He sent me a link to a YouTube short of Captain Sisko repeatedly sayingbattle stationsin that rumbly voice of his.
I was already tickled that he was willing to tease me back, and Judi Dench licked my chin, totally in agreement with me. I sent him back a supercut of Captain Picard sayingengageover and over again.
TeamDench: Capt. Picard had Q and the Borg to deal with. The Cardassians could never.
NiceGuy4U: You are wrong, and you should meet me for coffee so we can discuss exactly how wrong you are.
Not gonna lie. I do a little snort-giggle and give Judi a hug.
TeamDench: I can’t wait to debate the captain who regularly quotes Shakespeare against the captain whose only space-faring ship was a runabout.
NiceGuy4U: I promise I’m not getting pushy, but aside from tonight, the next free evening I have is Saturday, and I don’t want to wait that long to explain how ineffective Shakespeare is in the uncompromising vacuum of space.
TeamDench: And I promise I’m not desperate for saying yes. I just cannot allow this blasphemy to continue.
NiceGuy4U: Awesome Tonight at 7:30 okay with you?
TeamDench: Sure, as long as you don’t make fun of me for drinking herbal tea so I’m not up all night.
NiceGuy4U: You’ve already chosen the wrong captain. It really can’t get much worse from there.
I sent him an XOXO emoji, and we exchanged numbers.
Two minutes later, I got a text.
Unknown number: This is Gideon. Your profile says you live in Georgetown, too. I was thinking the coffee shop off the square is a good spot.
Me: Let’s do it.
Me: I’m Alfie, by the way.
Gideon: Nice to meet you, Alfie.
Gideon: It’s been a while since I looked forward to a date.
A flush rose on my cheeks, and I didn’t hate it.
Me: Same.
I looked at Judi Dench and kissed the top of her head.
“I might be bringing you home a daddy after all.”
TWO
Gideon
I smiledas I pulled up Alfie's profile one more time. I thought I'd come up with a pretty interesting question but had been disappointed in the number of boring answers I'd received. They usually named their captain and left no explanation. No discussion, no ranking of captains, not even people saying they preferred Star Wars.
But then Alfie came in and teased me and... I liked it.
I liked it so much.
I added the question for a couple of reasons. First of all, I was a huge Trekker, and Star Trek was, by all available metrics, way better than Star Wars. Fight with your mom about it.
Also, I wanted to make sure guys knew I wasn't in any way dangerous. Despite my size, tattoos, and naturally scowly face, I wasn't nearly as mercenary as I looked. I knew they'd take my Texas card for this, but I could never hold a gun, let alone take a life.
I’d had a rough childhood and spent a lot of time at the local boxing gym, one of the only safe places in our neighborhood at that time. I hadn’t been doing it for the looks, but since I wastaller and put on muscle easily, I was eventually able to tell my foster parents to leave Reuben and me out of their bullshit.
