I walk into the bathroom with my dress and quickly put it on.

"What do you think?" I ask as I walk out and do a small twirl.

"Annie you need to stop taking my breath away." James chuckles as he stands and looks me up and down, causing me to blush.

I don't say anything not knowing how to take the compliment.

"You ready?" I nod quickly and he takes my hand and holds it on our way out.

We walk down the stairs quickly and out the door. He opens my door and helps me climb into his truck and he quickly takes off.

"So where are we going?" I ask with an excited smile.

"I'm not telling you." James chuckles and I give him a pouty look as he and I put our seatbelts on.

I play with my finger nails in anticipation as a comfortable silence falls over us.

*

I tilt my head as we pull up to a brick building with a sign saying Slam Poe's.
I unbuckle as James kills the engine. I open my door and jump out walking around and meeting James at the front. He smiles at me and grabs my hand, we then proceed to walk in.

A hostess smiles at us. She is wearing black slacks and a blue button up. Her brown hair is pinned up and green eyes sparkle at us.

"Just two?" She ask and I can tell, her voice is raised an octave to accomplish the perfect customer service voice. James nods and she grabs two menus and beckons us to follow her.

She leads us to a table close to a stage. The stage has a stool and a microphone set up.

We sit at the table and I turn to James who sits across from me. "What is this?"

James smirks as he shrugs his shoulders innocently, causing me to narrow my eyes at him.

"So twenty questions?" James ask as he picks up his menu causing a giggle to escape me.

"How old are we?" I ask sarcastically.

A chuckle leaves James mouth. "Ah, that's a good start, I'm 22." I roll my eyes at his answer as I pick up my menu and look over it.

"I'm 19," I say shyly.

"That's a nice age." I giggle at James response. "Its your turn to ask a question Annie."

"What's your full name?" At my question James face seems to pale causing my eyebrows to raise.

"Eh I don't really like my full name," James shrugs as he nervously rubs the back of his neck.

I open my mouth but I'm interrupted by the waitress. "Hi, I'm samantha I'll be your server today! Can I start you off with any drinks?" I cringe at the overly excited waitress.

"Um just water please." I shrug. The waistress then looks to James patiently.

"I'll get the um, actually I'll have water also." Samantha nods her head and quickly walks away and I turn my attention to James.

"Come on tell me your name, I'll tell you mine?" I say with a persuasive smile.

James sighs but nonetheless smiles nervously while nodding his head.

"My full name is Annie-Bell Lea Bennet. Its ridiculously long." I laugh as I then look at James expectantly making him sigh as he rubs the back of his neck.

"My full name is Jamison Wyatt Raiden Ignatius." James blushes as he shrugs his shoulder while my eyes widen.

"Ignatius is your last name?" I question as my voice raises an octave.

James slowly nods his head causing my jaw to drop.

"You're King Ajax's brother?" I ask hesitantly, this can't be happening, no way a kings brother wants to be on a date with me?

Maybe this isn't a date? Maybe we are supposed to be friends or something, or he just wants a friend with benefits.  My heart sinks at the thoughts swirling through my mind.

"I'm the youngest brother actually." James shrugs his shoulders as he starts to rub his throat, a nervous habit it seems.

"Then why, why are you with me?" I ask as suddenly my insecurities remind me of how undeserving I am of royalty. "Why-why didn't your mate want you?"

I'm wildly confused, what person turns down a royal? All he said was that she was human and the last time he saw her was at her wedding. Now knowing he is a royal I had to know what happened to his mate.

A sigh mixed with a growl leaves his mouth. He runs a hand through his long hair and looks pointedly at me.

"Don't. Even. Think. like that." James states leaving no room for argument before finally sighing.

"Alright, I guess I better explain the mate situation." James starts as he rubs his hands on his pants. "I have friends in the human kingdom, one of my friends invited me to a wedding, his sisters wedding to be exact." I furrow my eyebrows tilting my head slightly.

"So I went, the day of the wedding I go to his sisters house with him, he had to drop something for the wedding off. I go to their bathroom and on the way there I bump into her." A sad look takes over James face. "Her name is Kaelah, I immediately know she is my mate, then she tells me she is pregnant, which is why she is getting married." James shrugs. "I tell her I don't care, I would raise the baby like it is my own, she could leave with me." James pauses for a moment as he looks away, avoiding eye contact for a moment.

I reach over the table and grab his hand in mine causing him to look at me. I give him a sad smile. "I'm sorry."

James shrugs. "She just said she couldn't leave with me, she wanted to stay with the man. So we rejected each other and didn't tell a soul. I stayed for the wedding and then left. That was a year ago."

"I'm sorry James. I hate that happened to you, I met my mate and his first words were he couldn't be with me, and then he marked someone else." I sigh as I then give him a sad smile.

A half smile finds it's way to James, "But now we have each other."

I smile "Yeah, I'm glad I met you." I state with a smile. It's true, James is so easy to be around, I can't understand why we aren't mates.

The waitress walks up and sets our drinks down. "Are you ready to order?"

James nods, "Yeah let me get a medium rare steak, steamed vegetables on the side." The waitress turns to me and I blush as James looks at me too.

"Uh let me have the grilled chicken with vegetables please." We hand her the menus and she quickly walks away.

Suddenly I hear heels click on the stage and turn to see a lady walking on the stage towards the microphone.

"Hello Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Mic night! Where people volunteer to sing, speak or share some comedy with us!" My eyes widen at the ladies words and I look to James who smirks at me and winks.

"What are we doing here." I whisper as my body gets hot and my palms start to sweat.

"Watch." James states as he gets up and heads to the stage, he goes to the back and grabs something and walks back. A smile takes over my face at the guitar in his hand.

I bite my lip as he sits on the stool and pulls the mic towards him before adjust the guitar.

"So I just want to dedicate this song to my date tonight, Annie." James smiles as he points to me and winks causing the crowd to awe.

Then James starts to strum the guitar and my eyes widen as he starts to sing revealing his deep raspy voice.

"Meeting her was like taking a walk on a beach for the first time,
Breath takingly beautiful, yeah I had to make her mine,
Wanting her was like the greed of a man wanting everything
And believe it or not hearing her speak was like hearing angels sing," I bite my lip as his deep voice carries over the crowd making everyone pay attention. As the chorus comes up James strums on his guitar picking up the pace.

"Cause oh, she was deep blue and deep green
Calming me through this storm scene
Oh she was so purely white like the heaven we haven't met
So innocent like the harsh sun hadn't burned her yet
Every calming color you could think of
Filled with so much innocence"

I swallow back the tears of joy at the emotions in his voice and the words of his song.

"Needing her was like needing air when your lungs are burning
Having her there was like pain killers when you're hurting
And just like them she can get addicting
Loving her was like a long hot bath after a long hard day
Touching her was learning all the feelings you can't sa-ay." James smiles at me as the tune leaves his mouth so beautiful and I want to giggle at the large muscled man singing a love song.

To me.

"She was better than any girl in a love song
makes me want to take her all night long
She was better than any movie romance
As she tries to keep up with life's dance yeah yeah
she was the calm and I was the storm "

I cover my face as he goes through the chorus one last time before blushing as he comes to an end. Everyone in the room stands and claps for him as he returns the guitar and walks off the stage towards me. I quickly walk to him and embrace him.

"Oh my gosh that was so sweet." I gush with my face pressed in his chest causing a loud chuckle to leave him. He grabs my hand as we walk to our table, the waitress then comes and sets down our food as another person gets on stage and starts reading some poetry they wrote.

"So you wrote that?" I ask James as I rest my chin in my hand. He blushes as he shrugs, "Yeah, it probably wasn't the best bu-" his cheeks flush as I interrupt him.

"No! No it was amazing! No one, no one has ever done that for me!" I gush as he shakes his head.

"Shame on them then, you deserve everything Annie."

****
Because this chapter was to cute not to post!

The Making of Glitch : Navi and Riley were supposed to have a bit of a romance between them, but I changed my mind when I decided to give Riley a mate. So I decided to show that Navi had a crush in Riley when she was younger.