Her Superhero Lover

Chapter 3

Renee was worried as six o’clock approached on her watch. She’d fussed and fretted over her clothes for the past two hours, trying to decide whether to go for something that would hide her size in looser clothes or something similar to her DJ gear, which cinched in all of the areas she didn’t like. Finally, at five, she’d messaged Grady, asking what he was wearing. Chinos and a casual shirt. Nothing fancy. U?

A surprise, she’d sent back, not mentioning it would be a surprise for both of them. Finally deciding on a pair of shorts and a loose top that hung pretty well on her, she’d just slipped her feet into her sandals when Grady knocked on the door of her apartment. “Coming!”

She opened the door, and one again had to control herself, looking at Grady standing in her doorway. He was wearing a black button down casual shirt and tan chinos, with a pair of sunglasses cocked up on his forehead. A pair of brown slip-ons finished the ensemble. He looked like someone who should be in the Land’s End catalog. “Hey,” he said, giving her a smile. “You look great.”

“This?” she asked, genuinely surprised. She looked down at herself, and thought about running to the back and changing. “I don’t know. I seriously couldn’t decide what to wear.”

He laughed and nodded. “I understand. Well, it works for you. You know, every time I see you you’re wearing a different look, and every time I think you look very pretty.”

“Really?”

“Really. And your choice is perfect, I hear The Brigantine is semi-casual, like a family restaurant or something. We’ll both fit right in. Shall we?”

He offered his arm like a gentleman, and Renee had to reach up to take the offered forearm. “I hope you don’t mind, but I left the Lotus at home today,” he said, leading her towards the stairs. “I use it when I have to be a businessman, it fits the profile, but I brought my Jeep today. I like it for weekends and when I just want to get out some.”

“No problem for me,” she said as he led her down stairs. In the parking lot, he led her over to a normal looking yellow Jeep, holding the door open for her. She climbed in, and started in surprise. The seat was as luxurious as any she’d ever sat in, and was almost comfortable enough to be a recliner. Grady came around and climbed into the driver’s seat. “You’ve customized this quite a bit.”

“The seats? Yeah, I had them refitted. I actually have a modular design on them, so that if I want to take this thing out into the desert I can. I got with a Baja car designer in the area, and he installed a changeout system, I can go from these for city driving to a four point harness for off roading in ten minutes. Maybe if you’re ever interested, we can give it a try.”

“I’ve never done it,” Renee admitted, “but it sounds good. Let’s get some fish tacos first though.”

Grady grinned and started the engine, which rumbled to life with understated power. Whatever he’d done to the inside, he’d modified under the hood just as much. She wondered for a moment just how many factory parts were still in the vehicle, but decided it didn’t matter much. “So how’s the ad campaign going?” she asked, trying to think of a conversation opener. She realized that besides having a ton of money, good taste in cars and even better taste in music, she didn’t know much about him. “I mean, when is it hitting the air?”

“Next month,” Grady replied. “But to be honest, I leave the office totally behind on weekends. My father was consumed by running his companies, and in the end it led him to an early grave.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” she said. “Can I ask?”

“When he died?” Grady said as he made a right turn. “Sure. It was ten years ago, when I was in high school. It shook Mom and I up pretty hard, but we’ve gotten over it. In fact, she got remarried last year to a really good guy, a doctor in Seattle. They’re happy together, so I’m cool with it. In the mean time, Dad’s companies passed into a corporate trust until I turned twenty four, and I took over last year.”

“Wow, that must have been a busy couple of years. You must have had to jam a lot of learning and education into those nine years to be ready to take over a bank,” Renee said, thinking about her high school only education. “Where’d you go to school?”

“I did my undergrad work at Hawaii, then my Master’s and Doctorate at Stanford. I chose Hawaii because my best friend at the time was totally into environmental stuff, and he wanted to study volcanoes. Where better than Hawaii? Kinda was a struggle adjusting to the more intense study atmosphere at Stanford though. But, I got through it.”

“I’d say. You’re twenty five and have a Doctorate? I didn’t even know they offered PhD’s in business.”

Grady shook his head and laughed. “It’s not in business. I got my PhD in mechanical engineering. As for the bank, that’s just part of the corporate portfolio. I prefer to spend most of my time building dreams and making new things, and let the corporate officers who are more interested in that sort of stuff run the business side. As the CEO though, I had to do that ad campaign. I’ll probably never even see a balance sheet on it. But like I said, no more business talk, okay? Tell me about you.”

“Me? Nothing too much. I grew up in San Diego, but didn’t have the grades after high school to qualify for any scholarships. I thought about community college for a while, or maybe a JUCO, but as I did, I just couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to go into that required the education. So, I decided to follow my passion and go into the DJ business. The commercials and modeling, well….”