We're Late! We're Late! We're Late For A Very Important Date!" thought @Simon Kincaid

AngelFyre was instantly struck by a slight change in the register of Simon's voice. It seemed higher. When she turned towards him, his eyes were darting back and forth from her to his phone as he relayed they only had 16 minutes to get to the club. Sixteen minutes? No wonder he was, to quote him, "...in a bit of a panic...."

She blinked at him as he kept staring at his phone, and she knew her fellow well enough to know he was not idly wasting time watching minutes tick by on his screen. His fingers were flying across that screen. He would look up every now and then, and one time he had a moment where there was almost a sense of relief that crossed his face before he literally shook that off and turned back to his screen.

She knew he was worried because he had promised her father they would do something, and it bothered him to his core to break promises, big or small. In fact, he was not a boy who casually used that word at all. A promise was a covenant and not something to be entered into lightly. Of course, there was the added layer of complexity which was that he was trying to do everything he could to show her father how responsible he was, especially when it came to his daughter.

AngelFyre did not yet have her cell phone, so the best help she could offer Simon in the moment was her silence so he could concentrate. She was silently praying. That could never hurt under any circumstance. She knew he would agree.

And as she knew he would, he came up with a brilliant answer, and a fun one, too! He grabbed her hand and they raced down the hill and about 1/2 a block up the street to where an electric bike was parked. He had gained access to it through his phone, and quickly took off both their fedoras and handed her a helmet as he then grabbed his. Placing the fedoras safely in the compartment, he then climbed on and kicked the kickstand up.

He turned to her with a huge, beautiful smile on his face and said with his normal confident tone, "Let's go!" while motioning his head over his shoulder where she was to get on behind him. He did not have to ask twice. She clapped with unbridled excitement at the prospect of riding behind him and getting to hold onto him the whole way. Her only reservation was that the club was not farther away thereby allowing more time for her to meld her body to his.

Once she was settled and had scooted up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist, she leaned over and spoke into his ear, " Ready when you are, Mav. Bet you never thought this morning's dirt bike riding would pay out such quick dividends did you?" and she nibbled his earlobe before tapping his thigh and telling him it was safe to back out and into the street.

Because she had spent the year before Hogwarts, well, most of it anyway, going to St. George's School for Girls, AngelFyre knew her way around Edinburgh very well. She rested her chin pretty much on his shoulder the whole way, giving him directions. They came to a stop at one point, and she told him to take the second right up ahead. He questioned it, not in a nasty way, saying Google Maps suggested going straight would be faster. "Normally it would, yes, but there is major road construction up ahead that will require a lot of traffic to funnel into a single lane and then take a long detour. We will get stuck in a bottleneck, love, and will most definitely be late. Trust me. Take the second right up ahead. It is an unusually narrow alley and cars cannot use it. It will put us in better position than all of the cars you currently see around us. Girl Scout's honor," and she hugged him tightly.

When the light turned green, Simon did as she suggested and it turned out exactly as she said it would. Less than 5 minutes later they were pulling up to the club. There was no parking in front, sadly, so Simon dropped her off in case her father might already be eagerly waiting for them. At least they would get credit for being on time that way if locating a parking spot proved to be difficult. She hopped off and told him to be careful and that she would be waiting right there for him. She grabbed her fedora and returned her helmet and blew him a kiss.

She hoped he would not have too hard a time finding a spot, or one that was too far away. Luckily they had made excellent time. Her father was nowhere to be seen yet, and that was a good thing. She looked at her watch - 8:12. She tapped her foot nervously and began to pace just a little.

"Come on, Mav. You totally have this."

@Simon Kincaid Does it His Way

AngelFyre was definitely pleased, but not completely surprised that Simon made it just as he (they) had promised. Her smile widened as he ran full bore up the street to her. Right before he slipped his arm around her waist, she looked again at her watch.

"8:15 on the dot. Incredible!" and she smiled as he kissed her cheek, turning her around so that she could see her parents had just rounded the corner and were walking towards them. She chuckled to herself when Simon greeted them as if they had been standing there for a while, waiting for her parents to arrive. She had never been witness to his physical reset and recovery being so quickly attained after such exertion. That was really cool!

Playing along with Simon's little misdirect, she chided her parents, but especially her father. Tapping her watch dome, she looked at them and said in her most stern voice, "8:15, Folks. It is a good thing it was not a minute later or Simon and I would have had to come looking for you. That would have been bad. Very bad," and she arched an eyebrow until her father burst out laughing.

"I am glad we made it in time then, Lass. I was struggling with whether to go with the oldie but goodie, 'We ran out of gas' or the seldom used, but quite effective thing called the truth, which in this case would have also been, 'We ran out of gas.' " Then he and her mother both started giggling like two teenagers, leaving her and Simon to look at each other and start laughing, too.

Simon moved quickly to the door and played doorman as her parents went into the club first followed by herself and Simon. Her father handed over his two tickets, holding his wife's hand while telling the ticket taker that the two kids behind him were with him. Had he not done that, they never would have been allowed inside. As she and Simon stepped up, he presented their two tickets and they easily passed through the only barrier to the evening and joined her mother and father in the lounge part of the club.

It was not as atmospheric with cigarette smoke as she had seen in the movies of the time, and for that, AngelFyre was eternally grateful. She was also a little disappointed that none of the other patrons seemed to be channeling their inner rat pack vibe as she and Simon seemed to be the only two there wearing their cool fedoras. But as far as disappointments went, if such could really be called that, it all ended there.

To her surprise, the trio was actually fabulous. Frank Sinatra was was one of Simon's all time favorite singers, if not his very favorite. AngelFyre did not dislike Sinatra, but Dean Martin was definitely more to her liking. He was better looking by far and his voice was just so effortlessly slow and lazily dream-like. His phrasing always gave her chills. While the Sinatra in this Rat Pack Cover trio did not look too terribly much like Sinatra, he had the mannerisms down and the voice was near perfection. The Dean Martin impersonator was even better. He both looked like Dino and sounded just like him.

Each time she looked over to Simon, he was either smiling ear to ear or had his eyes closed and was losing himself in the music. She loved seeing him like that... lost in music. She believed that outside of bible study or prayer, music was the only place he could turn to for complete relief from whatever may be troubling him. She was glad he had that. Almost everyone in the place, of course, was singing along and this was the first time that her folks really got to hear him without AngelFyre distracting them, or anyone else, with her unique voice. They both were, as expected, quite impressed with her young man.

As they should be.

As the show was coming to a close, Sinatra sang Come Fly with Me. It was not the last song, that would be My Way, but AngelFyre leaned over and spoke in his ear, "When we get back to school, you have got to take me up on that broom with you. Frank even says so," and she sat back in her seat, smiling and nodding her head most emphatically.

As they all gathered into the SUV to head home, AngelFyre took her regular seat, and barely even looked at her father in the mirror. Simon had her complete attention, as usual. Their hands were entwined, it was a given, and her father just smiled. Nothing was going to change that and it was not the hill he wished to die upon. The two played the game of who can sing it louder. That was a game invented on ther drive because AngelFyre insisted on singing "Whennnnnnn the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's Amore...." and in an effort to drown out the offending sound to human ears, Simon would try to sing over her and well, it was painful but made everyone laugh. At about halfway home, everyone just sort of got quiet and mellow, and AngelFyre leaned her head on Simon's shoulder and just squeezed his hand.

Tomorrow would be here much too soon and they would be back in this same SUV, driving him back to Edinburgh, but this time he would not be making the return trip with her back home. He would instead be on a train to his own home where he would get to spend a whole week with Clair.

A whole week with Simon. Lucky Clair.

AngelFyre wondered who she would have to pay to get that kind of time with her fellow. Whatever the cost, it would be more than worth it.

Thread complete.