ArchivedLogs:The Love Boat

The Love Boat
Exciting and new....
Dramatis Personae Alexandrine, Dan
In Absentia	2013-02-23 Dan and Alexandrine meet up the night after their date.
Location <NYC> Green Carnation Pub - Gramercy Park
The Green Carnation Pub is a pub that has one very special rule that differentiates it from its competition - and, indeed, from any other bar of any sort. At this pub, drinks cost you half price... if, and only if, you buy them for someone else at the bar who you didn't come with. As such, the drinks at the Green Carnation Pub tend to be more expensive than they are everywhere else, but you get more free booze. Their food is quite tasty, for a pub, if not exactly haute cuisine. The interior is decorated with light colored wood, and a long, polished wooden bar table lined with stools. There are booths and tables for guests who would rather not sit or eat at the bar, as well as couches to rest on, but all are arranged to give as wide as possible a view of the rest of the restaurant. In many ways, the Green Carnation Pub is one of the least private bars you are ever likely to visit. Dan hadn't really expected Alexandrine to call him so soon. He'd fully intended to give it a full day before he called her, letting the small flower arrangement he'd sent earlier say what he wouldnt be able to. So when she'd called, catching him as he left Kathleen's, he was surprised -- pleasantly. When she offered to meet him for drinks, he couldn't pass up a chance to see her again, and so they agreed on a spot he'd heard of from some co-workers. The Green Carnation Pub sounded like it would be the perfect place to meet without having a lot of interruption. If only that had been true. After arriving, it was clear that the place was a pick-up joint, and Dan and Alexandrine were, literally, fresh meat. It took several polite rejections and returning of drinks, but finally the pair were able to find a quiet corner, away from the predators. Dan still has a sheepish look on his face as he swirls his bourbon around in his (for some reason) very large glass. "I'm sorry again," he says, a twinge of guilt stabbing through his mind. "When I heard the guys talking, it just sounded like a regular bar." Alex, only having been to a couple bars at all in town, had no idea this was... well, a pick up joint. It was close enough to her place, so she'd agreed. A black skirt, stockings, knee high black boots, with a soft purple blouse. Red hair is loose again, her make-up more suited to her look this evening. Lips are a softer hue, a deep pink, eyes shadowed in neutral colors with just a hint of sparkle. She offers Dan a smile, her hand out to grasp his not holding his glass. "It's not a big deal. It's not like Ah knew, either. It's... an interesting experience. Don't worry about it." The clasp of hand sends a surge through his mind that's part electric, part fire, and Dan smiles, closing his fingers around hers. "Oh, I know," he says, with a lop-sided grin, cutting his eyes over to gaze at the redhead. He's not as neatly appointed as he was the night before in jeans and a grey cabled v-neck sweater, topped off with scuffed brown hiking boots. Boots that he shuffles a bit as he slides a bit closer. Just in case anyone is looking over here and decides to take another run at it. Maybe. It also has the added benefit of putting her within smelling (and kissing) range. "It's just irony. I was hoping to stay away from random guys trying to pick you up." Or /him/, as the sudden, embarrassing replay of a few minutes before reminds him. "Instead, I brought you to the fucking Love Boat." Alexandrine takes advantage of the closeness, leaning into him just a little bit. "Ah think more people were interested in you. Ah... Ah don't get picked up. But ya knew that, Ah guess." There's a grin of her own that's slightly poking fun at herself. "Don't worry, sugar. They might as well not exist. Ah came here with you, Ah only wanna be here with you." She's worried it sounds corny, but eh well. She leans in, head tipping to the side so she can kiss him lightly. She doesn't want to attract attention or anything. Dan snorts, and leans in to Alex, pressing his chest against her shoulder lightly. "I'm glad to hear that," he murmurs, and presses a firm, gentle kiss on her lips that lasts only a couple of seconds. He, too, would rather not attract any more attention than is absolutely necessary. Pulling back, he smiles, and presses a light kiss to the tip of her nose. "I know I said it this morning," he says, pulling his head back to gaze at her, reaching up to stroke her hair back behind an ear. "But I had a really good time last night." Alexandrine blushes, lashes lowering over bright blue eyes as he tucks hair behind her ear. "Ah did too. Nearly burned breakfast on ya this morning, bein' so nervous...never had a guy stay the night before." She shrugs, before she looks up. "Well, other than Antonio on my couch after Ah moved in, but he'd jus' had too much wine and his lover couldn't come get him. Not like... not like last night was.." Lips part, before she clenches her jaw to shut her mouth. "Ah'm babbling, aren't Ah." Dan chuckles, clasping Alex's hand and lifting it to brush his lips over the smooth back. "A little bit," he says, eyes crinkling with warm amusement. "But I like it." He leans in, then, to catch her gaze. "And I appreciate what how big that was, for you." He does, too, the guilt floating through briefly before blue eyes drive it back to the edges again. "But I was enjoying myself thoroughly before that. I just want you to know." He smiles. "That...was amazing, and fantastic, and more than I even considered. But it wasn't what I wanted -- want -- with you." He flushes, and chagrin floods him, briefly. "Not entirely, I mean. I mean, I do /want/ it, but --" He leans back, eyebrows lifting. "Now you've got me doing it." "You mean you like knowing you reduce me to complete bundle of nerves?" Alex asks him with a heavy dose of drawl and sass in that, a spark of a smile. "You mean you enjoyed the evening before Ah practically threw myself at you?" She murmurs, glancing down and picking up her bourbon for a sip. "It wasn't?" She asks, eyes flashing up again, a horrified look of panic. "Ah... not.. " She frowns, studying him. "You /do/ want the physical stuff, right? Ah didn't misread all that?" That flash of panic slams Dan's eyebrows back down, and he leans forward almost hurriedly. "Aw, baby, no," he says, kissing her hand again. "That's not what I mean at all. I just meant that it wasn't my /goal/ last night. That it happened at all is still sort of surreal to me." Indeed, the memory sort of makes his brainscape wobble. He presses another kiss against her hand. "I just don't want you to think that's /all/ I want." There's something like a sigh that slips out of Alex, moving her hand so she could kiss his lips. "Ah just... Ah was worried Ah got confused. Sugar, if Ah thought that was /all/ you wanted... you wouldn't have been invited up for a drink. Ah may not have dated, but Ah had guys that didn't like /me/, just what they saw." Dan accepts that kiss, pulling back with a smile. "The whole thing's a bit unsettling," he says. "But in a good way." He frowns at her assertion, his gaze flicking around the bar, maybe hardening when it reaches those outside stares that linger too long. "Yeah, those guys give the rest of us a bad name," he mutters, taking a sip of bourbon before he turns back to Alex, his expression softening as soon as he locks eyes. "But I've never been like that. With eight sisters, I sort of had a different sort of view about women, and how to treat them." He grins, and his gaze drops shyly. "I told my sister Kathleen about you," he says in a low voice. "Today." "Ah don't want to leave you feelin' unsettled or uneasy... Ah want you to feel good around me. Comfortable." Alex counters softly, shaking her head. "Ah know lots of nice guys. Just most of them are married or gay." There's a flash of her smile as she delivers the cliched line. "Or worried that Ah'll think they jus' wanna get laid." She murmurs, hand squeezing his. "Your sister? Really?" "That's the weird thing," Dan says. "What's makes it kind of unsettling. I /do/ feel perfectly comfortable around you. It's like...we understand each other, on some level." He lifts her hand to rub it against his cheek, which has not been shaven since his visit to Ernie's. "I haven't experienced that for a long time. It's nice." He's being honest, his thoughts aligning almost exactly with his spoken words. He smiles at the question, and nods. "I did," he says with a lift of his eyebrows, flashing a wide smile. "I tell Kathleen just about everything. She practically raised me while Ma was busy with the little kids." He makes a face, his eyes crinkling in what might be amusement, save the flare of fear that spikes in his brain as he drops the other shoe. "And she wants to meet you, now." "That's a good thing, isn't it? Ah've never had it. Not.. Ah mean, Ah have guy friends Ah am totally comfortable with. But they're like brothers or something. You... you are so not like that." Alexandrine is flushing, blue eyes widening. "Hope it was only just about, an' not /everything/." She's partly teasing, before a blink. "She wants to meet me? She's not going to hate on me for the accent, is she?" "I hope not," Dan teases, leaning in to steal a kiss. "I'd hate to think that all those horror stories about the South are true." Then he's pulling back, eyebrows lifting. "Oh, hell no. I wouldn't tell her /everything/. I mean, I told her you were a dancer who teaches, and were from Louisiana, and..." he grins, and lifts his free hand. "Other stuff. But not about /that/," he assures Alexandrine, color creeping into his ears. "'Cause that's none of her business." The question gets a vigorous shake of his head. "Oh, no. My brother Brian's wife, Elise is from Charlotte, and she and Katy are best friends." He smiles, and lifts a shoulder. "She'll probably ask you to Easter dinner, after Mass," he says. "Which will require me to ask you to attend Mass with the family." In his head, this is a prospect on a level with going to battle against an army with a fork and a stapler. A big army. With purple skin. "So, fair warning." "Oh, good. So long as she'll meet me with an open mind." Blue eyes brighten again, a hint of a crinkle around the edges. "Easter Dinner. Mass? Oh gosh. Ah... well. if she asks, what do you want me to say?" It's an honest question, after all. "You might be okay with me meetin' her, but.. your whole family you might think otherwise." Dan ticks off numbers, mentally, flipping a calendar in his mind as he tries to determine exactly how far away Easter really is. His thumb begins a slow, careful stroke along Alex's hand which he watches as he considers it. "Oh, you'll meet Katy before Easter," he realizes, blinking as he puts things together. Maybe the contact with Alex restored his ability to think. Or it fuzzed what was screwing with reception. "I just meant, when you meet her, she'll invite you to Mass." He licks his lips, and lifts his glass to his lips. "We'll have had plenty of time to talk before you meet the rest of them." He furrows his brow. "Not that there's anything -- you know what? I'm just going to leave it at I love my family, and they're all harmless, and quit while I'm ahead." She sets her drink down to let her other hand cup his cheek. "Hey. Ah just want to know, so Ah know if you're ready for me to meet them. Ah know this will be a sort of big deal, for you. Probably for them, too." There's a hint of a chuckle. "An' me too, this keeps going this well. Ah wouldn't want them to not like me, and tell you to stop seein' me." Dan leans his cheek into Alex's hand and closes his eyes with a small smile. "Baby, I want them to meet you, and you to meet them. And Easter's far enough away that we have time for /us/ before you're thrown into the Rourke gauntlet." He opens his eyes, regarding the redhead warmly as he brings their clasped hands up to press another kiss against her hand. "And even if they don't like you, I wouldn't stop seeing you." He smiles, and murmurs against her skin. "But that's something to think about in a couple of weeks, when it comes up." "So you're goin' to make her badger you to meet me, is that it?" Alex teases, leaning into him, her head tipping just a touch. "Isn't... Ah.. is it normally like this? Ah don't really have a benchmark on when it's the time to meet family and such. Don't you arrange for me to meet her until you're ready to share me. If you want to. If she doesn't like it, you can tell her to take it up with me." She slides her free hand around to his side, her head resting to his shoulder. Dan scrunches his nose. "It does seem a little fast," he admits, his brain unable to focus on a single thought as her perfume fills his nostrils. "But, like I said, I'm so comfortable with you, it doesn't feel weird at all." He offers a half-smile. "My therapist would probably say that I'm skipping steps. Trying to avoid the hard parts of getting to know you." He exhales through his nose. "He warned me to be careful about doing that." He presses a kiss to her lips, then, before she can get away. "So I need you to let me know when it goes /too/ fast, so I can ease back. We both need to be comfortable in this." "Ah... well, Ah've always been one of those people, that once Ah know what Ah want.." Alex shrugs a little bit, before she kisses him back. "Your therapist?" She aks, curious without that hard, judging look over some people give with a question like that. "Dan.. trust me. Ah'll let you know if Ah am feelin' rushed." Dan smiles. "Well, I do appreciate a woman who knows what she wants," he quips, brushing his lips over her fingers. At the question, he lifts a shoulder. "I see a VA therapist once a week," he says, with a sideways pull of his mouth. "For some of the stuff I saw when I was in the shit overseas." He inhales deeply. "I'm not crazy or anything. It's just...the manner in which I received some of my injuries require that I receive therapy for PTSD." "Oh. Just you're not the Woody Allen type, to see a therapist for nothin'." She gives him a smile, nibbling at his bottom lip. "Ah didn't think you were crazy. Ah was sure you had some valid reasons for a therapist. It's not my business, sugar." She lets her nose nuzzle his. "I'm not smart enough to be Woody Allen," Dan murmurs, a grin playing about his lips. "But it is your business," he corrects her. "Because you have a right to know what you're getting into, with me." He rubs his nose happily, scrunching it as he pulls back. "I'm pretty messed up, Alex. I've been through a lot, and most of it wasn't pretty. It's a lot to ask of anyone, comfortable or not." He leans in, and presses a kiss against her lips, brief and chaste but not lacking in heat. "I don't want you to run from me, but I also don't want you to be...lost...when I have a bad night." "Ah never thought Woody Allen was that smart." Alex sasses back. "Dan... Ah knew that the first day we met. Ah... Ah've worked at shelters and charities and things. There are a /ton/ of vets that come through those places. They teach us what to look for. So.. Ah had a clue. Ah also know if you want to talk to me about it... you will." She shrugs. "Not gonna run, just because you got hurt and sometimes need some help findin' your way back to here an' now." Dan colors deeply at her admission, and he glances away as his mind spins. "So, you saw that?" he asks, his voice slow and careful. "I hoped I'd covered it under my hangover. I never know what's going to trigger an..." he frowns. "My therapist calls them 'episodes', but they're more like..." he gropes for the word, sifting through a number of ill-fitting choices before finding the right ones. "Full-body seizures in my mind. I just...go back," he says, nodding at the redhead with a grateful look, and he's sliding an arm around her to pull her into his side. "I hope the guy that deserves you isn't mad I stole his girl." Alexandrine blushes, a shrug. "Had an idea it might be that. You're the right age an' all.. and most people wouldn't guess. Ah just.. well, Ah figured it might be something like that." She steals a quick kiss. "An' it doesn't make you crazy, or anythin' else. It shows that you're a good person, is all. Ah don't know what happened to you, but Ah've heard some bad stuff. So.. don't worry about that, with me. Okay?" She laughs at his line about stealing her. "Well, if there was some other guy out there that wanted me, he waited too long, now didn't he." "There's a lot of stuff that doesn't get said," Dan says with a distant look. "Even my therapist's notes are redacted, once a month, to ensure that even my most assuredly private conversations don't refer to anything too sensitive." A dark cloud of irritation rolls across his mind, lingering in a moody haze for a few moments. "I /will/ tell you, one day," he says earnestly, although his voice sounds weary. Like this little bit of information came with a piece of his soul attached. Then he's chuckling at Alex's flip remark. "I said /deserved/," he teases back. "Anyone who doesn't want you doesn't have eyes in his head -- and I'm not talking to you, buddy," he says, snapping his eyes towards a man who suddenly appears at their table. "So keep moving." The man shrugs, and shifts his direction towards a flouncy-looking blonde nearby. Dan watches to ensure the man is gone before he turns back to Alex. "Like I said, any guy with eyes and sense would want you." "Well, isn't that fun." She says dryly about the redacting of notes. "You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to. We all have our own private hells to live with, baby." Alex looks up, startled at the guy near their table. "Dan..." she murmurs, her hand on his arm. "Relax. Ah ain't looking at anyone but you. Though you're sweet to say such things." Dan smiles. "I kind of want to," he says of telling her. "I don't know how much I can tell you -- some of it's pretty awful, and hard to describe. But I want to tell you. You should know what my nightmares are about." He wrinkles his nose, and looks after the guy when Alex protests, and lifts a shoulder. "It's not your eyes I'm worried about," he says simply. "Anyway, this place is starting to fill up, and I'm in no sort of mood to play goalie. Can we just head on out?" He leans in, then, to kiss her softly. "I'll walk you home and everything." "Afraid someone's gonna score a goal, or somethin'?" Alex starts snickering. "You know what, let's just leave statements about goalies and things... out of conversations." She steals another kiss before she's scooting out of the booth to snag her coat. "Walk me home, maybe come in for a nightcap?" She's in no hurry, walking back to her place with him, and they do get to spend more time together on the couch with bourbon, talking. But tonight... everyone seems to be pacing themselves better, and Dan doesn't linger too late, getting a proper good night kiss and sent on his way before it's too late.