A.N.

A friend of mine has been reading this book since the beginning and has been a great support. He has a talent for making renders of all sort of things and now he has surprised me by making Anna the way he sees her.
I think she looks beautiful in this! Her face is just perfect and the pub behind her is so close to how I've been seeing it in my head.
Really this guy has some great talent and I'm honoured that he choose to make Anna.
Thank you!

❖Anna❖

When I told Christy about my date with Gabriel, she insisted on helping me get ready.
And that is how I ended up here.
I'm sitting on my bed, looking at Christy who is trying to get eaten by my closet. At least, that is what it looks like. The only thing that I can see are her legs and sometimes an arm holding out something I need to try on.

"How about this?" Christy holds out the fourth pair of jeans, with an old shirt of mine. "Girl, you need some new stuff." She says while slowly coming back out of my closet. Her hair is everywhere and I can see some sweat on her face.
"I don't need new clothing Christy. I just need something nice to wear tonight. You know you don't have to do this right, if it's too difficult. I could always just throw something together mys..."
"No!" Christy screams, not letting me finish my sentence and I can see her practically jumping back into the closet. "I said I would help you get ready, so I will help you get ready. It is my mission to find something you can wear on the date."

After another hour of Christy disappearing in my closet, she hands me a 'casual/chique' outfit, as she called it. It's an old Bordeaux skirt with a white turtle neck, and it looks really cute when paired together.

"Thanks Christy. I don't think I would have chosen this myself."
"I know I'm great." Christy says with a smile, making me laugh. "Sure you are chris, and completely modest as well."
Christy pushes me on the bed and laughs. "I know girl, aren't I just wonderful. And now'" she changes her voice to sound like she is a presenter of one of those quiz shows, "it's time for make-up."
Groaning I let het do her thing. Knowing that nothing I could say would change her mind.
Let's just hope that she doesn't take it too far.

❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖

Christy took two and a half hours to get me ready. Right now, I'm standing in front of the mirror, looking at myself and I'm actually surprised with what I see.
I look so different from the way I did before.
The bruises are all gone. I've became a little curved instead of my early, way to skinny self. The curl in my hair looks fuller and I... I look happy.
That's the thing that surprises me the most. I haven't seen myself happy since the day that my mother died.

With a small smile I step into my living room. I still have an hour to spare before Gabriel comes to pick me up.
I decide to read a little. One of the plus sides of working in the library; I get a free subscription, meaning that I can bring home as many books as I want.

At 7pm the doorbell rings and I can feel the nerves exploding in my body.
I do a quick check on my clothing and hair, making sure everything looks okay, and open the door.

Gabriel is leaning against the doorframe, looking down.
Once he notices that the door is open, he slowly looks up through his lashes and it takes everything in me to not swoon right there.
I can feel his eyes room over my body as he takes in how I look and I take that moment to do the same for him.
He's in the usual black jeans, but this time he has it paired with a very dark blue blouse and a black jacket. I've never seen him wear much colour, not that I'm complaining, cause these dark colours are making him look very handsome and mysterious.

"You're beautiful Anna." He says and my cheeks turn tomato red.
"You're not so bad yourself either." I somehow manage to say, making Gabriel snicker.
"Ready to go?" I nod yes as an answer and Gabriel offers me his arm.
Together we walk to his car.

❖Gabriel❖

Parking my car in front of the building where Anna lives, I suddenly feel a little nervous.
Would you look at that, a gang leader, feeling nervous for a date? I think mockingly. That must be something new.

I get out of my car and try to shake the feeling off. It's just a date. It isn't like I'm going to tell her what I do for a living. So what is there to be nervous about?

I take a deep breath to push the nerves away and walk towards Anna's flat.
It's an old building, not just from the outside, but the interior and the lack of paintwork / cleaning on the inside makes the oldness really come alive.
When I'm at Anna's door I ring the bell hoping that it works.
I lean against the doorframe and look down, checking if my shoes are clean.

I hear the door click out of its lock and it slowly opens, revealing a beautiful looking Anna.
I take my time to look at her, starting at her feet, my eyes slowly traveling up, taking in every detail I can see.
She is wearing white sneakers, a Bordeaux skirt that reaches just above her knee and a warm, soft looking white turtle neck.  Her hair is in loose curls around her face and if I look closely I can see that she even did some make-up.

I notice Anna softly blushing under my stare, and I can't help but smile at that, a little proud that I can create such reaction our of her.
"You're beautiful Anna." I say and she turns even more red.
"You're not so bad yourself either." she answers out of no where, making me snicker.

"Ready to go?" I ask, and while she nods, I offer het my arm leading her to the car.

"Where are we going?" she asks. I open her door and wait until she is sitting to answer. "That, my dear lady, is for me a know and for you a guess." I close her door and look through the window at Anna's surprised face.
Sending her a quick wink I make my way to the drivers seat and get in.

"So, you won't tell me?" I laugh and look at her. "No Anna, it is a surprise." She huffs, muttering an answer and I smile.
Starting the engines of the car, I glance at Anna and see her already looking at me.
"Let's go." I say and we drive off.

Once we get to the restaurant I make sure that I'm moving faster then Anna, so I can open the car door for her.
"Such a gentleman." She says with a small smile and I can't help but smile back at her.
I lay my hand on her lower back and lead her to the restaurant.

Anna's mouth falls open in awe when we enter the building. "Wow." Is all she says, making me smile once again. "I'm glad you like it." I say softly in her ear.
"Are you sure this isn't to much? I don't know if I would be able to afford anything in here."
I remove my hand from her lower back and take her hand in mine.
"Anna, this is a date, you shouldn't worry about the money. I will take care of that."
She opens her mouth to say something, but I'm quicker. "No, I will not let you pay for anything tonight. Yes, I am sure about that. No, you can not change my mind. And No, there is no way that we are going to go Dutch. I pay, that's how it is going to work."Anna just blinks, not sure what to say.
I let go of her hand and hold open the door of the restaurant. "After you my lady."

❖Anna❖

The restaurant is beautiful. It has a modern look with light colours on the walls.
It doesn't take long before one of the waiters brings us to our table. Gabriel, being the gentleman he is, holds out the chair for me.
"Your mother has taught you well." I say jokingly. "She was indeed a great woman." Gabriel answers and for a moment I don't know what to say. 'was' he said. How stupid of me.
"I'm sorry Gabriel." I eventually say with a lack of better words. "It's okay Anna. Don't worry about it."
I give him a small smile and I can see the waiter walking towards us with two menu's in his hands.

"Good evening to you both. I am Simmy, your waiter for today. Can I start you of with something to drink?"
I smile at him politely and order a sparkling water. Gabriel asks for a cola and the waiter walks away.
"I do have to drive you back." Gabriel says when he sees my questioning look. "Would be a horrible first date if I would crash the car on the way back."

Giggling I look down at the menu. A lot of the food on there is really expensive, I see things I would never be able to afford when I would be here on my own.
"Remember that I'll pay for this." Gabriel says, reading my mind. "You can eat whatever you want. Don't worry about the costs, just pick something you would like to eat."
When I was finally able to make a choice, the waiter came back to take our orders.

After we finished, Gabriel paid, like he told me, and helped me with my chair.
"Did you enjoy it?" he asked while we where making our way towards the car. "It was lovely. Thank you."

"Well well well, what fo we have here." A voice said. Gabriel stopped dead in his tracks at the sound of the voice and I could see his muscles getting tense.
I look up and see a man standing in front of us. He was wearing dark clothing and I couldn't really make out his face in the darkness.
"Gabriel, with a girl, that is something new. Did you finally found someone to share your miserable life with?" The man says and I feel gabriel getting even tenser. He softly pulls me behind him, shielding my body with his own.

"What do you want Luca?" Gabriels voice is sounding low and dangerous and it is almost as if I see a shiver move on Luca.
"I just wanted to meet this lovely lady behind your back. I mean, who wouldn't want to know the girl that melted your frozen heart? I'm sure my boss would be very delighted about it once I tell him."
"Leave her out of it!" I see Gabriels hand slowly moving towards his hip, ready to grab something.

"I'm sure that there is no need for that today." The man, Luca, says as he nods to Gabriels hand. "Wouldn't want a war to start out this early would we?"
Gabriel doesn't answer or move. His hand still hovering over his hip.

"Just look after that girl that is hiding behind your back." Luca says.
"Is that a threat?!" Gabriels voice sounds dangerous and he makes himself look a little taller. Luca takes a step back, clearly afraid of Gabriels next move. "I think you and I both know that you are in no position to do that Luca." I can almost here the venom from Gabriels voice and I automatically take a step back, not liking this feeling at all.

Gabriels hand shoots back to grabs mine and I see him slightly turning his face to take a quick look at me.
"Get out of my sight Luca." Gabriel growls and I see Luca take another step back.
"I'm just a messenger Gabriel. Have fun on your date while you still can."
And with that, Luca walks away.

A couple of minutes pass and Gabriel is still standing in front of me.
"Gabriel?" I say as I lay a hand on his back. That seems to get him back out of his thoughts and he turns around to face me.
"We need to go." He says and he pulls me towards his car.
The gentleman has completely disappeared and a dangerous version of himself has taken its' place,

As soon as we're in the car, he starts driving.
"Gabriel, what happened there?" "A mistake." He says angrily. "I knew this was a bad idea!"
I sink back in my chair, making myself look smaller and I look down. It's a habit I learned from my father. Every time he would get angry, I knew that he would end up hitting me, so I learned to take cover.

Gabriel notices my reaction and takes my hand in his. "I'm sorry." He says, his voice sounding a little softer but I can still hear the tension in his voice.
"I just want to know what is going on Gabriel." I say and he sighs.
"We're going to my place. That man you just 'met'.... he is trouble. I don't want him to know where you live."
"What do you mean with trouble?"
"Nothing." Gabriel says strongly. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. So don't worry about it. I will take care of it."

I focus my attention back on the road. Gabriel won't tell me anything right now, that's a given thing. So I decide to let it rest for now.
I'll ask him later at the house.