The Dating Itinerary

by Brooke Williams

  “Exactly. There needs to be something more.”

  Penny laid her head back on the couch as Geo settled back in and felt his hand reach for hers. They sat together, just breathing.

  The silence between them grew longer until their breaths were steady, the game suddenly forgotten. When Penny startled awake, confusion settled in. Her hand was entwined with something softer than fine sand. She had a crick in her neck from sleeping with her head straight back on the couch, but she liked the feel of the softness in her hand. She slowly lifted her head and searched down her body until she saw a man’s head in her lap. She moved her fingers ever so slightly and curled them around the hair. It was softer than she’d imagined, and she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to stop stroking it.

  “Mmm.” The moan came so suddenly that Penny jumped. George rolled his head so his cheek was now against her stomach. His eyes were still closed, but he had a small smile on his face. Penny watched him as he slept. He looked so innocent. Nothing like the cocky Geo she remembered from the later days at St. Louis Happenings or from when they met at the Speed Dating event again. But more like a little boy who was completely at ease in her presence.

  As he breathed deeply, rubbed his eyes, and opened them, the little boy disappeared, and before her was a man. He still wasn’t Geo, but rather George. Penny ran her fingers through his hair a few more times as his eyes focused. He picked the zits from her face, but the serious expression on his features told her everything she needed to know.

  She was in trouble.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Another strike? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Nickel shouted as Q returned back down the lane with a smile on her face.

  Penny was enjoying the banter between her sisters, as she always did. She had to admit, she wasn’t on her game, and her mind was often elsewhere, but Q was on fire.

  “What’s your secret?” Penny asked.

  “I finally took your advice and picked up a heavier ball,” Q replied.

  Penny giggled along as Dime told stories about the construction site she was working on that week.

  “Have you been swiping on your app lately, Pen?” Di asked.

  Penny shook her head. “I thought I’d put it on your phone since you enjoyed it so much. Thanks a lot for the work you did on mine, by the way.”

  Di lowered her gaze and shot a guilty look at Q.

  “What happened?” Quarter asked. It was her turn, but being the worst bowler of the four, she never cared how soon she got down the alley.

  “Tell them, Di,” Penny urged. She had to clean up after her sister’s swipe, but it was still Di’s story to tell.

  “Penny and I met for lunch,” she began. “She was doing Tinder that week.”

  “I left her alone with my phone for like two minutes,” Penny continued.

  “I had your blessing to swipe,” Di countered.

  “True, but not him.”

  “Come on, you guys, just tell us!” Nic pleaded.

  “I may have swiped right on someone Penny already knows.”

  “That’s an understatement!”

  “Who was it?” Q asked.

  “Geo Monais,” Di supplied, a sheepish expression on her face.

  “No!” the other two sisters gasped in unison.

  “How well do you really know him anyway?” Di asked. “You guys should have seen that picture. You would have swiped right, too.”

  Penny laughed as her sister rambled, trying to make up for what she’d done. She and Geo had come a long way since the mis-swipe. She remembered the feel of his hair between her fingers and the look of red sticker zits upon his face. She should thank her sister, really. She was the reason she had a writing partner and…and…what else? She didn’t know.

  Nic cut in. “I know we’re in the middle of a game, but I think the pins can wait. You have some catching up to do, Penny. Come on, dish.”

  Penny sat back in the plastic bowling chair, wondering where to start. It had been a while since she’d updated her sisters. She tried to rewind as far as she could and first told them about Pete.

  “He sounds sweet,” Nic said.

  “He was.”

  “Was?” Dime asked. “I hear a past tense here.”

  Penny shrugged. “Our children would be redheads, that much is for sure. But I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling it completely, and neither did he. Something was missing. I thought maybe I’d see him again once all of this is over, but then I met Jack.”

  “Jack?” Q kicked Penny with her giant foot. “Who’s Jack?”

  “He was my second match from the matchmaker this week.”

  “Tell them about the first one.” Nic clapped with glee. She and Penny had had a phone update session, so she already knew all about beard man.

  Penny told the story of the first matchmaker date with the bearded soup man, and the group laughed uproariously. Penny herself got the giggles and laughed so hard her sides hurt.

  “But tell them the best part!” Nic urged.

  Penny shot a look at her sister. “Fine.” She took a deep breath and detailed the end of the date, when Geo Monais had swept her off her feet and carried her out of the restaurant.

  “You’ve got to be kidding!” Di exclaimed. “The very man I swiped right on in the first place. You’re welcome!”

  “So you two are friendly, now?” Q asked.

  Penny thought about the night before. They’d had fun messing around with Girl Talk, and some of the questions in the game took them pretty deep. But friends? That wasn’t how she’d describe the look he gave her when he woke up in her lap.

  “We’ve come to terms with the fact that we’re both on the same dating track, and we’re treating each other more like…colleagues now.”

  She needed to sort her own feelings for Geo out before she blurted too much about him. The girls nodded, and Q got them back on a track Penny was more comfortable talking about. “Tell us about Jack,” she said.

  “Does anyone else remember chasing prairie dogs at a family reunion when we were kids?”

  “That was awesome,” Q chimed.

  “And the little boy who showed us how to find the right hidey hole?” Penny asked.

  Her sisters blinked and waited expectantly.

  “Well, that was Jack.”

  Dime stood up. “Wait a second, are you telling us…”

  Penny nodded. “Yep, the fabulous Ivana Date set me up with our cousin, however distant he might have been.”

  “So how did that go?” Q asked, stifling a giggle.

  “Not well, once we figured it out. We continued through the zoo, but we kept our distance.”

  The sisters looked at each other and burst out laughing.

  “Penny, this dating thing is not going well for you,” Nic admitted.

  “You’re telling me!” Penny wondered if she should interrupt the glee to tell her sisters more about what was going on with Geo. He was the real story here. But she was confused about her feelings for him, and she didn’t really want to analyze it over a night of bowling. Tonight was supposed to be fun. And after the stories she’d already told, fun was guaranteed. She was glad she’d gotten to relay the information to her sisters before they read the articles. It was much more fun telling them about their cousin in person.

  “Can you imagine that wedding?” Nic chortled.

  “No one would know whose side to sit on,” gasped Q.

  Penny laughed along with them. She brushed the tip of her nose and could almost feel a zit sticker at its tip.

  …

  Geo was pretty sure he was wetter than his nephew, even though Eliot was the one in the bath. He splashed as an army man got thrown from the nearby toy boat—again. But he was getting clean…as was Geo…and his sister would be home soon.

  “Time to get ou
t,” Geo said after one more sound splash. He wrapped Eliot in a fluffy towel and sat him on his lap.

  “I don’t have any more girls,” Eliot admitted.

  Geo grinned as he rubbed the towel over his nephew’s hair. “Oh yeah?”

  “They’re not in a fight anymore, and they have more fun with each other than me, so I don’t have a girl anymore.”

  “That’s okay, little man.” Geo tousled his hair. “You’ve got plenty of time to find a girl. Right now, just concentrate on having fun.”

  The little boy’s eyes lit up. “Fun, yeah. I’ll get the markers.”

  Geo took a deep breath. He was in for it now. He knew Eliot’s favorite game, after all. “Hey, dude, come back here and put some clothes on!”

  Eliot returned with a box crammed full of markers—and not the washable kind. He quickly pulled on his pajamas and grabbed the box in one hand and Geo in the other.

  “Shirt off, Uncle G.”

  Geo sighed, pulled his shirt off over his head, and laid down on the living room floor. Why had he started this game and when would Eliot grow out of it? “Remember the rules, E.”

  “Not on the neck and not past the elbows.”

  “Right, man. Go to town.” Geo was going to go down as the coolest uncle ever, if nothing else. He felt Eliot sit down on his backside, and he heard the cap of the first marker hit the floor beside him. Its tip tickled when it touched his back. The first marker was quickly followed by a second and then a third. He was going to be very colorful.

  “This again?”

  Geo lifted his head as his sister came through the front door. “Always,” he said with a sheepish grin.

  “Uncle Geo is very pretty, Eliot. Why don’t you go brush your teeth and hop into bed? I’ll read you a story in a minute.”

  Eliot whined and complained a bit, and it took the promise of two stories and a song to coax the marker from his hand, but at last, Geo felt the pressure on his lower back relax.

  “That kid is going to be an artist someday.” Geo stood and pulled his shirt over his newly decorated back.

  “And you’re going to be a canvas.”

  “Been there, done that.” Geo chuckled.

  “Can you stick around longer?”

  “Sure.” Geo watched his sister make her way to the back room to tuck Eliot in. He knew from experience it would be more than a few minutes. He grabbed the magazine from her coffee table, flipped through the pictures of Hollywood stars, then tossed it back on the table. He pulled out his phone and played a word game he’d downloaded the week before. When she finally returned, she looked worn out and ready for bed herself.

  “Okay, I took care of one. Now it’s your turn.”

  “I think I’m pretty capable.” Geo put down the phone and turned to her.

  “You think I don’t know when there’s something going on with my little brother? The look on your face when you got here tonight said it all. What’s up, bro?”

  Geo sighed. It was hard for him to hide his career opportunity from his sister as long as he had. And now that his emotions were so mixed up, she was on his trail.

  “Just this whole dating thing. It’s harder than I thought.”

  “Why’s that? I thought you were a pro.” She raised her eyebrows at him, which only reminded him of Penny and her disastrous date with soup man.

  “I’ve met some nice women. One of them even seemed perfect in every way.”

  “So what’s wrong?”

  Geo ran a hand over his face. “There’s someone else.” He winced at the sound of the words coming out of his mouth.

  “Someone else? Things just got interesting. Do tell.”

  His sister was waving her eyebrows at him, which brought to mind Penny’s unfortunate date. Geo smiled. “You remember Penny?”

  “Of course. I saw her with you on TV. She had quite an attitude… Oh, wait…you’re not telling me that you…her…Geo, really?” Maggie sat at the edge of the couch, bouncing up and down a little.

  “I don’t know. I mean, it seems like there’s something there, but does it even matter? If this thing works out, I’ll be going to New York, and she’ll be here, so it’s not even worth exploring…right?” He was looking for affirmation.

  “Geo, you can’t think like that. If things end up being right with Penny, no job should stand in your way.”

  “But Her Heart,” he began to protest.

  “You’ve been nothing but selfless with me, Geo. For years. You help with Eliot, and you volunteer with the charity. You need to figure out what’s best for you. Do it for me.”

  Geo searched the blank wall across from the chair he occupied. His sister was speaking out of the goodness of her heart. It was why so many people loved her—depended on her. But he’d abandoned her too soon once. He didn’t plan on doing it again. He’d have to figure out a way to avoid his feelings for Penny long enough to get the new job and head to New York. There were millions of people there. He could find a match in due time. Or was there possibly a way he could get everything he wanted at the same time? No. This wasn’t a fairy tale. Things didn’t land “happily ever after” in real life. It was a nice passing thought, but in reality? It would never work.

  Geo hugged his sister and promised to keep her up to date. Once he was out the door, he pulled his phone from his coat pocket and shot a text to Penny. Wing woman? it read. Geo waited and watched the phone, smiling when he saw the dots appear that indicated she was replying.

  You need help, she wrote.

  Geo laughed. You’re right. I can’t do it without you. What do you say?

  Tomorrow night? she replied.

  It’s a date, he answered. He tucked his phone into his jacket. They’d firm up the details in the morning at their appearance on the local TV morning show. He wasn’t sure how things would go there or later that night. She thought they were going out together to try and pick up dates. But Penny’s copper haircut was too cute for him to concentrate on anyone else when she was around. Instead, he was going to do his best to win her over. It was time to stop fighting what he was feeling.

  Chapter Sixteen

  When Geo arrived at the TV studio, the setup looked a bit different than he was used to seeing. Instead of the open set with the couch and the chairs, there was a partition up in the middle of the floor with several chairs on either side. As the production assistant threaded his mic and tested the volume, Geo asked about it.

  “What’s going on here today?”

  The assistant smiled. “You’ll see.”

  Geo shrugged and nodded at Penny when she arrived and went through the mic process as well. Once she was ready to roll, he sidled over to her.

  “Hey.” He grinned. Smooth.

  “Hi. What’s this about?” she asked, gesturing toward the set.

  “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  The show went to break, and Alicia Hammond rushed over to them. “You guys ready?”

  The pair nodded.

  “Sorry we didn’t get in touch with you before now. We’re doing something different today. It’s kind of last minute. Are you okay to roll with it?”

  Geo looked at Penny, who had questions written all over her face.

  “Uh, sure?” she said as she followed Alicia to the set.

  “You sit over here, Penny, and Geo, you’ll go on the other side of the wall.”

  Geo did as instructed and was left alone as Alicia joined Penny on the other side.

  “We’re live in five!” the producer shouted, and before he knew it, Geo saw the camera lights go red.

  “Welcome back, St. Louis. Today, we have with us Penny Coyne and Geo Monais from the popular series The Dating Itinerary. Our special guests have agreed to do something a little different today—date live on TV!”

  Geo tried to keep the surprise from his face in
case he was on camera. He wondered how Penny had reacted on the other side of the partition.

  “We’ve taken members from our own staff, and we’re having them come on the show for a brief interview. There’s three women and three men. Here’s the catch.” Alicia paused. “Penny will be speaking with the women and Geo the men. They’ll choose dates for each other!” Alicia squealed. “We figured you guys had gotten to know each other’s types pretty well as your paths have crossed during this dating process.”

  Geo’s heart beat in his chest. He had to pick a date for Penny? And she for him? He felt his blood pressure rise as he thought of Penny on a date with another man.

  “Penny, you’ll go first. Ladies, come on out!”

  Geo listened on the other side of the wall as Alicia asked each woman their first question. “What’s your favorite animal?”

  “A kitten, definitely a kitten,” the first woman replied.

  “I love deer, actually,” said the second woman.

  “Dogs. There’s nothing better than dogs,” the third woman answered.

  Alicia took over with the second round. “Tell us about the best date you’ve ever been on.”

  Woman number one didn’t have much of a story: “Dinner and a movie is about as good as it gets.”

  “I got to go on a hot air balloon once. That was pretty amazing,” the second woman answered.

  “Hmm, well, probably my senior prom. It was an Under the Sea theme,” the third woman rounded out the answers.

  It wasn’t exactly enough to get to know someone, but the segment they were sharing was short.

  “Who do you choose, Penny?” Alicia asked. Geo could imagine her leaning over, looking interested.

  “Number three?”

  Geo heard the question in Penny’s voice.

  “Congratulations, number three. One and two, get back to work.” Alicia chuckled. “Three, go stand over there, and we’ll bring you out to meet Geo in a bit. Now, Penny, you go over to where Geo is, and he can come over here.”

  Geo stood and moved around the wall, catching Penny’s eye on the way past. He saw enough in her glance to know she was just as caught off guard as he was.