Grady had already known she would say yes, but it felt right to ask. He knew dinner was probably a boring date these days, but again, it had been a while since he had done this and he would stick to what was familiar. At least for now. "I have Wednesday night free." And Friday, but that was the PPPD Fundraiser and while he wanted to ask Dahlia to attend with him, he figured waiting to make sure dinner went well - again - was probably the best course of action. "Can I pick you up around seven?" He would have to decide if he wanted to take her to the Boathouse, or something more casual. Maybe he would ask Jen for advice.
Considering the fact that they’d just spent several hours together, chatting and working side by side, Dahlia wasn’t worried about any setting being boring for them. She didn’t expect him to whisk her off to Venice for a weekend or take her skydiving or something. A nice dinner with a nice man sounded like a perfect official first date to her. It was all about the company. The way Grady went about it was maybe a little old-fashioned, but Dahlia saw that as more of a pro than a con. He would probably even come to the door and knock when he picked her up, rather than text her from the car that he was there. Maybe he would even bring flowers, how cute would that be? “Seven on Wednesday sounds perfect,” she said, still dimpling at him. “I’ll be ready. And much less sweat-stinky.”
Grady was well aware of how out of touch he probably was with this whole dating thing. It felt natural to him, but that didn't mean anything. He liked Dahlia and he wanted to see her again... more than once, preferably. Yes, there was a possibility that he would have to ask Jen what he should be doing, but asking his teenage daughter for dating advice seemed so... odd. Especially since he was pretty sure Jen wasn't dating anyone herself. "If you don't mind my sweaty stinky then I definitely don't mind yours," Grady said with a grin. And because he knew he could, he leaned down to kiss her, wanting to at least linger in that before he had to go. She had some of the softest lips he had ever kissed before and it was well worth the entire day he spent moving things around for her to get another taste.
Dahlia was more interested in dating like adults rather than teenagers, so in her opinion Grady was off to a great start. She liked him too, and wanted to really get to know him, which would only happen with time and conversation. A dinner out had room for both of those things. She gave a flirty, intrigued sort of sound when he mentioned his own sweat, but didn’t have time to make any jokes about how she would like to get him sweaty next time. It was probably just as well, because kissing was a better use of their time. Dahlia tilted her head and parted her lips to deepen it, giving a soft hum in the back of her throat as her arm slid further around Grady’s waist. How had Dahlia gotten so lucky to be hit on by such a hot, nice guy in such a shitty bar? Maybe Point Pleasant would be good to her, even if it wasn’t good to anybody else.