My White Ex Soldier

“You look fine. You never go wrong with a maxi dress,” she said as she once again opened her laptop. “By the way, remind me. Which one was Mark?” she asked as she looked up at her sister.

“The Denzel look alike,” Cynthia said quickly. “So, a drive huh?” she said looking at Desiree. “You do know it is never just a drive, right?” she asked. Desiree let out a laugh.

“Come on. Do you really think that he would try anything so soon after meeting me? I mean, doesn’t he want to wait for it or something?” she asked looking at Cynthia. Normally, men who had any desire to continue a relationship after meeting a girl the very first time rarely made s*xual advances if they had any chance of pursuing anything meaningful. At least that was what she thought.

“Don’t over think it. Just have fun,” Rochelle said a she typed away without looking up.

They were still talking when they heard the doorbell rang. Desiree looked at them and walked out of the bedroom. Rochelle and Cynthia were close behind her and they quickly got comfortable in the living room so that Mark would not think it was one of those protective family awkward situations. When Desiree was sure all was well, she opened the door and smiled when she saw Mark at her doorstep. He looked as stunning as ever. She had not seen him since the speed dating but she could tell that he had since shaved. She suddenly had the urge to hold his face in her hands and just know what his face felt like.

“Hi,” he said with a smile. She smiled back letting the dimple in her left cheek show.

“Hi,” she said stepping aside so that he could come in. “You want to come inside?” she asked. He nodded and took a step inside.

“Thanks,” he said as he walked towards the living room.

“So guys, this is Mark. That’s my cousin Cynthia and sister Rochelle. They are also my roommates,” Desiree said as Mark shook hands with Cynthia and Rochelle. Mark smiled and looked around.

“Nice place you ladies have here,” he said politely. “If you don’t mind, I would love to be the fourth roommate,” he added jokingly. Desiree smiled.

“Depends,” Rochelle said. Mark turned his attention to her.

“On what?” he asked.

“Do you have a brother?” she asked. Desiree felt herself blush when her sister asked that, ever so forward! Mark smiled and then nodded.

“Actually I do. But I wonder how you will find an age appropriate place where the two of you could hang out since he has a curfew,” he said with a smile. “He’s ten,” he added. Cynthia laughed.

“That sucks. Maybe if my sister messes up I could have you for a quote unquote drive,” Rochelle said. Cynthia threw a pillow at her as Desiree took Mark’s hand in hers and began pulling him towards the door.

“I think we need to leave while we still have daylight,” Desiree said.

“Yeah. You better do that,” Cynthia said as she stared daggers at Rochelle.

“Later guys!” Desiree called as she opened the door.

“Yeah, nice to meet you,” Mark said before Desiree slammed the door shut behind them. He was not even sure they heard him. She smiled as they walked down the hallway talking about their days, the ups and downs. When they got to his car, she felt especially special when he held the car door open for her. No one had done that for her in ages. She had actually forgotten what it felt like to be treated like a lady. She looked at him as they drove on and smiled. She thought Mark looked especially good. He was in a black shirt and grey pinstriped pants. If she could say so, she thought he was a bit overdressed for a mere drive.

“So, a drive huh?” she asked. He looked at her and gave her a smile.

“Well, I was at the office and got bored. So yeah, busted,” he said. She nodded.

“Totally busted,” she said as she looked outside her window again. “Where are we going again? Because people know where I am,” she added.   They had now driven out to a quiet countryside. The city was completely out of her mind. All that was around her at that time was the fresh smell of the yards and yards of beautiful green grass.

“This is the future. My future,” he said as he pulled the car to a halt. She looked at him as he looked out into the fields.

“You lost me,” she said. Mark smiled and undid his seat belt as he looked at her.

“Well, I never told you what I do. I am a real estate developer. I look around for run down property, vacant land and the like and then pitch an idea to my firm for something great and beautiful,” he said. Desiree was suddenly interested. No wonder he never wanted to go into details of what he did. “This might be just another field to someone but to me this is the next mall, the next Starbucks or KFC,” he said.

Desiree shook her head. He smiled “Let me explain. See that field down by the stream? That is going to be a row of apartment blocks all the way down to the road and then on this other side, commercial buildings,” he said excitedly. “And this,” he said as they looked at the property right in front of them. “This will be the center of everything, the hub, if you would call it that. This will be where it all goes down, the mall,” he concluded in a whisper. Desiree smiled.

“You are really passionate about what you do,” she said looking at him. He nodded.

“This is why I never talked about what I did last week. You would have thought me to be some kind of maniac or something, right?” he asked looking at her. Desiree nodded.