"Vhat, do you have a date tonight, Scott?" Nightcrawler asked me.

"Hey man, I'm trying to get ready! There's a reason why I lock the door you know!"

"Heh, heh. You know zat can't ztop me."

To prove his point he teleported in a cloud of foul smelling smoke from one side of my room to the other. To make sure there would be no doubt as to my displeasure, I doubled over and tried to cough really hard. He just rolled his eyes.

"And who is da lucky lady? It is a voman zis time, ya?"

"Of course it is! Would you please get out of here?!"

He did that annoying little smirk he does. "Ze only reason dat I ask is dat zere is a very pretty blond voman at za door. I vas thinking of making a play, za?"

Damn it. I finished dressing and rushed downstairs. Carol Danvers was there. She really looked stunning in her slinky red dress. For some reason my knees started to get shakey and I tripped as I hurried over to her. It was kind of embarassing.

"Hello Scott," she said with a friendly smile.

"Uh . . hi. That's, um, a really nice dress."

"Why thank you. It certainly was nice of Danny to fix us up, don't you think?"

"Uh . . yes."

With that I led her out to the garage and then drove us to Mason de Jaques where I had made reservations. I couldn't really think of anything to say to her so we were pretty quiet as we road.

At the table, we both ordered. I wanted her to think I knew what I was doing so I picked something at random. I really had no idea what it was. Everything was in French. When the food finally came, I still didn't know what it was. Sort of big plop of yellowish goo. It tasted pretty weird.

I thought I was doing pretty well during diner but then I spilled a glass of wine all over myself. I told her that we had just fought a huge battle against Apocalypse and that I was still a little shaken up. She gave me a very patronizing smile.

I drove us back to the mansion.

"So . . would you like to, uh, c-come up and see my . . um . . collection of comic books?" I asked her.

"Comics books?"

"Oh, I mean, um, art. Would you like to see my art?"

She paused for a moment and then smiled warmly. "Sure."

I gulped hard and led her up to my room. For some reason my hand was kind of trembling as I opened the door. Everything was really loud. My heartbeat sounded like a drum. She followed me. I turned around to face her. I wiped the sweat off my brow. This was it, I told myself.

I moved closer and leaned in for a kiss. Carol was turning her face to look around the room and I bumped my forehead into hers.

"Ow!" she excalimed.

"Oh man, I am so sorry," I said as we both rubber our foreheads.

"Hey, that's okay. I just didn't realize you were going in. You have to give a girl the head's up when you're going to make your move."

My cheeks felt like they were burning. "Oh. I'm, uh, really sorry." I had to try and salvage this somehow. "Would you, uh, like to sit on the, uh, bed?"

I turned to point at it but somehow when I twisted my body I fell over. I guess I was a little dizzy from the blow to the head. I looked up at Carol and she looked like she was trying to stiffle a laugh.

"Actually, I have to, um, get up early for work tomorrow," she said. "But that thanks for dinner."

I was going to offer to show her out but she was already gone. Sigh. Maybe it's just as well. Gaia wants me to go to some kind of meeting tomorrow.