After Dark (Mature) *Completed*

Fourteen

One and a half years later

"Serenity! Please, please, please?" She rolled her eyes at the pleas of Tate. He'd been begging her to go to some concert with him although she'd expressed she had no interest in the artist.

"Consider it like a birthday gift." He held his hands together as he begged.

"How are you gonna make me do something I don't want to do and say it's my birthday gift?" She rose an eyebrow at him before she picked up the file on her desk.

As time flew by, Tate seemed to settle into his new role and took the reigns. He'd even gotten promoted although Serenity still kept the bigger office. It had been hard to cope with the loss of a love she had yet to even explore, but as time passed she'd healed herself and let go. The Costello case had been closed as it was suspected they'd fled back to Italy and the city's crime rate dramatically decreased.

"Okay how about I buy you anything you want as a birthday gift and then you come with me to the concert because you love me?" The puppy dog eyes had once again returned. Although he was now 23 Tate still had his baby face that made Serenity's willpower disappear.

"I'm gonna be 31 at a concert for 20 year olds." She shook her head as she opened the file.

"So that's a yes? And stop saying that as if you don't look 24." He rolled his eyes as he sat on the edge of her desk. Serenity blew out a breath as she realized he wasn't going to drop this.

"Yeah, yeah. But you owe me big time." Tate jumped up from the desk, a smile splitting his face, before he hugged her tightly.

"You're the best! Thank you!" He scurried from her office before she could change her mind.
—

"I look ridiculous! I'm not wearing that." Serenity turned her nose up at the dark green fabric Lucas held up to her.

"I think it looks sexy. Especially with you in it." He winked at her. They had been debating on what she should wear to their date night. Lucas had booked a dinner on the seas and Serenity knew she had to look her best.

"I could be wearing a garbage bag and you'd say I looked good." She snatched the fabric from him and went through her options again. Lucas wrapped his arms around her waist and placed a kiss to her neck.

"That's because you look stunning in everything." It wasn't entirely unlikely that the pair had ended up together. Serenity knew they had too much chemistry for them to remain, simply, friends so she took a chance one day. Their first date had been more magical than she'd expect and quickly found herself falling for Lucas' charm.

"Get out, it seems I've got to work some kind of miracle here." She kissed him quickly before pushing him towards the door.

"Well hurry it up woman. We've only got 4 hours and it's an hour and a half drive." He yelled out before she closed the door in his face. Turning back to her options, she instead headed to her closet and searched for something that screamed out to her.

After assembling her appearance, she smiled at the way it turned out. It was simple but also interesting enough to show she cared about the event. With a final spray of perfume, she exited her room and made her way out the door.

"Well that was quick." Lucas spoke as he rose from the couch at the sound of her heels. His eyes raked over her appearance slowly and she studied his outfit herself. It was a pair of slim black slacks, a fitted blue dress shirt, and brown dress shoes.

"Damn. How about we skip dinner and get straight to dessert?" Serenity chuckled as he pulled her closer before his lips captured hers. Before they could get carried away, she pulled away.