Eleanor's p.o.v
"Hey Chris, can we agree on something?" He briefly pulled his attention away from the road to look at me.
"What's that?"
"Can we agree to forget that night at the bar?" He chuckled lightly, glancing at me once again.
"What night would you be referring to? What bar? I have no idea what you're talking about Connors." It was my turn to laugh.
"Thank you." He nodded and the car lapsed into silence once again. Dinner had been a lot of fun. Chris had continued his game of twenty questions, ranging from what my favorite type of food was to what my deepest regret in life was. I chose not to answer some and he always respected that, moving on to the next question that popped into his mind. Overall the dinner felt very natural and easy. "So, when do I get to ask you questions?"
"I figured you'd just look up whatever you wanted to know." That made me a little sad to hear. It wasn't fair that he had to live his life assuming people would just look up what they wanted to know about him. Tonight made me feel special, and he deserved that feeling.
"Well, not me. I want to hear it straight from your mouth, but I'll start with this. What's something that I couldn't find out about you on the internet?" He pulled into the parking lot of my apartment building just as I was asking, and took his time turning the car off before looking at me.
"I've been waiting for someone to capture my attention with an act. There are so many women in Hollywood that catch you with a look, but that's so shallow and I didn't want that. I wanted to look someone in the eye after they did something that astounded me, and be able to say with confidence that that was someone I would gladly have a family with. Some people want love at first sight, but that isn't love, it's lust. I want love at first action."
"I know exactly what you mean. I've dated so many shallow guys, guys that I thought loved me, but in the long run just wanted what I could give them. Guys that were willing to play the long game just for bragging rights, and it sucked. I've been looking for a guy who could show me that they were different ever since." He nodded and we sat there for a few moments longer digesting what the other had said.
"May I walk you to your door?" I blushed at his chivalry, tempted to say something about him trying too hard to prove himself different, but in the end just shook my head.
"You don't have to do that. I'm 14 floors up, and more often than not the elevator isn't working. You still like me now, I don't want to jinx it." He laughed, but got out of the car with me anyway.
"I promise that walking up a few flights of stairs isn't going to change my opinion of you."
"What about a lot of flights of stairs?" He chuckled under his breath before grabbing my hand to pull me towards the building, releasing it when I started walking on my own.
"I'm not ready for our night to end. Besides, you still haven't told me what your favorite book is." I looked at him in disbelief. He was willing to walk up 14 flights of stairs just so he could hear what my favorite book is? I've thought it before, and I'll think it again, this man is something else.
"My favorite book is probably... you promise you won't laugh?"
"Of course."
"My favorite book is probably this old beat up copy of this children's book that my parents used to read to me every night for the longest time. I think it was Peter Rabbit, and it had these different textures in it for you to feel while you read about that animal. At the end there was a mirror for you to look at your nose, and I can remember them tapping my nose because the book asked if I had a small, cute nose like Peter Rabbit. It's silly, I know, you probably think I have the mentality of a four year old after I asked you to watch a Disney animated movie and told you my favorite book is meant for three year olds." He stopped in his tracks (I think we'd made it 6 floors at this point?) to look at me and smiled.
