Simple Submission-Chapter 2

The following morning Ethan walked into The Daily Grind, just as the breakfast rush was getting underway. He saw the little chit at the register, her light brown hair sticking out from under her cap giving her a frazzled appearance.

When she saw him her eyes narrowed and he was slightly taken aback. He hadn't expected that response. Despite the go to hell look, she was polite.

"Good morning sir, how may I help you?" her voice was crisp and to the point. She was not breathless like yesterday, interesting.

"Plain black coffee and a blueberry bagel, toasted." he repeated his order from the day before. "Will that be a problem..." he smirked raising an eyebrow looking at her name tag "Aubrey?"

Her eyes flashed with defiance, "No sir not at all," she turned to one of her co-workers, "one toasted blueberry bagel, please."

"Oh, have you lost your toaster privileges?" He couldn't resist goading her.

"No! I just have other things to take care of at the moment."

"That will be $6.50," she said flatly.

He handed her his credit card which she swiped abruptly then reached over and took a cup from the stack handing it, and his card back to him.

"The coffee is just over there sir, have a great day!" she said a little too brightly indicating the coffee bar he had used the day before.

This morning he had brought his laptop becaue his first meeting wasn't scheduled until about 11:00am. He decided to log in and play some counterstrike. Wi-Fi was not ideal for gaming but it made for a great way to kill a couple of hours. As long as he kept buying coffee he didn't figure it would be a problem with the establishment.

Gaming tended to be a night time activity so there were only a few people online so early in the morning. He logged in to his favorite server glad that GeekFury_02 was absent since he would have gotten his ass kicked on such a slow connection. He would get his revenge though, his office was equipped with a T1 connection and he would use it to his advantage.

* * *

With the breakfast rush over, the staff that came in from five a.m. to open until nine a.m. began to filter out. Aubrey cleaned up the workstations that her part-time co-workers vacated and began running inventory. Prince Smirky was sitting at his table ensconced in his laptop probably doing financials or something else as equally boring. She saw that he was done with his bagel and went to collect his plate.

With some surprise she saw that he was playing Counter Strike. She leaned over to take his plate but could not see who he was logged in as. She knew the screen name of every CS player in the area and was curious to put a face to a name.

"Who do you play as?" Aubrey asked, leaning close to him still looking at the screen.

He looked up at her, startled, receiving a bullet to the face for his momentary lapse in concentration. The respawn countdown began.

"Do you play?" he asked, raising his smirky eyebrow at her.

"I've been known to," she said with some pride, female gamers tended to be few and far between.

"Hmm, you are full of surprises Aubrey, I’m TexasMaster30, and you?"

Her jaw dropped and she began to laugh hysterically, the target of her ire last night and the cause of it were one in the same. Oh sweet, sweet irony.

She grinned mischievously, "I thought you were a fat old man who lived in your mom's basement. GeekFury_02, a.k.a. Aubrey Lisette pleased to meet you." She extended her hand.

He shook it bemused. "I must say that I thought the same thing about you. I find it, interesting, that you’re the one that’s been causing me all that trouble. Payback's a bitch you know."

She took his comment in stride and watched as his avatar finally respawned. He turned back to the screen, deftly dodging several attackers before the lag bogged him down and he took another head shot.

"I've never seen you at any of the local LAN parties. There is a website where you can get alerts for them."

"My weekends are always booked, Aubrey. Though I do owe you for last night, will you be playing this evening?"

"I play almost every evening, not much else to do around my place."

"You don't go to school or have a boyfriend?"

"I tried college for about a year, English major, and just wound up getting bored in class. You would think that professors would be more interesting than High School teachers. They weren’t. I just didn't have any motivation to continue, couldn't really pick a path to take."

He could understand that. He himself had dropped out of college just short of his Master's degree. Now he was a Master of another sort.

He raised a brow waiting for her to continue but she didn’t show any sign that she was going to. She had not responded to the question about a boyfriend but he decided to let it pass for now.

He respawned again and before he could get his fingers to the keyboard the screen went red.

“Goddamn Mutha!” he grumbled as he closed his lap top.

“Son of a bitch!” Aubrey grinned.

They both laughed and in unison cried. “Carmageddon!”

“So, are you up for a rematch tonight, Master?”

Ethan inhaled sharply. She had called him Master. He liked the sound of it on her lips. He knew she hadn’t meant it in the way he wanted, but it solidified his intent to have her. Soon, she would know exactly what it meant to call him Master.

“How about we go on a date instead?” To lighten the mood a bit he said, “I’ve never gone out with a woman I could talk gaming with.” He flashed what he hoped was a disarming smile.

She immediately grew nervous and uncomfortable. He could see how she began to fidget and shift from foot to foot. Her cheeks began to blaze like the sun.

“Um, no…no, I really don’t think so.”

He needed to get this under control before he lost this chance. He quickly stood and placed his hand on the side of her neck using his thumb to tilt her head up so she was looking at him.

“Come to dinner with me. You’ll be fine,” he said his voice soft but firm with a commanding undertone, but not so much as to scare her further.

He watched as her gaze returned to the floor.“Okay.” She breathed out.

“I’ll pick you up here at five o’clock.”

She simply nodded, her breathing slightly erratic, as he gathered up his lap top and stuffed it into his bag.

“I will see you soon, Aubrey.”

Again she just nodded, staring off in to space. He picked up her hand and kissed the back of her knuckles and then the finger she had burned the previous day while looking into her eyes. Then he simply walked from the building and to the parking lot. He was really confused by her reaction. Most women would jump at the chance for a date with him. He wasn’t being conceited, that’s just how things worked. So why did this little chit who seemed so full of spunk, quiver in her boots at the thought of going out with him? He had seen women shake with excitement, but not with apparent panic.

* * *

She stood in stunned silence; her mind had gone completely blank, as she stared after him.

“Aubrey! Why the hell haven’t you finished the inventory?”

She was torn so abruptly from her blank state that her head began to spin. She shook it forcefully and somehow had managed to focus enough to answer.

“Crap! Sorry I’m coming, I was just apologizing to the customer from yesterday!”

She ran to the back and tried to make some sense of the jumbles of letters and numbers on the page as her thoughts came flooding in.

“First date, Adonis, Master, smirky, warm hand, silky voice, shit! Oh my god! I am going on my first date, and it’s with Adonis incarnate. Shit I’m going on a date with…Prince Smirky! Fuck! I don’t know his name! I am going on a date with a god like creature with a voice like silk and chocolate and I don’t know his name! Master! No! Crap!”

She imagined his soothing voice as he had told her she would be fine and managed to pull herself together and complete the inventory. She wasn’t sure why that had worked but those three words soothed her. She managed to make it through the day without being jumpy or nervous, or no more so than usual, until about four forty-five.

The closer the clock hand’s moved to five o’clock the more she began to worry. What if he didn’t show up? What if he was playing a cruel joke? How could someone that looked like him want to be with someone like her? By four fifty-nine she had convinced herself that he wasn’t going to show. So when the hands moved to five p.m. she clocked out, gathered her things, and headed towards her car. She had thrown her stuff inside and was just about to climb in when she heard him.

“Aubrey!”

Her heart stopped; he was here. He was actually here.

“You came!”

“I was only one minute late. You were just going to take off?”

“I didn’t think you were going to come.”

“Silly girl, I wouldn’t have asked you on a date if I didn’t want to go out with you.”

“Oh. Well, I am not exactly dressed to go anywhere.”

“I can follow you to your house so you can get changed if you want but I think you look fine.”

Her eyes scanned over him. He was wearing dark grey slacks with a black cotton button up and grey vest with a crimson tie.

“No, no way. I am not going out with someone who looks like you when I look like this.”

She motioned to herself in her coffee stained, ill fitting uniform.

“How about you tell me where we are going and I will just meet you there?”

“My dates ride with me.” He said firmly.

“Okay then just follow me.”

“That’s what I offered to do in the first place.”

“Oh, yeah, right.” She got in and pulled out of the parking lot in her little blue hatchback. She watched in her rearview as he climbed into a charcoal gray Ferrari Spider.

“Oh fuck, he’s rich too?” She cried in disbelief.

Given his gaming, and nice clothes, she figured he was maybe a hipster who drove a smart car or something but no such luck. He was a rich, well spoken, and…fuck, she didn’t know what.

Her hands shook on the steering wheel as she drove to her apartment. He pulled in next to her when she parked. She jumped out of the car and hollered, “Wait here!”

She ran up the steps into her apartment and straight to her bedroom, not even bothering to close the door.

She stripped off her work uniform and quickly got into the shower. She quickly washed her body and hair and was about to hop out when she realized she hadn’t shaved her legs in like two weeks. She considered leaving it but knew the only dress she had that was nice enough to go out with a god would not cover her overgrown leg hair. She set to shaving as quickly as she could without tearing up her skin. She would probably have wicked razor burn later, but she would deal with it.

She got out of the shower and reached for a towel, but realized she hadn’t brought one into the bathroom. She walked out of the bathroom and into the living room heading for the clean clothes she had thrown on the couch after she had finished laundry last night.

She was reaching for the towel when her stomach fell straight through the floor. He was there, sitting on her couch, her bare breasts hanging right in front of his face. She froze, her mouth opening and closing like a fish plucked out of the ocean. The man in front of her had his eyes averted and casually spread out a towel and wrapped it around her; as though it were a normal occurrence for a butt naked woman to parade out in front of him. He handed her the edges which she gripped as though her very life depended on it. Then, like a doe sensing a wolf, she bounded out of the room and slammed her bedroom door.

Her breathing was ragged as she pushed her back against the wooden frame. Her face was so hot with embarrassment she knew she must have looked like a tomato.

Beyond the door she heard rustling then footsteps that were coming closer and closer.

“I’m sorry I came inside. I know you told me to wait, but you left your front door open and I was a bit worried about you. I didn’t look, well, I avoided looking as much as I could. Get dressed and let’s go to dinner.”

“You still want to go with me after seeing me?”

“Yes, I want you even more.” He said, barely above a whisper. “So get dressed.”

She strained to hear everything he had said but couldn’t quite make it out. She took a deep breath. “C’mon Aubrey put on your big girl panties you can do this,” she whispered to herself.

She straightened her back and took a deep breath and marched over to her dresser. She put on her beige strapless bra and matching undies. No point fretting over the kind of underwear she should wear. He had already seen everything she had to offer, so it’s not like he would want to see it again. She went to her closet and pulled out her polka dot halter top dress with the flair skirt, pairing it with red peep toe’s with a small heel and a red cinch belt. She ran a brush through her wet hair and put it into a bun. She had always liked rockabilly fashion, it played well to her curves. With a final touch of red lipstick, she was ready.

She stepped out of her room and he stood with his hand over his eyes.

“Are you decent?”

Her face flushed again. “Yeah, this time. Hope that image doesn’t give you nightmares.”

“I don’t think that’s the kind of dream that image is going to give me,” he said smoothly.

“Oh! You’re terrible! Let’s get this over with.” She said as she stormed out the door and to his car a fresh blush staining her cheeks.

He came to her side and reached for the door opening it for her. Before she climbed in he leaned and whispered into her ear, “I agree. The quicker this is over, the faster I get a goodnight kiss from those beautiful, full lips of yours.”

Her body trembled slightly as his breath caressed her neck. “Wh…who said I was going to let you kiss me?”

He grinned as he closed the door and hopped into the driver’s side. “I won’t be kissing you, you will be kissing me.”

She let out a “Pfft,” in response crossing her arms over her chest, unwittingly treating him to a nice bit of cleavage.

He smiled and turned his attention to the road and headed to the restaurant.