A Second First Date Gone Right

They had gone out before, but not in a year, and somehow still just the look of her made George’s heart beat faster as Zoe sat down at the table for their second first date. She ran her hand through her long dyed white hair and smiled as she took off her coat.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “I just got off work five minutes ago--you wouldn’t believe the day I’ve been having.”

“You’re fine,” he told her, waving it away. “I ordered stuffed mushrooms--do you still like those?”

“Of course,” Zoe answered. “How are you? I like those glasses.”

“Thanks,” George told her, and he pulled them off. “They’re transitions--I didn’t realize I could get something like this online.”

“They’re cool,” she said, nodding, and flicked her eyes down to the menu the waitress had left for her. “I looked on their website--I think I might get the special; you might like it too, fried chicken and gravy.”

“Oh, that actually does sound good,” he agreed, and looked down. He hadn’t seen that. Somehow she still knew what he wanted before he did.

The little feeling he’d been pushing down for the last two weeks since they’d seen each other again was forcing its way up, and he almost let it soar. She looked perfect, in her blocky green glasses, wearing a black dress that clung tight. That feeling she gave him was the only reason he was still in this world tonight, and not far away with elves and sprites, hunting dragons under a sky with three suns.

“How was your day?” she asked. “Like I said, mine was hectic--what are you doing for work now?”

“I have some savings,” George told her, but that wasn’t entirely true. He just didn’t need money in the same way other people did when he could cast a portal spell and go to Enjitsky, where gold was cheap, and people would pay to hear the sounds he could play on a guitar. Somehow no one there had invented any stringed instruments yet, and after he started bringing a cordless amp, the rich came to hear him in crowds. “I’m working on getting a few projects finished--hopefully I can start selling those and finally think about new things.”

“Did you ever finish that album you were writing when we went out?”

He nodded--he’d written four since then, and started laying beats for two, but people only liked to hear about art they could experience. “I have a couple copies of an EP with a few songs on it in my car if you want to grab one later.”

“Absolutely I do,” Zoe told him, and just then their waitress returned.

“Delightful to see you,” the doughy-faced woman said, smiling at them both, but mostly at Zoe. “Your boyfriend was waiting here for you so long--”

Zoe smiled at George, and neither of them bothered to correct the woman.

“--but you look so pretty; I’m sure you’re worth the wait, yes?” She winked at him, and then George felt the heat start in his cheeks. Zoe smiled and pointed down at the drinks section of the menu.

“What’s this Stag’s Leap Merlot here?” she asked.

“A nice red,” their waitress said. “Is that what we’re thinking? A glass is good, but a bottle is better.”

“Whatever you want,” George told Zoe. He didn’t really know the difference between reds and whites, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but Zoe always seemed to know a little bit about anything she was looking at.

“Maybe we just start with glasses,” she told their waitress, smiling. “I don’t want to be swerving all the way home.”

“A glass each of the Stag’s Leap Merlot,” their waitress agreed, nodding. “Do we know what we want for entrees? Those stuffed mushrooms should be out in just a minute.”

George opened his mouth to answer, but then a shine caught his eye as the door opened to admit a family of four, and two gleaming sprites came with them, careeing up toward the ceiling. They shouldn’t have been here--he almost stood.

“Is everything alright?” Zoe asked, turning, and this was what had ruined them the last time. A year ago he had only just discovered the doorway to Enjitsky, and he hadn’t known how to explain it. Now things were repeating themselves before the appetizers even arrived.

“I just need to use the restroom,” he lied, and put his napkin on the table.

She smiled. “Okay--I’ll see you when you’re out.”

George walked to the short hallway beside the kitchen, and the sprites were above his head when he stopped in the corner. Fedau the fire sprite looked like a burning spork without a handle, and Paec the water sprite might have been able to pretend he was an armless, legless baby if he wasn’t blue, and the size of an arrowhead. They both shone, though, and a few eyes were watching them.

“Why are you here?” he asked them as they floated in midair. “I’m on a--this isn’t a good time.”

“We need you,” Fedau said. “There’s an avalanche starting or something--you’ve been here for days.”

The floating, bubbling blue baby beside the fire sprite nodded. “You have responsibilities,” Paec told him.

George nodded, and then he sighed over at Zoe. She looked so good in that little black dress, with her hair let down.

“I’ll be right there,” he told them, and the sprites zoomed away. George went back to their table, rummaging for his wallet as he did.

“There you are,” Zoe said, smiling when he sat. “I know I said I wanted the fried chicken, but they have a steak and shrimp stir fry that looks even better.”

“Zoe,” George started, “I’m sorry, but something just happened; I have to go. I’ll leave my card with the people at the front--”

She frowned, though, and interrupted. “What’s wrong?”

“I--” he began, and both sprites dropped down onto the table. Paec slowed his momentum before he splattered himself everywhere, but Fedau hit the glazed wood, scorching a line into the surface.

Every other table was looking over now, and their waitress was walking back. “What are those?” Zoe asked, as Fedau reformed and Paec flew close enough to whisper in George’s ear.

“We need to go,” the little water sprite told him, and George nodded.

“I need to say goodbye,” he muttered back, then looked at Zoe. “They’re--drones.”

“Drones?”

The waitress arrived, with a cloth napkin that she aimed at the floating fire, but Fedau dodged her swipe. “This table is expensive! You will need to pay--”

“I’ll pay; I just need to go,” George said, nodding. “Here, take my card.” He held it out, and then Fedau rushed at him, scalding the side of his face as the waitress took the credit card.

“Move,” the fire sprite seethed, and George swatted at him.

“Sorry,” he told Zoe, but another lie wasn’t forming itself automatically in his mind, and he didn’t know what to say. “I need--my friend just had an avalanche--I mean a heart attack.”

She waved him away. “I don’t know what this is, but you don’t need to lie; just go.”

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “Order whatever you want; I’m still buying.”

“I’m not going to sit here and eat alone,” Zoe said, and picked her coat up off the chair behind her. “Don’t text m--”

“Come with me.”

The offer was out before the reasonable part of him knew what he was saying--in every single possible way, this was against the rules, but from the first moment he met her, George knew he wanted to know Zoe better. Somehow she had only grown to seem more perfect after each of those dates they’d had before the other world was too distracting, before she found someone else who could give her the attention she needed.

“What? Where, the hospital?” Her frown started lightening. “Was that really not a lie?”

He shook his head. “I--it was, but come with me anyway. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll understand.”

Zoe stared at him for a moment, but then she nodded. At least she still trusted him. “Okay, but if this is some--”

“It’s not anything bad,” George told her, and then looked over to where the waitress had taken his card, but he could come back for it another day. “I just need to be somewhere else, like right now.”

He stood up from their table, and she followed him. George led her out to the back parking lot, where her Mariner and his Xterra were parked two spots away from each other. The sky above was still clear, showing a thousand stars dimmed by the city lights, and no one else was out here.

“Where do you need to go?” Zoe asked him, sounding a little uncomfortable as he stopped beside a blank wall.

“Just don’t freak out,” he said, then touched the triple sun tattoo on his right wrist, and a triangular wooden door appeared on the brick wall in front of them, with hinges on the edge so it could swing up. He took hold of the handle.

“What--” she started, but then Zoe fell silent as the door opened into the mountain valley where the sprites lived, and they stood in the threshold.

Enjitsky was still in daytime, and two of the suns were risen today--white Zhotèr and blue Boterin both. A partridge was winging its way west, doing all it could to outstrip the hawk behind it, but George didn’t need to keep looking to know what would happen.

“What is this?” Zoe stuttered out.

“This is my job,” he began to say, but then a wall of flame flew toward them as a mass of fire sprites came, screaming over each other.

Fedau was the loudest, though. “We were wrong!” he cried. “Not an avalanche--sorry, boss.”

George sighed to himself--he had given away the secret for nothing. “What was it?”

“A stampede of horses,” a bigger fire sprite answered. “They came from the sky, so we never saw them.”

Zoe giggled. “This place has pegasuses--pegasi?”

“Not quite,” George told her, and smiled. “They have clouds for feet, not wings--I could show you, if this isn’t breaking your brain.” She shook her head, and the euphoric feeling he’d been trying to suppress exploded past restraint. “Maybe we should go back inside and get that bottle?”

“We don’t need it,” Zoe said, and she walked through the door. He grinned, and he went in after her.