That Awkward Third Date!

This is the third chapter of the Angela & Eric series. Here are the links to Part 1 & Part 2. Read on to find what happened next.

It had been two whole days since Eric and Angela spent that night together at his place. Eric had not seen her yet. They had been texting on and off, keeping the conversation light and avoiding the discussion of kisses and temptations as much as possible. Every now and then, Angela would drop in a term of endearment and make Eric feel lovelorn. Eric was half tempted to call out Angela for all the ‘mixed signals’ but he did not want to dig a hole for himself. 

On the third day, it was cloudy in the morning and by the time afternoon came, it started drizzling. Eric texted Angela asking her if she wanted to get wet in the rain. Enticing as the idea was, Angela opted out on account of her tender health lately. She suggested they have dinner together if the rain stopped. Not one to let an opportunity pass, Eric commented that unless she wanted to eat on the terrace or something, they could go to a restaurant ‘which has a roof’. Amused by his glibness, Angela agreed. 

It was pouring by the time Eric got off from work. Therefore, he left his bike in the office parking area and handed over his bag and bike keys to a colleague for safekeeping so that he could go out for his date. He called a cab and was at Angela’s place in a moment. The place Angela had suggested was Spice Cout, pretty nearby to her apartment and they reached there shortly. They scurried off to the entrance of the almost empty restaurant splashing around the water clogged on the floor outside the place. Once inside, they settled on a table that wasn’t centrally placed and started exploring the menu.

Eric tried his best not to address how he felt about Angela, but he failed and around half an hour into the evening, he blurted it out along with a confession of how much he’s missed her in the two days that they didn’t meet. Angela shook her head, having anticipated something like this coming. “You’re crazy, Eric”, she remarked, with a smile on her face. Eric ordered a dish of mushrooms and chicken tikka. Angela didn’t seem to like the former but appreciated the earthy taste of the latter. Comfortable conversations ensued.

By the time, they had wrapped up dinner, the rain had stopped and hence they decided to walk up to Angela’s place which was just around the corner. She asked Eric to call a cab and leave but he insisted on walking her home and then getting a cab. Their conversation moved from one thing to another, with Eric using every opportunity to point out how comfortable they were with each other to drive his point home. Angela just smiled and kept thinking about whether she was doing the right thing or not. Even if all that Eric had told her about the state of his marriage were true, it was still a legal contract, and being in a relationship with him was against everything she believed in. But here he was, a perfect gentleman, courteous and considerate, someone she could talk to - something very difficult to find, as Angela had found out from the four odd people she had gone out within the last year or so, which hadn’t led to a second date.

As if he read her mind, Eric commented on the ‘dilemma’ she must be facing. He compared feeling with an avalanche, something with a life of its own. “Once feelings are in motion, you just have to move with them, Angela”, Eric said, sombrely. They reached Angela’s place by this time and the cab he’d called was already waiting. Eric asked Angela if she’d like to come with him to his place. She smiled and said “no”. Saying goodbye to Angela was harder than Eric remembered and when the taxi drove away, he just peered from the back window to get the last glimpse of her. 

Moments later, Eric got a text from Angela that read, “I was wrong. I do wish I had come with you.” Eric’s heart started beating faster. He texted back asking if he should come back for her but she said it wouldn’t be prudent. And that was that for then. Twenty minutes later, when Eric reached his place, he realized that he was locked out. His bike keys, which he’d left with his colleague, also had his home key and it was too late to disturb them now. He tried breaking the lock but couldn’t. Sweaty from the ordeal, he texted Angela about the whole thing. She suggested that he should probably get a hotel room for the night. 

Eric booked a room at a four-star boutique hotel near his workplace and called a cab to go there. He texted Angela if she’d like to join him at the hotel. She replied, “Are you sure they’d allow that?” It thrilled him that her answer wasn’t an outright “no”. He told her he’d confirmed with the hotel that it was okay. She asked him to reach the hotel and check-in, which she packed some stuff in an overnight bag and came. He asked her to get him the largest t-shirt she had so he could wear that at night. Eric’s stomach kept tingling as he moved towards the hotel in the cab. There were several police barricades throughout the city due to the soft curfew situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic but no one seemed to stop him.

Eric reached the hotel and waited for Angela in the lobby as he did the check-in formalities. Angela called. Apparently, there was a barricade at the end of the lane where she lived and the police had stopped her, asking questions about where she was going, etc. In her nervousness, Angela had lied that she was going to the hotel as her place had some plumbing issues but the cops, seeing an opportunity to earn a bribe, asked her to call “whoever she was going to meet”, saying it with a derogatory undertone. Eric spoke to the cops firmly asking them what they wanted and soon settled on an amount. He transferred money to them as Angela wasn’t carrying cash on her. It was twenty minutes past midnight when she finally reached the hotel, shaken by the ordeal and feeling dirty from the way the cops had spoken to her. 

They spoke for a while when they went into the room and Eric tried to convince Angela that they were just trying to get a bribe and that she should not be beating herself up about it, having anticipated the state of her mind in that situation. Angela seemed to relax a little once in the room. Eric changed into the t-shirt she had gotten for him and he urged her to change into the sleepwear she brought for herself. Eric wondered at the fate of it all - Angela agreeing to come to stay with him at a hotel and then having been detained by corrupt cops, shamed for it. He wondered if the Gods were with him or against him. The thought of Greek & Trojan Gods came to his mind. But when Angela came out of the shower, in her shorts and tee, Eric couldn’t think of anything but how sublime that moment was. 

When they settled on the bed, which was too soft for Eric’s taste, Angela instinctively put her arms around his and cozied up to him. Eric’s arms seemed like the safest place in the world and Eric just wrapped his arm around her warm body and for that moment, everything was right where it needed to be. Eric kissed Angela’s forehead and she just moved up and kissed his lips. Eric felt overwhelmed by the closeness they shared. Angela, on the other hand, was experiencing a barrage of contradicting emotions. While on one hand, there was this undeniable attraction she felt for Eric, on the other hand, her conscience kept pricking her as his marriage was still not void yet. Thanks to the cop incident of that night, a part of her was telling her that maybe she should just give in to the temptations as the cops already thought she was a slut.

Unbeknownst to all the turbulence in Angela’s mind, Eric kept kissing her, running his hands over her body, touching, hugging, squeezing, and biting at her flesh, like a hungry child. Every now and then, Angela would make a feeble attempt to make him stop. And Eric would stop, for a moment, before he started on her again. “We can’t do this”, exclaimed Angela, and Eric tried to convince her that he did not want sex. He told her that he was well in control and she gawked at him incredulously because she was losing control with each touch and each caress. Eric kept on increasing the intensity of the foreplay till Angela could not take it anymore.

At one point, while Eric was over her and she was all naked, she grabbed onto his underwear and pulled it down, held his erection in a firm grip, and asked him to enter her. He shook his head and resisted. This seemed to wake her up from the reverie for a moment and she pushed him away. The very next moment, Eric pulled Angela close, and with a swift thrust, he was inside her. Angela moaned a little as Eric kissed her lips and grabbed her back while he made love to her. He had his eyes closed for some time as he savored the feeling and then when he opened his eyes, he saw the expression on Angela’s face. It was an expression of doubt and regret - and just like that Eric lost his erection. You see, for Eric, the consent was a turn on and the moment he felt like he didn’t have Angela’s consent, he went flaccid and it just felt terrible. 

Eric pulled away and as he did, Angela stopped him and they just locked in an embrace and Eric slept off in her arms, even as she lay awake for a few hours, tormented by her ‘error in judgment’. Early the following morning, when Eric woke up, Angel was getting ready to leave. She couldn’t even look him in the eyes as she felt dirty and had to leave. Eric started feeling like fish out of water when he realized she was leaving. He begged and pleaded for her to stay. He promised her that he would not touch her if that’s what would make her stay. She agreed to stay, still unsure as to why. He called up the reception and extended the stay for one more day and called up sick at work. Eric needed his day with Angela. 

Over room service, Angela told him the reason why she gave in the last night and how it made her feel dirty about herself. Eric told her he figured it out, and he apologized for being a part of it. Eric just sat next to Angela, telling her how she made him feel, telling her how she had no reason to feel bad about what happened. He promised her that they would move at a pace that worked for her. They talked about their childhood, their fears, and their aspirations and as the day passed, Angela gained back the comfort level that came so easily with Eric. There were times Eric would reach out to caress her cheeks but he would stop himself. Angela appreciated the self-control being demonstrated by Eric and she thought it was pretty impressive for a guy. They kept talking late into the night and for a moment, it felt like last night didn’t even happen. They fell asleep next to each other and tonight, both of them slept well.

The next morning, Angela left early as she had to work and Eric checked out later. He was half afraid that Angela would start obsessing over the events of the other night, but she kissed his forehead when she left and told him they were okay. They kept texting each other all day long. Angela was amazed at how Eric had managed to undo the awkwardness of the other night by just talking to her. She felt like she could just trust him and that feeling is stronger than the sexual bit. Sometime during the night, Eric had blurted out “I love you, Angela” and gotten awkward about it and asked her to ignore it. Angela couldn’t believe that it had been just ten days since the first date and here she was, feeling like she could rely on this guy, a feeling that had usually been so elusive for her in the past. 

Eric knew how he felt about this woman, who was almost a stranger, was real. He hated the fact that she was chalking most of it up to hormones. Even if they were hormones, he argued, they were still in him. “Too soon” seemed to be the only problem here, and yet Eric knew that what he felt for Angela could withstand the test of time. He just wished she could see it and trust: “Angela, right at this moment, if you think you can put an end to this, then please do. Erase me from your life, once and for all. It’s too late for me to act on it, but it’s not too late for you. Heartbreak for me was anyway imminent, better sooner than later. But if you stay, you need to evaluate this right now, for what it is going to become, because this thing between us will evolve into more. It is too compelling not to, and even you know this. And decide if you can handle what this might become.”

When she read the text, Angela just closed her eyes and asked her heart what she wanted to do. And for a moment, the world was quiet. The universe waited to see where this story would go.