This one seems easy enough…considering my obsessions
In a word? Vampires.
Yes, I’m sure most people go through this phase at some point. But mostly they grow out of it surely. And if they don’t…well they generally grow up to be one of those silly people that look like they want all attention on them, pretending to be what they think a vampire would be in real life. Yet vampires wouldn’t draw that sort of attention to themselves. Bloodsucking “evil” creatures of the night that can kill and have been hunted for centuries, and even today, they still are. I wouldn’t want to flaunt myself if I knew fifteen million people would be coming for me with pitchforks raised and muskets in hand. Would you? Vampires naturally draw all the attention to them. It’s not something done with fancy fake clothes or dentist sharpened teeth, it’s something in their very being that draws all eyes to them. But let’s get back on topic, shall we?
Like I said, I’ve had this obsession for as far back as I can remember. I’m not 20 years old. Mostly normal, employed, not much of a life as my job takes up most of it, followed by reading and sleeping. My days are generally normal, save for one recent day.
For work, I’m a hotel call center reservationist. It’s quite the mouthful, but it’s easy, the people are nice, and the money isn’t half bad. I also run a small travel blog for the resort and one recent night I was told to go out and get pictures of some of the places I talked about. Which were to include the town of Celebration, Old Town, and also Disney World. I got a complimentary pass to go into the last and I got out of work early to go and grab some night time shots of the parks. I was still in heels from work, but thankfully I still had a pair of flats in the backseat of my car, a great little Focus wagon.
I got through the lines rather quickly since it was late and entered the Magic Kingdom with camera in hand. I started snapping shots just as soon as I was through the underbelly of the Train Station. I worked my way slowly up main street, pausing only to look at the pictures. In one or two of them seemed to be a man of nice height, with gorgeous dark hair and understated clothes. He almost seemed to be smiling at the camera everytime he was in frame, but that had to be a mistake, he must have been looking at his -no doubt- drop dead gorgeous family, though he didn’t look much older than me in these.
Finally I reached the castle. I decided to go around to the side where Cinderella’s wishing well was to get some crowd shots. I’d only gotten one in when my camera suddenly fell from my hands, heading towards to the dark depths of the well.
“I think you might be needing this.” A hand held out my camera to me, I hadn’t even realized someone had caught it before it fell in.
I smiled politely automatically and looked up. But before I could say “thank you”, I looked into the face of the man from the pictures on main street. It was even more gorgeous up close. “Uhh…t-thank you.”
He smiled at me and I felt suddenly aware that my shirt was slightly askew from a long day at work, that my make up had probably melted through the heat of the day, and that I wished I could get something to make me look halfway decent enough for him to be interested in me. Of course, that was all incredibly ridiculous, he probably already had a loving, model worthy wife at home. “You’re quite welcome. You should be a bit more careful, you wouldn’t want something so pretty getting hurt.”
I felt blood rush to my cheeks in embarrassment. “Yeah…you’re right.” Obviously my brain was working a lot less than it should with this man in front of me.
“I’m Elias. And you are?”
“Shantelle…it’s nice to meet you.” I was trying not to stare at him, so I looked down at my camera and fiddled with the settings.
I glanced back up at him and he was staring down at me with curiosity in his features. “I haven’t eaten all day…would you be interested in maybe grabbing a bite with me?”
“Seriously?”
He laughed as though I’d just said the funniest thing and the sound automatically made me smile in return. “Yes, quite seriously. I had a reservation and at the last moment, my collegue cancelled on me and I very much wanted to try the restaurant. So you see,” he leaned just a hair closer and my breath caught in my chest, “my fate is in your hands.”
I struggled to realize that I was being asked a question, so I nodded my head in consent. He gestured toward the walkway and he fell into step beside me. “So what restaurant is it we’re headed to?” I expected one of the simpler ones. A quick service perhaps. I saw we were headed back towards the front of the caste and heading up the stairway and dared to hope for only a moment that we were heading to Cinderella’s Palace, but squashed that down automatically. Hoping was bad for me.
“Well, it’s this rather nice place. Which is one of the reasons I didn’t want to go alone.” He gestured to go right after the beautifully tiled walls to the hostess station for- “Cinderella’s Round Table. At least now I can say it wasn’t my idea to go…just to save a slice of dignity.” He looked over at me and winked.
I tried to keep my excitement inside, where I was screaming and jumping with joy that not only had a random, gorgeous stranger asked me to dinner, but I was finally going to go to the restaurant in Cinderella’s castle. I smiled up at him and he turned to the hostess to check in for his reservation. At the same moment I frantically took down my messy pony tail, wiped under my eyes and threw on some chapstick that I had in my bag. I was placing my camera back in my bag as he turned around and I struggled to smooth the hurried look on my face with a pleased smile. He once again gestured for me to go first, and I followed the waitress into the castle.
Once we were seated and dinner had been ordered, Elias turned back to me. “So are you a photographer Shantelle?”
I shook my head. “I actually make reservations for a local resort. Photography is just a hobby, and these are for a little project at work.” I took a sip of my drink which had been quietly placed in front of me, forcing myself to look away from him. I noticed his hair was actually a dark red in this light. I wondered briefly what it would look like in the sun and immediately pushed the though away. Stranger Shantelle. Stranger. This will more than likely go no further than tonight.
“A project?”
“Well I run a very small blog for my hotel. It basically just talks about things to do in the area that a lot of tourists wouldn’t know about. My boss made me go out tonight though and get pictures of some of the places I mention so they aren’t walking blindly into some place.” I rolled my eyes, remembering speaking with my boss about this. He grinned, and I noticed he still hadn’t taken so much of a sip of his drink. “Not thirsty?”
“Not particularly.” The waitress came then with our plates, which inhibited talking. My dinner partner barely touched his food in the time it took me to get halfway trhough my own, which took a while considering the portion.
“I thought you said you hadn’t eaten all day?”
“True, but I never said I was hungry.” He chuckled to himself, although an inside joke I was not yet in on. “I have to admit,” he leaned closer to me, speaking softly, “it was a ruse to get you to dinner. I noticed you taking pictures and I thought you seemed…interesting.”
I blushed again, wishing I wasn’t so easily embarrassed. “Well, thanks.” I wasn’t much for being complimented, but I thought it would be better just to thank him than to argue.
The check came and Elias automatically took it, sliding something into the holder and handing it swiftly back to the waitress. We left the restaurant heading back towards the front of the park. We reached the trams having spoken mainly about each other’s work and the general first date things. I found out he was 25, self employed, doing something in a freelance field. He was in town for a few months doing something for some company (he never went into specifics on that…or I was just staring to hard to hear). While we waited for the tram to arrive, he started to look…nervous. But the emotion seemed foreign to his face for some reason. “Listen, I was just wondering if you would possibly be interested in doing this again. I don’t know too many people, and you’re - well - you seem great. So do you maybe have a number I could reach you at?”
He was babbling it seemed, which was quite endearing for someone so gorgeous to seem so nervous. “Sure!” I was so excited that he would actually be interested in me in any way that I didn’t bother to try and squash the hope that he might actually call. I knew it was rather…unfeminist, but to hell with it. This man was absolutely breath taking. We stepped onto the tram that had finally gotten here and as soon as we were seated I scribbled my number on a piece of paper I found in my bag and handed it over to him. He folded it up, placed it in his pocket, and smiled as he stepped off the tram to the area that held his car. I looked down and waited for my stop to come, barely able to contain my joy and cell phone before I called my best friend to gloat.
