by Amy Brent
“We’ve been dating long enough to know that we love each other,” he said quietly. He brought his eyes up to mine and sighed. “I love her, Sam. I want to marry her and spend the rest of my life with her. And Isaac is going to ask Amy to marry him soon.”
“No fucking way…” The words came out in a gust of wind that left me breathless. I felt like something was squeezing my chest, crushing my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak. All I could do was gawk at him and pray it wasn’t true. Denny and Isaac getting married? Holy fucking shit!
“You okay?” Denny asked.
“Yeah, it’s just…” I finally took a deep breath and forced myself to smile. “Well, congratulations.”
“Thanks,” he said, beaming. “I want you to be my best man, of course.”
“It would be my honor,” I said, reaching across the table to shake his hand. “You’re a lucky guy. You deserve to be happy. You really do.”
“I know,” he said, smiling, head bobbing. “And so do you.”
I held on to his hand.
“Denny, what did you do?”
“You have a lunch engagement,” he said, tugging his hand free. “Andrea is waiting for your right now in the cafeteria. Mind your manners, you big lug, and don’t chew with your mouth open.”
Chapter 7: Andrea
One of the perks of working at IDS, aside from hanging out with hot billionaires, of course, was the free food and drink and assorted goodies that were always around.
There was a breakroom on every floor, each offering free sodas, juices, coffee, tea, bottled water, fresh fruit and yogurt, granola and protein bars, an assortment of bagels (mmm… cinnamon raisin), ten flavors of cream cheese (mmm… strawberry), and for those with a sweet tooth, every kind of donut known to man, fruit Danish, and other goodies that helped pack on the pounds.
I did my best to stay away from it all. I was no longer in school, but I still considered myself to be an athlete, still ran five miles a day and played volleyball on a community team. So far I had managed to avoid what was called the “IDS 15”, which was the IDS version of the “Freshman 15”, which referred to the 15 pounds most college freshmen (girls, mostly) put on their first few months away at college. Judging by many of my coworkers, it should have been called the IDS 25 or 30. It was hard to turn down free junk food, no matter how health conscious you were.
Then there was cafeteria on the main floor, which was like a large mall food court, with stations serving every kind of food you could imagine: fresh seafood, sushi, stir fry, wraps, hoagies, pitas, gyros, sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, fries, baked potatoes, fried or baked chicken, ten kinds of soup, salads, sandwiches… you name it, they served it, and it was all free and you were welcome to take all you liked, but as the sign read, “Eat all you take.”
I usually just grabbed a turkey sandwich and chips—and a giant Mountain Dew (it’s my crack)—but today I opted for a pitiful little Caesar salad with no dressing and a bottled water. I know, pathetic, right? I was so worried about sitting across the table from Sammy Branniff and making a good impression that my stomach was churning. I would be doing good to hold down the salad. I was a great lay, but I could be a lousy date.
I found a table toward the back next to the window that looked out over the rolling hills and large duck pond (yes, IDS had a duck pond) where we wouldn’t be in the flow of traffic. There were usually three or four hundred diners in the cafeteria at any given time and the place could be a bit of a madhouse, especially given that many of those diners were younger than me and barely out of college. IDS could be a bit of a frat party at times, especially on Friday afternoons or the day of a big rollout. It was one of the things I loved about working there. I found chaos super motivating, but also a bit distracting.
That said, I didn’t want Sammy and I to have to yell at each other, so I chose the table in the back. I kept telling myself that I hadn’t chosen that table hoping that nobody would see us together. I mean, how do you miss a six-foot-tall redhead having lunch with a six-foot-six former linebacker. No matter where we were, we would stick out like a couple of large sore thumbs.
I sat facing the door so I could see Sammy come in. I didn’t know whether to start eating or wait for him. I glanced at my watch. He was already ten minutes late. Then it hit me… what if he wasn’t coming? What if Denny was just fucking with me and Sammy hadn’t asked about me at all? That son of a bitch! I will…
“Hi.”
His deep voice startled me. I looked up mid-rant and saw Sammy standing there, towering over me, a great big, beautiful bear of a man holding a tray between his hands that was layered with food: a couple burgers, a couple of hotdogs, a huge mound of fries, a big chunk of chocolate cake, an apple, a banana, a large soda... Sammy obviously wasn’t worried about impressing me with his diet. I gave my pathetic salad a sad glance and wished for a turkey sandwich.
I looked up and mustered a smile. “Hi.”
“Can I sit down?” he asked, nodding at the chair across from me.
I shook my head like an idiot and gestured at the chair like a Price is Right model. “Of course, sorry, duh…”
Sammy sat down and unloaded his tray on the table without saying anything else. He reached for the ketchup and doused the fries with it, then picked up one of the burgers and brought it to his wide-open mouth. He bit the burger in half with one bite and started chewing like a cow with a mouthful of cud. He sighed happily as he chewed. Our eyes met when he looked over the burger to find me staring at him.
“Oh, uh, sorry,” he said, lowering the burger so I could see his face. He chewed faster and tried to swallow. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and smiled. He had a wonderful smile. “I’m not being rude… I’m just…”
“Hungry?” I asked, flexing my eyebrows at him. I pushed the salad to the side of the table and helped myself to a fry. I swirled it through the ketchup and munched off the end, then licked the ketchup from my lips. “Me, too.”
Chapter 8: Sammy
You freakin’ idiot…
Those were the words that kept running through my mind as I sat across the table from Andrea with my mouth crammed full of cheeseburger and her gawking at me like it was feeding time at the gorilla cage. I was the gorilla in that scenario.
I forced the burger down and wiped a hand across my mouth.
Shit. Use a napkin, you moron.
Then she smiled at me.
Wow.
I knew she was gorgeous.
But. Wow.
Then she picked up a fry and bit it in half, then reached for my second burger and took a big bite. I took another bite. We grinned at each other as we chewed.
“I was wondering why you had that puny, little salad,” I said.
“I was trying to impress you,” she said, munching on another fry. “My mother always told me to eat like a bird on a first… well, you know.”
Was she going to say, “First date?”
Was that what this was?
A date?
As I watched her blue eyes sparkle and her lips curl into a smile, I hoped that it was. And I hoped maybe it might be the first of many.
“If you want to really impress me eat that burger before I finish mine,” I said. “Then we’ll see who can finish the hot dog first.”
“Are you challenging me to a race, Mr. Branniff?” she asked playfully.
“I am,” I said with a nod. “And call me Sammy.”
“Done,” she said, holding the burger between her long fingers. “Ready?”
“Set?”
“Go!”
* * *
Wonderful.
Just wonderful.
Those were the words going through my mind while sitting and talking to Andrea after we totally devoured every bite of food on my tray. I managed to scarf down my burger and hot dog before she could, but I didn’t beat her by much. She matched me bite for bite., although I had to admit that I slowed down now and then to watch her luscious lips move as sh
e chewed. Her pink tongue would dart out occasionally to clean up the best she’d made. Damn, talk about a distraction.
My eyes took stock of her when she wasn’t looking. She really was gorgeous, with long red hair that cascaded around her shoulders, big blue eyes, the aforementioned lips. My eyes travelled southward, down the length of her long neck, the perfect tits beneath the silk blouse…
Wonderful.
Just wonderful.
I tried not to stare (or lick my lips too much) as she talked about her life and college (we both went to USC) and trying out for the Olympic volleyball team. She was an only child from a small town. She was a shy kid whose saving grace in school was being a killer athlete. We sat there for hours, or at least it seemed like it, getting to know each other. I was surprised at how much we had in common. And how much I liked her. And she seemed to like me.
Damn, I was gonna have to give Denny props.
Andrea was definitely a girl I wanted to know better.
At least for a little while.
Chapter 9: Andrea
“So, you’ve heard my life story,” I said after realizing that I’d been talking far more than Sammy had. “Now, let’s hear yours.”
Sammy sucked the last of his Dr. Pepper through the straw and gave the cup a shake to loosen the ice. He narrowed his eyes and looked toward the ceiling in thought. “Well, let’s see… like you, I was an only child, came from a small town, was a runt until puberty hit, then this happened.”
He swept his big hands through the hair like he was doing a magic trick and sat up straighter in the chair. Jesus, he was big. And beautiful. When he smiled, his entire face got involved. His eyes twinkled above his cheeks. He lips spread and his perfect teeth shined. The muscles in his jaws and shoulders flexed. I wondered what it would be like to sink my teeth into his neck…
“I went from five-nine to six-six in about a year,” he said, eyebrows arched, head nodding at the memory. “Growing pains were a bitch, but it stopped the bullying pretty quick.”
I frowned at the look of pain that came to his eyes. “You were bullied? I can’t imagine that.”
His forehead lined as he gave a slow nod. “Before puberty, I was a skinny kid with braces who always had his nose in a book. I was the school nerd, the one who made straight A’s without having to try. It infuriated the jocks and the stoners. I was beaten up, push into lockers, had my head dunked in the locker room toilet…”
“And after you—” I swirled my hands in the air. “Filled out, as you say?”
“Those bullies wanted to be my friends,” he said, the smile returning.
“And did you let them?”
He looked me in the eye for a moment, then the smile returned. “What do you think I did?”
“I think you probably paid them back for everything they did to you,” I said. “Probably in spades.”
He shrugged without answering, then glanced at his watch. “Oh crap!”
I blinked at him for a moment, then looked at my watch. “Oh crap is right. Have we been talking for two hours?”
“Either that or time sped up on us,” he said, pooching his lips like he was sad to see out time together come to an end. “I have a staff meeting to get to.”
“Oh, um, me, too,” I said, though I actually didn’t have any place to go. I started piling our trash onto the tray. “Well, this has been fun.”
“It has,” Sammy said, rattling the ice again. “Maybe we could continue our conversation later? Say, over dinner? Tonight?”
I felt my heart jump a little in my chest. Even though the thought of more food made my stomach churn, the thought of spending more time with Sammy made my toes tingle. I smiled demurely and said, “I’d like that.”
“Awesome,” he said, pushing himself back from the table. “Any preference as to the restaurant?”
“I’ll let you pick,” I said. “I’m a pretty basic girl when it comes to food. Although, I don’t eat anything I can’t pronounce.”
“That’s a great rule to live by.”
“I think so.”
“Okay, let me give it some thought and I’ll text you the plan. I’ll pick you up around eight-thirty at your place?”
“Yes,” I said, feeling my cheeks flush like a schoolgirl being asked out by the coolest boy in school. “That sounds lovely.”
“Lovely,” he said, a big smile on his face. He fished two fingers in his back pocket for a moment and came out with his card. “That’s my cell number. Text me your digits.”
“My digits?”
“Your digits. Your phone number and address?”
“Oh, yes, duh, I can do that.”
“Well, this has been fun,” he said, reaching across the table to take my hand. I thought he was going to shake my hand. Instead, he brought my knuckles to his lips and gave them a gentle kiss.
“Until we meet again, my lady.”
I playfully rolled my eyes. “Yes, sweet prince, until we meet again.”
He smiled at me. I smiled at him.
He got up to leave and I took out my phone and dialed a number I hadn’t used in a long time. I might have been jumping the gun a little, but better prepared than surprised.
“Hi, this is Andrea Nichols… Yes… I’m fine… I was wondering… Could I come in this afternoon… yes… for a bikini wax?”
Like my dad used to say, “Always keep the lawn trimmed because you never know who might be driving by.”
Enough said.
Chapter 10: Sammy
The rest of my day was just god-awful, unbelievably long and incredibly boring. I sat through half a dozen meetings, listened in on a dozen conference calls with international vendors, answered several dozen emails, and still could not tell you the topic of a single one. I tried by best to focus, but I simply could not pay attention to anything going on around me. My entire brain, every burnt-out cell of it, every thought, every idea, every notion, was quickly overridden by thoughts of Andrea Nichols.
I kept seeing her sitting across the cafeteria table from me… luscious red hair… big blue eyes… wide mouth… kissable lips... long neck… Then magically, her clothes disappeared and I was climbing across the table to ravage her right there in front of the lunch time crowd. Just thinking about her made my cock plump up in my pants, something a guy my size has a hard time hiding.
I even thought about stepping into my private bathroom to pump one out using the dirty video Carina had sent me for those times when I needed a little relief and she wasn’t around. In the video, Carina had a GoPro strapped to a giant dildo and was… well… never mind.
I spent the afternoon watching the clock and counting down the hours until I picked her up for our date. Our date… Shit, where the hell do you take a girl like Andrea? My social life consisted of drinking binges with the boys and long weekends at Club D with the girls. I wasn’t even sure I remembered what to do on a date, much less where to take a nice girl on one.
I sat with my desk chair turned toward the wall of windows and tried to remember the last time I had been on an actual date. Was it a year ago, that chick I met at that fundraising thing… No, we just fucked in the restroom after dinner. Wasn’t exactly what I’d call a date. Wait, there was that model a few months back, when I was in Cannes for the film festival. Yes, we went on a date… no, wait… she just gave me a blowjob in the back of the limo and nearly gagged on my… shit.
I had not had a date-date in years. I had no idea what to do or where to do it or how to act.
I needed help from a master.
I picked up the phone and called…
“Amy Rossetti,” the love of Isaac’s life said sweetly after her secretary patched me through. “Sammy? Is that you?”
“It is,” I said, clearing my throat, trying not to sound nervous. “I uh, well, I have a question that I hope you can answer. Or at least point me in the right direction.”
“Okay, is it about cybersecurity?” she asked. Cybersecurity was Amy’s area of expertise and ther
e was nobody better at it. IDS and dozens of other companies paid her millions of dollars a year to help keep their data safe. “Has something happened at IDS? You guys haven’t been hacked, have you?”
“No, no, nothing like that,” I said quickly. “It’s just that, well, I may have a... well, a date tonight and I have no idea where to take her.”
Amy giggled in my ear. “You may have a date or you do have a date?”
“I… have a date. And if you tell Isaac or Denny I’ll have to hunt you down and bear hug you to death.”
“Relax, big guy, your secret is safe with me,” she said. “So, who is the lucky girl?”
“Her name is Andrea Nichols.”
“Oh, I know Andrea. She’s Denny’s assistant marketing director… tall… very tall, in fact... red hair… gorgeous…” She hummed in my ear. “Good for you, Sam. She’s quite the looker. You two will make quite a couple.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” I huffed. “I mean, it’s just a date.”
“Sure, that’s how me and Isaac started out and look at us now. So, what were you thinking?”
I shrugged with the phone wedged between my ear and shoulder. “I honestly have no idea. Last time I was on a date the iPhone 4 was state of the art.”
