cold outside. Sam shivered as they left the record store and the first winter breeze ruffled his hair, and then he swore at it. He should buy a winter hat. He'd look dorky but at least he'd be warm.
"Fuck, is it ever cold," he said through chattering teeth as they walked down the pedestrian street. Other stores were either closed or closing, as were some of the little cafes, but pubs were open, if full of more eaters than drinkers, and the Indian restaurant on the corner had a couple waiting outside. It was a small restaurant with hardly any waiting space inside, and when it was full and there was a waiting list, the hostess pushed people out into the street to get them out of the way of the waiters.
"I drove here," Aurelian said. Sam blinked at him, impressed.
"You did?"
"Yes."
"Where'd you park?"
"In the garage on Morrison. Turn left." Sam turned obediently, and half a block later they were at the garage.
"Wow," Sam said. "This place is usually full. You must have some kind of good car vibe or something."
"Or something," Aurelian admitted. "Can you give me directions to the Cattle Drive?"
"From here? Uh... probably not." Sam blushed a little, embarrassed. "I hardly ever drive around here, I take the bus. And if someone else is driving I'm not paying attention to where we're going. You got a map? I can read maps."
"I have a map."
By that time they had found the car, and Sam swore again, this time in awe and something approaching car lust. He wasn't a car freak by any stretch of the imagination, but he was enough of an aesthete to appreciate a classically beautiful model.
"Fuck me," he said softly. "That is a damn cool car."
"She's a 1971 Volvo 1800E," Aurelian recited with pride. "Temperamental and small, arrogant far beyond her size, and very proud."
"Damn. Check out the tiny fins." Sam ran a hand over the car's little chrome-edged tail fins, which were smooth and shiny and looked like new. The whole car looked like it had just rolled out of the showroom - its baby-blue paint fairly glistened in the harsh light of the parking garage, and the glass over the tail lights and turn lights winked at Sam.
He had to bend down to look in the window and wasn't really surprised to note that the back seat was too little for anything other than a very small (and not very wiggly) child, or two bags of groceries. But damn, was it a cute car.
Aurelian had driven it to show off, Sam knew, and to take him out in style. He really liked this guy now. He could have done without the car's girly paint job, but that was easily forgiven when you looked at the lines of the thing. He hadn't even known Volvo made sports cars, and said so.
"They did," Aurelian told him. "Would you like to get in it, or stand here all night and stare at it? I'm sure we could have something brought up, if you were hungry."
"Smartass," Sam said, still staring at the car. He ran his hand over the roof, down the back window, over the little trunk and the rear bumper and across the tail lights, then walked around to rub the hood. He wondered briefly if it looked like he was stroking the car like a lover, and that made him blush pink again, and he pulled on the passenger door handle to open it. It was locked, of course.
"Perhaps you should wait for me to unlock it, yes?" Aurelian grinned as he unlocked the driver's side, opened the door, slid into the seat, and leaned across to open Sam's door. Sam got in.
It really was a small car, and Sam was not an especially big guy. The roof was low. He pushed the seat back and stretched out his legs.
"Nice," he said. He looked at Aurelian, who seemed pretty well squished, and tried not to laugh. "You look a little cramped, dude."
"The only problem with this car, aside from its terrible handling in the snow, is that it is a little short for me."
"Yeah, it's pretty small. But it's so cute!" He grinned. "Cute" was not a word Sam used that often, except as it related to girls or babies. Although Aurelian had refered to the car as "she," so maybe it wasn't as odd as it sounded to him.
"Map in the glove box," Aurelian directed. "Tell me how to find this restaurant of yours." Sam popped the glove compartment open and extricated a map of Eden, a glove, a map of Pennsylvania, and something that looked like....
"Dude. Why do you have a condom in your car?"
"I don't know." Aurelian glanced at it. He seemed genuinely surprised. "I've never had sex in this car, it's too small. The stick shift is also a bit of a problem."
"Should I... what do I do with it?"
"Keep it."
That just made Sam blush harder, but he stuck it in his coat pocket. You never knew when one of those would come in handy. Besides, it had the name of a sex shop printed on it - Point of No Return - and if it turned out that he'd never use it, he could always give it to Teddy as a calling card for the shop, or to Scott as a gag gift. Or he could always leave it on Bruce's desk at Play It Again, that would certainly be good for some laughs.
He peered at Aurelian out of the corner of his eye and hoped he'd get a chance to use it.
Of course, as soon as his mind started wandering those paths he started to panic, which was bad, so to redirect his mind away from all that (sex!) (with a guy!) (for the first time!) (help me, Jesus!) he unfolded the map of Eden and tried to find Van Dyck Place, where the Cattle Drive was.
They only got lost once trying to find it, because one of the roads they needed to be on was one way the wrong way, which of course wasn't marked on the map, and in trying to get around it they ended up someplace else entirely. Aurelian was amused. Sam was annoyed at himself, but he was also hungry, and sometimes hunger made him cranky.
By the time they found the restaurant and found a place to park it was past eight and Sam said that if he didn't eat something soon he was going to pass right out. Aurelian thought that was funny too.
The Cattle Drive looked full but they got a table without having to wait any longer than five minutes. Their waiter's name was Ross and after he handed around the menus and recited the specials he vanished, for which Sam was acutely grateful. The whole date thing was starting to sink it. Really sink in. As in, "Holy shit, I'm on a date. A real date. With restaurant. And a kiss good night. Don't panic."
"'Scuse me," he said, and got up and made a beeline for the men's room, where he splashed water on his face and told his reflection to calm the fuck down. He took a leak, washed his hands, and went back to the table, feeling a little calmer.
"Is everything ok?" Aurelian asked, sounding a little concerned.
"It is now. I just had to remind myself not to wig. I mean, I've never been on a date with a guy before." Hadn't they already had this discussion? "Let's talk about something else, ok?"
words: 1,812
total words: 24,217
(the point of no return actually belongs to cici. dom's boyfriend jimmy works there. i'm just borrowing it for this one thing.)Ó
