The real third date- Shaan & Parker

"The blue is way better than the orange," Parker stated, "just sayin. And I'd give you all the good luck kisses you want." 

"Oh my, I'm totally blushing right now," Parker said, "I've had my days as... a ladies man... or whatever nice or not so nice terms you want to call it... I'm healthy though so don't worry about that. Those days need to be over though. But if you ever want to try out that smut stuff in real life... I think I can help with that..." 

"It's crazy isn't I? I feel like I've known you forever, you're already my best friend and I have so much love for you" Parker agreed.  " I'm an architecture and history nerd, not the internet kind but I do love watching movies even if I'm not completely sober for them," Parker said with a laugh, "So the guest bedroom of my house is behind a hidden bookcase door because I wanted to feel like a secret agent. Might put one in behind the master bedroom door. There's swings in my kitchen and my staircase has a slide," he laughed knowing how ridiculous he sounded, but he was totally telling the truth. "The backyard is a mess though, can't decide between a trampoline and a swimming pool." 

"Shaan, you are a fucking genius, a trampoline diving board sounds like the most fun ever!" Parker exclaimed, totally wowed by that idea.

"Ok so I did tell you that I'm an architect too right? Used to be, sometimes part time,  could go back, whatever. So let's just say my house is my financial security because it's worth like a ton more than what I bought it for because I've been working on it. I pretty much gutted the inside and redid the whole thing and I'm kinda a geek for it. I figure if anything ever happens to the blog I'd just go flip houses or design them for other people and this would be my demo." he said with a laugh. 

"I just wanted to make a house that was the most fun possible for when people came over. Walking down a spiral staircase with a hangover is hard so I made a slide," He said that like it was just the most obvious thing in the world. "Ummm let's see when my ex moved out, I didn't have time to redo the furniture so that whole room is just a blanket fort right now. There's a ton of windows because I love natural light. My so called office is a giant hammock thing... and I already told you about the hot tub in the living room. And I really like old school clawfoot bathtubs, so I have two of them... and I build a walk in closet for my ex but it's mostly empty right now." "Don't worry even if I leave here alone, I'm throwing a reunion party at my place when I'm done with it." 

"I don't know, do you really think a great opener is "Hey girl I have a funny jokes and a heart made of duct tape but there's totally a slide in my house!" is a going to help me get a date?" Parker asked with a laugh. "For the record, curry is one one of the few things I actually can cook, with spice packets of course but it's a step in the right direction. So if you become a cop, you'd be even more like batman! Seriously is it possible for you to get any cooler?" 

"Ummm so if you still live with Grams, I do have three bedrooms so she can move in too if she wants..." Parker said, a little awkwardly and unsure if he should be even talking about logistics of being married yet. "Or I could like design a tiny home out back for her instead of the pool... or I guess I could just remodel her place. I mean whether I walk out of this or not with you, I've got window stuff in my garage and I can fix Grams window if she's into colorful stained glass." 

"You're in luck then, because even though I'm totally a grown up, my mama still sends me care packages and they usually include curry packets. I'm not a master chef or anything, but I try. I like my curry extra spicy by the way." Parker said with a laugh. "They live in LA so I visit every couple weeks or so and well a few years ago they gave up on asking me when I'm getting married but I do love surprises."

 "You know... if you moved in, I think I can squeeze a punching bag into the gameroom, it's kinda a man cave but I think a punching bag would work well in it," Parker said thoughtfully. "I know we've only known each other a few days, but I think it would be really cool for you to move in with me, you and maybe some chinchillas. I could build them the most epic chinchilla house. Disclaimer, when I say build I usually mean with autocad, my actual construction skills aren't top notch so I have help for that. I did the office myself though. I lowkey want a dog so I can make the world's coolest doghouse." 

"Shaan, I'm going to love you either way, but you can't choose based on someone leaving here alone. That's part of life. You gotta follow your heart, that's what gets me to where I go!" Parker said, a little too brightly.

"If you gotta talk to Trout, go for it. If Gem even wants to talk to me again, I'll go. I just... don't really know where her head is at... and I don't care that we're from different worlds, I only care about the world we can make for ourselves, together. I don't want you to just live in my world, I want you to come build it with me." 

He sighed, "What can I say that will make you stop crying?" he asked softly, "I can't come hold you or kiss you right now, but I need to do something. Also if I hear people crying I start crying too but I promise it's not your fault." 

"Well, I think I got bored with being sad, so I don't really do it anymore," Parker said with a chuckle, "My whole family saves people's lives for a living and I'm the only one that doesn't do that. Medicine was just not my thing, I can't handle the thought of possibly having to watch someone die every day. I want to be in the business of making people smile every day. I always thought I'd design stuff like museums or office buildings where people can smile in a boring day, but when I had the chance to do that, I realized that I wouldn't get to see those smiles in person, so I was selfish enough to quit because I just like to see people smile." Parker said softly, "So there, that's the backstory of all that and why I still believe in love."

 "Eh, I've been cheated on before, that's not what this feels like because you're not lying about it," Parker said with a shrug, "Though I'll be pretty upset if you left without giving me a chance to fix it. I'd rather marry the right person than rush. I want someone to really want me, not someone who is going to take me because they hear I'm cute or whatever."

"If you leave, I'd probably go find you and maybe ask you out the normal way. But no I'm not giving up on you. You didn't give up on me when I got my second chance at this in that maze, so why would I give up on you?" 

"You're not the first one here to ask me that," Parker said with a laugh, "I don't plan anything I say, I swear. I just... say what my heart wants to say. This ol' heart and I have kinda been through a lot together, we know each other really well. I don't know if I get what I want because I don't know what I want most of the time. I just know I want you to be smiling as much as possible and that's what I want to do whether it's in person or not.  Sooner or later, you'll probably find something wrong with me and you can figure out if you want to fix it with me or not. I don't know what it is, but I think you'd tell me before giving up though." He smiled as he spoke. 

"From what I gather, you could've gone through that maze and come up knowing who you'd marry. You chose to give me a chance anyways when you didn't have to. That means a lot to me and not a lot of people give me second chances. So if you ran away because you had decision fatigue or something, yeah I'd come after you, but also this whole resort thing sounds a bit more fun and a hell lot easier." Parker said cheerfully, but either way the ball was in her court not his. 

Parker sighed "I don't think I'm particularly tough or whatever, but when things go wrong or my heart gets broken, the only thing I can control is how I feel about it. I could go cry and be a sad puppy or I can just go look for the next adventure and the next love. But at the end of the day, I get to choose what I do and that's why I think I'm so damn lucky." He laughed to himself at the end of that. 

"I just know how much alcohol, cake, and retail therapy it takes to fix my heart up, though after this whole experiment I might need to buy another house or something," Parker said, mostly joking about the buying a house, but he had been thinking about it. "I don't bank on love, I just enjoy the ride while I'm on it." 

"I'm closing my eyes and imagining you're holding me because I want to, not because I'm sad about anything," Parker said with a laugh. "But I'd really love it if I could hold and kiss you again." 

"Hmmm dream future... it's kinda up to you. I could take us wherever we want to go, eat some good food, see some great sites, I can bore you to death talking about architecture while we take a nice minty bath. Or I could keep working on the house, put that epic swimming pool in there, maybe one with a waterfall, you could put an art studio or chinchillas or both in that spare room and paint or go to police academy or do all of the above. Maybe have a kid or two one day that won't have worry in life," Parker said as he daydreamed. "We can do the honeymoon wherever you want, though I think Antarctica would be really fun." 

Parker laughed, "Oh no, I'm comfortable but I'm not that loaded. I'd just be leveraging the mortgage on the current house and getting a little fixer upper with a view, maybe by a lake or something. The only reason my dad is as ok as he is with me quitting my job and stuff is that I make smart investments, otherwise he would've cut me off a long time ago." he said with a chuckle, "but yeah I share my friends and I think I more or less come with an endless supply of chicken nuggets and curry if that's what it takes." 

"For the record, I'd totally be filming you wrestling a bear for sport and I think you'd kick that bear's ass," Parker said with another laugh. "Just don't try to box a kangaroo, not that I've tried but I got told that like a billion times when I was in Australia and asked if I could pet one. Kangaroos are apparently not friendly critters. How do you feel about roller coasters? I freaking love them, oh and for some reason I've just never been to Disneyland and I have no excuse why not."