Ch. 17: Elliot

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He was the first.
It's been a week and Natalie had apparently planned a get-to-know-her session for every one of them, except Kan of course, he left early.
So from now on, every Friday for the next 3 weeks, she would sit down and talk to each one of these men to figure out what the next step would be.
Nneka walked out nervous in a big brown trench coat, cream sweater and black pants. Her shoes were something comfortable just in case there was an activity.
Elliot stood there, by his car watching the street like a guard. He looked around as people passed, and cars moved, and even looked at the star's placements.
He had been standing there for a while.
When Nneka pushed the door open, his eyes glanced at the door, then he straightened his posture.
He needed to look good and keep for her. The bare minimum.
As she walked towards him, his face began to heat up. His cheeks were flushed and his blue eyes sparkled at her. His heart was pumping blood at what felt like 10 times the normal speed, and he noticed his hands trembling. Small movements, but still noticeable especially since he could feel it.
He was taken aback so much he accidentally slipped a "wow." out.
Nneka didn't hear him though. She was stuck on the fact that not only did Elliot have a brown trench coat, but a cream sweater. They were matching, the only difference was the shoes. He had boots on.
"Oh look, we're matching too." He looked down at himself and awkwardly smiled while scratching the back of his hair. "Yeah..."
Elliot reached for the hand of the car, pulling it out as she took a step inside. He held his hand on the door, smiling. "I just wanted to say that um...you look, you look really beautiful. "
"Thank you, you look great yourself."
"Yeah...I—"
"Aren't you getting in?"
He forgot for a second, and closed the door gently, then rushed over to her side to open the door.
The ride there was mostly quiet. There were attempts to ease the awkward tension between the two with small questions here and there, but the majority of it was just silence.
Once at the location of the first date, Nneka was surprised. They walked towards the elevator in a large maybe 15-story building, all the way to the very top.
The more the levels grew, the more she felt nervous.
Nneka was afraid of heights, and of course, finding out that her first date was a rooftop one, frighten her.
The doors opened, and the fear became an amazement with a mix of concern.
Near the elevator was a giant room, with a small soccer field inside. By the room, was a smaller glasses room with a couple of boxes of pizza and some drinks.
It wasn't a bad idea for a first date, but it was interesting.
Elliot walked towards the soccer room and held the door open for her. To the side of the door were regular gym shoes that he switched from his boots.
Nneka on the other hand was thankful she wore shoes.
"What do you think?" he asked. "Do you like it? Cause if you don't I do have a plan B."
She gave a quick grin, curious about plan b. 

"No, I like soccer. And it seems fun. No extreme kicks, just light fun."

"A good start then, to the ones to come." Nneka kinda agreed. Starting slow was good, so she nodded. "Yeah, a good start. "
"So the plan is to have some fun, then eat some pizza. Like a quick game, maybe like a 15 minute game, then eat and get to know each other."
"Okay."
"Plus..." he added, "since it's nighttime, we'll be under the night sky. Really close to seeing the stars." She chuckled at the thought. The night had just turned cheesy, and she had officially, in her head agreed to this.
"Is that so?" She played with him.
Nneka entered the soccer field and kicked the balls lightly afraid she would damage the wooden doors.
"The rules are straight. No cheating, and no kicking and screaming. An honest fair game." Elliot said moving closer with every sentence. 

"Why..." she grinned, "You don't think I'll play fair?" He raised a brow looking at her face. Nneka looked suspicious like she was ready to beat him with undermining tricks. As a professional athlete, he could tell from a mile away exactly what thoughts ran through her head.
"Absolutely." He finally told her.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Let's play ball."
She balled up her hands into fists and slammed them together. Quickly she turned letting out small whimpers from the pain, she had hurt herself then back.
"You know the basic rules...so let's go."
"Alright." Elliot placed the ball right in the centre, right in front of them. He gave her the first go and she kicked it through his leg, running with it.
He won't lie, he gave her the first goal. He wanted to see how she would play, and he was right. She was going to be as sneaky as possible, but then he realized.
Soccer wasn't her game.
Elliot lowered his abilities slightly, not too much to be disrespectful. But enough that she could hold her head up high even if she did win.
They played for a while, almost a good 15 minute till Nneka felt her body tired out.
The score was 5 to 2, which she knew was completely due to luck, but still she played dumb.
"I lost..." Nneka keeled on the ground in disbelief. "Did I just lose?"
Elliot placed the ball by her side and sighed dramatically and long. "Not everyone can be made of greatness." 

Side eyed him, she clenched her jaw. Nneka stood up, stomping over to the food. At first, Elliot thought he was wrong for playing fair and actually giving her a chance to prove herself, but he quickly realized, she was just being a sour loser. Which he liked a lot.
Usually, when he played with girls, they would want to win and he had to, for the sake of it. But here with Nneka, he felt that would never be the case. That she wanted a fair and good game, and it looked like it paid off.
"That was fun," she began taking a slice of pizza. "Thank you."
"I'm glad you liked it. I was afraid it would be too much for a first date."

 "Oh no, I'm a very active person."

 "Good, like you're friend said, I'll be like your coach."

 "Okay, coach Elliot."
He laughed face down. Her cheeks were stuffed with pizza, as she chewed smiling and happy.
He was glad. Elliot was happy it was going exactly the way it should. And now it was time for part two.
The getting to know each other.

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