Blake thought this was their 5th date. He had no reason to think otherwise, after all, he’d been asking her to dinner, having amazing conversations and walking her to her door afterwards. He hadn’t thought that there was room for misinterpretation in his intentions.
So, as this 5th date ended he decides it’s been a proper length of time to try for a good night kiss. As they’re ending their good nights he leans forward to initiate a kiss, not a pushy or intense one, of course.
Honestly, Alex had no idea that this was their fifth date. She'd not been keeping traffic of how many times they'd gone out, even if he walked her to her door. Really, Blake just seemed like a good and friendly man, and that's what good and friendly men did when you happened to be friends with someone who was more than a little bit (a lot) impulsive and reckless.
The kiss surprises her more than anything else, and it takes a minute for the fact that he's kissing her to register, because it seems like something that is entirely out of left field for her. "Wait," she says, as she draws her head back a minute. "You kissed me." It's not a question, it's just a puzzled statement of fact.
Alex can’t help just blinking slowly at him for a long moment, trying to put the pieces together. Him kissing her definitely wasn’t at all making sense in her brain. Not in the slightest. As a queer person herself Alex was someone who considered her gaydar to be fairly good. Honestly she couldn’t recall the last time that she had been wrong in this way. But it seemed that she was wrong now. Gay men didn’t normally kiss women like that. Not really.
Her cheeks colored and she just blinked for a moment before slapping her hand to her forehead. What came out was one hundred and twenty percent of Alex Reagan being Alex Reagan. “Oh my god. I’m sorry. I thought you were gay!”
Blake resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He knows he confuses people but he’d thought he’d been clear and apparently his own signals for interest might have been wrong too then. But to be fair even his last boyfriend insisted he was gay which is definitely part of the reason they broke up, the idea that bisexuality was a phase to be gotten over.
“More than a few people probably think that I guess,” he inhales and then exhales sharply.
“Well this is awkward. I’ll just say good night,” it’s the way he deals with getting into uncomfortable situations in personal matters — he just doesn’t, usually anyway but when he does he usually makes a mess of things, which he can’t stand.
Alex just frowns at him for a long moment, when he says he's going to go, and she's got the very good idea that if she lets him go then she's never going to see him again. Which would suck and isn't something that Alex wants to entertain in the slightest. She likes him, she just never really allowed herself to think about liking him in that context. Putting people in one box or another has never really been easy for Alex Reagan, but she's been trying to be better at it. Maybe she was too good at it now.
"Wait. Blake. Wait." The words are quick, but they're calm and quiet, before she reaches out to grasp him by his tie. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, I just..." A beat before she added, "look, come inside okay? Let's have a drink and talk about this. I'm pan too, so it's not that it's just... Unexpected."
Blake doesn't pull away when she grasps his tie, though he does grimace. It's a really expensive tie, okay. But he doesn't say as much and he looks at her. "You didn't offend me," he says and that much is true. He kind of expects it from people. He knows that he confuses people often. He just hadn't thought Alex had been confused and he wondered where he'd dropped the ball on realizing it until he'd made a total fool of himself.
There's a clear hesitation before he finally nods. "Alright," he agreed.
While she’s waiting for his reply, Alex just lets go of the tie. She’s seen that look. She knows that look and she doesn’t want to make things any more awkward between them than they already are. Because honestly this is definitely one of the more awkward situations than she can think of at the moment. Still, she gives him a hopeful smile even before he agrees to come in, and it only increases as she unlocks the door and leaves it open so that he could follow her.
Flicking the lights on casually, Alex just blushes a little at some of the mess on her coffee table. It’s work of course but it’s stacks of files and papers and folders and a mass of post it notes. Picking up one of the stacks she moves it to the floor behind the sofa before she just asks, “do you want a drink?”
Blake follows her into the apartment and he glanced around. If she’s known him very long she probably has noticed his ocd neat freak tendencies, they make him great at his job but sometimes a little judgmental even when he tries not to be. But he doesn’t judge her too much, just a little, resisting the urge that he has to want to tidy everything up. That would have definitely made the situation worse.
Alex knows that he's a neat freak, but it wasn't like she'd planned to invite him in. If she'd known that this was a date (a fifth date at that) then she would have cleaned. Definitely would have cleaned for him. And not only would she have cleaned, but she would have probably wore better underwear than what she was currently wearing at the moment. If nothing else, they would have matched. Giving him a quick grin, she just walked into the tiny kitchen, and came back with a bottle of red, a corkscrew and two clean glasses.
With as little as she ate at home, there was always clean wine glasses. A girl's got to have priorities after all. Sitting on the couch next to him, she just hands him the bottle and the corkscrew. "Here, you do the honors. I can move some of this stuff some more if it'll make you more comfortable. You know me when I'm working. Organized chaos."
Blake never means to show what he's thinking (okay, sometimes that's a lie and he wants people to know he's judging them) but his face is a bit of an open book. It doesn't always serve him well, honestly. While these things come across so easily his personal life is probably a severe wreck often enough because of it as may exes would likely attest.
"No, no. It's fine," Blake said. After all, it's a bit like he's imposing and he wouldn't be so overtly rude, especially not to Alex. He makes quick work of opening the bottle.
"Yeah, it's a little weird." Alex just admits it honestly, before she takes her glass and does move a stack of files out of sight and hopefully out of mind behind the couch again. "But I mean, I've never minded weird," sitting back down with him, she gives him a quick smile along with a little bit of a roll of her shoulder. "As you know. But I mean, we'll get back to a point where it's normal for us again."
And then, to clarify, she adds, "I mean, if you still you know what to." A beat and a sip of her wine before he explained further. "I mean the dating thing. I do like you, Blake."
"That's true," Blake said, he could imagine that she did like weird, though it had never really been his forte. Then again, his parents would have said otherwise. Between his sexuality and his choice of work they'd never been particularly understanding even if they loved him and judged far more his work for the state department instead of the private sector than who he's dating.
"Do you?" he asked but he looked amused as he did, taking a drink from his glass.
Weird, in general for Alex had very little to do with things that had to do with her sexuality. She was drawn to the weirdness of the stories in Washington, finding what was in the underbelly versus what was there in the light of day. It was something almost fun for her, to dig through the secrets that people possessed and that they tried to keep hidden. It was an enthusiasm that spread through Alex nearly constantly, and she tends to wonder if that's why some people were drawn to her.
People like Blake for instance.
Taking a sip of her wine, she just shrugs at him once more with a little grin. "Yeah, I mean I just assumed you weren't interested in that way, so I kinda put those feelings in a box because I was just glad to meet you."
"For my excellent sources and ability to get into nice restaurants?" Blake questions with a raised brow and he's teasing her. There's still a bit of him that's feeling defensive but he's gotten used to that over the years. He'd constantly had to defend his sexuality with previous partners, with his family for a while even.
She wasn't making him do that so at least it was nice that she simply accepted it as it was the moment she found out.
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For Alex
So, as this 5th date ended he decides it’s been a proper length of time to try for a good night kiss. As they’re ending their good nights he leans forward to initiate a kiss, not a pushy or intense one, of course.
no subject
The kiss surprises her more than anything else, and it takes a minute for the fact that he's kissing her to register, because it seems like something that is entirely out of left field for her. "Wait," she says, as she draws her head back a minute. "You kissed me." It's not a question, it's just a puzzled statement of fact.
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“Yes, I did.”
He opens his mouth to add something and then closes it a few times before exhaling. “I thought...”
And a second later... “I’m sorry.”
no subject
Her cheeks colored and she just blinked for a moment before slapping her hand to her forehead. What came out was one hundred and twenty percent of Alex Reagan being Alex Reagan. “Oh my god. I’m sorry. I thought you were gay!”
no subject
“More than a few people probably think that I guess,” he inhales and then exhales sharply.
“Well this is awkward. I’ll just say good night,” it’s the way he deals with getting into uncomfortable situations in personal matters — he just doesn’t, usually anyway but when he does he usually makes a mess of things, which he can’t stand.
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"Wait. Blake. Wait." The words are quick, but they're calm and quiet, before she reaches out to grasp him by his tie. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, I just..." A beat before she added, "look, come inside okay? Let's have a drink and talk about this. I'm pan too, so it's not that it's just... Unexpected."
no subject
There's a clear hesitation before he finally nods. "Alright," he agreed.
no subject
Flicking the lights on casually, Alex just blushes a little at some of the mess on her coffee table. It’s work of course but it’s stacks of files and papers and folders and a mass of post it notes. Picking up one of the stacks she moves it to the floor behind the sofa before she just asks, “do you want a drink?”
no subject
“Yes, thank you,” he said.
no subject
With as little as she ate at home, there was always clean wine glasses. A girl's got to have priorities after all. Sitting on the couch next to him, she just hands him the bottle and the corkscrew. "Here, you do the honors. I can move some of this stuff some more if it'll make you more comfortable. You know me when I'm working. Organized chaos."
no subject
"No, no. It's fine," Blake said. After all, it's a bit like he's imposing and he wouldn't be so overtly rude, especially not to Alex. He makes quick work of opening the bottle.
"This is weird, right?"
no subject
And then, to clarify, she adds, "I mean, if you still you know what to." A beat and a sip of her wine before he explained further. "I mean the dating thing. I do like you, Blake."
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"Do you?" he asked but he looked amused as he did, taking a drink from his glass.
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People like Blake for instance.
Taking a sip of her wine, she just shrugs at him once more with a little grin. "Yeah, I mean I just assumed you weren't interested in that way, so I kinda put those feelings in a box because I was just glad to meet you."
no subject
She wasn't making him do that so at least it was nice that she simply accepted it as it was the moment she found out.