Artem

I had been floating high and grinning like a loon ever since I had asked Star to go on a date with me. I couldn't believe she had said yes. That and the kiss had been the highlights of her birthday party. At least for me. Oh, and let's not forget how beautiful she looked when she came walking in wearing that dress. I felt my heart stop from the beauty of that sight.

However, now I was busy getting everything set up for my date. I didn't want things to run too late. And I wanted to make sure that she felt safe and secure. So for that matter, I was not taking her anywhere in town with the chance of running into those disgusting things that called themselves her family.

My whole plan for tonight consisted of me taking her to the private beach house that my parents had over in the city. Well, the edge of the city. I was going to cook for her and we were going to have a private picnic on the beach. We would watch the sun set and maybe even stick our feet into the water. It was going to be a beautiful and romantic night.

I had been preparing for this for two days now. I had gone to clean the beach house with the others and I got all the ingredients for dinner yesterday. We would be doing the cooking for dinner together actually, which was something that she had seemed interested in doing when we talked before.

I had everything set and ready by mid afternoon. We had a slight drive to get to the house and we were going to be cooking before we ate so I didn't want to wait too much longer before we went. The sun would set a little after eight and if I wanted us to be done eating by that time then I had to hurry.

I was walking toward the hall with about three billion butterflies swarming in my gut. What if she changed her mind? What if she decides she doesn't want to go after all? GAH! These negative thoughts just weren't going away.

I knocked, hesitantly, on her door after I crossed the hall from my door. That was when the butterflies multiplied by ten at least. What if I am wearing something completely off from what she is wearing and she hates it. What if she gets mad that I didn't tell her it was a casual date? I mean, I was wearing a casual styled burgundy button up with a white t-shirt underneath and a pair of black cargo shorts and black tennis shoes. It was really casual, would she get mad if she dressed up?

'STOP IT!' I yelled the words into my head while I had my mini freak out, bringing the internal panic from a ten down to about a four. 'She isn't like that. She's sweet, and kind, and perfect, and beautiful...….. and sexy.'

I almost added that last word out loud when she opened the door. She was standing there looking like a goddess or something. Long slender legs plain for me to see, a low cut tank top perfectly framing her beautiful chest, her hair braided back neatly so that her slender, delicious looking neck was on full display. I had to try really, really, really hard not to react to the way she looked physically.

"H-hi Star." God I had to be grinning like an idiot. "You look amazing." She blushed then, turning an adorable shade of pink.

"Thank you."

"Shall we go then?" I asked her while holding my hand out for her to take. She looked nervous but she took it nonetheless.

I linked my arm with hers then, pulling us in closer to each other and I noticed that she didn't look dazed, glassy eyed, or anything like that. She just looked happy, albeit embarrassed. We walked like that all the way down to the garage where I helped her into the pickup truck I was using for tonight's trip. Mostly because it was tall and I felt the need to help her up and down from the vehicle.

We chatted a little about random things during the drive but for the most part we rode in silence. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence so it was fine, I think.

When we arrived at the beach I looked to the side so I could see her reaction. It was just like I had expected. Her eyes lit up, a smile spread across her face, and I could see the joy radiating from her. I had hoped to see her this happy, this excited to see the ocean for the first time. That radiant look made her beauty shine from her ten times stronger, and that is saying something with how beautiful she already was.

"Artem, that is so beautiful." She was leaning forward now, looking out at the water as I made my way to the beach house. "Is that the ocean?" She sounded so curious, so lively that I  couldn't help but grin back at her.

"Yes, it is."

"We're at the ocean? This is where we were going?"

"I wanted to have a picnic on the beach with you and watch the sun as it sets over the water."

"That sounds beautiful." She looked at me with wide, happy eyes.

"Not nearly as beautiful as you." I couldn't stop the words from coming out of my mouth, and the minute they did she blushed again.

"I'm not." The words were a whisper, barely audible, but I heard them.

"You're more beautiful than anything I have ever seen." I meant that too, she was gorgeous and lovely. And I would spend all of eternity telling her that if I had to.

I parked the truck in the garage and walked around to help her down out of the seat. I had taken her hand to perform the action but I wasn't letting go just yet. I used that hold on her hand to guide her into the house.

It was a simple enough beach house, mostly white interior with light natural wood finished all over. There was a large living room that opened up into the eat-in kitchen. There was a half bath down stairs and a study that we used mainly for storage purposes. Upstairs there were three bedrooms and two bathrooms. We shouldn't need the upstairs though, we were only here for dinner.

I showed her around the spaces we were going to use, letting her get more acquainted before we got started on the next part of the date. She was looking around in awe. Having not seen very many different houses in person, it was all probably really new to her.