Date Night (off-timeline Milliverse, locked to Karen)

[sbpd_papabear]

Henry pulls up in his truck ten minutes early - across the street. He still can't bring himself to park in her driveway even when her husband's car isn't there... somehow it just seems to make everything feel wrong. Just like walking into her house and feeling the tight squeeze of her life that he doesn't feel like he has the right to be part of.

Instead, he steps out of the truck in his pressed suit and leans against the door - watching the light in her bedroom window as he gives her a little extra time to get ready, her unmistakeable shadow dancing across the curtains. It's the sort of moment he loves, when he can just exist and love her without her even knowing it because when she looks him in the eyes it's written clear as day across the lines in his face.

After maybe five minutes of listening to the quite Santa Barbra evening, he sends a text:

Your chariot and driver await, m'lady.

Comments

[chief_mom]

She squeezes his hand tightly, all she can do, though she'd really like to lean right over the table and kiss him. "Your patience means everything to me. I can promise you that there are great rewards for being such a good sport about all this." A wiggle of her eyebrows punctuates her point.

"I'm bad. We haven't even ordered drinks and I'm making innuendo."

[sbpd_papabear]

Henry lowers his head a moment, chuckling under his breath. "Well, I can appreciate it."

When he looks back up at her, his amused smile still lingers and he squeezes her hand even tighter. "I think you'll find that I'm a very, very patient man. You don't spend twenty years alone without learning a few tricks."

[chief_mom]

"Why have you?" It's something she's wondered. She knows Henry's dated. He had that fling with Susan, brief though it was. But it seems like there hasn't been anything lasting, in two decades, and she can't figure it out.

"You're very handsome, not broke, you don't have any of the sorts of habits that ruin relationships that I've found, though I suppose you could be secretly heading to casinos on nights when I'm not with you. Or you're maybe a closet kazoo player," she smiles, not wanting him to feel like she's making an accusation. "You're a wonderful lover. You're pretty much a catch. But you've remained uncaught."

[sbpd_papabear]

He's pretty sure the only thing in his life that runs women off - ran women off, he hopes - is Shawn, but that's not really appropriate to say, so he simply squeezes her hand again.

"Nothing like that. I guess I was just waiting for the right one to come along."