WHO: Margo and Roman WHAT: A date? WHERE: Just outside the airport (and other various places) WHEN: Backdated to the 17th of November RATING: PGish STATUS: Complete
Roman pulled up to the apartment building his GPS had led him to.
He stared at the door and pursed his lips in thought. That was his problem, he was thinking too much on this. They weren’t going out to pick out swatches for drapes. They were going out for sushi and probably sex afterward. For Roman, it served as a distraction from the sudden cravings that plagued him.
Not wanting to give that another thought, he stepped out of his Maserati and walked to the door. He knocked and gave a single anxious sniff, followed by an impatient shrug. What or who he was impatient with eluded even Roman as he stood and waited. Life? The cosmos? The fucking color of the door in front of him?
What did not elude Roman was the simple knowledge that he’d get to smell Margo again.
Margo hadn’t actually thought she’d hear from Roman again after their fitting room hookup, but she’d be lying if she said that she hadn’t been happy when she did hear from him again. It helped that she realized the reason he’d seemed familiar was because he was also a member of Valarnet.
When he’d asked her out for dinner, of course she accepted the offer; she’d be stupid not to accept his offer. Whatever it was they were doing, she wanted to continue doing it. She had just finished fixing her hair when she heard the knock at the door and grabbed her purse before going to answer it, a smile on her painted lips, “Hello, handsome.”
Roman paused when he saw Margo. See, it took a lot of work to stay cool and to be disinterested in most people and things. Roman was not a man who went a day without someone somewhere hitting on him or wanting his attention in some fashion and he was always prepared to treat those people like dirt on a sidewalk.
When it came to people like his cousin, like his sister, and like Peter, Roman could let down his walls. Margo hadn’t quite earned that privilege, but that Roman gave a shit enough to even say hello to her after their first meeting spoke volumes. It felt too unnatural to smile back so he didn’t, but he didn’t want to treat her rudely either.
“Hi,” he replied. “You look beautiful.” She probably already knew that, but that wasn’t the point. He didn’t have flowers for her or anything, but he did offer her his arm. When he did this, the corner of his mouth lifted.
Margo smiled at the compliment and took Roman’s arm, “Thank you.” Her heeled ankle boots clicked along the pavement as they made their way to the car, “That’s a gorgeous car.” Margo wasn’t really a car person, but she knew an expensive car when she saw one. More people had expensive cars out here in California as opposed to New York considering it was much easier to drive around here than in the city.
Roman quirked what might have been a smile at the compliment to his car. Of course he knew it was beautiful. After all, he’d picked it out himself and Roman Godfrey had immaculate taste. Once they reached the car, he opened the door to her side and let her slide into the passenger’s seat. He shut the door and went to his own side and started the engine with the push of a button. Inside, the car was silent from any engine sounds. Roman didn’t bother to switch on the radio.
“Buckle up,” he said as he fastened his own seatbelt.
It was like Roman was a fast driver, but if they didn’t fasten their seatbelts, the car’s safety alert would start to pester them like a nagging mother. Roman switched into drive and pulled back out of the apartment complex and onto the street. What was he to ask her? People asked questions on dates, but Roman usually didn’t give a shit. He still didn’t really give a shit, but he was the one who’d asked her out. He cared more about what her blood might taste like if he bit her. He licked his suddenly dry lips and finally broke the silence, “You part of the dreamers club or what?” he asked.
Getting in, Margo buckled her seatbelt then sat down, holding onto her purse as Roman pulled away from the curb. In response to his question, Margo quirked a brow and turned to glance at him, “I am. I’m a magician in mine.” Margo had simply assumed, by now, that everyone who was on Valarnet had these strange dreams. She didn’t know what exactly caused them, but she knew that she hadn’t had them until she’d joined Valarnet.
Since his dreams began and started to bleed into his reality, Roman found that he was never impressed by anything anymore. Even before the dreams, most things were boring to him. He felt like the world was a slideshow and he was constantly wanting to press the Next button, so he found that he was about as interested in Margo being a magician as he was in someone posting the gender of their fetus on social media, which was to say, not interested at all.
So Roman drove, trying to come up with some sort of date conversation. The problem was, he couldn’t. “I’m not really good at any of this,” he admitted at length. He’d never even been on a date. Roman didn’t do dates, Roman fucked. At a stop light, he looked over at Margo and asked, “Do you want to get shit food and watch planes take off instead of Japanese food?”
Margo was actually glad that Roman didn’t ask her anything about her dreams, because she was getting tired of explaining that she was not the rabbit out of a hat sort of magician and no, Brakebills was not like Hogwarts. Besides, considering the way the dreams gave everyone bits and pieces of information, there were still many things that Margo didn’t know about the world her dreams took place in and she hated not having all the information when she was talking about something.
She glanced towards him as he spoke again, meeting his eyes as she thought over his question. She’d never gone out with a guy to watch planes take off. In fact, it sounded like something out of movie or tv show. However, it was intriguing somehow so she shrugged in response, “Sure. Why not. I’ve never watched planes taking off before.”
When the light changed, Roman went left instead of taking the right that would have led them to the fake romance of Japanese food; romance being something that eluded Roman Godfrey, of course. Burgers were a good alternative to him leaning over to sink a set of fangs he could feel waiting in his gums right into Margo’s pretty neck.
At the drive-thru, he ordered his, then leaned back, gesturing for Margo to unbuckle and lean across him to state her order into the speaker box. If she did, he’d take the opportunity to lay his hand on her body and smooth it over her curves. She was a woman, a bonafide woman in heels who smelled like Roman’s every wet dream. For someone who was usually hit on by girls who wore peach perfumes and still did their hair in cutesy bows, Margo was becoming more and more of a welcome presence.
Margo didn’t eat a lot of fast food, but she could indulge every once in awhile. It just meant that she would spend a little extra time at the gym in the morning. She scanned the menu as Roman placed his order then leaned over once he was done to place her own, her lips curving up into a little smile when she felt his hand on her body. Margo hadn’t worn cutesy bows or anything even remotely little girlish in a very long time; growing up amongst the elite in New York City had had its advantages.
As her body stretched, Roman did take the opportunity to touch. His hand ran along her curves and over the expensive feel of her dress. Her neck looked much more appetizing than the food they were about to consume. Roman had ordered three burgers and a water. He waited for her to finish and return to her seat, then moved forward to collect their orders before he sped off again, this time laying his free hand to her thigh when he didn’t need it to shift gears. Save for the revving of the motor, the car was silent and Roman liked that. Idle conversation was never for him.
The airport wasn’t far. The trick was to find a spot where security wouldn’t get to them and that spot was just outside the airport. Roman took a sharp turn onto an access road. From it, he pulled off the road and onto a naked spot of land that was only grass. He parked, facing the view of the airport. The car’s beams washed the grass in LED lights from their lamps, but there was plenty of light coming from the runway and towers, not to mention the planes themselves, so Roman switched his off to save battery juice.
“Come on,” he said as he opened his door, grabbing the food on the way. If he was excited, it didn’t come through in his tone of voice, and even though he’d prompted Margo to get herself out of the car, he still placed the fast food bags on the hood and went around to her door to open it, even offering his hand down to her.
Margo didn’t mind Roman’s hand on her thigh as they drove nor did she mind the silence. She simply sat back and watched the scenery as they drove. Reaching the airport, she couldn’t help but take a quick glance around for any security guards as they headed to their destination.
Once they had parked and Roman got out of the car, Margo undid her seatbelt just as he opened her door and she took Roman’s offered hand, steadying herself on the uneven ground in her heels as she stood, “Do you often take girls to airfields?” She teased, smirking as she took in their surroundings. She wondered why Eliot would think of this when she told him later.
“Oh yes,” Roman replied, smiling back. The smile looked misplaced on him, almost a shy visitor to his expression. He even dipped his head down a little as if trying to hide it from her. “It’s part of my date choreography.” What she didn’t need to know was, Roman had never been on an actual date before tonight.
Noting that she was stumbling a little, Roman moved smoothly to position her with her back against the passenger door. He waited a breath, then kissed her mouth, just briefly, then slowly eased down to a crouch, his hands sliding down her curves, to her waist, her hips, then down her legs. He touched his lips to her belly as his fingers deftly slid down her ankles and removed her heels from her feet. When he stood again, it was in one easy motion, her heels dangling from two of his fingers. “Now you won’t break your neck,” he stated with an unintentional sinister air. The heels were placed on the top of the car for now, then Roman took her hand to move around to the front so they could lean against the hood to eat.
While the smile may have been a rare one, Margo thought it was nice and thought that she wouldn’t mind seeing it again. “Well it’s not a bad one so far.” It was different, but so far there was nothing awful about it.
The kiss that followed certainly wasn’t awful, but was too brief for her liking. As Roman began to crouch down she was unsure exactly what he was doing until she felt his hands on her ankles then her shoes being removed. The thought of protesting flirted through her mind briefly, because she had no idea what was on the ground around here, but honestly there were worse things than dirty feet. “Thank you. Breaking my neck definitely wasn’t in my plans for the night.” She smirked as he led her around to the front of the car.
As Roman dug into the bag for a burger, a plane was taxiing its way down the runway, its headlight the only sign of it until it drew closer, pausing for its okay to take off. If there was to be a dealbreaker, it would probably be what Roman did next: Once his burger was unwrapped, everything was discarded except for the meat which Roman ate hungrily, without regard to manners. He found that he felt starved and even sucked the dead juice from his digits. It was all in not caring what anyone else thought about him. If he was hungry, he was hungry, and everything else about the burger disgusted him.
The plane took off, flying noisily above them. Roman tipped his head back to watch as he unwrapped his second burger. He looked over at Margo after a second to watch the wind from the plane catch her hair. It was only then that he thought about his actions, but he still wasn’t sure how much he cared.
Margo wasn’t aware of how Roman was eating until after he’d eaten his first burger as her attention had been on the plane that was taking off. As the wind from the plane blew her hair back, her eyes closed for a moment as she savored the moment. She hadn’t really been sure what to expect when Roman had suggested this, but so far she was enjoying it, which did surprise her.
Opening her eyes. She glanced over at Roman and the naked burger he was eating, “You probably could have just asked for just the patties.” She was sure that fast food places got strange requests like that all the time.
“I don’t think you can trust fast food workers to get even that right,” Roman said. He ate fast food maybe once every couple of years, when he was starving, like now. The second burger got the same treatment, stripped of its bun and ‘fresh vegetables’ and disgusting sauce. Roman ate this patty in much the same manner as the first, which was to say, without manners at all. He was sure he’d regret it later, but he chased it all with his water, then cleaned his hands with one of the cheap napkins from the bag.
Another plane flew over their heads. Roman waited for it to clear before he spoke again. “Tell me more about being magician,” he said, genuinely interested. “Can you do anything outside your dreams?”
“You’re probably right. You order no bun and they’ll probably give you just the bun.” It was as if they didn’t even listen when they were taking your order half the time. “Well it’s not like Harry fucking Potter for starters. Brakebills is very selective with who they allow to attend and if you don’t prove you’re good enough you get sent back to the regular world and your memory of magic erased.”
She turned slightly, facing Roman as she leaned against the hood of the car, her half eaten chicken sandwich in her hands, “My discipline is physical magic.” She glanced at the lights nearby and got an idea. Wrapping what was left of her sandwich, she set it on the hood of the car and stood up straight, hands held up in front of her. Closing her eyes, she tried to focused on the lights. She had been practicing various spells from her dreams and only half of the time they worked.
Focusing, her hands began moving, making different shapes with her fingers. Finally she opened her eyes to see tiny orbs of light appearing around them.
It should have been comical, the way she was moving her fingers, but Roman found himself captivated by the delicate gestures. They weren’t random. They were focused and her hands were beautiful, he noted. As the orbs appeared, he was almost startled, and while that was sort of like some Harry Potter shit, there were no wands, and he was sure she could do a whole lot more.
Roman was not unimpressed.
He didn’t ask her to display more as she wasn’t a performing monkey, but now that the bag was open, maybe she’d feel comfortable doing it organically when she felt like it. Roman moved in front of her, watching the light orbs swarming in her eyes. He touched his hand against her warm cheek, stroking it with his thumb, and he kissed her. This time, it was slow and easy, much less demanding and rushed. Roman could scarcely admit when he liked someone, but he liked Margo. He liked her and the lights she was bringing into his life.