Cecily finds out Miles is a man of many talents...and has a spare bedroom.
PART I - DINNER & A GAME
Date two happens sooner than later; approximately a week after the first one.
Miles is moved and settled into his new home, and he invites Cecily over for dinner.
Being a bachelor with a hectic work schedule, he found himself ordering solo take-outs more nights than not but he does consider himself a more than decent cook.
Now, he has a bigger kitchen and some time to slow down so he's going to make them some pan-fried pork chops, his favorite dish. He hopes she finds his new place and his cooking all right.
Cecily won't admit it lest she comes off as overeager, but she's been thinking about Miles all week. In fact, if she were still a teen, she'd probably be doodling her name and his name with an addition sign in between surrounded by little hearts in the margins.
She takes a taxi to the new address he gave her and does a double-take. Did he really score such a nice place in this housing market? What's one man do with all that space?
There are two entrances and she's not sure which one to go through but can see him moving around in his kitchen from outside through a set of windows. So she picks the nearest door and knocks.
She sees him book it to the door and he opens it with a sort of frantic look in his eyes, but paired with a broad smile at seeing her.
He quickly spills, "Hi there, welcome, I have to make sure my pork chops don't burn."
And with that said, he's gone. She keeps pace, following him into the kitchen, and adores the red motif of the interior. It matches his hair.
Well, the pork chop looks normal as she observes it frying. She also observes a little pig-shaped spice holder that looks way too happy to be in the presence of its brethren being cooked.
So how was your day?" Miles asks her as they sit down at his dining table with dinner in hand.
She laughs before answering because by the way he asks, it seems like he's known her for years and not just since last fall when they met at the bachelor auction in Kashmire Point.
"It was okay. Just white and green level soil samples."
He grins at her reference because it's back to video game metaphors. Something he's well-versed in, being a game designer.
"So these soil samples, what do you do with them?"
"Note the chemical makeup and pass it along to our biologic-ecology department at the lab so they can find the best combinations to grow specific crops for the year."
"Wow...that sounds..." he can't think of a word that doesn't offend, but then gets an idea, "Have you played any farming simulation games?"
"Yeah, Moondew Valley is one of my favorites!"
"I met the creator of that game at a con last year!"
She beams, "That's wicked awesome!"
And they begin to talk about that more.
"You said you are a game designer, right?"
Miles nods.
"How did you get into that?"
He laughs.
"What?"
She notices he's giving her a goofy smile and it's because her cheeks are stuffed with pork chops and she reminds him of a little hamster.
"Nothing. I started tinkering around in middle school and built my own computers. I bought some video games and they all had aspects I loved, but some were not quite perfect. So I went into the gaming career trying to get to the point I could have a say in development."
"What's your favorite game?"
"Cloudrim Saga."
"That's a first-person RPG, right?"
He nods with bright eyes.
It's so refreshing to Miles to have someone to talk video games with, or at least has a working knowledge of titles and types. No one in his family understands his passion, and none of his past romantic interests did either.
After dinner, he gives Cecily a tour of his new house.
"And this! This is my gaming room slash ideas room!"
It's a smaller room but it has his drafting table which he uses to sketch out game concepts, a flat-screen TV that's hooked up to his console so he can take a break and play around if he needs to, plus some arcade games for nostalgic purposes.
Cecily spies one of the console controllers on his table and nods toward it, "Wanna play something?"
He daresay that is the most attractive thing a woman has ever said to him, even without euphemisms.
"You're on, " he grabs it and holds the controller out to her.
"Loser has to kiss the winner," she adds, swiping it away.
He takes it back. That is the most attractive thing a woman has ever said concerning games to him.
They park themselves on the loveseat in the corner and he starts up a game of SSX.
"Just so you know, I've never been beaten at this so...good luck," he warns her.
"Whatever, today is the day you lose!" Cecily boldly claims, revving up her competitiveness, and Miles isn't opposed to the prospect of her trash-talking him.
Their characters begin boarding down the mountain, picking up speed. Cecily executes a combo maneuver right off and Miles takes note that she knows her stuff. He wonders how a gaming girl got into the soil-identifying field? Is natural science her real passion or was it something she just found out she was good at?
He swears as his character hits a rock. He needs to stop being distracted. His brain always goes into auto-pilot concerning the controller in his hand. This proves that maybe auto-piloting isn't safe.
Miles deftly maneuvers his fingers across a series of controller buttons and pulls into the finish line. He gives another shout of glee at his victory.
"What? How did you do that!? Cheater much!?" Cecily finally breaks in a huff and nags him, "Up, down, up, up, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start!"
Miles just laughs because he's finally ruffled her collected demeanor concerning games and now she has to kiss him per her own rules.
She looks at the screen with defeat.
He feels sympathy and wants to share his secret video game knowledge with her.
"So, near the last checkpoint, you can take a secret path–that's how you pull ahead on this specific mountain course. Just so you know the next time you play," Miles explains, feeling giddy and as if he's let his whole nerdy persona fall out.
He usually doesn't get into details like this because most people think it's boring or that he's too old to be this enthusiastic about such things. He's always just been a kid at heart.
"Now...about that kiss..." he prompts her.
She doesn't take it though, she hops up in a feigned fit of frustration and eyes the pinball machine. "Double or nothing! Whoever loses pinball has to kiss the winner AND take them out on the next date."
He smiles helplessly at her determination to beat him at something he is quite good if not the best at, "All right. Double or nothing."
"Where did you even get this thing? Do places just sell pinball machines?"
"It was for sale at an auction. I got it for cheap because it was busted, but I fixed it. The arcade game too."
She hums with consideration and pulls back the ball launcher. She plays for many minutes, seeming to expertly keep the ball from falling back into the gutter, and racks up several thousand points. He's very impressed.
It's Miles's turn. He starts up his game by launching the ball.
Meanwhile Cecily talks about her favorite arcade in the region.
"Vintage Entertainment has an impressive arcade, have you ever been there?"
"No, I've just been to the boardwalk one," Miles tries to have a conversation and concentrate on keeping the ball in play, which is hard and strains his brain.
"Maybe we should go sometime," Cecily suggests.
Miles doesn't quite process that she was asking him on a third date due to his focus...
The ball falls into the gutter just before he can surpass Cecily's score.
"What? noooo piece of junk!" he kicks it slightly in frustration but feels a tap on his shoulder and turns around...
...only to get grabbed by his neck and pulled in for a kiss.
It catches him off-guard, yet he wraps his arms around her and he spins them around, feeling a bit dizzy himself.
"I thought..." he pulls away slightly, still confused, "the loser had to kiss the winner?"
"He is," she smiles and continues where they left off.
After a few minutes of making out in the middle of his game room, they pull apart and he lets out a cough of embarrassment, not knowing what else to say but, "I didn't get to finish my tour."
"What's this room?" Cecily asks as they pass a door on the second floor he doesn't bother showing her.
He opens it, "It's a room I haven't figured out what to do with yet."
A lot of his empty moving boxes and extra chairs are stashed within, he clears the doorway and lets her in to view more of the space.
"Wow, this is bigger than my apartment's living room!"
"In that case, you want it?"
She gives him a dubious look.
"Want...what?"
"This room?"
He quickly explains, "It has a nice view, it's closer to where you work, the house has a back yard so your dog could run around and not be locked in an apartment all day..."
Maybe he is getting ahead of himself again. He can tell by her wide eyes he's thrown her off-guard.
"Sorry, I...I understand if it seems rather fast. I just...really like you and having you around...it would be nice."
She steps forward with that sly smile of hers and some kind of look in her eyes. He can't tell if she is considering it or not, "You still have yet to show me your bedroom."
So, maybe they'll come back to that. Right now his brain is short-circuiting at the meaning behind her words.
Maybe she won't even need her own room. A sexy housemate is one thing but a sexy girlfriend is quite another. He never thought he'd find someone like her.
But is so amazingly glad he did.
The wait was worth it.
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