Dinner [for Bailey]

[brigid_moran]

Brigid walked down the ebb and flow of the waves, eyes on the boardwalk as she waited for Bailey.

She'd originally intended to go home and change before meeting him for dinner, but she'd, naturally, gotten hung up with her glazes and ended up with no time to get properly cleaned up and still meet him. Luckily, she knew herself well enough and had brought her clothes and what little makeup she wore with her to change at the studio.

Now she waited, the sandals she knew she'd have to wear in the restaurant in her hand, but her feet on the sand and the water kissing her ankles, she did her best to calm her nerves. Then found herself laughing that she was nervous at all. It wasn't a normal feeling for her, but Bailey seemed to bring it out in her.

And she liked the feeling.

Comments

[warmeryouth]

To say that Bailey spent all of his time after getting out of work preparing for his date would be an understatement; he'd changed outfits at least a hundred times, never fully satisfied with the right shoes or color combination. He'd almost broke a finger, trying to tame his hair. His stomach has been in knots all afternoon, and now, as he happens across Brigid looking as beautiful and as wild as the sea around her, he feels his heart dance.

"Hello," he greets her, offering her a wave as he approaches. Dressed in a pair of navy slacks and a rather old-fashioned, off-white shirt, he thinks he might have leaned too heavily on the fancier side of expectations for the evening.

[brigid_moran]

"Good evenin, to ye, Bailey," Brigid smiled as she closed the distance between them, putting a hand over her stomach to quell the flutters there. "Yer lookin quite handsome t'night."

She stopped just in front of him, looking way up into his eyes. "I know I said I'd meet ye on the boardwalk, but the water was lookin too temptin t'not wade m'feet in a bit."

[warmeryouth]

"And you look as lovely as that tide you're standing in there," he informs her, with what has to be the dopiest grin on his face; he can't help the fluttering of his nerves around her.

"I can't blame you," he says, meeting her gaze. "It's a nice night for it."

[brigid_moran]

Brigid didn't mind the dopey grin because the one on her own face, she knew, was probably very much the same, and was now coupled with warmth on her cheeks. She'd never quite gotten the knack of accepting compliments, and never knew what to say to them. By product, she supposed, of being a bit of a late bloomer in the wake of very beautiful older sisters. "If th'temperate weather holds, maybe we can walk a bit after dinner? Settle our food a bit?"

[warmeryouth]

There's a lull to the night that makes Bailey feel at peace with the world; he's entirely certain it's due to Brigid's presence, calling him towards her as the moon does the tides.

"I'd like that very much," he tells her, encouraged by the smile on her face and the warmth on her cheeks. "Shall we go to dinner then?" He offers her his arm as he waits.

[brigid_moran]

Touched and warmed by the courtly gesture, Brigid steps forward and takes his arm, wrapping her own around it. "Sounds a plan t'me. If ye don't have objections, I was thinkin of Francesco's? I've been cravin Italian almost as much as a good bit of pub grub."

When they reached the boardwalk, Brigid placed her sandals on the concrete and murmured to the sand covering her bare feet in Gaelic. The grains fell easily from her feet and she slipped on the bits of leather onto her feet.

[warmeryouth]

Bailey grins as Brigid wraps her arm around his, enjoying the feel and the warmth of it against the cooler evening breeze. "Francesco's sounds absolutely perfect," he tells her, though, he'd have agreed to whichever place she'd suggest. "I love Italian."

He stares when she mutters the bit of magic and the sand falls magically from her feet. "Now that is a useful trick," he observes, smiling as he always does at her display of power.

[brigid_moran]

Brigid used the same words and the sand fell from his shoes as well. "Bein able t'speak t'the sand definitely has it's uses," she said and smiled up at him, eyes bright in the moonlight.

She didn't move away from where she stood in front of him. "Do ye know what I dislike most about first dates?"

[warmeryouth]

"And does the sand ever talk back?" He's grinning mischievously, but he's also curious. He imagines the various elements have their own way of communicating, both with other elements and those gifted with the abilities to speak with them.

"And what is that?" He asks, meeting her gaze as she stands before him.

[brigid_moran]

Brigid smiled and placed both hands on his chest near his shoulders. "I hate th'constant thinkin about whether there will be a bit of snoggin before the night's done. So I thought t'see t'that before dinner, save all the thinkin."

Without another word, she raised onto her toes, might have used the sand to help lift her a little, and pressed her mouth lightly to his.

[warmeryouth]

Bailey is listening to her, her voice like a song in the night, and then her mouth is on his, and instantly, he responds in kind, wrapping his arms around her waist to pull her in closer. On the beach, beneath the moonlight, he can't imagine a more magical setting for a first kiss, and he savors the feel of their lips moving together in the dance of it.

He's almost breathless when he pulls away, letting their foreheads rest together.

"I like the way you think," he tells her, grinning.

[brigid_moran]

"Aye, I was hopin ye might," Brigid smiled back up at him, her own breathing a little laboured. "And so there's no additional thinkin on it, I'm hopin that's not first and last as far as snoggin goes." She gave him a wink before lowering herself back down to the ground and linking her hand with his. "For now, though, I've moved from peckish t'starvin, so what do ye say about findin food?"

[warmeryouth]

"I think it's safe to say that it was only the first of many more times to come," Bailey promises her with a crooked smile. "I say that I'm of quite a mind to join you."