Arena Ch. 07

"Maybe. Maybe we can come in my Jeep," she agrees. "That way if I get bored watching you play in the dirt, I can go into Bakersfield or something."

"You two aren't trying to ease me out of my job are you?" Todd asks.

"You're welcome to come along too," Coy says. "I'm sure they'll have extra shovels. If you ask nice, they might even let you drive the tractor."

Todd grins at the good-natured teasing. "That's all we need, for me to drive the tractor through the wall of the arena."

By the time the three arrive back at the Immersion Playground offices, Todd has decided he really likes Sierra and Coy, and now includes them among people he counts as friends. As they exit the car, Todd rolls the window down.

"I enjoyed the trip. Thanks for riding along. It made the drive much more pleasant."

"My pleasure," Sierra says. "I really enjoyed getting to see the place."

"Same here," Coy adds.

"Coy, I'll let you know when they're going to prepare the arena floor," Todd says, putting the car into reverse.

Coy gives Todd a thumbs up as he backs up. Coy and Sierra stand together and watch Todd drive away before he turns to her. "Will you have dinner with me tonight?"

"What? I thought we were 'waiting,'" Sierra says, making quotation marks with her fingers in the air.

"It's just dinner. We don't have to do anything afterwards, you know."

"What if I want to?"

He groans. "Please don't start that. This is hard enough as it is. Really. I'd love to take you dinner and then see what happens, but it's only another three weeks. I can wait, so long as you don't tempt me too much."

She makes a dramatic pout. "Okay, I guess I can wait too. But it's damn frustrating. I've gone out the last three weekends looking to get laid, and I couldn't find anyone that interests me. Now I have, and he won't put out." Sierra looks beseechingly at the heavens, hands held in front of her, palms up. "Why me?"

He laughs. "I'll try to make it up to you in a few weeks," he says.

"Is that a promise?"

"Yeah, it's a promise."

She heaves a huge sigh of mock dejection. "Okay then, dinner. Where?"

"Normally I'd invite you back to my place and I'd cook for you, but I'm afraid the temptation would be too much. So... you like Thai food?"

"You can cook? Not a zapper meal, but actually cook?" she asks, ignoring the question. She tries to remember if she's ever had a man offer to cook for her.

"Of course I can cook. I can't eat out all the time. I normally don't cook for guests," he says with a smile. "I only do that for special people."

She's impressed, as she assumed he's a typical male whose diet consists of zapper meals and takeout. "What can you cook?"

"First, do you like Thai? Then we can discuss my culinary talents."

"Oh, uh... I'm not sure I've ever had Thai. What's it like?

He rolls his eyes. "Some world traveler you are. It's spicy and complex. A lot of different flavors all mixed together. I find that you either love it or hate it. I took my family to this Thai place I know when they came to visit, trying to expand their horizons. Anyway, my dad took one bite and wouldn't touch it again. All he ate was rice. My brother, on the other hand, loved it."

"Okay, sure, I'm game. Would you mind if I rode with you so I don't get so wind-blown?"

"I'd be delighted," he says, leading her to his truck and opening the door for her.

"Such a gentlemen," she replies, hoisting herself into the seat.

"There are still a few of us," he says before closing her door.

"Now, what do you cook?" Sierra asks, picking up the former conversation as Coy settles into his seat.

"Oh, yeah, that. Simple stuff, meat and potatoes fair. The kind of food I grew up on. Nothing fancy."

"And what would you have fixed tonight had we ended up at your place?"

"I'd have made you my mom's baked chicken. It's one of my favorites. Probably served with dilled new potatoes. Why?"

"Picked potatoes?" Sierra asks, surprised.

Coy laughs. "Not pickled, dilled. You can use dill for things other than pickles, you know."

During the forty-five-minute drive to the restaurant, and during the meal, Sierra finds that in addition to the purely physical attraction she feels for Coy, she really likes him. He's smart, witty, thoughtful, and kind. He says please and thank you to the waiters, and holds doors open for her. With much laughter he teaches her to use chopsticks, occasionally offering her a morsel from his own bowls if he thinks she'll like it. In the beginning he's feeding her with an extra pair of chopsticks when offering her food, but by the end of the meal she's become proficient enough, if not as expert as Coy, that she can feed herself.

He isn't sure what's happening to him. While pretty, Sierra isn't as stunningly beautiful as most of the woman he goes out with, but there's something about her, and he can't keep his eyes, or his thoughts, off her. When he goes out on a date it's rare that he doesn't go to bed with the woman. It's sort of a given, and expected, but with Sierra, he finds as much as he'd like to take her to his bed, it isn't the most important thing. He's simply enjoying his time with her, enjoying her company for what it is rather than using the time as a slow seduction with the intent of bedding her. She's everything he admires, strong, self-sufficient, confident, and daring. He finds that he wants to spend time with her, something that he's never felt before.

"What?" she says, looking him in the eyes.

"What do you mean what?" he asks.

"You zoned out there for a moment, but not like you were accessing the net."

"Oh. Sorry. Lost in thought, I guess."

"Thinking about me?" she asks sweetly, teasing him.

He thinks about how to answer the question and finally decides to go with the truth. "Yes."

She stiffens slightly at his answer. "You were. How so?"

"I'd rather not say, at least not now," he says with a gentle smile.

She doesn't know what to think about his answer. "Coy, you need to be honest with me. What's going on? Is there a problem here?" she challenges. Goddammit! Every time she starts to like some guy, he gets all weird.

"No, I hope not. I'll tell you after dinner. This is a little public."

She looks at him hard, trying to read him, but his face betrays no information. "Okay, but you better tell me," she says, her smile taking some of the harshness out of her words.

"I will, if you're sure you want to hear it. But be careful for what you ask for, you may get it."

They finish the rest of the meal slightly more awkwardly than they started, Coy afraid he's scared her off and Sierra wondering what he won't tell her. There's a brief argument about who's paying for Sierra's meal, but in the end she relents and allows him to pay with the promise she'd pick up the tab the next time they eat together.

Once back in his truck she turns to him expectantly. "Well?"

He knows all too well what she means. "Remember, be careful what you ask for. Are you sure you want to know?"

"I'm sure. Spill it."

"I was just thinking how much I enjoy your company," he says, looking her in the eyes.

"That's it? That's what you couldn't say in the restaurant?"

"That's it. But it goes beyond what the words say. I've only just met you, but I already have feelings for you that I've never had for anyone else. I spent the entire weekend thinking I would ping you, then changing my mind. I've enjoyed today, the time I've spent with you, more than any date I can remember, and it really isn't even a date," he says, smiling sheepishly. "In the past, if a date didn't want to see me again, I was like 'Okay, have a nice life.' I didn't care. I find that with you, I do care. I want to see you again, and I hope you want to see me. And I care about what you think of me."

Sierra feels herself blanch. This is not what she was expecting at all. She likes Coy, and she wants to share her bed with him, but this... this... this fawning affection. This isn't what she wants at all.

"What are you saying, Coy, that you're in love with me?"

He sighs. "No, but I think I'd like to have the chance to fall in love with you."

She looks at him, really looks at him. He doesn't look like some lovesick teenager pouring his heart out on his first crush, but she's still uncomfortable with where the conversation is going.

"It's kind of early to be falling in love isn't it?" she asks.

"How do I know?" he says in exasperation. "I told you before, I've never been in love before. Look, I'm not saying I'm in love with you, okay? If you told me to go fuck myself right now, I'd drop you off at your Jeep, be bummed for a couple of days, find solace with some Hollywood hottie, and get on with my life. But you asked, and normally I might lie my ass off to someone else if I thought it'd get me in their pants, but I don't want to do that to you. I just don't. I don't know if it my biological clock ticking—" he says, stomping the floor of his truck like a ticking clock, "—or what. I just know that you're the first woman I want to see again for reasons other than you were good in bed."

She thinks about it. "Okay, you're not in love with me. But you are way ahead of me in this relationship, if that's what you want to call it. Other than wanting to fuck your brains out, I have no real feelings for you, Coy. You're a nice guy, a sweet guy, but..." she falters, her words grinding to a halt.

"That's fine," he says, starting the truck. "This may amount to nothing, but you have a lot of qualities that I admire in a person... toughness, strength, self-reliance, determination... and you're sexy as hell," he adds with his best smile. "Can you blame me for being attracted to you?"

She relaxes, just a bit. She feels like she should be melting inside. Aren't his words supposed to be what every girl wants to hear? There's no doubt she feels an attraction to him as well, but she can't sort out her craving for physical closeness from any emotional closeness she may feel.

"I tell you what, let's keep this on a purely professional level until after the immersion capture, and then we can see where this goes, okay?"

He graces her with his brilliant smile. "Isn't that what I have been saying all along? But I warn you, I'm going to fuck the shit out of you in that arena... just in case that's my only chance."

She becomes slightly damp at the thought of him taking her in his one chance to have her. "Promises, promises..." she says with a smile, trying to hide her flash of heat.

He laughs. "Yes it is. Now that we've agreed on the ground rules, want to have dinner Friday? Strictly as coworkers, of course. You owe me a dinner."

She smiles broadly, thinking that, yes, she would like to have dinner with him again. Maybe her feelings for him are not so far behind his after all. "I get to pick this time?"

"Of course."

"Let me think about it, see if I can come up with something new for you to try. I'll ping you tomorrow, how's that?"

They exchange addresses. "Sounds fine. I'm looking forward to it."

"I hope you feel that way after I pick someplace," she says with an evil smile.

"I'm sure I can find something on the menu," he says nonchalantly. "How'd you like the Thai?"

"I liked it. I've done most of my traveling in Europe. I think I need to head a little farther east the next time. There's still a lot of world left to explore."

They spend the rest of the drive in pleasant conversation, Sierra doing most of the talking, telling him of her travels. When they arrive back at Immersion Playground, he stops next to her Jeep, waiting for her to get out. She doesn't move.

"Oh!" he exclaims before getting out and opening her door for her. "I didn't think you'd let me do that after our little talk outside the restaurant."

Sierra slides smoothly out of the truck and into Coy's arms, kissing him passionately. He's caught off guard, but quickly recovers and pulls her into him, kissing her with equal intensity.

"I thought we were keeping this on a professional level?" he asks when she pulls out of his arms.

"We are. Don't forget what we're going to be doing," she says, walking slowly to her Jeep. "I just wanted to see if my coworker is going to be able to hold his end up."

"And?" he asks, watching her climb into the Jeep.

"Initial indications are good," she says with a seductive smile, turning on the fuel cell in her Jeep with a click and a hum. "I'm sure I'll learn more as we work together," she says as she back out of the parking space.

Once again he watches her until she disappears, then shakes his head. It's going to be a long, and interesting, three weeks.

As Sierra bounces along in her Jeep, she tries to sort out her feelings. She likes Coy. She likes him a lot. But every man she's allowed herself to get close to a man, he's either tried to control her, something she can't abide, or turned into a quivering pile of mush with no spine and no will of his own. Some women might like a man they can push around, but not her. Why can't she find just a normal guy, someone that will let her be herself, while still being himself? Will fits that bill nicely, but dammit, he's never around! What kind of relationship is that?

Self-confident, easy-going, and willing to stand up to her and not back down, not to mention hot as molten steel and available, she wonders if maybe, just maybe, Coy is the guy. She's willing, anxious even, to have another go in a relationship, but she isn't the type to fall for a guy just because he looks good in a pair of jeans. She smiles to herself as she clambers out of the Jeep in her garage. Although looking as good in jeans as Coy does, well, that doesn't hurt a thing. Not one thing.