Whiskey and Rum

Sunflowers and marshmallows

Drake pulled up in his hire car and looked over at the house, it looked different without the crowd of people around it, sitting, standing, dancing as they had been at the party. It was a simple looking sand coloured stone house with red-tiled roofing. It also had a small porch with a couple of chairs and its 'front yard' was just a strip of concrete with some potted plants. All of it was enclosed behind a barrier of bars and a gate. He got out of the car, and rang the doorbell that was on the outside then waited, wondering who would answer and hoping it would be Ava herself. Not that he disliked her family, but he still felt nervous around them while everything was still so unsettled. Their future was't yet decided, he had a plan in mind, he'd been thinking about it all day. But he wanted to discuss it first with Ava, alone.

He had given her the day to spend time with her family but she'd called him that morning to tell him she wanted them to have al date that evening. He initially chided her for calling, reminding her it wasn't safe and that it could cause them to be discovered.

"Let them find out!" She'd cried in frustration. "I'm not ashamed of you, we're doing nothing wrong, I don't care if they know."

"It's not as simple as that." He'd reminded her. "They could use it to damage your reputation even further"

"They've already splashed photos of the worst moment of my life out there for all to see, and have labelled me as a slut. How much worse does that get, Drake?!"

"I don't want....

"Besides!" She'd interrupted. "Their goal, apparently, was to stop me from being queen, And they've got that. They can have that victory and choke on it for all I care because I never wanted to be queen anyway, that did it all for nada!"

All Drake could do was sigh, he wasn't gonna win this battle, all he was doing was making her upset and he hated that.

So now here he was, picking her up for their first date, and there was a lot to discuss.

To his relief, Ava was the one who opened the door. She smiled widely when she saw him, opened the gate and threw her arms around his neck.

"Heeeyyy!"

He couldn't stop the smile spreading across his own face as he slipped his arms around her waist and kissing her. "Hey yourself."

He looked over her outfit, a dark floral full-length skirt matched with a small, strappy white crochet lace crop top. "You look incredible."

"Yeah?" She paused for a moment and laughed heartily. "Good because it took me hours to decide what to wear! It's our first official date and I've been thinkin, bout this all day."

"I'm always impressed no matter what you wear." He smiled. "But I promise I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure you enjoy it,"

She took hold of his hand. "Vamos!"

"I made a reservation for us at one of the a la carte restaurants at the hotel." He told her once they were in the car on their way.

"You didn't need to do that!"

"Yeah, I know but they had a Brazilian themed one and I couldn't resist." He flicked on his music player on a low volume to add a little background noise.

She looked at him curiously. "You, like Brazilian food?"

"Umm, I've only tried a few things." He admitted. "But I happen to like these things a lot, and besides, they serve a good whisky."

Ava laughed. "That clinched it, huh?!"

Drake chuckled

"What the heck is this music?!" Ava stared, perplexed towards Drake