Christian spent most of Saturday dealing with household chores/errands he finally had time for, saving people from generic accidents, and fighting villains. He was so busy he hardly had time to think about what happened the night before.

He was thrilled that Avery still wanted to go out with him again after that disaster but he was more preoccupied with wondering what on earth Nox had been doing at that restaurant, let alone why he decided to help. He took down Inferno like it was nothing! That villain had been on a rampage for over a year and no one managed to catch him until one of his own decided to get involved.

All of his questions came flooding back when he actually ran into the man again so soon. Especially when he discovered that they had both been on dates at the same restaurant at the same time.

New York City was a big place. Millions of people lived in Queens and there was no guarantee Nox actually lived in the area to go to a restaurant.

But honestly! What were the odds they would be in the same place at the same time? Had Christian seen his face and not realized it? There had been so many people at the restaurant and he wasn’t the type to take notice of strangers.

His focus had been entirely on trying to ignore his sixth sense so he could be an attentive listener with Avery. More likely than not he had seen the man inside the suit and wouldn’t be able to place him in a lineup. He didn’t have words to describe how frustrating that was!

Nox was more of a mystery than ever. His decision to stop Inferno made Christian realize a few things he hadn’t taken much note of before once they were shoved in his face again after his second run-in with the villain in two days.

He never killed anyone. He went out of his way to warn his nemesis about the guards in the hall and the ones tied up in closets that Christian spent ten minutes tracking down because of the sheer number of closets in the building. On top of that he accounted for the structural integrity of the room not taking the building down and was sure to say so.

Why would a villain do that? It was oddly considerate.

Admittedly, Nox wasn’t like the other villains Christian encountered regularly. He didn’t disclose his motives at all, didn’t pull any flashy stunts, and didn’t seriously injure people.

Tonight had driven home the fact that he seemed to be actively trying not to hurt anyone. But why? He was a villain! He stole things and committed vandalism and arson on a regular basis though the bomb was new.

Christian really didn’t get that guy. And he hated it. Unpredictability made villains so much harder to deal with.

What was Nox after? This was perhaps the biggest stunt he ever pulled and all he did was break into Hunsacher Inc. headquarters and destroy a single room filled with machines. There had to be some sort of reason behind it—villains always had reasons even if they were usually stupid and petty—especially since some degree of research must have gone into it.

He knew the room would be able to withstand a bomb. He couldn’t have been as confident as he was that the structural integrity of the building wouldn’t be affected as he was if he didn’t know that beforehand and plan on it.

Why? What was the point of completely destroying a single room in a major corporation?

Christian was in a bad mood from his lack of answers and having to explain everything that happened to the police before rushing off to deal with two other villains before he was able to make it home and crash. He was so exhausted that he barely had the energy to shower but he felt gross after flying around all night.

He didn’t see the text from Avery until the following morning. She wanted to know what the plan was for tomorrow night.

After what happened last time he was afraid to try a restaurant again though logically speaking it was highly unlikely the same thing would happen twice in such a short period of time. He settled on a café instead since it would take less time to sit and eat. Then they could walk around like she said they should take a raincheck on.

It would be a worknight for both of them so they shouldn’t do anything too strenuous. Hopefully she wouldn’t get sick of him after going on a proper, uninterrupted date. He was afraid she would realize how boring he was.

Avery didn’t seem boring at all. She was perhaps the most interesting person he had ever met.

The only thing he had going for him was his face. She had said she was staring at him because he was handsome. He had been so startled by that he hadn’t quite known how to respond but that was definitely good news for him!

Christian did his best to let that happy thought sustain him through several more villain fights, a family dinner where Liam was in a worse mood than usual on Sunday, and the same dull, repetitive paperwork as always on Monday. When he finally saw her again he instantly felt his spirits lift.

Her hair was down aside from a small braid looping around the back of her head and she was wearing a pink blouse with beading on the neckline under a tan jacket and light wash skinny jeans. Her lipstick was almost the exact same shade as her shirt and he found himself staring at her lips for a moment before chastising himself for even daring to think of kissing her this soon.

Avery smiled warmly at him and that only drew further attention to her lips. “Hey, Christian!”

He gulped and tried to calm his racing heart so he could return her smile. “Hey. What have you been up to today?”

“Watching YouTube mostly. I haven’t been very productive but I think I earned it after the crazy week I had. How was work?”

Right, she had mentioned having too many cake orders at once when they were out on Friday. She probably spent all weekend doing nothing trying to recover before preparing herself for another round.

“The same as usual. Nothing exciting,” Christian told her.

They drove to a café that wasn’t too far from a park they could walk around in. He got a sandwich while she got soup. They focused more on the food than chatting once they had it but he didn’t mind. They had already talked a lot on the drive over about what else Avery got up to over the weekend.

Apparently she went bowling with her friends. The way she told it, her two closest friends kept butting heads over who was actually her best friend and ended up getting very competitive in the game as a result.

She rolled her eyes and called them ridiculous but he could tell how much she cared about them. He was slightly jealous. What would it take for him to be someone she cared about too?

He wondered about that the entire time he ate and was feeling pretty hopeless because he was certain he liked her a lot more than she liked him considering she seemed surprised when he asked her out in the first place. They might be on a date now but there was no guarantee there would be another since this was sort of a do-over of the first one that Inferno ruined.

Christian had no idea what was going through her head. He wanted to though.

He was even more confused when as soon as they were done eating and made it over to the park she held her hand out expectantly. As if she wanted him to hold it. He hesitantly laced his fingers through hers trying to gauge if that was what she had been going for.

It seemed that he guessed correctly because she shot him a brilliant, satisfied smile that left him reeling for a moment. Okay then. She wanted to hold hands. That was a good sign, wasn’t it?