First Date: Part One

PART ONE:
"Everything goes as planned."

Tony honestly expected to roll in in a limousine and find Kassandrah waiting for him in an evening gown. Maybe there was going to be a horse drawn carriage waiting to sweep them away for a picnic and a fireworks display--all in her honor. Regardless, Tony had that vibe coming into it and ultimately, the reality was somewhat different.

Yes, his suit was a custom Brooks Brothers and was likely worth more than his Toyota Camry. When he stepped out of his “chariot” his shoes by Bruno Magli immediately went “squish” into a pile of dog droppings. He tried not to allow the squish to shake his resolve, but in attempting to clean his expensive shoes on the grass, he spilled the mocha in his hand on his suit. Brown stains grey nearly as badly as it does white.

He stopped to breathe, trying to calm his hands which were shaking. He looked down at the shoes which were paid for by his wit (or lackthereof) and cringed.

“What if she’s not dressed up? What if I look like...overdressed?”

Tony’s mind was full of a menagerie of doubt as he walked towards the gaming area of the Pure amusement park.

He didn’t see Kassandrah anywhere. No evening gown, no prepped fireworks, and the only horses were stunted and attached to a carousel with mounted with crying children. Tony immediately thought about turning back. Running away. He considered all the things he could tell her later to make up for it.

Furthermore, he figured she was just doing this for a joke or worse, as some form of punishment for whatever he had done wrong with Strick.

Still, he thought about Kassandrah and got that feeling in his chest. That one that went up his throat like an unquenchable thirst and he had to see her.

He continued walking through the row of noise and games and still couldn’t find Kassandrah. He felt his phone’s vibration buzz in his pocket. He whipped his phone out expecting to see a DM from Kassandrah saying something to the tune of, “Haha really? Thought that was serious?” or “I see a masturbation session in your future.” or even worse, “It’s me, not you.”

He looked at his phone and saw that it was a recommended tweet from someone he didn’t know, nor care about.

“You waste my time Twitter!” He announced, jolting those at the games surrounding him.

He looked around at those who pulled their attention away from the “too small basketball hoop” and “impossible coin in cup” and “shoot jizz into stuff with an air rifle” games.

“Talking on my phone. Or to it. Whatever.”

He pocketed the phone and kept walking. He had just about given up when he made a right turn at the “guess your weight” guy and saw her. Kassandrah. She stood off to the side watching at the “pop the balloon and win some cheap teddy from China game.”

He thought maybe she’d like a cheap teddy from South Korea, better.

He couldn’t move though. All he could do was look at her.

It wasn’t an evening gown, but the little red dress fit her figure snugly. A black chiffon wrap hung off her shoulders and matched the black Louboutin stiletto heels she seemed eager to avoid having touch the grass. She stood with her arms folded to her waist, eyeing a couple marking out on the pop-the-balloon game before she happened to glance him, and a wry, pleased-to-see him smirk drifted onto her red lips.

She moved to him like she floated, like the wind picked up just enough to ruffle the drapey black chiffon behind her like a cloak. She stopped and stood before him to let him take her in a moment before,

“I see I’m not the only one who overdressed tonight.” She hmphed with satisfaction, her eyes nonchalantly drifting over his suit with the obvious grey stain, and looked to be almost reading like a book. Her eyes lifted back on his and directed his attention behind her at the balloon game with a backward nod of her head.

“Gonna win me a prize?”

He found himself without words as his eyes were drawn back towards her.

He thought about everything which lead up to the meeting and forced words from down deep. He said, “Yes! I’m going to win a prize for you to have!”

He shook his head and realized that what had come out was nowhere near smooth nor probably non-creeper. Regardless he walked with her back towards the balloon game and put down a five dollar bill and received five darts. Abraham Lincoln watched him from the counter as Tony took a step backwards and surveyed the balloons.

He felt calm again thanks to the fact that he was caught up in a scam.

Tony whispered, “The balloons are multicolored to draw attention. That and to distract you from the fact that they aren’t even half way inflated.”

Their eyes met, but Tony fought off the urge to panic and continued, “The darts are dull and if you’ll notice, these dull darts have also been warmed.”

The Balloon game cryer looked at the two and cocked his head to the side and said, “Any time, buddy.”

“This game is rigged for us to shell over fifteen or twenty bucks just so I can send you home with a stuffed piggie worth about five dollars,” Tony whispered.

Tony stepped forward on his still somewhat shit coated Bruno Magli and threw a dart. He put his whole body into the throw and when the dart hit, it popped a balloon.

“Well, would you look at that?” The cryer said, “He’s got an arm on him. Good job.”

Four more heavy throws and four more popped balloons. Tony had stepped outside of himself and watched it all unfold. He had considered throwing a dart right at the cryer himself, but opted to win Kassandrah the mostly white Unicorn with a rainbow mane, instead.

The cryer reluctantly handed over the Unicorn and Tony turned around with the prize and walked to Kassandrah who had been watching the entire time.

“I believe this is the one you wanted,” Tony said. And she smiled as she vaguely held her nose knowingly as he approached with the poop encrusting the sole of his designer shoes. It was the reaction tailored to all humanity when smelling something you recognize as defecate but it’s not the focus, or concern in this moment. Her smirk never wavered, however, taking the Unicorn from him with a cordially pleased bow of her head, straight blonde hair softly smoothing along her cheek as she tucked the stuffy under her arm and patted the plush fur with her free hand.

“Why thank you, handsome. I figured you’d know your way around a scam.” A chill passed over her as the couple they’d basically booted off the game strode past them in an argument-laden hurry. Her eyes followed them with a frown as the boyfriend’s arm gripped the girlfriend’s tighter than it should’ve and Kassandrah watched them disappear into the crowd and felt her vision following them several days into their dismal future. She glanced back to Tony.

“Do you really want to spend our night in this park?”


Tony had been watching her eyes and picked up on what she had seen. He couldn’t help but wonder what it had meant.

“One sec,” he paused. “What did you see? Those two, the roid rage boyfriend and the scared girlfriend,” he urged. She eyed him blankly, thinking of theoretical and philosophical ways to answer his question. Instead she took his hand in hers,

“Things that won’t happen to us,” she said with a confident smirk and urged him to walk with her, looping his arm around her waist and nestled herself in close to him.

“Come on.”

The two walked a while, making their way out of the park. An increasing state of calm washed over Tony as they moved--he liked how it felt to have Kassandrah by his side. He tried to not be obvious about the fact that he was leading her towards what he hoped would be a surprise. As he looked down towards the stain on his shirt he could only chuckle to himself as he considered the fact that he had already manipulated the timeline.

She wouldn’t be able to see anything coming.

They came around the corner, into the parking lot where they found a horse and carriage waiting for them. The smirk which seemed perennially on her lips remained as she took in the pleasant surprise, and slowly turned her head to glance at Tony.

Leroy, the coachman had come through for Tony. It made him smile.

“I thought it might be nice to dispense with the motorized vehicles and see how our ancestors got around,” he said softly. She bowed her head in assent, hiding the faint rosy blush that had overtaken her features. She remained gripping his hand as she glanced to the coachman and stepped daintily onto the coach steps up into the carriage, pulling him excitedly up with him before turning to eye him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever even been in one of these.” He didn’t need to know anymore than that it pleased her immensely to be treated so respectfully. Her hand clutched his tightly, some vague sign of approval she wasn’t sure she could utter yet, before she sat down and peered around the carriage and around it sizing up it’s dimensions.

“This must’ve cost a fortune.”

There were things he wanted to tell her. That feeling in his chest and throat wanted to announce things he believed were dangerous. The coach was expensive, but he didn’t care. Money, thanks to quick moves and a big mouth, had ceased to be a worry. Only worry he had, at the time, was whether or not she was going to grow bored with him.

“Worth every penny,” Tony smiled, “Coachman, please take us to our first stop.”

Leroy nodded his head and coaxed the horses to move. They were off. The inertiatic pull of the horses beginning the journey startled her into a surprised and pleased giggle, her hand once again finding Tony’s to grip it tightly to hers and nestled it into her lap. She glanced at him with approval while the steady hoofbeats of their horse-drawn conveyance ushered them melodically out of the car-packed parking lot towards the gravel shoulder of the road with lush forest on either side of them.

“Enchanting,” she murmured to herself. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen Purity, Louisiana before in various phases of day and night, she just hadn’t seen them like this, or with Tony before. Her smirk turned into a smile.

It was going well, Tony thought. So well that he began to think that he wasn’t going to mess it up. He relaxed more and found himself paying more attention to Kassandrah’s reactions to their surroundings than the surroundings themselves.

“So, we have a couple of options,” Tony murmured, “but I’d like to know what you would want to do first… Sky's the limit.” Her smile crept back to her wry smirk as she slowly untangled her fingers from his, and leaned back to get a better look at him.

“I’d like to know my options,” the smirk grew a little wider. A wink to tempt him. She enjoyed the not knowing. She enjoyed the fact he’d surprised her. She was eager for more of it. Her finger slid up along his pant leg and tickled the top of his hand. “As it stands, I’m fine right here, unless you’ve got a group of travelling musicians hiding somewhere up ahead ready to jump out and surprise us?”

Traveling musicians would have been a good idea, but he had not planned on that. He honestly wondered if maybe they should forego the Go-Karts in favor of something more romantic.

Tony smiled as he didn’t want to show his hand so soon, “Maybe we’ll just see what happens?” Her smirk dwindled into calm, and serene comfort. She, once more, plucked his hand into hers, rested it into her lap, her other hand covering it for safety and nestled her head into his shoulder, her eyes looking out the side of the carriage at the slowly passing, interchangeable foliage.

“I like surprises.” She let out a soft sigh of comfort.

From the front seat, Leroy said, “We’re here.”

Tony looked around and didn’t see a single Go-Kart or miniature speed oval anywhere. He let out a groan and asked, “I thought we were, you know, going to the surprise?”

“Had a change of plans,” Leroy said, turning around in his seat brandishing a handgun, “Now how about you both just hand over your wallets and we make this easy. Make sure no one gets hurt.”

Tony’s heart sunk as he looked into Kassandrah’s eyes. He thought that maybe he could play it off as part of his surprise package. Maybe getting mugged in the middle of nowhere could count as excitement? He then considered the long walk they would have to make in the terrible heat. He finally snapped out of his thinking when Leroy tapped his temple with the firearm.
“Any time, really,” Leroy uttered, “How about you two love birds get on out of my carriage?”

Tony assisted Kassandrah as both of them disembarked from the carriage. Tony reached in and grabbed the Unicorn to ensure she would leave with her prize. Leroy got out of the carriage and met them around the side at gunpoint.

“She doesn’t have a wallet on her,” Tony said. He had taken a really good and possibly pervy look at her and come to the conclusion that she didn’t have room for a wallet anywhere. Tony offered up his wallet, “But here’s mine.”

Leroy took the wallet and put it right into his pocket, he kept them at gunpoint as he offered his hand again and demanded, “Jewelry. All of it.”

It was a language Kassandrah could at least understand. Not her first robbery at gunpoint, or the first hint of deceit from a place of initially presumed innocence. She lifted her left hand and slowly began sliding an array of rings from her fingers that had, up till that point, seemed like a far smaller quantity than they were in reality. Skull rings, rings with diamonds, sapphires, you name it slid off as she glared at the coachmen with her trademark coy smirk.

“They’re all fake, anyway.” They weren’t, and she grieved each one as she removed them and handed them over to his grubby mitts, followed by a solid silver pendant that was the hardest for her to part with.

Tony removed his watch and handed it over. It killed him that he had lead them right into a trap. He knew he had blown it with Kassandrah. He focused on getting her home safe.

The wallet, jewelry and everything associated with it wasn’t good enough for Leroy. Leroy eyed Kassandrah up, gazing at her like a hungry bear.

“Maybe I should take the girl too, huh?” Leroy snickered.

“Not without killing me, first,” Tony admitted.

Tony swallowed hard, preparing himself for death.

Leroy flashed a yellow toothed grin, “That can be arranged,” and he cocked the gun. Leroy let out a laugh, “I’m just a mugger, not a rapist. Fucking with you. I want the Unicorn, though.”

There it was. The dumbest fucking reason to die, but Tony wouldn’t have it.

“No,” Tony shook his head.

“This shooter here says yes,” Leroy added.

Tony shook his head again, “No.”

“You dumb som’bitch. You’d die for a stupid Unicorn?”

Tony nodded his head as he accepted his fate. Before Leroy could make a move, Tony leaped towards him and pushed his arm straight up. The gun didn’t fire as he struggled with Leroy. As soon as the altercation started, it ended. Leroy brought a strong arm down and slammed the butt of the gun right into Tony’s head. Tony fell like a ton of bricks as Leroy quickly lept into the carriage and made his getaway. Tony saw double as he clutched the Unicorn and soon found himself seeing two visions of Kassandrah hovering over him.

He shook his head, trying to gain clarity, “I saved the Unicorn,” he smiled. She stooped down with a hand instantly cupping the back of his head and raising it off the ground, her eyes full of mercy and sympathy as she knelt beside him and used her knees as a pillow to prop him up. She gently slid some hair from his eyes and massaged the angrily reddening bump on his head.

“Thank you, but you shouldn’t have.” She comforted, and looked down the road after the diminishing carriage in the distance. “You’ll get to see him again soon, anyway.”

Tony didn’t want to get up nor respond. He just wanted to lie there in her arms and feel her soft skin against him. He wanted to enjoy her scent and the kindness of her tone. He looked up into her eyes with her blonde hair flowing down towards him and fell in love.

“Do you want to name the Unicorn? Or just call him Unicorn. I think he could be, like, Nick, Alden, or Jamie,” Tony laughed, “The Unicorns. Great band. Love them.”

He wanted to tell her how he felt, but assumed it was lust mixed with infatuation and would only sour the experience. He swallowed down the thought. Her fingers caressed the lump on his head. She looked down at him thinking rather less about what name the Unicorn could have than why she had yet to flee this man’s company, or why their current state, seated on the side of a rocky road, didn’t seem to bother her. In fact, she frowned inwardly, this felt more comfortable than the carriage ride itself before the robbery and subsequent unpleasantness.

She leaned her head to one side and considered his question with more efficiency and focus, opting to neglect what her heart was saying.

“I don’t know… I suppose you could be their touring manager. You’d probably be good at it.” Her fingers softly traced the skin of his brow down his nose to his chin and, up his cheeks like she were memorizing his face with her fingers.

“What if I named him Tony, would that be too tacky? Seems like I only need one of those, anyway.”

Tony smiled, “I like it,” right before he passed out.

To be continued...