Christian saved the contact and couldn’t believe that actually worked. It had been years since he had been on any dates because his hero work took up so much of his free time post law school.

Avery waved goodbye to him as he dazedly made his way out the door. He had a bit of a hard time concentrating on work after that but he muddled through as best he could.

When he got home Liam looked up at him expectantly. “So did you talk to her?”

“Yes. We’re going out on Friday,” he said in disbelief.

“I knew you weren’t completely hopeless deep down! Just make sure you don’t bore her to death on the date and you’ll be golden.”

Unfortunately, that was a very real concern. He had no idea what Avery liked or what she would find interesting. At the very least he needed to take her somewhere decent so if worse came to worst she would enjoy the food.

Christian wasn’t good at this. Handling villains was worlds apart from handling women.

He finally got a text back from her to let him know she had his number. ‘Got it! Where should we go and when? I’ll need time to get out of my uniform at the very least’

‘I can make a reservation for seven. Will that give you enough time?’

‘Let’s do 7:30 to be safe’

‘7:30 works. What kind of food do you like?’ he asked.

Her reply was dismaying. ‘I’m cool with pretty much anything. Surprise me’

Christian wasn’t good at coming up with things like this on his own! That didn’t narrow things down at all. He was going to have to check around and see what places were good but not too much for a first date that would take a reservation with two days’ notice.

He sighed. This was stressing him out much more than the villains usually did, excluding Nox. That guy was more stressful but only by a hair.

===

When Friday rolled around Christian was a nervous wreck. It had been such a long time since he went out with anyone that he was desperate not to screw this up. He wasn’t sure he had panicked this much on his first date in high school.

He didn’t want to wear a full-on suit to a restaurant that didn’t have a formal dress code so he wore dark wash jeans and a blue button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He made sure to put on cologne too but was careful not to overdo it so Avery wouldn’t choke by standing near him.

“Chris, you’re making ME antsy. Chill,” Liam said in annoyance as he paced around the living room.

“But what if she doesn’t like me anymore after going out with me?” he fretted.

“Then you’ll die.”

Christian scowled at him. “Seriously?”

“Just keeping it real. Honestly, you’re not that bad when you manage to relax so calm down and get out of here before you work yourself up into a frenzy. Do some loop-de-loops or something to work your nerves off.”

That actually wasn’t a bad idea. He went out on the fire escape and carefully made sure no one was watching before climbing up the stairs to the roof. Once he was up there he was certain no one would be able to see him.

He shot into the air and did five loop-de-loops to blow off steam before going back down and making sure he hadn’t messed up his hair too much. Liam saw what he was doing and told him to quit fussing because it looked better that way. His brother might be between girlfriends now but he undeniably had more experience with women. Christian kept his hair mussed.

He had a car though he didn’t use it to commute. He needed to use it to go pick up Avery. He already knew where her building was because of the time he flew her home but she didn’t know that so he had to ask for her address to deflect suspicion.

As far as she was aware he didn’t even know her last name. He had learned it when she filed that police report. Avery West. Her name suited her though he couldn’t quite say how.

Sufficiently destressed, Christian drove the fifteen blocks or so it took to get to her apartment building from his. They both lived in Queens but that shouldn’t have been too surprising since they both worked there as well.

He texted her to let her know he was downstairs, figuring she wouldn’t want someone she hardly knew to have her apartment number. She came down about five minutes later looking very springy in a lilac belted dress, white flats, and a light wash jean jacket. His heart skipped a beat. He had never seen her in anything but her work uniform before and she was stunning.

When she climbed into the passenger seat she smiled at him and it took every ounce of his willpower not to melt into a puddle of goo. “Hey, Christian! How was your day?”

“It was fine,” he got out with great effort. “What about you?”

“Someone slipped on some spilled water and ruined a cake I was working on right after I finished it. Been a while since that’s happened. My boss was NOT happy. I had to redo the whole thing but at least the client isn’t picking it up until tomorrow.”

Christian pulled a sympathetic face. “Oof. Does that happen often?”

“Thankfully, no. The last time was over a year ago now. We all got chewed out about wiping up spills but no one is sure who actually did it. The culprit may have been too afraid to fess up,” Avery said with a slight laugh. “My money is on our part-timer. Poor kid.”

“Your job sounds a lot more interesting than mine.”

“Interesting is a matter of perspective. I know nothing about contracts so they might be interesting to me for a while. But anything can get repetitive if it’s done often enough. That’s why I keep trying to come up with new cake designs for the binder.”

Christian was intrigued. “Oh yeah? Are you working on anything right now?”

“Nothing special, just some piping techniques I don’t normally use. I’m trying to get Marianne—that’s my boss—to let me do mirror glazes too. Those are so pretty but they aren’t exactly meant to be written on so…” she trailed off with a shrug.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those before.”

Avery’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I’ll have to show you pictures once we get there! They’re mesmerizing. I like watching mirror glaze pouring videos. I guess I can’t fully escape work even when I’m home.”

Her enthusiasm was adorable. Christian couldn’t help but smile at it. “Sounds good to me.”

They continued chatting idly about work all the way to the restaurant and once they were seated and their drink orders had been taken she pulled out her phone and held it out for him to see across the table. She was right. Mirror glazes did look cool.

“I would totally buy one of those,” he told her.

“Right?! You should tell Marianne that…but I’m not sure how it would come up. She works the counter sometimes so you’ve probably met her.”

“Probably. How many people work at Carmine’s anyway?”

Avery grimaced. “Not enough. Including me there are four full-timers and that part-timer I mentioned. We have a serious need for another cake decorator before I get carpal tunnel. My friend Vanessa who works there too says she would help if she wasn’t so bad with frosting. Her specialty is breads and pastries.”

“I’m sure they’ll hire someone to help eventually,” Christian said reassuringly.

“If the custom cake orders keep piling up they’re going to have to. Not to brag, but I’m somewhat famous.”

“I know; I’ve seen your videos. Honestly, what you do is amazing. I can’t imagine having that kind of fine motor control. You have insanely nice handwriting while using a piping bag.”

She seemed pleased by the compliment. “Thanks! Let me tell you, it took A LOT of practice.”

The server came by with their drinks then and halted the conversation as he took their orders. They got an appetizer to split and she seemed to appreciate that. This was going much better than he thought it would so far. All he needed to do was make sure it stayed that way.