Page 29 of Saved from Obsession

But this?ThisI wasn’t expecting.

The dining room has been turned into a space that would rival the most romantic restaurants in New York City or Paris. The table is covered with a stark white tablecloth and set with delicate wine glasses and glossy black dishes that I know are brand new. In the center is a bouquet of bright blue orchids with tiny tea lights all flickering all around the base.

On either side of the table are small trees decorated with twinkling white lights. Small tables are set beside the trees, each with an arrangement of glowing pillar candles. If that weren’t enough to set the mood, there’s a large TV set up behind all the decorations, the screen displaying a scene of Paris at night. Instrumental music starts playing softly around us, and after a moment, I realize it’s a violinist I once mentioned to Leo as being one of my favorite performers.

I’m staring at everything, awestruck, as Leo pulls the chair out for me. As I sit down, he kisses me on the cheek and says, “I know we can’t go out on a date yet, but I wanted to do something special for you.”

“Leo,” I gasp, still having trouble catching a full breath, “this is incredible. I can’t believe you did all this. When did you—”

Leo walks into the kitchen and comes back holding two covered dishes, setting them down and pulling off the lids with a flourish. On my plate is the most incredible looking shrimp scampi topped with shaved parmesan and fresh parsley. After another trip to the kitchen, he brings out an uncorked bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and pours a hefty amount in my glass. For his own, it’s just the tiniest of dashes—even during a romantic date he has to stay alert and ready.

Sitting down, he flashes a little grin at me. “I asked Cole’s fiance´e to help. I told her all the things I needed, and Maya drove them up here from Sleepy Hollow.”

I gape at him. “All this way? Just for a date?”

“It’s not just a date, Georgia.” Two spots of pink appear on his cheeks. “It’s ourfirstdate. I want you to have a good memory of it. And Maya was happy to help. When I told her that I met someone—” He flushes more and looks so cute I want to leap over the table and hug him. “I think she was so pleased she would have done anything to help me make a good impression.”

My chest squeezes again. At this rate, Leo is going to give me heart failure. “I love it, Leo. It’s just…” A little tingle rushes up my nose. “No onehas ever done something like this for me.”

I leap out of my chair and rush to his side, flinging my arms around him. “Thank you.” I press kisses to his cheek between words, “I love it so much. The music, the food—you remembered it’s my favorite, the candles, the flowers—it’s all perfect. I couldn’t ask for a better first date.”

Leo’s eyes are a molten bronze as he gazes at me. “I picked out the flowers because they remind me of your eyes.”

How is this man still single? Or rather,wassingle. Because he’s mine now, and I’m not letting him go.

My long-dormant libido has decided to come out of hibernation, shouting at me to sit on Leo’s lap and attack him. But after he went through all the effort of setting this up and cooking me my favorite food, there’s no way I’m going to skip over it.

And I should take things slowly, the little skeptical voice in the dark corner of my head whispers. There’s no guarantee that after the stalker is caught and Leo isn’t forced to be here every day that our relationship will continue. I’m only opening myself up to heartbreak if I move too fast.

Shut up, I tell the voice sternly. I’m not going to let my self-doubts ruin this perfect date. So, I lock the little skeptical voice in a box and give Leo another quick kiss, this time slanting my lips across his. “I love the flowers. And I can’t wait to taste the shrimp scampi. It looks delicious.”

I return to my side of the table and take a taste of the pasta—it tastes just as good as it looks. Leo watches me with raised eyebrows until I give him an enthusiastic nod. “My mom will be happy,” he says. “I called her for the recipe. But I’ve never made it myself, only watched her do it.”

An image of me visiting Leo’s family floats through my mind, helping his mother cook while Leo stands behind me, his large hand on my hip. Sitting around the table at his parents’ home in Vermont, going outside after to walk in the snow with Leo, tossing snowballs and laughing with each other.

Too soon, I remind myself. We onlyjuststarted dating. But the idea sticks like glitter. Nothing I do can make it go away.

As we eat, we chat about all sorts of topics—we never seem to run out of things to talk about. We fall into a conversation about what kinds of computer work Leo does for Blade and Arrow, investigative stuff mostly, but he admits that sometimes he has to do things that fall in the gray area of legality.

He almost looks hesitant as he tells me, as if I’m going to judge him for using his skills to keep people safe. I have a feeling some of the things he’s done for my case aren’t exactly to the letter of the law, but I honestly couldn't care less. It sounds pretty cool—something I wish I was smart enough to do—and I tell him so.

“So, do you hack things?” My food is gone, but I take a small sip of my wine. “Is that the right way of saying it?”

“Sometimes.” Leo takes a drink of water, regarding me seriously over the rim of the glass. “I do ethical hacking—entering information systems to find information necessary to keep people safe. I never do anything to harm the system, or cause damage to the organization.”

“How did you learn how to do it?”

“It just took time. I took computer science courses while I was in the Army and learned a lot on my own through research and experimentation. Not that I did much of it while I was on active duty. I was more focused on communications than hacking systems.”

“But you did something with hacking after you got out, didn’t you?” While we were talking one night, Leo mentioned he worked for a cybersecurity company between leaving the military and joining Blade and Arrow.

“Yeah.” Leo leans back in his seat. “I was a white hat hacker. So companies would hire us to look for security flaws in their information systems. We would essentially try to hack into them, then let the company know where they needed to beef up security.”

“That’s so cool.”

“Sometimes.” Leo’s eyes crinkle at me. “But I like using my skills for what I do now a lot more. Back then, I was helping big companies, mostly. Now, I can help people who really need it, and there are times when I’ve found information that helped keep them safe.”

A wave of melancholy hits me as I think about how smart Leo is, and how little I have to offer in comparison. He can help save people—what can I do? Model a new jacket? Help sell an expensive shoe?

---