Chapter 50
To say that we were both the most underdressed people in the restaurant for dinner service should have made me uncomfortable. In fact if I had been with anyone else other than Tony I probably would have been turned away at the door.
As soon as Tony was about to walk in the Maitre d’ immediately ran to the door to open the door for him.
He didn’t ask if he had a reservation, or tell him that we had to wait a few minutes while they set our table.
In fact they had cleared an entire section of the restaurant for us and already had a bottle of wine set out to cool.
“Come here often?” I asked Tony as we took a seat.
“Is it that obvious?” Tony asked.
“They practically rolled out the red carpet for you. In fact I think they have one for you in storage they can pull out if you ask nicely.” I said making Tony smirk.
“It’s a good place to do business.” He said. “And they make the best molten chocolate lava cakes.”
“I do have a chocolate craving.” I said. “Is this one of those places where the chef decides what everyone eats or did they forget our menus?”
“I went ahead and ordered for us.” Tony said.
“In my universe that is considered a red flag.” I said.
“Red flag?” Tony asked.
“Like a warning or clue of a bad sign, character flaw…” I said.
“I know what a red flag is. What other flags have I raised?” Tony asked.
“Oh where do I start?” I teased.
“Besides that I’m incredibly handsome?” He teased.
“And oh so humble.” I retorted. “Hm… the fact that you build weapons for fun but you also care about the environment so that kind of cancels each other out.”
“I did save the world.” Tony said in his defense. “Flew a nuke through a wormhole.”
“I think you’ve mentioned that once or twice.” I said.
“I caught you on the way down…” He said.
“This is sounding familiar. Weren’t you unconscious?” I asked.
“Even more impressive.” Tony said.
“If you say so.” I said. “There’s also your contact list of past flings and one-night stands.”
“Deleted.” Tony said.
“You did not.” I said.
“After the Miss March fiasco.” Tony said firmly.
“That was over a year… months… it was a while ago.” I said still trying to get the hang of where exactly I was in the timeline.
“I wasn't planning on using that list anymore.” Tony said.
“That’s good to know.” I said. I was not going to mention how I secretly wanted to look through that list to see if he had hooked up with any celebrities… just cause.
“Anything else?” Tony said.
“You do have quite a rap sheet… I think I heard someone say they saw you doing some light breaking and entering earlier today.” I said.
“It’s not breaking and entering if you own the building.” Tony said.
“Where I’m from if you try to break in anywhere, even if you own the building there’s a 50/50 chance you’re going to get shot.” I countered.
“You’re kidding.” Tony said.
“Ask Clint, Natasha or Steve.” I retorted before our waiter came back with our food both of our plates were coved with silver cloches.
Tony didn’t give anything away just smiled at me.
“Thank you for your patience, Chef Marcel was elated to accept your request.” He said.
“That’s why he’s my favorite chef.” Tony said as they lifted the silver domes from our plates to reveal two perfect bacon cheeseburgers with a side of half fries half onion rings accompanied by homemade ranch.
“Enjoy.” The waiter said excusing himself.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Really?” I asked.
“You were right, our first date…” Tony started.
“Not a date.” I corrected.
“Not a date.” He agreed. “So this, our real first date is my do over.”
“Half onion rings half fries, you even remembered the ranch.” I said.
“Why would you only want one when you could have both.” Tony said quoting me as we both picked up our burgers.
“Cheers.” I said before we each took our first bite.
“Well?” Tony asked.
“You sure know your burgers.” I said. “How do you find these places?”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this yet but you don’t really get to eat much during business lunches or dinners.” Tony said. “Back when I was running the company when Pepper would pre-order dinner for the meeting I’d also have her the kitchen prep a burger to be waiting in the car for the ride home.”
“I need to remember that for next time.” I said.
“Or we could just go out somewhere after.” He said.
“Next date? How do you know you’re getting a second one?” I teased.
“Just a feeling.” He said.
“Well as far as dates go this one is already in the top five.” I said.
“We’re not even halfway though dinner, the competition didn’t raise the bar much.” Tony said.
“Oh, they’re memorable but not in the way you’d expect.” I answered.
“There’s a story.” Tony said.
“There are many stories.” I said.
“Come on…” Tony said. “Tell me.”
“Should we be talking about my past dates on our first date?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.” Tony offered.
“You sure you want to know?” I asked. “You didn’t take the Will thing so great.”
“You didn’t take the Miss March thing so well either.” Tony countered.
“Touche.” I said.
“Alright what if I go first?” Tony offered.
“Okay. Tell me what’s the worst date you’ve ever been on?” I asked.
“Worst date I've ever been on… uh freshman year at MIT.” Tony started. “There was this girl in my intro to theoretical physics class. Her name was… Kelsey and she was…”
Tony stopped himself remembering where he was.
“Nice.” He self-corrected.
“And obviously very pretty.” I said amused at how overly cautious Tony was being.
“I don’t really remember.” Tony said.
“Uhuh.” I said not buying it at all.
“She was a typical sorority girl.” He said.
“Kappa or Tri-Delt?” I asked. It had to be one or the other.
“Kappa.” Tony answered without hesitation. “Anyway… I think you know I skipped a few grades and started college a bit early.”
“15.” I asked remembering from the movies.
“Yeah. So I was a couple of years younger than the rest of the class. When I finally asked her out I decided we should grab dinner and go see a movie.” Tony said.
“Oh… dinner and a movie. Not a great first date. There’s barely anytime to talk.” I said.
“At the time I wasn't really interested in talking.” Tony said making me give him a look. “I was 15 and it was my first date with a college girl and she was a kappa… they had a bit of a reputation.”
“They have a reputation in every universe.” I informed him.
“We get to the theater and I try to buy tickets for Friday the 13th but it was rated R…” Tony said.
“Oh no.” I cringing on his behalf. There was only one way this could go.
“The guy at the ticket stand wouldn’t sell me the tickets and I couldn’t ask Kelsey to buy the tickets so I had to buy tickets for the only other movie they were showing at that time.” Tony said. “It was a movie about a cartoon duck… I didn’t get a second date or any date with any girl on campus for a while after that.”
“That’s actually not that bad.” I said.
“No the movie was pretty bad, I think it’s one of the worst movies ever made.” He said.
“Did the duck sing?” I asked.
“That probably could have helped.” Tony answered with a chuckle. “Alright your turn.”
“You really want to know about my worst date?” I asked remembering how much it bugged him to know about the one date I had with Will.
“Yes and you can’t use Will.” Tony said.
“Worst date I’ve ever been on… had to have been Isaac Miller in 9th grade.” I said. “My first date ever.”
“Your first date was the worst date you’ve ever been on?” Tony said.
“I stopped dating for years after this date because it was so bad.” I said. “So some back story, all throughout middle school and part of high school I had braces. My dad cheaped out on my first orthodontist so I was in headgear for middle school but the summer before high school that orthodontist lost his license, there was a trial… besides the point.”
“Headgear like…” Tony said.
“It was practically a chastity belt but on my head.” I said making him laugh.
“Sorry.” Tony said trying to cover up his laugh with a cough. “I love your smile.”
“You can thank my second orthodontist for that. He fixed everything the other guy screwed up with regular wired braces sans headgear.” I answered. “Anyway I start high school, I was no longer the freak with the headgear and there are kids from other schools that never saw me with the headgear on. So I met Isaac in Biology, we got paired up to dissect a frog together. A couple of weeks later he asked me out. We met up on a Saturday at the local arcade, emptied out all the quarters he had in his piggy bank and spent most of the afternoon playing dance dance revolution and skee-ball before we went out for chili cheese fries.”
“Chili cheese fries? I can see where this is going.” Tony said.
“Trust me whatever you’re thinking it’s worse.” I said. “We get to Sal’s and I stick with regular fries because you know, braces. Isaac opts for extra loaded chili cheese fries with extra onions.”
“Extra onions, this guy obviously doesn’t have any experience.” Tony said.
“We were 13, neither of us had any experience.” I said. “The food was good and we finish off the date by going to the park and hang around the swings. It was great, until he went in for a kiss.”
“Onion breath.” Tony cringed.
“No, I think I forgot to mention that Isaac also had braces.” I said.
“Oh no.” Tony said.
“Yeah.” I answered. “Our braces ended up locking together and we got stuck. Neither of us had a cellphone so after we found a payphone and called Isaac’s mom to come and get us we had to sit together in the back seat of his mom’s van for over three hours while she drove around trying to find an orthodontist open late on a Saturday to separate us while I stayed up close and personal with Isaac and his extra onions.”
“That’s… “ Tony said barely containing his laughter. “That’s better than anything I could have imagined. Three hours?”
“Probably longer. I was the cautionary tale in that dental office for life. They hung up our photo at their reception desk.” I said.
“I would pay to see that photo.” Tony said.
“Never going to happen.” I answered. “You know there’s one thing from the movies I've always wanted to know if it truly happened or if you were just joking around.”
“I don’t like where this is going.” Tony said.
“This is a judgement free zone…“ I reassured him.
“This is a test…” He said.
“I have to ask Tony.” I said.
“Uh am I allowed to plead the fifth?” Tony said.
“Spring Break…” I started.
“You want to know about the video. There was a lot of Yaeger Meister being passed around and college is the time to try new things.” He started rambling.
“Spring Break 1987.” I clarified making him freeze. “But we’re definitely circling back to that video thing later.”
“Spring Break 87?” Tony said before he laughed. “Oh man that was… how much did I say in the movie?”
“Rhodey was there and you mentioned an Ivan.” I answered.
“Ivan.” Tony laughed. “Okay so, my parents had a place in Miami so it was my last spring break before graduation and I wanted to go big…”
I cannot remember the last time I laughed as much as I did listening to Tony’s story. I was laughing so hard I actually fell out of my chair. Despite that it was still the best date I had ever been on.
After we split a molten chocolate lava cake we took a walk around a nearby park.
“Would you rather have Thor’s long luscious locks or Steve’s pecs?” I asked.
“Really?” Tony said.
“There’s no shame in admitting that you wish you had Thor’s hair. We’ve all had that thought at one point or another.” I said.
“Cap has a hard time finding shirts that fit.” Tony said. “So yeah Thor’s hair. Would you rather have to spend a day trapped in an elevator with the person you hate most in the world or spend the rest of your life only being able to listen to the most annoying song you can think of for the rest of your life?”
“It depends what’s the song?” I asked.
“Your least favorite song ever.” Tony said.
“So one night in the elevator with the worst person ever or only being able to hear ‘What does the fox say?” Whenever I was to listen to music or a song comes up on the radio.” I said. “That’s a tough call but I’d go with the annoying song.”
“That’s the song you’d listen to for the rest of your life?” Tony said.
“Jamie went through a phase where that was the only song he liked. He’d listen to it on a loop.” I explained. “It drove Theo and I crazy. Thankfully he grew out of it but it still holds the record for worst childhood obsession.”
“It could have been that Barney.” Tony said.
“We never let him see or hear about that stupid purple dinosaur for a reason.” I answered.
“There’s the car.” Tony said.
“That was the whole park? I thought it would take us longer.” I said.
“Time flies when you’re having fun.” He said. “If you’re not too tired, I could walk you home. You’re not that far from here.”
“A couple of blocks.” I said. “I don’t mind…”
“Jarvis, have the car meet me at Hanna’s.” Tony said.
“Of course sir, enjoy your night.” Jarvis answered.
“That was presumptuous of him.” Tony said.
“Takes after his creator.” I tease.
“I didn’t mean we’d… it’s the first date…” He said.
“Exactly and we’re taking it slow.” I finished for him.
“Yes slow, slow is good.” Tony said taking my hand
“Slow is great.” I seconded. “We are right where we need to be.”
“And we finally made it to HR.” Tony said.
“Who doesn’t love paperwork?” I retorted. “Would you rather have to do your own paperwork for the rest of your life or never be able to leave your lab again?”
“Depends, am I alone in the lab or do I get visitors?” Tony asked.
“When has anyone ever left you to lock yourself in your lab?” I retorted. “Someone has to make sure you eat, drink something other than coffee, sleep…”
“You make me sound like a Gremlin.” Tony said.
“Gremlins are cute.” I teased.
“If you visit me, I’ll take the lab. Hope that isn’t something that happens in the future because it’d really put a damper on our next date. I was thinking Paris, or Florence, you like Italian food right?”
“I love Italian food, but I will say this is going to be a tough act to follow.” I answered.
“As long as I don’t make the worst date list.” Tony said as we got to my building.
“Definitely not on the worst date list.” I confirmed. “This is it.”
“Yeah.” He said. “I still don’t like you living outside of the tower on your own.”
“Tony.” I warned.
“But there are perks.” Tony said.
“There are. Not sure we’re talking about the same perks.” I said.
“If we lived in the same building I’d have to get in an elevator after instead of driving back which would make this part not as fun.” He said.
“Which would be?” I asked.
“Something like this.” He said letting go of my hand to put both his arms on my wait to pull me in for a kiss and just like last time… fireworks.
Why did I wait so long to go to HR?
“Oh that part.” I said smiling. “Best date ever.”
“Yeah?” He asked.
“Yeah.” I said before we kissed again. I put my arms around Tony’s shoulders, my hands on the nape of his neck. “I’m looking forward to the next one.”
“I’ll get right on it.” He said giving me one last peck before letting me go. “Good night.”
“Night.” Tony said waiting for me to walk into the lobby before he got into his car and drove off.
Best Date Ever.