Date in the Dark (4 page)

Kelly watches me with a look I’ve never seen
before. When her head starts to bob, a sneaky smile spreads across
her face. “Like I said…what aren’t you telling me?”

“Nothing, that’s everything,”

“And how did you end up getting a ride home
from him?”

“He had a car, I didn’t.”

“Yes, but you’d rather walk. If you wanted to
ride in a car, you’d have taken your own.”

“It was cold out when we left and he offered
me a ride, that’s all.”

“And you want me to believe you just…accepted
his offer like it was no big deal.”

“No, I tried to protest, but I guess he
didn’t feel comfortable with me walking alone in the dark.” I’m not
about to tell her I fell for a how-my-mother-raised-me line.

Kelly continues to shoot question after
question at me. They aren’t too bad, she’s fast about them, and
they all have easy answers. The fact I can answer them quickly
without giving too much away is actually fun.
I got this Kelly.
Bring it on. You can’t stump me.

“Because he likes you…”

“Yes—wait, no!”

Crap.

“Ahhh! I knew it!”

“New topic!” I say, feeling defeated by this
day and ready to move on to something else. Thinking about men is
an exhausting brain game. It’s the exact reason why I love to read
romance, the men already know what they want and who they are.
There’s nothing to think about except which book I love more.

“Hmmm,” is her only response. Soon I find
myself in a staring competition with her. Her eyes are boring into
me as if the harder she stares, the sooner I’m going to spill. When
it’s clear neither of us is going to crack, we erupt into
laughter.

“Ugh, you are such a pain in my ass!” she
says between laughs. “But I know exactly how to make everything
better!”

“And that would be?”

“Shopping! You, me, tomorrow around lunch. I
have a feeling we’re going to need some new and good-looking
outfits in the near future.” With that, she hops off the couch and
heads for the door. She grabs a dog treat from above the
refrigerator, feeds it to Bell after she gives her a shake with her
paw, and then she leaves.

Chapter Four

Allie

“So, are you working together all of next
week, or just certain events?” Kelly asks from behind the dressing
room door.

My eyes roll because I can hear the smile in
her voice. She isn’t going to let this go.

I learned early on in our friendship that
having a best friend who lives in the apartment across from you is
the best and worst idea ever. I should have known after I gave her
the brief overview of Parker last night that that wouldn’t be the
end of it.

The idea of him was stuck in my brain all
night and in an effort to get rid of those thoughts, I’d done some
intense reading before bed. I wish it had help, but instead, all it
did was cause me to consider telling Parker I’d changed my mind.
But then I thought about my ex and how after our relationship
ended, I’d had to find another job. I love my job now and I don’t
want a different one.

“A little of both, but don’t get any ideas. I
can’t take the chance of dating another coworker.” I slide the side
zipper up on the white dress and face the full-length mirror.

Crap.

Even my light pink panties are visible. I
turn in a slow circle and absorb the outfit my dearest, yet totally
insane, best friend picked out for me just moments ago. It’s skin
tight, which I hate. It’s a halter top dress that has a low back
and a hemline that barely makes it past my ass. I make the full
circle and stop when I’m facing the mirror head on. Is this white
or clear? I can’t really tell.

I flip my hair behind my shoulders and then
cringe at how revealing the front of this dress is. If my boobs
were any bigger, they’d fall out. I shake my head until my hair
falls around my face again and start for the zipper. There’s no way
I’m letting anyone catch me in this dress.

“Get out here, Allie, I want to see that
dress!” Kelly shouts in a whisper as she knocks on my dressing room
door. Holding back my groan, I step out to find her wearing what I
think is a black dress, but looks more like a short skirt pulled up
past her chest.

“You look hot,” she beams at me and her white
teeth glow against the spray tan she got earlier today. I stayed
home maintaining a pale skin tone. A tan in the middle of winter
never made much sense to me, but Kelly loves it.

I cock on eyebrow out of habit. “Seriously,
Kelly, I look like a stripper,” I point at my revealing chest then
to my ass before back at her. “We look like strippers.”

“Hey now, we look like
hot
strippers,”
she laughs. “New Years Eve is in four days. If we’re going to get
you out of this
I-don’t-need-a-man-but-I-really-want-my-coworker-and-won’t-admit-it
phase, than dressing sexy is the first step. You can’t even enjoy
working with a completely good-looking and smoking-hot man. What am
I going to do with you? Tsk-tsk.”

Instinctively I roll my eyes at her again and
smile. “That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think? I mean, you know
exactly why I can’t date him and my physical appearance has nothing
to do with it. I don’t need a sexy dress to find a man.”

“It sure won’t hurt. I think you should buy
it for the last night of Date in the Dark,” she suggests, ignoring
my comment. She turns in front of the mirror, flushing her short
auburn hair up then combing it back down as best she can. “Should I
wear my teased or straightened?”

“Teased, and no, I’m not buying this dress or
attending that silly event.”

Kelly’s arms flop to her side and then rest
on her lean hips. “Oh, come on, Allie, live a little. It’s going to
be fun. The best part is that they can’t see you. You could be
anyone you want, wear whatever you want, and they’d never
know.”

“Yeah, until the lights come on at midnight
on the last night.”

“True, but—” she smirks at me, “—you’ll be
wearing that, so he won’t care in the slightest.”

“No,” I say, but find it hard to hold back a
small laugh. Kelly isn’t going to let up about this either. When
she wants something, she’ll do anything to get it. I release a long
sigh. “Did you ever think about where we live and what your chances
of actually finding the one are? Slim. Like, zero chances slim,” I
curl my fingers into a zero. “I’m not going, and neither are you. I
don’t think it’s safe.”

I step into the dressing room and change back
into my black leggings and cream oversized sweater. When she
doesn’t reply with a quick witted comment like usual, I start to
think I’ve hurt her feelings. But just as I slip my first brown
boot on, her voice is calm and determined from the other side of my
door.

“You’re going to this event with me, and do
you know why?” she asks, and for a moment I think she’s actually in
my dressing room. She’s up to something. Something bad. “Because if
you don’t go with me, I’ll come to the library’s end-of-the-year
events and make sure Parker knows exactly how you feel about him.
Childish you say? No, more like motivation to help make sure my
best friend doesn’t miss out on a chance to be happy. So, if you
really really think not dating Parker is the right choice. You’ll
date someone else, at the dark dating thing.”

I close my eyes and breathe. Damn…she’s good.
If it’ll get her to drop the whole subject of Parker, three nights
with a stranger isn’t the end of the world. “Fine. I’ll go.”

Parker

“I dreamed last night, right?” Miles asks.
This is the hundredth time he’s asked me this and each time my
answer hasn’t changed.

“Nope. It really happened,” I repeat. Either
he’s trying to make me feel bad for causing him to attend this date
night thing or he wants to keep reminding me that Allie turned me
down. I’m hoping for the former, but knowing my brother, it’s the
latter.

“I can’t believe you. I seriously can’t
believe you. I’m too old for this shit,” he grumbles waving his
hands around. A few of the flyers he was holding fall loose and
blow away in the wind.

“Hey, stop littering and losing all her
flyers!” I say, grabbing one stack from him.

He rolls his eyes. “All you had to do was
stop by the bar, any random bar, and ask any random girl out. But
no, you think you actually stand a chance with this one,” Miles
shakes his head. “You’ve lost your mind, Parker, and I can’t help
you. Now we’re stuck in this mess.”

“I told you. There’s something about her.
Something more than a ‘hot piece of ass,’ as you call it these
days.” I stare him down. “Which by the way, you need to stop
calling her that. Her name is Allie.”

“If I didn’t know you, I’d think you’re the
oldest and more mature of the two of us.”

“More mature, yes, I am.”

“Whatever, dude. It’s still stupid. Even if
she does eventually say yes to you, it’ll be too late to get out of
this dark dating thing and you’ll be semi-dating whoever they pair
you up with for this New Year’s event. Then, you’ll be dating two
women at once, and I’m guessing Allie isn’t the kind of woman to
just go with it.”

Shit. He’s right.

Miles clears the snow off in a small circle
of a car nearby and places a flyer under the windshield wiper.
Rubbing his hands together, he blows on them, and then looks back
at me. “By the surprised look on your face, I’d say you didn’t
consider that part. Now, you’re screwed. You should have just asked
a random girl out. At least she wouldn’t have you tied down for
three nights in a row. That would have been much easier to
cancel.”

“We can lie to Sara and tell her I found a
date.”
See? Piece of cake. Easy fix.

“Too late—she called me last night, and I
already told her. Plus, what makes you think Allie is going to ever
actually consider going out with you?”

Shit. I just can’t win on this one. “Why did
you tell her?”

“Oh, probably because you were avoiding her
calls,” he says moving on to the next car.

I take a deep breath and let my frustration
out on the giant stapler in my hand. I hit it with the palm of my
hand against the tree, the same way I have fifty times today. I
promised Allie I’d put up as much advertising as I could over the
weekend. I didn’t even question why they hadn’t been doing this
sooner. She seemed a bit thrown off yesterday, and I wasn’t about
to make things worse. I step back and look at the paper flyer.
How many of these are going to make it through the snow and
wind?

It took everything I had not to offer my help
with more. By the looks of it, Allie’s been taking on a lot more
than she should. But from the vibe I got from her, she’d never
admit that aloud. I know she’s giving me the easy tasks because she
doesn’t think I can handle more, but I’ll make sure she changes her
mind by the end of the day Monday.

“So, tell me about your day with her
yesterday anyway. You’re working on a Saturday. Apparently it was
all fairy dust and sunshine crap if she already has you saving
yourself for only her. Ohh, man…just saying those words make me
want throw up. ”

“Dude, come on, don’t talk about her like
that. We had a good day together. We didn’t talk about much other
than work, but there was a connection.”

Miles pretends to gag this time. “Dude, no,
you did not just say connection. What happened to you? Just pull
your charm and get a piece of that—”

“You know,” I say, slapping him on the back.
“One day you’re going to meet a girl and she’s going to knock you
off your feet. Everything inside of you will want to be better and
you won’t know what to do with yourself. The moment you mention
anything about fate, beauty, or
connections
, I’m going to
remind you of this moment. I won’t talk to you the way you’re
talking to me right now, because it’s degrading, but I’ll remind
you of it. Oh, and you’re going to owe me a year’s worth of beer
for being right.”

Miles matches my eyes with a serious look.
Good, he should take me seriously
. He nods slowly then
shoves me back as a smile creeps over his face. He folds over
laughing and more flyers fly out of his hand. “And when you’re
wrong, I’ll remind you of this moment,” he can barely finish his
impression of me through the laughter.

“Alright, let’s move on to something else.” I
step toward him. “Here, take these flyers since you keep losing
yours and put them somewhere, anywhere. I don’t care,” I slap a
stack against his chest, and he grabs them with a groan before they
can blow away. I keep walking, looking for the type of store that
will have a bulletin board. I’m not stopping until I’ve given away
every single flyer.

Chapter Five

Allie

As usual, Monday morning came around faster
than I’d hoped. I did my usual morning routine of gym, breakfast,
shower, and last, but never forgotten, here I am, standing in line
at the coffee shop. I spent most of the day yesterday thinking
about Parker. I have no idea what got into me. I always knew I was
attracted to him, but after working with him one on one, and then
letting him drive me home, my brain instantly thinks in needs to be
focused on him and I have no control over it. I need to worry more
about me and my job, not how good he looks in a pair of slacks.

“Good morning,” Parker greets me with a wide
smile. “I thought I might see you here.” He joins me at the back of
the line, but keeps his gaze on me.

“Lucky you,” I try to hold back the smile
fighting at my lips as he lets out a chuckle.

“I couldn’t agree more,” he grins down at
me.

A flutter goes right to my stomach and I look
away before he can catch my smile. “Have you always came to this
coffee shop?”

“No, not usually. But in all honesty, I was
hoping I would run into you, maybe buy your drink this
morning?”