#ftf:005

Mercedes was glad that she actually made the call to Ryan, if she hadn't she would have thought he stood her up and he would have thought she did the same. She still wasn't sure how she felt about Ryan, he was fun to hang around as she had learned when they went out for drinks and of course he was good looking, but he was a Hockey player and Mercedes heard about them, how athletes only wanted one thing from their "conquests". But she was gonna give him the benefit of the doubt, plus he was sweet and she was a sucker for sweet guys.

Going to the kitchen she pulled out the ingredients to make the sandwiches and placed the bacon in her toaster oven. Ten minutes later, the sandwiches were made, bacon ham and cheese and turkey and cheese, and she grabbed two water bottles as well as two bottles of lemonade. Grabbing a cooler she placed everything in the bag and placed it at the door as she touched up her makeup and the lavender sundress was accompanied by a pair of white sandals. Her hair was in curls off to one side. She smoothed down her dress and finished gathering her thins as she waited for Ryan to show up.

Ryan had only ever had one person who dared to stand him up, but that was neither here nor there. So when Mercedes didn't show up at the door when he went to pick her up, he was immediately pissed. Was she playing hard to get simply because she's famous? He had pegged her to be one of those hopeless romantic that wants a guy to come sweep her off her feet with flowery prose and all, not particularly a high maintenance girl. Shrugging it off, he ended up heading over the that coffee shop with the live music. It would do him some good to explore the city anyways.

So when Mercedes called, he had already settled back to the apartment. He certainly didn't expect the sincerity in her voice when she apologized for the misunderstanding. Thinking that it wouldn't hurt to meet the girl either way, he agreed to a make up date. Pulling a thin polo over his head and shrugging on some jeans, he made the familiar drive to Mercedes' house for the second time of the night. It didn't take long before he reached the house, and gave the door a couple of knocks after ringing the doorbell.

Mercedes heard the knock and grabbed her jean jacket. Opening the door smiled towards Ryan, glad he didn't decide to walk away. "Hey! Thanks for coming, I am glad we get to do this tonight." She grabbed the  cooler and held it up. "I have our picnic and drinks. "  Turning to her closet she pulled out a big folded blanket before she exited the door, locking it, but not moving towards the car. Standing on her toes, she leaned in kissing his cheek. "Thats for being so understanding."

Smiling she pulled away from him. "So shall we go, I can put the address in your GPS so we can get to the spot, I promise you won't be disappointed."

"Hey," Ryan reached over to get the cooler from Mercedes, knowing that would be the right thing to do. He was about to move towards the car when he felt a gentle press of lips on his cheek. Turning to face Mercedes, he gave her a small smile. "No, yeah, that's cool. You know this place better than I do anyways."

He took the cooler and she walked towards his car. "I found this place by total accident and its not far from her." Getting settled in his car she placed the information into the GPS and turned her attention to Ryan as she placed her seatbelt on. "So how was your day?"

Once they settled into the car, he waited for the GPS assistant to start directing him before shifting the gear to drive. He honestly had very little expectations, if Mercedes turn out to be too much effort, then he's definitely first to bounce. Hopefully his initial impression of the girl wasn't wrong. "It was alright, got to introduce myself to my neighbors, she's got mad skills when it comes to baking." He thought back to his day, it was relatively quiet. He honestly didn't feel like to do too much in a day, and since he had the date with Mercedes, he had opt to stay in the morning.

"Ah, I went to some open mic thing at a coffee shop. It was pretty cool, I mean the songs were a lil' over done, but seems like a cool place to chill, yknow?"

"How bout you? Did anything fun?"

Mercedes glanced out the window, she loved the stillness of the night, its when she got most of her writing done. Most of her work done. She listened to him speak. "See thats jackpot for you, well it is if you have a sweet tooth." She thought back to her days doing open mic night. "I used to love performing at places like that. Its more intimate. Did you enjoy it?"

She thought back to her day. "I spent the morning helping the kids at Mercy House with a few last minute school papers. Then cane home and got dressed. I was running late thats why i sent the text or thought it went through." As they neared the spot she grew excited. "Its right over this ridge, you can park at the top. Theres a place we can get out and walk to if you want, but if not the veiw is still great from the car."

"You're right on the money on that, it's good to have some decent neighbors, you never know what's gonna happen one day and you gotta ask for help. I've learn that the hard way."  Thinking about his new neighbor brought a quick smile on Ryan's face. She was definitely something else. Refocusing his attention back onto the road and on the conversation at hand, he shrugged at the question. "It was alright, it's a different scene definitely. There were some karaoke bars up in Montreal for this type of open mic stuff, so I've definitely seen better."

"Hey, don't sweat it. We're here now, so we might as well enjoy it yeah?" As they pull up on a red light, he shifted his right hand from the gearbox to cover Mercedes' hand. He gave her hand a soft squeeze before pulling back and getting them back on the road. Ryan parked the car at the spot Mercedes pointed out. He pulled the cooler from the trunk and helped Mercedes' out of the passenger's side. "We'll do this your way, babe. If you wanna head up, I'm down for it too."

Mercedes took Ryan's hand and exited the car, grabbing the blanket as she did. Smoothing down her dress, she took his hand again. "I say lets go all the way up." Leading the way she enjoyed the quietness of the night. It was really late and yet she never felt safer. "So have you ever participated in open mic night?" She asked as they made their way to the top. 

Once there, she let go of his hand and spread the blanket out before sotting down. "Come and join me, this view is one of the most beautiful sights i have seen "

Looking around the darken area, it was definitely not somewhere Ryan would've ventured to on his own. This place was a little too romantic for him, he was more a bar and club kind of guy. This place looks like somewhere a guy would propose to his girlfriend. Keeping his thoughts to himself, Ryan plastered up his show smile and took a seat next to Mercedes.

"This is pretty cool, I mean you can pretty much see most of the city from here, right?" He pointed out with his arm extended in front of him. "And to answer your question from before, I'm not a big fan of open mics, really. Like I'd check them out if they were just playing a set at a bar or something, but I never went out of my way for any of those, yknow?"

Mercedes nodded looking out in the night. "Yeah you can, its my favorite place because I got inspired right here when I was going Solo. So after that whenever I had writers block, I come here to think and write." She leaned back on her hands looking over to Ryan, she knew the kind of guy he was, and knew he was humoring her, she appreciated it. "Yeah Open Mic's aren't' for everyone." She sighed, inhaling the night air. "So where is or was your favorite place to go when you needed to think?"

"Nowhere, home I guess?" He shrugged. Very rarely does he ever have to go and think. His job involves him playing hockey, and while that requires a lot of mental strength, it wasn't the same. Although he could think of a place where he would consider it to be his favorite, he opt to keep it to himself. It was special, and certainly not be shared with playthings like Mercedes.

"I've always been pretty good at compartmentalizing things, I guess. Hockey's a huge part of my life, and with that comes with a bunch of stress -- I just don't let it affect me outside of the rink." He brushed off the question. Instead, he chose to divert the attention back to Mercedes. The less he had to talk about himself, the better. "I bet you've got a bunch of these little places you go to when you get stuck on something. Tell me, what's your favorite stress release activity?" He ended with a smirk.

Mercedes looked over at him for a moment or two then back out into the night sky. "With my job, letting things affect me is a good thing,helps me come up with songs or ideas, It helps me be better at understanding why I feel the way I do." As much as she liked hanging out with people, she found her most inspiriting hits were when she was alone with her thoughts.

"Uh I don't know.  Whenever I am stressed I write or sing and soon I forget what was bothering me." She shrugged. "Well okay that and hitting the punching bag, But I think everyone could use a stress free moment like that, where they hit the punching bag to let go of stress or anger, its relaxing."

Ryan shook his head, "I don't know how you do it, babe. But if I let the stress get the better of me I'd never be able to play right again."

Moving closer to Mercedes, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. He was slowly getting bored of the whole topic, but he won't let it show. He's learned that the best way to get people to stop dwelling on stupid shit is to give them something better to think about. "Well I can think of better ways to be de-stress. Wanna make out?" He grinned cheekily, as he raised his eyebrows in a comical manner.

Mercedes sighed. "I"ve been doing this a long time, and it gets eaiser." Ryan moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. She smiled leaning closer to him. She knew what he wanted before he even said anything. It was clear by his body lanaguage. "Making out?" She looked away from him for a moment, then looked back at him. "Sure why not?" She replied with a smirk. Leaning in, Mercedes hesitated only a moment before leaning all the way in and kissing him.

Ryan pressed his lips against Mercedes', their lips moved together for a few seconds before breaking apart. Ryan knew he was a decent kisser, if not a great kisser at that, but it was almost surprising how nice it was kissing Mercedes. He certainly wouldn't mind to keep doing this. He glanced down at her lips before leaning down to recapture them. The kiss was slow and relatively chaste, he didn't want to rush things too quickly and ruin everything. They finally had a pretty good mood going.

Mercedes smiled into the kiss, Ryan was defiantly a good kisser. He pulled away and then went in for another and all she could do was let him. He kissed her slowly, seducing her with his lips, making her want him even more than she already did.

As Ryan tilted his head to deepen the kiss, his left hand went up to cradle the side of Mercedes' face, and his other slid down to caress her curves. When it felt like Mercedes was relaxing into the kiss, he bit down softly on her lower lip.