Adrian

"How much longer, Adrian?" Sofia whines playfully.

I chuckle and look over at her practically bouncing in the passenger seat of the car. I don't think I've ever seen her this excited before and it's doing crazy things to my insides.

That and the fact that I'm equally excited and nervous, but I'm trying my hardest not to let it show. Especially the nervous part.

I'm finally taking her out on our first official date today. To be honest, I never thought this day would actually happen. But somehow, here we are, driving towards our destination on a Saturday afternoon just like a couple on a regular date would. It's just the two of us, out in the open, not having to hide anything, no interruptions whatsoever. It feels good ... and completely normal for a change.

"Not much longer. We're almost there," I respond, grabbing her hand across the console and kissing it.

She's been trying to get me to tell her where we're going all week, but I wanted to keep it a surprise. That and the fact that I didn't want to jinx it in case something went horribly wrong again. I'm actually taking her to the place I had originally planned on over eight months ago. For a second I thought it may be bad juju and I should come up with something else, but she's always wanted to do this and I know she's going to love it even though I'm scared shitless.

I finally pull up to the parking lot of the place and she looks around curiously. I know she'll spot it any second now, so I keep my eyes trained on her face as she looks out the window.

Suddenly she gasps. "We're going hang gliding?"

She turns around and looks at me in anticipation, and I can tell she's trying to hold her reaction.

"Yeah. Is that okay?"

Her face suddenly softens and her eyes become a bit watery. Oh shit! She hates it. Maybe she doesn't want to do this anymore. She told me years ago she always wanted to go hang gliding, but a lot of things have changed since then. Like what if she gets nauseous or something? Dammit, why didn't I think of that before?

"We don't have to. I mean, it was probably a bad idea. We can always go do something else," I tell her when she doesn't say anything.

"Adrian, are you kidding me? I love it!" she tells me leaning it to give me a big hug. "How did you know?"

Oh, thank god! "You told me once you wanted to do it," I shrug.

"I can't believe you remembered that. Thank you!" she says giving me several kisses on the cheek.

Wow, I don't think I'll ever get enough of this girl. "We haven't even gone yet," I chuckle.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go, silly!" she says, suddenly getting out of the car in a hurry.

I laugh and follow her to the reception as she practically drags me the entire way. The next hour passes by in a complete blur as the instructors prep us about the equipment and explain how everything will work as we'll each go separately with our own guide, and they strap all the necessary gear on us.

As time goes by my palms become sweaty. I'm slightly afraid of heights so I don't know how I'm exactly going to do this, and I especially don't know how I can continue to hide it from Sofia. But she's loving every second of this and already became best friends with all the guides here, so I know I have to suck it up and go through with it.

We head towards the runway and there's a group in front of us we have to wait for before it's our turn. As I see one of them take off, my knees buckle and suddenly I can't feel my legs.

"You okay, captain?" Sofia says hugging my waist. "You've been awfully quiet."

She makes me feel ten feet tall when she calls me that. Like I'm someone she looks up to. Like I'm a real leader who is in control. I want to be that person for her, but I'm being nothing like that at the moment. I gulp looking at the runway again. Shit, I can't believe they expect me to just run off this goddamn mountain into the abyss. Are they out of their minds?

"I'm fine. Let's just get this over with, yeah?" I say trying to smile.

Sofia giggles. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say Adrian Carter is a bit scared of heights. We don't have to do this if you don't want to," she tells me.

I sigh and study her beautiful face. Just looking at her relaxes me and takes some of the fear away. Maybe I'll just think of her the entire time and it'll get me through it.

"No, we're doing this," I tell her. There's no way I'm backing out and letting her down.

"You sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay, good. We're up next," she tells me giving me a kiss.

Already? Her guide comes up to her and tells her it's time for them to line up as she'll be going first.

She smiles at me excitedly. "Don't worry, Adrian. It's gonna be amazing. See you down there?"

Jeez, I can't believe she's the one comforting me during this. Shouldn't it be the other way around? She must think I'm the biggest wuss on the planet.

Suddenly I have the urge to declare my eternal love towards her in case I don't come out of this alive. But it's way too soon for me to tell her something like that. It's only our first freaking date!

Before she leaves, I quickly grab her and do the next best thing I can think of. I kiss her meaningfully, hoping she'll somehow get the message. Maybe I should write it down somewhere so she'll at least know in case I die. She deserves to know.

"Okay, turtle doves. You'll have plenty of time for that later," I hear one of the guides say.

I reluctantly let go of her and before I know it she's on the runway taking off with her instructor towards the precipice as I stare in stupefaction.

"Wow, dude. You got it bad. Can't blame you though," my instructor says laughing behind me. His name is Javier but everyone calls him Javi.

"Yeah, you don't have to remind me, Javi," I tell him. "Listen, is there any way I can leave a note or something for her in case we don't make it?"

He lets out a belly laugh. "I've got a better idea. Why don't you tell her yourself when we get to the bottom?"

"Hmm. Yeah, you would think that might be easier."

"C'mon. Let's go then. We don't want to keep your girl waiting," he responds.

As we approach the runway and take off, I realize I'm no longer scared. It's like I have a purpose now, and my mission is to now make it to the bottom so I can tell Sofia how much she means to me.

The ride is exhilarating. I literally feel like I'm flying and it's like I suddenly don't have a worry in the world. The view is spectacular and it's such a peaceful feeling to be soaring and gliding in the air like this. It's completely liberating. I can easily see how people can get addicted to this.

Before I know it, we've landed at the bottom of a field. I have to say it was a bit of a bumpy landing, but I'll take it either way. I've barely taken my gear off, when I see Sofia running excitedly towards me at full speed, her blond hair blowing in the wind. I never expected to see her like this. So utterly happy and carefree.

I make my way towards her with the biggest smile on my face. She jumps on me mid-air and this time I'm completely prepared for it. I easily pick her up as she throws her arms around my neck and wraps her legs around my waist. God, it's like she was made for me.

"Adrian, that was incredible!" she beams.

"You're incredible," I tell her as I bring her face down to kiss her.

I hear cheers erupting around us and people starting to clap in the background, but I block it all out as I lose myself in this incredible girl in my arms.

Sofia breaks the kiss and leans her forehead against mine. "Maybe we should clear out of the landing area," she tells me.

I grin at her and settle her down on her feet. There's a photographer near us and I see her put her camera down.

"Sorry guys, I couldn't resist," she says somewhat apologetically.

"Did you get any good ones?" I chuckle.

"Pretty sure I did," she responds.

We make our way towards a waiting area with some benches where there are several people gathered. Most people are looking at video of the ride or waiting around for their pictures. They told us they would be filming and taking pictures of us and it's obviously how they make even more money out of this.

We sit down on one of the benches next to two other young guys, and the photographer that was taking our pictures also joins us.

"That was seriously hot," one of the guys tells us. His friend punches him in the arm and gives him a look. "What? It's true, bro."

Sofia laughs and I scoot her closer next to me and wrap an arm around her. "Thanks, I guess."

"Was that your first time?" the same guy asks us.

"Yeah. First timers over here," I tell him. "What about you guys?"

"Nah, we've been doing this for a while. I've lost count already," he explains. "I'm Joel by the way and this is David."

"I'm Adrian and this is Sofia," I respond proudly. It feels nice to introduce ourselves together like this, even if it is just to strangers.

The photographer pipes up at the table all of a sudden. "Wow. This is the money shot right here," she says excitedly. She turns the camera around to let us see the picture and my eyes instantly widen.

"Holy shit, that is good." It's an amazing photo of us and I instantly need to have it. I have my arms tightly wrapped around Sofia's body and we're looking at each other with lustful expressions just as we are about to kiss. In the background you can see the hang glider as we stand in front of it in the middle of the field and the sun is shining down on us.

Sofia bites her lip as she looks at me and I can tell she likes it too. Hell, I'm getting kind of turned on just by looking at it.

The photographer shows the photo to Joel and David. "I told you, man. You didn't believe me," Joel says.

"I know, right?" the photographer says. "Did you notice the tension in his arms?" she points out to them and they agree. "It's like he can't wait to –"

"Can we get a copy of that?" I interrupt her. Okay, this just got a little bit weird and I don't need them analyzing my body reactions towards Sofia.

"Of course. I'll give you guys the entire file."

"Awesome, thanks."

I look at Sofia and she's blushing. I kiss the top of her head as I settle her on my lap.

"Seriously, you guys are adorable," the photographer says. "Have you ever considered modeling as a couple before?" she asks.

I laugh. "I don't think we have, no."

"Well, you certainly would make a killing. I can tell you that much. Especially boudoir photography, that's really in right now."

"Boudoir?" I ask suspiciously.

Sofia giggles. "It's like bedroom type of pictures," she explains.

How does she know about this? "Like porn?"

"No!" she laughs. "They're like artistic pictures and mostly dressed. I mean, yeah it's usually just in your underwear or semi-nude."

"Hmm. I do like the sound of that. Tell you what? Once my soccer career fails, we can do that instead. What do you say, darling?" I ask her.

"Deal. But I don't think that will happen anytime soon," she smiles at me.

"We can practice in the meantime. Maybe we can do that for our second date," I wink at her. Now that I think about it, this boudoir idea keeps getting better and better.

"Wait, this is your first date?" David asks with his mouth open.

Oh shit, I completely forgot about them. "Yup."

"Get out of here. You've obviously known each longer though, right?" Joel asks.

"Yeah, almost four years."

"Dude, what took you so long?"

I laugh, finding it funny that these people are so interested in us. "Trust me, it wasn't by choice. Sofia was still pretty young when we first met, so I waited until she was older to ask her out properly."

"Aww, that's so sweet," the photographer responds. "You got any brothers?" she asks me.

"No, sorry. I'm an only child," I respond a bit too seriously. I know I should take it as a compliment, but I've always hated that question because I wish the answer were yes.

"Well that's a total shame," she says shaking her head. "Listen, I'll be right back with a USB so you can take this home. I'll put the video on there too."

"Okay, thanks."

I honestly cannot wait to go through the rest of the pictures once we get home. We will have to be careful with them though. It's not like anyone knew we had gone out together. I had said I had to run some errands and Sofia was supposed to be at the mall or something.

Once the photographer comes back, we thank her and say our goodbyes. That was certainly enough socializing for me and I'm ready to just hang out with Sofia for the rest of the day.

"You ready to go home?" I ask her as we approach the car. "Maybe we can grab some food on the way?" We have about an hour drive back so I don't want to bring her home too late.

She looks at me hesitantly. "Can we maybe hang out in the car for a bit? We can watch the hang gliders from here."

"Yeah, sure." Before she's able to get in the car, I lift her up on the hood of the jeep and jump over afterwards. The view will be much better from out here.

"Like in the movies, huh?" she says resting comfortably against the windshield.

I lie down next to her and interlace our fingers together as we watch the hang gliders across the sky. I can't believe we just did that. It looks even scarier from here.

"Are you feeling okay?" I meant to ask her earlier but she was so excited the whole time I forgot about it.

"Yeah, why?"

"I was afraid you might get nauseous or something."

"No, the pills I've been taking have been helping a lot with that," she smiles.

"That's great, Sofia. So, did you have a good time?" I ask her.

"That was the best first date ever, Adrian."

"Well, I did have over eight months to plan it," I tell her jokingly.

She frowns, not looking very happy about my comment.

"Sorry, didn't mean it like that. That was a bad joke."

"No, it's okay. I just still feel bad about it."

"Sofia, I don't care about that anymore. We're on the date now and that's all that matters to me," I tell her honestly.

"Yeah. You're right," she sighs. "Sometimes I still can't believe you asked me out. Even that time at the movie theater, I thought you were so out of my league."

"Sofia, are you crazy? It was the other way around. God, I was so nervous that time. I swore you were going to say no."

"Why did you think that?" she asks curiously.

"I thought you had something going on with Vincent Alfaro back then."

"With Vincent? No way. That was just a drunken mistake on Nico's and my eighteenth birthday."

"Don't remind me. That was one of the worst days of my life. I wanted to ask you out then and I totally blew it," I tell her.

"Really? How so?"

"Yeah. I had the whole speech planned and everything. I remember it clearly, too. I had been waiting all night to find the perfect moment and all of a sudden I see you sitting on a couch by yourself and all I had to do was go sit down next to you and ask you. But I chickened out so bad and had to go outside to calm down and give myself a pep talk. When I came back in, you were gone and then I found out you had gone off with Vincent somewhere and I think I almost died. So yeah, not a good day for me."

"I'm sorry, Adrian. I had no idea. I don't know why I even left with him. I had just found out that I was going to fail two classes and I was feeling miserable even though it was my birthday. I thought maybe I could just forget about all that but he turned out to be a total jackass."

"I hated him. He was bragging about how you guys slept together the next day and I nearly punched his face in. Nico officially unfriended him that day and never spoke to him again. That was another reason I was afraid to ask you out because I thought he would do the same to me if he found out I liked you and I would lose his friendship."

"Wait, what? Vincent said we slept together?" Sofia asks incredulous.

"Oh, sorry. Guess I wasn't supposed to know that."

"That little prick! We didn't sleep together. He barely made it to second base. He was being extremely pushy and it just felt wrong so I stopped it."

"He lied?"

"Apparently. God, why do men have to be so disgusting sometimes?" she says appalled. "Not you. Or my brothers. I guess not all men, but still. What the hell?"

"I don't know, Sofia. I can go find him on Monday and kick his ass if you want."

"No, don't even bother. He's not worth it," she says shaking her head. "So you actually believed I had slept with him? And still asked me out after? I would never randomly sleep with someone that I wasn't in a serious relationship with."

"I'm sorry, Sofia. I shouldn't have believed that," I tell her feeling embarrassed. "But yeah, of course I still wanted to be with you. I was so mad at myself and I think it pushed me even more to finally ask you." Come to think of it, I don't know why I was so quick to believe him. Sofia wasn't like that at all. But he just kept going on about it the next day and I wasn't thinking straight, consumed with jealousy. "Wait, so you've never slept with anyone before?"

"Adrian. You know that already," she says blushing.

I do? "How am I supposed to know that?" I ask confused.

"Are you kidding me right now? When you asked me if I was freaking pregnant and at the hospital. Or have you forgotten already?" she asks slightly irritated.

"Oh. I thought you meant that you hadn't had sex as in recently. Not ever."

She sighs heavily. "Well, in case it wasn't mortifying enough the first two times, yes, I'm a virgin. Sorry to disappoint you," she says lifting up her hands.

"Sofia, I'm sorry. I really didn't know. And it's not a disappointment at all. It's the exact opposite," I tell her trying not to grin at the discovery.

"I thought guys preferred girls who were experienced," she tells me.

Wow, she really has no idea. I quickly shake my head. "Believe me, it makes it more special. Just the fact that you're willing to trust someone with that is a huge honor," I tell her pulling her into a hug. The prospect of her choosing to do that with me makes my stomach flip. "I didn't mean to embarrass you about this, darling. If you want you can ask me all sorts of embarrassing questions to make it even."

"So, you've been with a virgin before?" she immediately asks me.

"Yeah, the first girl I was with. She was also my first."

"How old were you?"

"Sixteen. It wasn't very good, to be completely honest. I think most first times probably aren't. Neither of us really knew what we were doing. I mean we liked each other at the time and everything, but it was way too rushed and we probably should have waited longer."

"So she was your girlfriend? Were you in love with her?"

"On and off. Like it never fully clicked, you know? I thought I was at the time, but when I moved here I realized I wasn't."

"How did you know?"

I shrug, unsure if I should tell her she was the reason. All it took was one look at her and I instantly knew whatever I felt before her wasn't even remotely close to love. I want to tell her, but it'll probably scare her off. "Ask me again in a couple of months," I end up saying.

"Okay, I'll try to remember," she says looking at me skeptically. "So how many girls have you slept with?"

I grin at her, knowing that she's never going to believe me. "You really wanna know that?"

She thinks about it a while. "Well, maybe just like a ballpark figure."

"It's much less than you probably think," I chuckle.

"Like 50?" she asks curiously, scrunching her forehead.

"That's your less than you probably think number?" I ask unbelieving. "No wonder you think I'm a man-whore."

"I'm sorry! I have no idea what an average number would be for a 21 year old."

"I don't know either but that seems extremely high! Unless you're like Hugh Hefner or someone like that," I laugh shaking my head. "I'm talking single digits here, Sofia."

"Nine?"

I shake my head again. "I can count them on one hand."

"Five?"

Okay, this is just becoming hysterical. "I love how you immediately go for the highest number within the range I give you. The answer is two."

"Two?!" she yells, bolting upwards. I have to actually grab her arm to prevent her from falling over.

"Stop joking around, Adrian."

"I'm not, that's the truth. I swear."

"That's not even possible. I'm clearly not a math genius, but just your first girlfriend and the two girls from the club make three."

"I didn't sleep with either of the girls from the club. That was just messing around," I explain.

"Wait, is today April fool's or something?" she suddenly asks.

"That's not for a whole other month," I laugh. "I'm being completely honest here. Yes, I admit I've hooked up with a lot of girls in one way or another, but I've only had actual sex with two. Even the second one was a mistake I shouldn't have let happen, but there's not much I can do about it now."

I grimace at the memory of getting plastered on a particularly bad day and having drunken sex with a girl I wouldn't be able to point out in a lineup. At least I was smart enough to remember to use a condom. Even so I went to get tested afterwards to make sure I was clean just to be safe. Turns out I was, but felt far from it.

"Okay, okay. Not saying I'm not shocked as hell, but I believe you," Sofia says letting out a big sigh. "I think I've had enough of the embarrassing sex talk for a while," she admits shyly.

"Yeah, me too. At least when it involves other people. I'd rather forget about all that, but I'm glad we had this conversation because we clearly had some misconceptions about each other."

Sofia laughs. "Clearly. Damn, Adrian. I always thought of you like the bad boy soccer player, but turns out you're this incredibly sweet puppy dog inside."

"Only for you. I do have a reputation to uphold, you know?" I joke. "Ready to go home now? Maybe get started on those boudoir pictures?" I tease. I definitely need to show her more of my bad boy side if she's thinking I'm a puppy now.

"Yeah, well you know what they say, right?" she says.

"And what would that be, darling?"

"Less talk and more action," she teases back.

God, now I really can't wait to get her home and kiss her senseless.