Jensen
I heldin my smile as I led a wide-eyed Emilia into the building.
I could tell she was confused as to why I would take her here.
Honestly?
I didn’t know.
I could have kept it simple with dinner and perhaps a movie. Or maybe, going out for a walk in the city and looking for an ice cream parlor.
Simple things that were meant to bring a smile to Emilia’s face, but they didn’t feel right for a first date with her. I wanted to surprise her, so here we were, in the back of a nondescript brick building. I had wanted this to be a surprise, so I took us around back, where Aaron Kincaid—the man doing me this favor for our date—was waiting for us with a smile on his face.
“Mr. Pierce. Welcome.”
I took his offered hand and shook it, smiling. “Thank you for doing this for us.”
“It’s no problem at all. After all that you’ve done for me, this is a small thing you ask for.”
I waved him off, not really wanting to talk about business with Emilia here. She was currently standing behind me, her eyes burning a hole in the back of my neck. I turned around and pulled her forward.
Aaron looked curiously at her, though he didn’t say anything, just tipped his head back in greeting before moving inside.
I held onto her hand and led the way in, following behind the older man.
“What are we doing here?” Emilia whispered, though her voice carried in the empty, silent hallway.
“You’ll see,” I said, just as we turned the corner and Aaron let us into a room.
I stood back and allowed Emilia to go in the room first, while Aaron handed over the keys to me. “Just lock up whenever you’re done,” he said with a smile.
I shook his hand once more. “Of course. Thank you.”
He tipped his head back before quietly leaving us.
I couldn’t see Emilia’s expression from this angle, but I imagined she might be confused. Sure enough, when she turned toward me, a small frown was marring her lovely face.
“Cooking?”
I grinned. “Yeah. I thought it would be nice to make pizza for our first date.”
A glimmer entered her eyes as she made another sweep of the room. There was usually a class being held at this time, but I had this room booked out, so it would just be me and her for the rest of the night.
“What do you think?”
“I’ve never tried it.” She turned to me, biting her bottom lip and looking way too adorable for her own good. “I don’t know how to cook.”
“I don’t cook all that often either, but I’m sure between the two of us, we’ll figure it out.” I offered a careless shrug. “We can be bad at it together.”
She looked at me, before letting out a hearty laugh. My breath caught at the sight. “That’s so cheesy.”
I wiggled my eyebrows. “Only for you.”
That elicited another giggle from her, and I felt like I had just won the biggest fucking lottery. I moved in closer, and grabbing a hold of her waist, directed her in front of the metal table, where all the ingredients had been set out in front of us.
She looked down at it, excitement in her eyes.
Clasping her hands together, she said, “Okay, let’s do this.”