by Deanna Chase
“Is anyone in there?” a female voice said, followed by more knocking.
“Give me one minute. I’ll be right out.” Figured someone would want in just as I started my shave. I glided the razor over my foamed face. Being in such a hurry, I nicked myself and ran over to grab a piece of tissue paper. After I shoved the razor and shaving gel back into my purse, I checked my reflection. My eyes appeared to have returned to their hazel state—a good sign. I dabbed on a bit of foundation.
“Come on. I don’t have all night. What are you doing in there?” I heard the urgency in her voice.
“Coming,” I said in my sweetest voice. Apparently someone had to pee-pee badly.
As soon as I opened the door, the woman hurried past with a nasty look. I smiled in return. After all, I didn’t have to brawl with my furry friends or anyone else for that matter. At that moment, life wasn’t all that bad, especially considering Mr. Yummylicious waited for me. I’d erase the Lily dilemma from my mind.
Amid some eyebrow-raising glances, I slithered back toward my table. I scanned the space, looking for the dirty werewolves, but didn’t spot them anywhere. Lucky for them. I’d hate to have to go all kung fu on their asses. Jack remained at the booth with a half-empty margarita in front of him. He didn’t seem to notice my minced blouse. How I would finish the date without him noticing, I had no idea, but I’d worry about that later.
“Are you all right? I was beginning to get worried. I thought about finding a woman to go in there and check on you. I also thought for a second that maybe you’d ditched me.”
The thought never crossed my mind that he’d think I’d run out on him. I was lucky he hadn’t left.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry. I ran into a couple of friends.” The lie slipped out so easily, I surprised myself. I needed to stop lying. I didn’t like the way it made me feel. Technically, it wasn’t a complete lie, I guess, but still…
“Really? Are they still here? Aren’t you going to introduce me?” Jack craned his neck and scanned the room looking for my buddies, never mind he had no idea what they looked like.
Ugh, I prayed that my friends weren’t still lingering.
“Sorry, they left already. They were in a rush and were just leaving when I bumped into them. Otherwise, I would have introduced you.” Not a lie—they were leaving.
“You have something on your face.” Jack scrunched his brows and pointed to my face. “It’s right there on your chin.”
Someone kill me now. Reaching up, I felt the damn tiny piece of toilet paper stuck to the dried blood on my face. I yanked it off. Despite how hard I tried, I somehow always ended up looking like a total freak.
“Oh, I hit my face on the restroom door and it bled.” I chuckled. My nervousness drifted in the air.
“Wow. Are you all right?” Concern edged his voice.
“Yes. Yes, I’m fine. Just a bit clumsy. The door jumped right out in front of me.” I giggled. “These margaritas are great, huh?” I took a gulp, and it felt superb going down. I needed the smooth liquor to ease my tension.
Jack took the bait and glided smoothly into my conversation direction. Nice change of subject, I thought.
“The best I’ve ever had,” he said.
To avoid staring at him too much, I scanned the restaurant. No werewolves in sight, only authentic Mexican décor. Sombreros and tile murals.
“There she is.” The garbled voice sounded from across the room.
Uh-oh. The petite, gray-haired lady pointed me out to Emilio from the other side of the room. Couldn’t she just let it go? What did she think? I was a pervert? So what if she’d seen an au naturel hirsute woman. She needed to drop it.
There was nowhere to hide—no menus left on the table, no huge plants to scurry behind. Just a single red rose dropped into a crystal vase sat in the middle of the table—hardly enough to conceal my appearance.
“There’s the woman I saw in the restroom. She didn’t have a stitch of clothing on, I tell ya. You need to call the police and have her arrested for indecent exposure. I won’t stand for that sort of public display. We don’t need her kind gallivanting around.” She pointed her bony finger in my direction.
Many times in my life I’d wished I possessed magical powers, but never more so than at that moment. If only I could have twitched my nose and erased the situation.
The only course of action I could conjure up was to ignore them and pray they went away. The glistening margarita in front of me called my name and I took another huge swig. Maybe tequila would numb the pain of humiliation. The liquor burned slightly going down, but the lime taste made up for it. If the woman didn’t go away, I might have to move on to a shot of tequila instead. It would work faster.
“Rylie, I think they’re talking about you. They’re staring at you and pointing. And now they’re headed this way,” Jack said.
“Hmm?” I skimmed over the advertisement tent on the table, not looking at him. “Oh look, its half-off margaritas night. What a bargain.”
“They’re coming this way. I think they want to talk to you, Rylie.”
Emilio approached our table with the geriatric in tow. Why couldn’t the old biddy, er, sweet elderly woman mind her own business? So what if I flashed her in the ladies’ room?
“Rylie, I’m sorry to bother you. This lady here says you may have had a problem in the ladies’ room?” He pointed to her. “She wants me to call the police. I’m sure it was just a complete misunderstanding, right?” Sweat beaded on his face. He brushed the dark hair off his forehead. The old lady moved closer to Emilio, nudging him to take action against me, I suppose.
My gaze met Emilio’s, then I tilted my head to look at the blue-hair behind him. There was no need to look at Jack. I felt his stare boring into me.
“I’m really sorry. I’m afraid I’ve had my clothing on the entire evening. No problems there.” Finally, I looked to Jack and laughed.
Hiding my nervousness behind laughter was particularly difficult under the scrutiny of all three of them. Other customers nearby watched as well. It seemed as if all eyes in the place were on me. Jack returned my laughter, and then Emilio joined in the revelry.
The spry senior citizen hovering over him did not find the situation quite as amusing, however. But luckily, it was her word against mine, and evidently being a regular customer had its perks, because Emilio believed me. There was no way I would tell the truth. Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.
“I’m sorry if we disturbed your evening. Please forgive me. I’ll let you get back to your conversation.” He held out his hand to Jack.
Jack gripped it and said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”
A young man appeared from the kitchen delivering our steaming plates perched precariously on one arm. That was the cue for Emilio and his shadow to leave us alone. As she spun around in her black orthopedic shoes, she flashed me an evil glare and followed in Emilio’s footsteps. He whispered her meal was on him. Heck, I would have paid for her dinner if she’d kept her trap shut.
“Wow. That was incredibly weird.” Jack stared at me, his blue eyes wide.
“Yes, it was.” I raised an eyebrow to emphasize my shock.
“Do you have any idea what she was talking about? Did you see her in the ladies’ room?” he asked.
“No. No, I don’t know what she was talking about. The first time I saw her was right now. Maybe she has early stage dementia.” I shook my head and frowned. “So sad.” I gazed thoughtfully in her direction, thankful she’d let the matter drop.
He nodded.
“It is a terrible illness that strikes with a vengeance. I bet she saw me go into the restroom. It probably triggered some memory in her mind.” I guess I forgot I was talking to a psychiatrist. Yikes.
Fortunately, he seemed to have forgotten the incident as we enjoyed our food. However, I couldn’t stop glancing over my shoulder, looking for my lupine assailants.
During dinner, we discovered we had seve
ral things in common. We both enjoyed a variety of music from classical to country. He loved chocolate cupcakes as much as I did, and both of us played trumpet in our high school band. I’d be willing to bet he was better at it than I was, though.
“How long have you been in the matchmaking business?” He brought my attention back to our date.
“Not long, actually.” I wiped sour cream off my mouth. Thoughts of my new business woes reemerged. “I was an administrative assistant at a company here in Orleans for a few years after college, but that was going nowhere fast. Every day the same routine. I didn’t look forward to work, at all. About the only thing I did well during my time there was fix up other employees on dates. They called me Miss Match.”
“Cute. The name suits you.”
“Thanks.” I took another bite of my still steamy food.
“Sounds as if you found your calling.” With my current upset client, that was questionable. “You’re lucky, some people never do. Where did you go from there? After fixing up co-workers?” He appeared genuinely intrigued.
“Well, after one long terrible day at work, the idea to start my own business popped into my head on the commute home. I have no idea what came over me, or why I felt I could do such a thing. But the next thing I knew, Get a Mate opened for business. The rest is history.” I took a big bite of steak, then smiled. Not a bad date after all, steak and Jack. What more could I ask for?
“You make it sound easy. It takes a lot of nerve to start a venture like that. I’m impressed.”
“To be honest, everything I have is invested in my business. I have to make it work.”
He stared at me for a few seconds. “I’m sure you will. You know, I feel so lucky I found the office and apartment to rent. Not only is it a fantastic location, having met you is certainly an added bonus.” He grinned.
My cheeks flamed with heat. I seemed to embarrass easily since Jack showed up at my door. “You’re right. It is a great location and I’m glad you found it too.”
He held up his glass. “Cheers to a great building and to my luck in meeting you, the wonderful and talented Miss Match.” His eyes twinkled under the low-hanging light above our table.
“Salud,” I said with a bashful grin. Normally I wasn’t as timid around the opposite sex, not in my business. Jack, however, made me tongue-tied and flushed. The chemistry was there for us, I couldn’t deny that. It zinged around the table, bouncing off of us as if we played a game of Ping-Pong.
“Speaking of our office settings, you know, actually, we have a great mixture of services that are all related on that little stretch of street. That’s what makes it such a great location.” I took another bite of my food. Sadly, my plate was almost clean.
“What do you mean?”
“People come to me first to find a date, of course. Then, when the date doesn’t work out, they travel to the voodoo shop next door for a doll to seek revenge or something. When that inevitably backfires, they finally realize they need a therapist and make their way to you.”
He let out a hearty laugh. “I never put that much consideration into it. Although I thought you got it right the first try?”
“Oh, so you read my brochure?” I dabbed at the corners of my mouth, still savoring the tasty morsel of juicy steak fajita. “You’re sneaky. Have you been checking up on me? Or were you looking for a date?”
“I might have looked at your website once. Or twice. But the only date I’m interested in is you. Maybe you’d get more clients if you put your picture in there.” From across the booth, his hand found mine.
I blushed yet again. “That’s what Jennifer said.”
“Jennifer’s a smart woman.” A few strands of hair fell haphazardly over his forehead, and I couldn’t help but want to run my hands through it. Damn, he was fine.
“Tell me, Miss Match, what makes your service different from those online services or the singles classifieds in the paper?” Jack rested his chin in his hand, waiting for my answer.
“Well…I think for several reasons, but number one is I use my instincts. That’s not something other services can boast. I’m not trying to blow my own horn or anything…” I dropped my napkin across my empty plate.
“Of course not.”
“I have a bit of a sixth sense about people. Except for that one little snafu, but we’ll leave that one out of the conversation for now.”
“Intuition, huh? Do you have instincts about me?”
Did I ever. Instincts that he’d look darn good without his clothing.
“Maybe. But anyway, I hate those online sites and the stupid classified ads. A person could sort through those ads for years and never find someone special. Everyone uses words like candidate and domesticated. I’d never want to date anyone who referred to me as a candidate or bragged that they are domesticated. And they all promise that the lucky ladies who respond won’t be disappointed.”
“You have a very good argument. I’m sold.” He leaned back onto the faux leather seat. “Are you ready to let someone else have our table?”
“Sure.” I drained my drink before jumping up. Eyes from the front of the restaurant had been on us for some time. A few people tapped their feet and paced while watching us. They didn’t understand how hard it was ending a date with Jack.
After two plates of food, four margaritas and one embarrassing confrontation, we said our goodbyes to Emilio. I felt bad because he apologized profusely for the incident of the mistaken nakedness no fewer than ten times. Little did he know there had been mucho nudity.
Jack and I made our way onto the sidewalk, my purse still acting as a shield to conceal the damage to my blouse. Darkness had fallen, night settled around us, the partial moon shone in the cloudless sky, and I made a conscious effort to avoid looking at it. Even a little peek made me a tad frisky, and I didn’t need the temptation around Mr. Gorgeous.
Jack slipped his arm around me as we strolled toward his car. A man dressed as a vampire brushed past and watched us out of the corner of one eye. A wannabe vampire—not the real deal. Creepy all the same, though. Jack quickened our step by guiding me along the sidewalk. I wanted to let him know the faux vampire wouldn’t suck our blood, but I remained quiet. As we slipped by yet another doorway, jazz music flowed from inside, intensifying the feelings I had for Jack. I felt alive like never before, and my heart danced in time to the music.
“Tell me, what was the deal with the woman and the sign? Does she do that often?”
“Oh, Lily. She’s fastidious and hard to please. I try to ignore her.” I gave an undaunted wave of my hand, although I started to get hives every time I thought of Lily.
Luckily, he didn’t ask for any further details, but a change of subject was in order, just in case he did. “What do you do in your spare time?” I asked.
We inched closer to his car, so I wanted to make the most of the time and ask as many questions about him as I could. Soaking in every last tidbit.
“I’m kind of into photography.”
“No kidding? I often thought I’d like to try that, but I don’t have a steady hand. I have a small camera, but my thumbs always end up in my pictures.”
He laughed.
“You don’t believe me?” I asked.
“They can’t be that bad. I bet your pictures are great.”
“I’ll show you sometime. I’m not making things up. Thumbs in every picture.” I held one up and wiggled it. The sound of his hearty laughter made me tingle all over.
“What do you take pictures of?” I shifted my purse for maximum coverage.
“Anything, really. Nature. People. I’d love to have you as my model,” he said.
“Maybe I’ll consider posing for you. How about like this?” I stopped and propped one hand behind my head.
“Perfect. I wish I had my camera. You’re a natural—beautiful, just like a model.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere.” I laughed. “But I’ll leave modeling to the professionals.”
Jack removed his arm from my shoulders, stepped up his pace and turned in front of me. He backpedaled just a few steps ahead of me.
“Tell me, Miss Match, why haven’t you played matchmaker for yourself? There must be an endless number of men after you. I bet they’re lining up to take you out.” He locked gazes with me and fiddled with his hands. His eyes sparkled under the glow of the streetlight as he awaited my reply. He looked so adorable with his naughty, lopsided grin. My heart rate increased.
“Maybe because I haven’t found what I’m looking for yet.”
“Fair enough. So tell me. What is it you’re looking for?”
I was about to say “you” when he stopped abruptly and I almost ran into his broad, muscular chest. There were far worse things to run into, that was for sure.
He stood in front of me and reached out, fingertips barely touching my skin as he eased his hands along my arms. He put his hand against the side of my face and traced with his finger. Then he tilted his head down and ever so gently pressed his lips to mine.
His mouth felt soft, the kiss the most tender I had ever experienced, yet the most powerful at the same time. It might sound corny, but it was true—his touch felt nothing short of passionate as he traced the curves of my lips with his tongue. The feel of his skin mesmerized me and I wanted to savor every moment of his sweet kiss.
He pulled his lips away and I wanted to tell him not to stop.
“I couldn’t resist you. The moon shining across your face like that, I don’t know what it is, but I had to kiss you.”
He slid his arms around my waist as we stood there, and in one fluid motion, drew me into his hard chest. I pressed my body closer to him and became entranced by his wickedly delicious scent. He placed his lips against mine again and slid his tongue into my mouth. Jack’s body was warm, and I was completely lost in the moment. Well, as much as I could be with my handbag poking me in my stomach.
Until…
The sensation of being watched came over me. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a faint glimmer of something gold. Then a quick whiff of unknown origin that, quite frankly, wasn’t pleasant. It overpowered the fabulicious fragrance of Jack and made me want to upchuck.
