WHO: Mehdi Khan and Romy Waters WHEN: Evening of March 19 WHERE: Romy's home SUMMARY: A first date, complete with falling asleep during a movie and ice cream. WARNINGS: Cuteness!
As calm and collected as Romy was able to make herself seem, she had been a bundle of nerves and excitement from the moment she’d received the network notification that she had a new message from Mehdi Khan. She had been nursing a superficial crush on him from afar for awhile now, she wasn’t afraid to admit it. And though her crush had been almost entirely thanks to how attractive she’d found him the few times she’d run into him in passing, she was looking forward to actually getting to know him as a person. From their conversations so far, she could already tell how easy it would be to develop real feelings for him that had nothing to do with his quiet, yet charming smile and warm features.
It was because of this that no one was more surprised than she was when the music at the end credits of the movie she and Mehdi had chosen to watch woke her up. As in she had fallen asleep. Romy slowly blinked her eyes open and tried to make sense of what was going on, though the last thing she could remember being conscious of was seeing the opening credits of the movie nearly two hours ago. She might have been able to handle the embarrassment of having fallen asleep on her date if she hadn’t quite literally fallen asleep on her date. Closing her eyes while she took a deep breath, Romy also took a moment to assess the situation. The blanket that had once been settled over both of their laps was now pulled up over her shoulders and her feet were tucked up beneath her as though she’d somehow made herself more comfortable while she slept. She was leaning against Mehdi, her head on his shoulder and she hoped to all the was holy that she hadn’t added drooling on him to her list of dating do-nots.
With a resigned sigh, Romy slowly sat up and glanced apologetically up at her date and shook her head once as the end credits continued to play in the background. The corners of her lips twitched downward in a frown. “I am so sorry,” she started, letting the blanket fall from her shoulders which now hung in disappointment. They’d had a wonderful conversation over dinner, and even while they’d deliberated over which movie to put on, but she’d wanted to spend every moment she’d been able to spare tonight being completely present while getting to know him. And then she’d gone and nodded off and she had to admit that she felt more disappointed than she did embarrassed at what felt like lost time. “That was not at all how I envisioned this going.”
Mehdi had noticed just when Romy had succumbed to sleep and he had done his very best not to disturb that sleep after she'd fallen into it. He remembered the nights that his father would have off and just how exhausted he would seem after dinner as he attempted to be present with his family in the few hours that his profession allowed for it. It had always been important for Ibrahim Khan to strike that balance between work and life, but that was easier said than done -- especially with five young children bothering him at all times. Romy may not have had the five children, but Mehdi could nonetheless understand the exhaustion and he wasn't about to begrudge her getting some rest.
Besides, the date had been a success thus far, at least he'd felt that it had. He had liked getting to know her and was delighted to find that the conversation continued to feel as easy as it had when she was literally stitching his arm up. An easy-going sort, he wasn't about to be offended by the turn in the night, instead just sitting still as her head came to rest on his shoulder and covering her carefully with the blanket to keep her comfortable.
When she sat up, though, Mehdi couldn't help a smile. Leaning forward, he picked up the remote to return to the main menu and silence the music accompanying the credits. "No need to apologize," he replied, waving a dismissive hand. "You clearly needed it."
“I mean, yes. Probably,” Romy conceded, shifting back into the couch now that she was upright again. She reached up and tried to straighten the side of her hair that slept on but ultimately just ended up tucking it behind her ear to be done with it. “But that doesn’t mean I wanted to fall asleep,” she laughed. “I mean, I know it’s not like we were could to have an earth-shattering conversation in the middle of a movie--unless you enjoy talking in the middle of movies, in which case we may need to reevaluate what we’re doing here--but I’ve so been looking forward to tonight that I can’t believe I let myself fall asleep in the middle of it.”
"First," Mehdi started, holding up one of his fingers to indicate the start of what was going to be a very short list, "I promise you that I don't talk in the middle of the movies. That's just wrong." He grinned, a show that he was joking -- at least about the vehemence. He really didn't talk during movies.
Rather than lifting another finger, he let his hand drop as he continued, "Second, it's all right, really. I don't really remember much from when my dad was in his residency, but I do know just how much work took out of him. I promise that I'm not offended. I also promise not to ruin the plot of the movie for you."
Romy couldn’t help but to smile. She’d been right in her assessment of his kindness. “Will you at least tell me if it was any good? That might sway me one way or another in terms of how disappointed I am that I missed it,” she said, shrugging a shoulder. “As it is,” she continued nonchalantly, “I think the decent thing to do would be to give me a second chance at watching a movie with you without sleeping through it.” She held her hands up, fingers spread wide. “I don’t make the rules, I’m just putting it out there.”
"You didn't miss too much," Mehdi assured her, mirroring her body language with a shoulder shrug of his own. At her suggestion, though, he simply smiled, then reached out and tapped the palm of one of her hands with his index finger playfully. "That is a rule that I wouldn't mind sticking to, you know. So count me in."
Well, at least Romy could deduce that her nap hadn’t impeded any future dates with Mehdi if he was so readily amenable to seeing a second movie with her. Though Romy was already filing a mental note to maybe change up the context of their second date so as not to tempt the fates that she might actually fall asleep again. Her eyes drifted toward where his finger tapped her palm and back up to his. Quietly, she bent her wrist back and slid her hand down until her fingers could fill the spaces between his. She smiled.
“You know, as utterly delicious and filling as dinner was,” she said, “I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to having dessert, too. I’m pretty sure I have about five kinds of ice cream in the freezer. And I definitely have most of a small cake that’s only a couple of days old.” It wasn’t much, she knew, considering that the ice cream had been sitting in her freezer forever and had most like been eaten straight out of with a spoon, and she hadn’t made the cake herself the way Mehdi had made dinner. That didn’t matter so much, though. She was just looking for an excuse to not end the date just yet.
A slow smile passed across Mehdi's face as his eyes darted to where their hands were now joined. Part of him was vaguely surprised by the gesture, but a much larger part of him was so pleased that she had done it at all that the shock barely registered. He wasn't sure just what he had done to attract the attention to this smart, beautiful woman, but he had clearly done something and he wasn't going to question it too far.
Pleased to hear her call dinner delicious -- he'd made one of the recipes that his mother had taught him long ago, deciding that seeing if she had a taste for Pakistani food was important enough to test on Date One -- Mehdi didn't even have to consider dessert for more than a few seconds. Like Romy, he found himself jumping at the chance to extend the date as long as he could. It had been a while since he'd been on a first date, but it had been even longer since he had been on one with someone he felt a connection to. "As it turns out, I'm a big fan of both ice cream and cake, so I'd love some dessert." He moved to get to his feet, keeping their hands linked for the time being as he offered, "I can help you with it."
Romy got to her feet, too, glad that she wasn’t the only one who seemed invested in making this date last. Or, at the very least, that she wasn’t the only one invested in dessert. It said a lot about a person if they weren’t excited about dessert. “Okay,” she replied, giving his hand a quick squeeze before letting it go. As much as she didn’t want to, it wasn’t all that practical to drag him around to the freezer and the cabinets and drawers she’d need to access.
“So I have chocolate strawberry decadence, butter pecan, french vanilla, cinnamon dolce, and birthday cake ice cream. Any preference?” she asked as she moved into the kitchen and first grabbed a couple of bowls and then pulled out the silverware drawer for the spoons. The cake was easy as there was only one option as it was.
"Those are some very ideal choices," Mehdi admitted, following Romy into the kitchen. Trying to make himself useful, he held his hands out for the bowls to at least set them on the counter. "I think that the only choice is cinnamon dolce, though. Chocolate strawberry decadence would come in a close second, but there's just something about cinnamon dolce."
Romy regarded him approvingly. “Good choice on both fronts. Though I have to admit that I usually eat the cinnamon dolce and butter pecan together. Like at the same time,” she grinned, handing him the silverware, too. Next, she moved to grab the cake and juggled two cartons of ice cream, as well, before setting everything on the kitchen counter.
“So I’ve been thinking,” she said as she pulled the lids off of the two ice creams--the requested cinnamon dolce and butter pecan. “I think I’d want my superpower to be knowledge retention, or something like being able to read how to do something and then just being able to do it. I might not be superfast or strong, but I could study different medical procedures and just be able to do them. So no matter where I was, or what emergencies I encountered, I’d be able to help people in trouble.”
Mehdi considered her words with the amount of seriousness that they required -- which was a lot, as it turned out, especially as she explained her thought process. Still, he found himself smiling, not out of levity, but because her answer seemed to line up exactly with the picture that he was starting to paint of Romy in his mind as they got to know one another and filled in the gaps of what knowledge they'd already had. Maybe the whole scenario had started out as a bit of a joke when he'd come into the ER, but now it seemed to be giving him some added insight.
"I like that a lot," he decided, leaning his hip up against the counter and facing her. "That's a great one. It wouldn't just have to be medical procedures that you remember, too. Those would be helpful, but you could retain so much and could help so many people." He smiled. "I approve of this superpower."
Romy smiled back and shrugged. “And maybe I’d be able to actually remember how to change my own tires, or how to change my own oil.” She portioned two generous slices of cake into the bowls Mehdi had set out and handed Mehdi one of the larger spoons for the cinnamon dolce ice cream. “Then, again,” she continued coyly, “if I learned how to do those things, I wouldn’t have an excuse to bring you my car just so that I could see you.”
Though his attention was on the ice cream at the moment, a grin immediately crossed Mehdi's face at her words. "And we can't have that," he teased, dropping the ice cream onto the cake. "They are good skills to have, though. I know that offering a lesson on oil changing probably makes me a bad businessman, but it would also be an excuse to see me." He placed the lid back on the ice cream, his grin going a bit playful. "Just saying."
“Whether I change my oil, or you do,” Romy replied, “I’m pretty sure it’ll still be a win for me.” Maybe she should have been less obvious about how much she was enjoying his company, or less bold with her intent to see him again, but Romy was too busy to waste time pretending to feel any other way than she actually felt. And Romy felt like she wanted to see what could come next if she saw this man again. “Though truth be told,” she continued, “I’ve always been a fan of learning how to do things for myself, so I’d be open to whatever you wanted to teach me.”
It was refreshing, Mehdi thought, the way that she made her interest so easy to see. He had been in relationships or on dates with people who relied on subtlety more than he was able to pick up on; having someone be direct was a nice change of pace. It left him feeling more confident about where this was going, just knowing that he wasn't misreading the situation. It also helped simply knowing that a pretty woman like her was interested in the first place.
"Changing the oil in your car is a first good lesson," Mehdi determined, taking a bite of ice cream as he considered. "Knowing how to change your tire is good, too, as you mentioned. Ah -- windshield wiper fluid. That's always nice, too." He smiled, shrugging a shoulder. "I'd suggest that you teach me things about being a doctor in return, but there was a reason I didn't follow in dad's footsteps in that one."
Romy perked up. “Oh! I actually know how to do the windshield wiper fluid,” she grinned, “which is almost definitely because there’s a picture of windshield wipers on the cap where I pour it.” It wasn’t much, but she felt pretty proud of the fact that he’d listed something she already knew how to do. She probably could have already learned all of those things if she’d tried, but she’d put so much focus on her education that these other, everyday things had fallen by the wayside.
“How about this,” she asked, taking a small bite of her own dessert, “for everything you teach me, I’ll find one thing I enjoy that’s not medical-related to share with you.”
"That's one better than a lot of people can say, so don't downplay it," Mehdi said with a grin. He looked down at the ice cream and cake in his bowl, carefully scooping up a little of both on his spoon before he continued. "I think that's a pretty fine deal, though. I might have to deviate away from cars now and then, though. Just to shake things up."
“Well, I’m hoping you don’t run out of things to teach me in the foreseeable future,” Romy replied easily, “so deviating to other things is absolutely fine by me.”
"I can always start teaching you how to build a spaceship, if you want," Mehdi teased, shooting her a smile. "That one should take a while."
That brightened Romy’s already widening smile, the corners of her eyes crinkling with it. “If you’re up for seeing that particular lesson through, I’ve already decided that I’m up for seeing it through, too.”
And then, because she was so inexperienced with this sort of thing--her first dates had been few and far between and never with someone she’d connected so instantly with--she shook her head once and added, “Sorry. That was a bold thing to say. I just meant that--I mean, honestly, I don’t know what I meant by that, except that I like you in various capacities and I’m sure that I’d still like you in at least one of those capacities even after however long it might take to teach me literal rocket science.” She bit her lip, cringing just slightly at how ridiculous she knew she must sound to a guy with whom she hadn’t even finished her first date.
Mehdi couldn't help the amused smile, though it wasn't amusement at her expense. His own dating life had been sparse over the years, something his mother was all to keen to remind him about at every family gathering that passed that he didn't bring someone home for. Between school and then work at Goddard, he just hadn't had the time for anything serious and, once he came back to Dunhaven, dating had just not been a priority to him. Instead, he had focuse on the garage and enjoying the time he had been given back with his best friends and family. To have a date with someone that checked so many of the boxes of what he was looking for, he couldn't complain about her being straightforward.
"Don't apologize," he said, turning to face her with his hip still leaned up against the counter and bowl of ice cream in his hands. "You don't have to, I mean. I like bold, especially in this instance. It lets me know that I'm not imagining this connection. I like you in various capacities, too."
Letting out a breath of relief, Romy shook her head, again, though this time for good reasons, not apologies. “You’re definitely not imagining it, Mehdi. You know...I’ve actually been nursing a bit of a crush on you for awhile,” she admitted, with a small laugh, setting her bowl to the side because it was impossible for her to talk without the use of her hands. “Before I knew you, really, because I’d seen you around town and run into you at various functions your dad hosted with the hospital. But that was nothing compared to actually talking to you, or the small window of opportunity I’ve had to get to know you so far. I’m pretty sure my crush has entered into hopeless territory now, as it happens. There’s nothing that can be done about it, though, so here we are,” she said, shrugging her shoulders, not at all sorry about it.
When Romy admitted to her crush, Mehdi couldn't help but duck his head a bit with a dash of bashfulness; he liked the direct approach that she was taking, but that didn't mean he couldn't be a bit happily moved by it. He was still Mehdi, after all, and the woman he liked had admitted to having noticed him long before they'd decided to spend time together. That was pretty damn cool.
"Well," Mehdi replied, his gaze lifting to meet Romy's, though the hint of bashful didn't quite leave his posture. "It's not every day a smart and beautiful woman tells you they have a hopeless crush on you, so this has been a pretty successful first date, in my opinion." He paused, straightening up before adding, "I'm pretty sure you could call my crush pretty hopeless at this point, too."
With a laugh, Romy said, “Even though I’d absolutely believe it if you said you’ve got a dozen other smart, beautiful women professing crushes on you, I’m pretty relieved that it’s not an everyday thing.” And then, with one of her animated hands coming to rest on his shoulder, she pulled herself up on her tiptoes and pressed a chaste kiss to Mehdi’s cheek. She came back down, rocking back on her heels while her own blush spread across her cheeks. “And, at the very least, that means we’re both in hopelessly good company.”
A warmth spread through Mehdi from his cheek, just where her lips had pressed to his skin as a blush of his own took over. He did his best to ignore it this time, though, instead just smiling at Romy, much as he had done all night. "You're one of a kind," he said, setting aside the bowl of dessert to lift the same hand and tuck a strand of hair back behind her ear; it felt like an okay move to make after she'd kissed his cheek. "Though I probably shouldn't be too thankful for hurting myself on the job, I will say that I'm glad you were the one that got assigned to me when I did."