After taking a shower, I changed into a pair of black capris, a maroon silk material tank top and a pair of black platform flip flops. I applied my makeup carefully, but quickly and blow dried my hair and curled it to have soft curls at the ends. I don’t know why I felt the need to really get ready today, but I did.

I looked at the clock, 5:59. Shit.

I ran downstairs and opened the backdoor and saw Jeff and Ginger smiling at me, “Sorry you guys.”

“No problem,” Ginger replied and clocked in with Jeff after her.

I ran to the front of the store and unlocked the door and we started to turn on all the lights and what not. All the tables were set up and everything had been cleaned last night and Ginger started making coffees. Jeff was restocking whipped creams and all that good stuff.

“I’ll be in the office,” I told the two and walked to the back and began going through my gross sales and trying to figure out if I should raise prices or not. After a good two and a half hours, there was a soft knock on my office door, “Madison, there’s someone here to see you.”

I looked up from my paperwork and got up, wondering which of my friends could possibly be here. The only one who didn’t have a job was Anna and she never came down here, they all lived in Brandon and only on special occasion would come to Tampa.

I locked up my office and walked to the front of the café and Chris was standing in the middle, looking around, obviously checking the place out. I smiled to myself. I didn’t actually think he would come and see me.

“Hey, I didn’t really think you’d come,” I smiled. I noticed the café was already packed, where people were enjoying their desserts and coffee.

“Do you make your own desserts?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?” I asked.

“Just wondering,” he grinned. Mush.

“Want a coffee?” I asked.

“Uh, sure, just regular,” he told me.

I got him the coffee and I led him to the back, where my office was and he sat on the couch across from my desk. I tried to organize my things as he sipped his coffee, “So what made you decide to come stop by?”

“I wanted to see you again,” he replied, shyly. I blushed.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he laughed.

We started talking about the café and he wondered why I chose to open a café.

“Are you from around here?” I asked.

“No, actually Virginia, Little Creek,” he told me.

“What brought you to Florida?” I asked.

“Family, my parents moved to Sun City after they retired,” he chuckled. Sun City was where a lot of older people moved when they retired; it was a nice place to live, maybe when I’m about 60.

“Oh I see, so tell me about yourself, Chris,” I smiled and sat down across from him, placing my head in the palm of my hand.

"Well, there really isn't a whole lot to tell you," he shrugged.

"Sure there is, don't be modest," I grinned at him.

"Well, I'm a Navy SEAL, I guess that was the most prideful moment of my entire life. I found something I was determined to do and I did it. I didn't care if it made anyone else as happy as it made me, but as long as I was proud of myself. I went in, my adrenaline from a break-up of my high school girlfriend and just thinking of my success in something she never thought I could do, made it even more prideful," he smiled and shifted his attention to his lap, shyly.

"That's really great, so tell me about your ex-girlfriend," I wanted to know what his type was or wasn't. I was very interested in his interest of the female population.

His whole body tensed and I realized I touched a tender nerve and suddenly felt bad for my prying, "She was the exact opposite of a woman I would set my ideals of being perfect."

"Oh? I hope you don't mind my inquiries," I said, leaning forward. His gaze shifted up to me.

"No, sometimes people are afraid to ask about my past, it's nice to have stories to tell," he replied softly.

"Well, what did she look like?" I asked.

"She was tall, only a few inches shorter than me," I was short, a measly 5'2", "she had almost white blonde hair," I had a deep red hair color, unnatural of course, "she was slim, but not in a perfect way," no comment, I didn't like to comment on my opinion of my personal appearance, "she had an amazing way of making me give in to what she wanted, when we graduated high school, she talked me into using my savings to help her through college, big mistake. She drained me, I was working double shifts for her college, I had managed to get a full-paid scholarship, but half way through, I spent so much working I failed miserably at school and eventually dropped out. That's when I decided to go into the military. She told me relentlessly that I wouldn't make it in the military, that I would never last and I wasn't made up to be my dream of a Navy SEAL. So, finally, I got tired of her battering and I enlisted. And when I told her of receiving my pin, she couldn't believe it and by that point I was so fed up with everything that I called it quits. She tried calling me and e-mailing me, but I never returned the calls or e-mails. Half the time I never even read them, but I love my job and I can't love someone who told me I couldn't do what I wanted to do," he sighed and held my gaze.

I smiled and nodded, "You don't deserve someone like that."

"What about you, any previous boyfriends?" he asked.

"Yeah," memories of Josh flashed in my head and I shook it without realizing, "Well, I was dating this guy, Josh throughout college. I like to consider myself very ambitious and when I decided to major in business, he felt that all my time went into school and then finally when I opened the cafe, things went downhill. He couldn't keep up with me, I was constantly busy and he left. I'm not the type of girl to depend entirely on a guy and that's what he wanted, someone to depend on him. He was studying medicine and the fact that if we were ever going to get married, I wasn't going to be an at-home wife bothered him. Josh liked to feel secure when it came to his work. He wanted to know that if we were to get married and I didn't finish school, that if I ever were to leave him, that I wouldn't make it on my own and come crawling back. He liked stability. I like stability too, but I feel secure in making a living on my own, you know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he smiled.

"Where did you grow up?" I asked him.

"Right here in Tampa, Riverview actually. It was so small when I lived here, but I guess industrialization caught up with this small town," he laughed, "What about you?"

"Brandon, not far from you," I laughed.

"Yeah, what about your parents, what do they do?" he asked.

"Not too interesting parents. My father was in the Air Force and my mother was the stay at home wife and mother I wanted to avoid. And your parents?" I asked.

"Yeah,farmers," he laughed. I smiled, admiring his face. He had chisled cheekbones, a strong straight nose, and the most intriguing blue eyes I had ever seen. This man was gorgeous. I didn't know if it was fate that we bumped into each other or if it just happened, but I could already tell he was amazing. I didn't know if he was feeling the same thing I was, so I kept my mind extremely platonic.

"My actual intention was to come and invite you to dinner this evening," he said, his eyes shifting once again to his lap. His large build made the shyness apparent in his voice all the more adorable.

"I would love to go to dinner tonight with you," I replied, smiling. His eyes shot up to me and he smiled.

At around 5 o'clock, I went up to my little apartment and started to get ready for my date with Chris. I didn't know where he was taking me, so I decided on something casual, but classy. After showering, I changed into a white khaki material pencil skirt that came about four inches above my knee and a tight brown shirt, that both came from Banana Republic. I blow dried my red hair and left it completely straight.

I applied light makeup with earth tones to keep it as simple as possible. For some reason, I had a family of butterflies unleash themselves from their cocoons in my stomach and were trying desperately to get free. I was so nervous and I hadn't felt like this since high school.

I heard a knock on my door and I took a deep breath and opened my door to be faced with Chris's smiling face. I smiled and opened the door wider for him to come in.

"You look really nice," he smiled, shyly.

"Thank you, you do too," I returned the compliment and it was the truth. He had on a pair of chugger jeans that were loose and made him look so sexy, especially with the plain tee shirt he was wearing and a pair of running shoes. His firm build hugged his shirt as tightly as possible and it made me want to just rip it off and see what he definitely had underneath it, but I controlled myself.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yeah, let me just grab my purse and put some shoes on," I said and walked into my kitchen and grabbed my purse that was sitting on the counter and conveniently matched the outfit I wore. I slipped on my tan suede sandals that sat carelessly in front of my stove and met him back in the hall.

"Ok, now I'm ready," I told him.

We walked out of the door and down the set of stairs and onto the semi-crowded sidewalks. I peeked inside the cafe and smiled at the booming business.

"So, where are you taking me?" I asked Chris.

"Well, I was thinking, only if you're interested, in going back over to Brandon to where we met and getting some coffee. I do owe you a coffee, maybe dinner first, since I did ask you to dinner," he smiled at me.

" That’s sounds great. Why were you over there that day?" I asked, curious. You didn't find too many incredibly sexy guys hanging out in a bookstore.

"I'm a huge U.S. history fan and I was checking out a new book they had out," he replied.

"Oh, I see," I nodded.

"What about you?" he asked me.

"You'd think I was a complete loser if I told you," I laughed.

"No, I wouldn't," he grinned.

"Well, my friends and I usually get together, grab ourselves a coffee and find an interesting book and settle ourselves in the middle of the dictionary aisle and read. It's relaxing and it gives us quality time," I smiled and blushed at the same time.

"That's cool. Why the dictionary aisle?" he asked and put his strong arm around my shoulder, casually, but nervously. When he saw I didn't reject his gesture, he moved closer and we walked down the street towards what I assumed was his car.

"Well, we figure not too many people are going to be going down that aisle. So, where's your car?" I asked him.

"Right there," he said pointing to a fancy black truck.

I didn't comment on how nice his car was, I didn't want him to think I was materialistic. The gentlemen that he was, he opened the door for me and helped me climb up to the cab of his truck. I got comfortable and fastened my seatbelt.

On our way to the bookstore, I started to think about where we were going. Oh God, please don't let Anna be there. It's ok if Megan and Lai were there, but please not Anna. Let her be wrapped up in her fiancée or something. PLEASE. I don't think I could handle an embarrassing episode on my first date with this guy. I really liked him and had an incredible feeling about him and all I needed was for Anna to scare him off.

“What are you in the mood for?” he asked as we got off the exit and onto State Road 60.

“Hmm, actually I could just go for some burger and fries,” I laughed.

“Wow, I never had a date that was so cheap,” he commented and then blushed realizing his choice in words could have offended me.

I pointed to a Checkers and I didn’t make a comment about it, I wasn’t offended and I didn’t want to embarrass him. After we got our burgers and fries, he pulled into a parking spot and we opened our bags and began to eat.

“Thanks for dinner,” I smiled over at him as he was taking a bite of his burger. Man, he had gorgeous lips. Gross, I was checking his lips out while he was eating. Oh what the hell, he did have gorgeous lips.

“My pleasure, but I hope you know that we are going to go to a real restaurant next time,” he laughed.

“Next time?” I questioned. Good, so far there was a next time.

“That is, if you want to go out with me again,” he winked and took another bite.

We both stopped our chit chat and after we were finished he pulled back out onto State Road 60 and headed back towards the bookstore.

"You know, I really wish I would have met you a little earlier in my vacation," Chris said, turning to me.

"Should I be flattered?" I asked, turning to him.

"Extremely," he smiled and reached over and took my hand in his, "I don't know why, but I feel so comfortable around you. Before you let me in, I had so many butterflies in my stomach, but then you opened the door and they all went away."

I admired him for his confession, it takes a lot for a guy to admit that.

"It's funny, because I had the same feeling," I laughed and felt his hand reach over and gently entwine his fingers with mine.

"How much more time do you have on leave?" I asked him.

"Just three weeks, but the bad part about my job, is I could get called to duty at any moment," he explained to me. I didn't want to ask too many questions about his job, I didn't know how he felt describing his job. Being a Navy SEAL, I'm sure many people were intrigued and wanted to know everything there was to know.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to make the best of our time together," I grinned and squeezed his fingers. I couldn't believe how naturally they fit together, his large strong hand, dominately on top of my small, fragile hand. But, it was a nice feeling, a comforting feeling. One I hadn't felt since I was a little girl, holding my father's hand, walking across the street. Eww... don't compare this man to your father.

When Chris and I finally arrived to the bookstore, we immediately got in line to get ourselves some coffee and then we searched for our books. I settled on a book on terrorism and he stuck to what he called his favorite, U.S. history.

"Are you interested in terrorism?" he joked with me.

"In the subject, not the act," I grinned at him and like two college kids, we shoved our heads in our books and relaxed. I really wanted to shove my head in one of those trashy love novels, but I decided I didn’t want him to think I was a pervert. I mean, let’s face it, those books are a woman’s pornography. But, I was content. He had done what I was so used to. We had sat in the middle of the dictionary aisle, leaving almost no room for passage, but it was nice to be this close to him and so secluded.

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