Queen of First Dates

by Case, Jaimie

4

  “Heathcliff.” I sighed as I gazed at my black Labrador lying on his back waiting to be tickled. “What am I going to do?” I groaned as he just lay there, his tail wagging, waiting for me to walk over to him. “I’m going to embarrass myself, I just know it.” I sat down on the side of my bed and rubbed his belly. He closed his eyes and smiled in satisfaction as he wiggled on the bed. “I cannot believe that Nolan is going to be a witness to all of my dates. This is going to be awful,” I continued talking to Heathcliff, but from the look on his face, he had no sympathy for me. “I’m going to have to call, Stella.” I reached down to grab my phone from the inside of my handbag. Heathcliff opened his eyes and looked at me in disappointment as I pulled away from him. “Sorry, Heathcliff, I have an emergency right now.” I gave him my best smile, but he just ignored me.

  “You up?” I text Stella. I looked at the time and groaned. It was only nine o’clock, of course, she was up.

  “Yes, what’s up?” She texted me back immediately. Stella was always near her phone unless she was at her store. She owned a small bookstore in town and she was the only person I knew that was even more of a romantic than me. Stella was my slightly younger cousin. Her head was always in the clouds, which made her the wrong person to talk in most situations. In this situation, I needed someone like her to help me feel more positive about the whole situation.

  “Work emergency! Call me.”

  “Give me five minutes. Just need to make sure I’m recording The Bachelor.”

  “You still watch that show?”

  “As if I could ever stop. :)”

  I put the phone down on the bed and laughed to myself. Stella was addicted to watching reality TV shows; especially those that focused on dating. Though she rarely ever dated. She was caught up in her books and TV shows, so much so that no man could ever live up to her expectations.

  Ring. Ring. I grabbed the phone and immediately started talking. “Oh my God, you will not believe what’s happened to me,” I screeched into the phone and continued without giving her an opportunity to answer. “Malcolm has assigned me to write a series of articles about dating and Nolan, yes Nolan, is going to be following me on all my dates? What have I done to make God treat me like this? I’m about ready to quit and move. You down to move to Bali with me?”

  “Depends on if you’re paying,” A low deep voice answered me and my breath caught as my heart froze.

  “Stella?” I half-whispered, hoping my ears were playing tricks on me.

  “Not unless my parents lied to me about my name?” he responded with a chuckle. “Though I think I look more like a Nolan than a Stella, don’t you?”

  “Nolan Montgomery, what are you doing on the phone!” I shouted. “Don’t you know it’s rude to, to…” I sputtered and then paused as I didn’t know how to end that sentence. “Well, what do you want?” I said finally, indignantly.

  “I thought that maybe you and I should talk—”

  “I don’t have anything to say to you,” I interrupted him, my heart racing. I didn’t want him to bring up any incidents from the past again.

  “I thought it would be helpful. This is just business, Jules. You should stop taking everything so seriously.”

  “My job is serious and so is my dating life.”

  “Well, you don’t really have much of a dating life, do you, so maybe this will help you.”

  “You’re so rude, you know that right. You don’t know what sort of dating life I have.”

  “Oh?” He sounded surprised. “Are you secretly dating someone I don’t know about?”

  “Maybe,” I lied.

  “Is it someone you met online?” he continued. “Have you ever seen him?”

  “What?” I asked in a confused tone.

  “I’d hate for you to be Catfished. I know how impressionable you are.”

  “What?” This time my voice was a lot louder. “What are you talking about?”

  “That’s the only reason I can think of that you would be dating someone and not have told the whole world as yet… you haven’t met him yet.”

  “Nolan Montgomery, if you were not my best friend’s brother, you would be fired. So fired.”

  “Ha ha ha, sorry, I couldn’t resist. So tell me, who’s this hottie you’re seeing?”

  “I’m not seeing anyone,” I said in a low tone. “Well, not yet. I do have a secret admirer that seems to be really interested.”

  “Oh?” He sounded bemused.

  “Yes, his name is Lucas, and we went to high school together and he’s been sending me love letters for years.”

  “Lucas Sacramento?” He sounded surprised. “Lucas has been sending you love notes?”

  “Yes,” I said, even though I wasn’t one hundred percent sure it was Lucas, but I would find out soon enough. “In fact, I have to write him back a letter tonight.”

  “Conversing via mail?” Nolan laughed. “Sounds very romantic.”

  “It is.”

  “And he signs his letters, Lucas?” Nolan asked lightly.

  “As opposed to what?”

  “All my love, Lucas, or your darling, Lucas,” he drawled.

  “He actually signs them Fitz.”

  “Fitz?”

  “I don’t know why,” I admitted. “Anyway, what do you care?”

  “Just curious as to how and why you assumed the letters were from Lucas, but I guess if that’s what you’re hoping for. I guess that makes you happy.”

  “Who are you seeing?” I said, not appreciating his condescending tone.

  “I am concentrating on my career right now. I don’t have time for crazy women.”

  “Oh yeah, your budding career as a filmmaker. I’m surprised you haven’t moved to Hollywood yet.”

  “I have my reasons for staying.”

  “Oh? You want to terrorize me, huh?”

  “Yeah.” He chuckled. “I’m staying just for you.”

  “Whatever.” I sighed. “Anyway, I’m waiting on a call from, Stella. What do you want?”

  “Want to grab lunch tomorrow? We do need to create a plan.”

  “I guess so,” I said reluctantly. I didn’t really want to meet up with him one-on-one. We never really hung out one-on-one. In fact, the last time I had been with him for longer than ten minutes were those times in high school and look how that had turned out.

  “Okay, I’ll text you tomorrow to figure out a spot.”

  “Okay.”

  “Night, Jules.”

  “Night, Nolan.” And as I hung up the phone, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. It wasn’t that I wanted to go to lunch with Nolan or see him. I couldn’t stand him, but a part of me was excited to spend time with him. I groaned into my pillow as I realized that I still found him to be quite hot. “Get over it, Jules,” I muttered into my pillow. “You better not get another crush on him.” My face flushed as I thought about how embarrassed I’d felt after our “kiss,” well to be fair, I was more embarrassed about what I’d said after the kiss.

  Ring ring. I grabbed the phone and spoke hesitantly into the receiver.

  “Stella?”

  “Yeah. Why do you sound like you just saw a ghost?”

  “Ugh, Nolan just called me and I thought it was you.”

  “Didn’t you look at the screen?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why not? It’s right there in front of your face.”

  “Not helping, Stella.”

  “Ha ha, sorry. So what did Nolan want? I didn’t know you guys talked on the phone,” she said excitedly. She’d known I’d had a huge crush on Nolan in high school. She just didn’t know everything that had gone down between us.

  “He just wants to meet up tomorrow to talk about this article series we’re working on together.”

  “Oh, you’re working on a series together?”

  “Well, kinda.” I quickly explained to her what Malcolm had proposed and how opposed to it all I was. “So what do you think I should do?”

  “What
do you mean what should you do?” She sounded confused. “It’s your job, you have to do it.” She paused then. “However, I do have a really great idea.”

  “Oh yeah? What’s the great idea?”

  “Let’s have a makeover party?” The words tripped out of her mouth. “A makeover party to create your profile.” Her voice started rising as she became more and more excited. “It will be great. You, me, Betsy, maybe Abby?”

  “That could be fun.” I pondered the idea. “What do you mean by makeover though? I don’t want to end up with pink hair or something.”

  “Nothing like that.” She giggled. “Just maybe a new haircut and some new clothes, not to be rude, but you always dress so tomboyish, maybe a couple of skirts and dresses, and maybe some makeup.”

  “So a whole new me, then?”

  “Something like that. What do you say? It’ll be fun.”

  “I guess so. And you guys will help me create my profile?”

  “Did you even have to ask? This will be so much fun. I bet you meet the love of your life. Could you imagine? It will be the first wedding in our family in years.”

  “Stella Gilbert, you’re getting so carried away.” I laughed. “I haven’t even gone on a date yet, I’m so far from getting married, it’s not even funny.”

  “Well, with our help, you’ll soon be on the way.” She sounded happy, and I frowned.

  “What help are you thinking about, Stella?” I asked slowly. She sounded way too happy for someone who had just suggested giving me a makeover.

  “Well, I was thinking about writing a book, a dater’s handbook, so to speak and maybe we could test it on you.”

  “A dater’s handbook?”

  “Yeah, for example, I was thinking, what if you dressed up in a sexy negligee and …”

  “Stop right now.” I laughed into the phone. “I’m not going on any date dressed in any sexy negligee, I’m not a stripper.”

  “I know you’re not a stripper, but what if you tried to sex it up a bit. I’ve got this idea, and I’d love to test it out.”

  “I think you’re going to have to test it out on yourself.” I burst out laughing. “There is no way in hell that I’m going to be sexing up my dates with Nolan Montgomery following me around. He’d laugh me out of town.”

  “Oh, Nolan Montgomery,” she said thoughtfully. “I’m honestly surprised that he’s interested in doing this with you.”

  “Why?”

  “I just didn’t think he’d want to see you going on all these dates?”

  “Why would he care? I’m sure he can’t wait to laugh at my misfortune.”

  “Really?” She sounded surprised. “I always thought he had a thing for you?”

  “What?”

  “I know, I know. It wasn’t something that was super blatant, but I thought he was just shy.”

  “Nolan is anything, but shy.”

  “Yeah, true.” She laughed. “Oh well, forget him. If he’s not going to step up, he doesn’t deserve you.”

  “He doesn’t even like me,” I said, trying to still the sudden burst of hope that filled me. “And I know that for sure.”

  “Okay, okay. No need to protest so much.” She yawned. “I have an early morning tomorrow, but let me text Abby, and you text Betsy and let’s see if we can get together tomorrow night.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “That sounds like a plan.”

  “It’ll be great. You’ll see. Don’t worry too much, Jules. This is going to be absolutely amazing.”

  5

  Dear Fitz,

  I have to say that I’m very surprised to hear from you, but also very happy. I have always wondered who you are and so I would very much like to meet up with you. Hopefully, you will be able to tell me why you chose that name. It is very unusual. I was going to say maybe you got it from the TV show, Scandal, but then I remembered your first letters came before that show was even out. Did you just recently get back to Canyon Beach? I know that’s a weird question, but I haven’t heard from you in a while and was wondering if, perhaps, you just had some sort of major life change and moved back.

  Hope to hear from you again soon,

  Jules

  I finished writing my letter and put it into an envelope quickly. I knew I’d been a bit full on in my letter, but I wanted Lucas to know that I had a good idea that I knew who he was so that we could end up meeting soon. I wasn’t quite sure if I’d be interested in him to date seriously, but it was always worth a try, and I needed a good distraction from my work dates and Nolan. I quickly put a stamp on the envelope, placed it in my handbag and jumped up.

  “I’m headed to lunch now, Malcolm,” I said as I walked past his office and gave him a little wave. “Nolan and I are going to discuss the articles.” I kept my tone pleasant so as to not completely lose it with my boss and get fired. The morning had not started off great. Malcolm had told me about his “brilliant idea” to have the public vote on who I should go on dates with and who I should issue a second date. I had told him that my article wasn’t a reality TV show and that the integrity of the paper would be called into question and be considered a laughing stock in Canyon Beach if he allowed such a thing to happen. He had not been impressed with my speech and reaction to his idea and I knew that he was not pleased with the way I’d spoken to him. “Would you like me to bring you back anything?” I asked as I stood at his door.

  “A tuna melt would be great, thanks, Jules. I’m so glad you’re finally embracing this idea.” He beamed at me as if the argument this morning had never occurred. “Here’s the company credit card, feel free to put your lunch on the paper as it’s a work event.” He opened his wallet and pulled out a credit card and I felt extremely guilty for having spoken to him in such a surly fashion earlier when he was going to be so nice.

  “Oh no, that’s okay,” I said as I shook my head, but then he stood up and headed over to me, his eyes warm as he gazed at me.

  “Here you go, Jules. I know that you’re a little uncomfortable with this idea, but I think it will be great and so do your parents.”

  “My parents?” I groaned. “You told my parents?”

  “Well, it was actually your mother that suggested the idea.”

  “Oh my God, I could scream.” I groaned as I stared at him. “Malcolm, this is so not cool.” I had tried to forget that Malcolm and his wife were friends with my parents, he played golf with my dad at the local country club, but this was going too far.

  “Well, she didn’t suggest the idea for the articles per se, that was all me,” he said quickly, knowing that he was getting my mom into major trouble with his words. “Anyway,” he said quickly. “Here’s the card. Tell Nolan I said hello and feel free to stay at lunch as long as you need to.”

  “Oh I intend to,” I said as I grabbed the card. “I’ll need a good few hours to chow down on the lobster and steak I intend to order.”

  “Now, now, Jules.” His face looked panicked. “No need to go overboard. You want to keep your figure nice and trim for all the dates.”

  “I think I’ll add oysters and clam chowder to my list as well.” My eyes shot darts at him. “Bye.” I slipped the card into my pocket and hurried out of the office. Keep my figure nice and trim? What? He was so bloody rude. I wanted to tell him off so badly, but I knew I couldn’t push my luck. My mom on the other hand, well, she’d be hearing from me as soon as I got off of work. How dare she try to use my job to hook me up? She was insufferable. It was like it was her life goal to embarrass me and get me married off. Every time, I went over to dinner, the first topic of conversation was my dating life, as if that was all I had going for me.

  “Betsy,” I almost cried into the phone as she answered. “Did you get my texts last night?”

  “About the makeover?” she asked breathlessly.

  “Yeah, can you come? Stella and Abby are going to come and I’m going to need you there to make sure they don’t get completely carried away.”

  “Of course, I’ll come.” She g
iggled. “It’s going to be amazing. It’s such a good idea.”

  “I didn’t realize that I looked that bad.”

  “You don’t look bad, you know that,” Betsy said. “Hold on, I have a customer.”

  “Okay,” I said as I walked to the Canyon Beach Diner to meet Nolan. “I’m meeting Nolan for lunch so if you want I can call you back afterward?”

  “Sounds good,” she said. “Two red velvet cupcakes?” she said to someone. “And a large coffee? Coming right up. Okay, I’ll speak to you later, Jules.”

  “Bye,” I said and hung up, pushing my phone into my handbag and increasing my pace. I was slightly late for my meeting with Nolan and I didn’t want him to have some smart words for me right from the get-go.

  * * *

  “You made it. I thought you got swallowed by an alligator or a shark or something.” Nolan stood up as I approached the table. His green eyes sparkled as his eyes took in my frazzled appearance. I knew I looked a bit of a mess. I’d stopped by the post office to drop off my letter and had had to run for the last ten minutes to not be super late and my hair was now frizzy, my face was red and I was huffing and panting.

  “Not now, Nolan.” I gasped as I grabbed his glass of water and drank it down hastily. “I need more water,” I said as I took the seat across from him. I watched as he sat down again.

  “Nice to see you as well, Jules,” he said as he looked down at his empty glass of water. “It’s a good thing I wasn’t dying of thirst.”

  “Gimme a break, Nolan.”

  “So how are you? Just run a marathon?” He grinned at me and I stared at his perfect white teeth. “Did you place?”

  “Place?”

  “Like, did you come in first? I assume you did with the way you’re panting.”

  “I’m not even going to dignify your comment with an answer. Obviously, you know I didn’t run a marathon. I was running so I wouldn’t be late for lunch with you, but obviously, I wasted my time. I should have just kept you waiting ten more minutes.”

  “Thank you for running to meet me, Jules.”

  “Uh-huh,” I said as I grabbed a menu. “I’m sure you appreciate it.”