|
|
Post by Cooper Benson on Aug 24, 2015 0:25:47 GMT
Cooper had never thought in his life he'd be nervous about going out with a woman. But when he'd left Melanie at home that night with Amber and Cassidy watching over the little girl, he realized this was his first date in over four years. His last date had been with his ex-wife. On the car ride to Madison's brownstone, he'd thought about that relationship a bit. He'd been consumed with running the Austin office at that time, but wanted to believe he'd been a doting father and an attentive husband. He would call a sitter and take his wife out once a week, he would shower them both with attention whenever he could. But somehow that wasn't enough. Simone had left, claiming that she just couldn't be a wife and a mother anymore.
He thought about the first few months, when Melanie had almost consistently cried for her mother, compared to just earlier that night when she'd beamed up at him and uttered the words 'Bye Daddy' before kissing him on the cheek and running off to play.
He'd pushed those thoughts aside when he'd picked up Madison though. She was a beautiful, intelligent, kind young woman that he very much wanted to get to know more. And while he'd been on many dates, this one was a big deal. He wasn't getting ahead of himself, but he knew that the fact he was even taking a woman out to dinner was a big deal.
Sitting across from Madison at the restaurant as the sommelier poured a bit of wine in his glass, he smiled at her before taking a sip and giving a nod to the man beside the table. "Excellent, we'll take that one," he nodded before he turned his attention back to her. "Have I mentioned you look beautiful tonight?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Madison Benson on Aug 24, 2015 0:53:11 GMT
In the past six months, Madison figured that she had been on more dates than she had been in the last two years. Prior to going out with Parker again, Madison had resigned herself to the idea that it was going to take a long time to get over Nathan. She had to deal with the fact that she saw him every day at work and that even the sight of him could sometimes be enough for her to feel a familiar pang in her heart. It had taken a lot of girl's nights with Riley and wine-induced crying for her to realize that those pangs were just her missing the best parts of a relationship. She had missed the way that someone else had made her feel loved, cared for, and simply not alone. And for a short while she thought she might have had that with Parker, but she had to admit that she had been wrong about that too. The part that had bothered her the most about that brief relationship was she should have known better. Sometimes it was better to keep the past in the past.
Cooper wasn't part of her past, and something about that made the evening more exciting. She grinned widely at him across the table, "Thank you. I'm really glad that we were finally able to make a day work out."
|
|
|
|
Post by Cooper Benson on Aug 24, 2015 1:07:41 GMT
Cooper found her grin to be infectious, and a broad one spread on his face too. "Yes, well, I'll admit sometimes I get very tied up in work before I realize, I own the company, I can take a night off when I want," he chuckled. "I apologize that it took me too long to figure that out."
While Cooper considered Parker Blye a business associate and sometimes, even a friendly acquaintance, Cooper was far from fond of the British man. He thought Parker had a mind for business but when it came to common sense, he was severely lacking. He'd told Parker as much when he'd called him shortly after the launch party and informed him that if he didn't keep himself in line he wouldn't hesitate in breaking all talks for their deal. In fact, he had used much stronger language than that and told Parker that his behavior, as well as Olivia Warren's had embarrassed him as a business associate and warned Parker to watch himself from now on. He wasn't quite sure what Madison had seen in Parker, but was in the loop enough to know the two of them had a history. He wondered, briefly, if that knowledge was leading to his increased dislike of the Brit.
"So, tell me something about you that I don't know," he nodded.
|
|
|
|
Post by Madison Benson on Aug 24, 2015 1:26:12 GMT
She laughed, "Something that you don't know? That seems like it might be an awfully long list." It had been so long since she had to start from scratch with someone that she didn't even know where to begin. Madison figured that she could start sharing stories with him about work, about school, about any of her life up until this point, but it all seemed ridiculously boring now. She wished that she had some big exciting life to talk about, but she felt so normal in comparison to everyone that they knew. She felt so normal with him. It was sort of refreshing.
"What do you want to know? Or, just skip me - what about you? Tell me something you wouldn't normally tell someone."
|
|
|
|
Post by Cooper Benson on Aug 24, 2015 1:44:36 GMT
Cooper chuckled, thinking for a moment. "Well, let's see. In college, I majored in business but minored in art history, not because I ever thought I was going to do anything with it, but because I liked it. My cousin used to make the joke that I only ever liked books with pictures in it," he chuckled. "But I like history, and really only had to take a few classes for the minor, but it was a nice break from learning about what I was going to do every day for the rest of my life," he admitted.
He smiled, "So if you weren't working in publishing, what would you be doing right now?" he asked.
|
|
|
|
Post by Madison Benson on Aug 24, 2015 2:52:47 GMT
She was having a difficult time imagining Cooper standing in front of a painting discussing the time period the painter had been in and how the brush strokes created fluidity in the finished piece. It caused a smile to rise to her lips and she nodded softly. "I used to think I wanted to be one of those people who had a day job as a teacher but spent her weekends as a ballerina. Or an anchor on the Today show. I don't know, there are so many good options."
|
|
|
|
Post by Cooper Benson on Aug 24, 2015 14:11:50 GMT
Cooper smiled brightly at Madison, tilting his head to the side he nodded. “Do you like the ballet?” he asked her curiously. “I’m pretty sure that when I was a boy, I wanted to…well, I suppose that my earliest memory was putting magazines and papers into my father’s briefcase and pretending to go to work in his study.” His brow furrowed for a moment when he remembered just how angry his father had been on those occasions that he’d touched his briefcase at all. “Well, I guess some dreams do come true,” he muttered. “But to honest, I also, like most boys, wanted to be a firefighter, astronaut, and a cowboy,” he teased.
|
|
|
|
Post by Madison Benson on Aug 24, 2015 14:56:08 GMT
Madison shrugged, "I think I was just so enchanted with the beauty of it. Maybe it's something about expressing a story wordlessly but there's so much that I think is expressed in ballet that we just are unable to get in other mediums. Now, admittedly, I can't say that I'm always the first in line for tickets for the next show, but I remember being a little girl and feeling like it was such a treat to go to the ballet. My parents actually probably first took me to see The Nutcracker when I was about Melanie's age," she recalled.
She hoped that the mention of his daughter wasn't a faux pas on a first date, but she considered the fact that they had first really begun getting to know each other a little better because of the little girl's birthday to be the non-verbal okay. Having never really had any close friends with children, let alone having dated someone who did, she wasn't sure of the protocol of it all. That in itself was a strange feeling and she wasn't sure exactly what she was supposed to think about it. Mentally reminding herself that it was just a first date and there were a thousand ways that this entire thing could go, she opted to change the subject.
"Well, how does reality compare to your childhood dreams? Is real estate as exciting as being an astronaut or a cowboy?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Cooper Benson on Aug 24, 2015 22:12:45 GMT
Cooper smiled at Madison, listening to her talk about the ballet. He made a mental note that during Christmas time, he should think about taking Melanie to see The Nutcracker. Maybe he'd invite Maddy too, but he knew it was a long way's off and that again, he didn't want to rush anything. He knew that as big of a step as it was to start dating again, that it was a huge undertaking for Madison to start dating a single father. He didn't want to edge her out of her comfort zone.
Still, spending time with Madison was nice. A normal adult conversation with a woman he found to be both intelligent and attractive - he hadn't realized how much he'd missed that. Not that he would have traded in nights with his daughter for anything, But there was something to be said about the company of a beautiful woman, he reminded himself.
"I think that sometimes I still feel like I'm just...in my father's study, pretending I know what I'm doing," he admitted sheepishly. "And technically I lived in Texas for a few years, even though it was Austin, I'll pretend that also makes me a cowboy."
|
|
|
|
Post by Madison Benson on Aug 25, 2015 13:11:09 GMT
She smiled at him and nodded, looking down at her lap for a brief second. Madison had always felt like the stereotype of first dates was a little undeserved. Getting to know a person should have been an exciting experience, it should have been like old friends catching up and that each new bit of information should make a person more and more excited to continue to get to know the other person. She supposed that she had romanticized the idea of a first date somewhere down the line - enchanted by the way that it always played out in romantic novels and cheesy movies.
Right now - she was beginning to see the other side of the coin. Not because she didn't like being here with him and not because she didn't want to date Cooper, but because she kept waiting for the next part. Maybe it was because she thought that they made a little bit of sense together, or maybe it was because she just wanted to know him better, but she just wanted to skip to the part where they knew each other well enough to have inside jokes and comfortable silences, where they could just sit around and do nothing and it was the perfect little date night.
"So, I'm curious." She announced finally, "When you're not working, what do you like to do for fun?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Cooper Benson on Aug 25, 2015 23:53:08 GMT
Cooper thought the question over for a moment. "Fun?" he echoed. "Well, I'm actually pretty boring, if I'm going to be honest with you," he admitted. "I used to not be, I used to go out a lot, get into trouble, flirt shamelessly with women. I probably used to have too much fun, because it became a problem. Now? I like a glass of scotch with friends. I like trips the the museum. I have a lot of tea parties with a four year old," he chuckled. "A lot of my off-work time is a lot of that," he admitted. "I like a good movie now and then though, old movies. Classics. Film noir," he elaborated before chuckling. "Definitely not exciting."
|
|
