The Dating Itinerary

by Brooke Williams

  He’d signaled the waiter for the check halfway through the meal, anxious to move on with the rest of his night. His head was aching from her fast chatter, and he had no idea what she was talking about. He didn’t even care. He wanted give and take from a woman, and he had a feeling this woman was all take take take. Even though all she was doing at the moment was give give give in the talking department.

  Geo paid the check and managed to get the woman out the restaurant door in under an hour. He hailed a cab for her and stuck her in before she even noticed. She probably picked the conversation right up where she left off with the driver. He envisioned Penny’s description regarding what happened on his last date and how he’d “shoved the woman into the car.” This time, it was a lot more accurate.

  Geo shook his head. That was what Ivana Date thought would be right for him? He pulled his phone from his pocket, wondering if Penny had fared any better. He pounded out a quick text to her. Hopefully, she wouldn’t mind he was using her number again.

  …

  Penny rocked back and forth in her chair. She had absolutely nothing against facial hair, but the man sitting across from her had braids in his long beard. Plus, all the chunks from his soup that had dribbled down his chin were now caught in the hair—and he hadn’t even attempted to pick up his napkin.

  She’d said she wasn’t all about appearance—and she meant it. The man did have kind, brown eyes and broad shoulders, but he wasn’t ticking any of the boxes on the personality side. He kept talking about duck hunting. Penny loved ducks! And he kept raising his eyebrows at her like they were sharing secrets, only she wasn’t in on the secrets themselves.

  When her phone buzzed in the pocket of her pants, she was torn. She knew it was rude to just dig it out and check, but on the other hand, did she really care at this point? Penny slowly pulled the phone out and glanced at it discreetly beneath the table.

  On a date? the text from Geo read.

  She typed a quick, Yes. And hit send. On second thought, she typed, Help, and hit send again. She returned her attention to the man before her and nodded and smiled as he took another bite of soup, the cracker he’d crumbled into it earlier lodging inside his beard. He might have a whole meal in there by now.

  Where? Geo’s text came quickly, and Penny blinked at the screen before nodding at her date once again. It took her a minute to type the restaurant name into her phone in little pecks here and there. She didn’t want the man to report back to the matchmaker that she had been distracted during their date. When she hit send, she felt a sense of relief. She didn’t know if Geo was actually going to help her, but just having someone know that she wasn’t having a good time was a nice feeling.

  She placed the phone under her leg, hoping it would buzz with a fake emergency from one of her sisters. Why hadn’t she taken Quarter’s advice and had her call at a certain time? In fact, she’d actually asked her sister not to call. She’d have to eat crow for this one. And put Nic, Q, and Di on speed dial for every date after this, just in case. The restaurant owner was a family friend, and it was a public location. Plus, the matchmaker vetted both the men and women, so Penny felt safe enough with the meeting. Perhaps she was too quick to trust the small lady behind the giant desk.

  “So.” The man leaned forward, the end of his beard now officially in the soup. “This is going well, huh?” He raised his eyebrows three times, his chin bobbing up and down in the soup as his face moved.

  “Um.” Penny had no idea what to say. She didn’t want to tell him to his face how turned off she was by his beard. Perhaps if it weren’t braided—or maybe didn’t have so much soup in it…

  “What do you say we get out of here?” More eyebrow waggling.

  Penny frowned. Her phone buzzed against her leg, and she desperately grabbed at it and sneaked a look. Bathroom, it read.

  “Excuse me, I’m going to use the restroom.” Penny stood, stuffing her phone back into her pants.

  “I understand.” Wave wave. “Freshen up, why don’t you?” Wave.

  Penny wanted to take a pin from her purse and attach his eyebrows together so they couldn’t wave at her any longer. She was not going to “get out of there” with him, but she was getting out of there. And she hoped Geo could help.

  …

  “So that’s your type, huh?” Geo was leaning against the wall around the corner that hid the restrooms from the rest of the restaurant. He waggled his eyebrows, and Penny chucked him on the arm with her fist.

  “Shut up,” she said. “He wants to ‘get out of here.’ What do I do?”

  “That depends.”

  “On what?” Penny was whispering, though she had no idea why. It wasn’t like her date was close enough to hear.

  “Do you want to?”

  Penny made a face. “Are you crazy? He has soup in his beard!”

  Geo held up his hands. “Hey, everyone has a type. I didn’t want to assume.”

  Penny straightened her top and stood tall. “I should just go back and say good night.”

  “You could do that. Or—”

  “Or what?”

  “We could have a little fun.” Geo raised his eyebrows again, and Penny jabbed his arm a second time. “Ow,” he said, rubbing his shoulder.

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Just go back to your table and let me handle the rest. Follow my lead, okay?”

  Penny gave Geo a sideways stare. “Fine, but you better know what you’re doing.”

  “Just you wait.”

  …

  Geo watched as Penny slid around the corner and headed back to her table. His date had been attractive, but she had nothing on Penny. The way the pants hugged her backside was enough to get his attention. Geo rubbed his eyes and counted to three, giving Penny enough time to get seated. He then steeled his nerves, balled his hands into fists so the veins on his arms would stand out, and approached the table from behind Penny’s chair.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Geo growled in a low voice, looking first at the bearded man and then over to Penny and back again.

  Penny turned abruptly and looked genuinely surprised.

  “I’m sorry, um, who are you?” The bearded man had his napkin in his hand, but he had only dabbed at the corners of his mouth. He did nothing to extract the crackers or other soup remnants from his beard.

  “Her boyfriend, that’s who.” Geo spoke with clenched teeth, trying to seethe as he stared down at Penny.

  Penny blinked in surprise. “Ex-boyfriend. I’m sorry about this.”

  Geo didn’t want to draw too much focus to them, but he did want to get the other man’s attention. He would not only let Penny leave the dinner table, but he wouldn’t even try to contact her again. “You can’t just break my heart and then show up here with another man. It doesn’t work that way.”

  “I—I’m sorry?”

  Penny’s mouth opened and then closed again. Geo finally put her at a loss for words, and he couldn’t be more thrilled.

  “I know I’ve been stalling for too long, but I’m ready, now. I’m ready to commit. Don’t do this to me, babe.” George dropped to his knees in front of Penny. “Don’t leave me for him. I found the pregnancy test in the trash. I know about the baby.”

  He watched as Penny glanced at the man across from her. He had to keep his eyes pinned onto her or he would start laughing. Even from his peripheral vision, he could tell her date had way too much food in his beard.

  “Baby?” Penny asked with trepidation in her voice.

  “I want to do what’s right for our child.” Geo placed his hand on her stomach. “But more than that, I want you.”

  Penny’s eyes widened as she tried to get into character. She slid her hand over his and squeezed his fingers.

  George moved his hands to either side of Penny’s face and drew her forehead to his ow
n. “You can’t deny what we have.” He spoke in a low voice so only she and her date could hear. “I’ve felt it for a long time. I just wasn’t willing to admit it.”

  Penny’s breath caught in her throat. Geo’s act had been too outlandish to that point, but he felt his character slide away as he spoke out of genuine emotion to Penny. He held her gaze a few beats longer, conveying more sincerity than he wanted to allow.

  Remembering Penny’s date, Geo inched back a bit and turned to face the other man. He had to think serious thoughts as he steeled himself against the long beard laying in the soup across the table. “I’m sorry, man, this lady’s a gem, and I hate to do this to you. I didn’t realize what I had until I lost her, and now, I have to do everything in my power to get her back so we can raise our child together. You get it, right?”

  “More power to you.” The bearded man scooted his chair back but made no effort to leave.

  Geo placed a hand around the back of Penny’s neck and pulled her face toward his own again, their foreheads touching a second time. “Give me another chance, babe?” he said, like a dying man taking his last breath. “I’ll be all yours. Only yours. And our child, it’ll be a fresh start for us.”

  He could feel Penny’s breath on his face. He wasn’t sure how long he could stand to be this close to her without moving even closer.

  “O…okay,” she answered, wrapping her hands around his neck.

  Geo smiled and jammed his lips against hers with the fervor of a man who got the answer he wanted. He’d started the kiss as a way to seal the deal and get her away from her bad date, but he continued it out of pure selfishness. When he heard the soft moan she emitted, the restaurant fell away, and he forgot the time and place. Soup man slurped another bite across the table, bringing Geo back to the present. He broke away from Penny, leaving his forehead against hers. He rolled his head toward the man sitting across from her, his jaw now slightly open. “She said yes,” he said simply then stood, threw a few bills on the table to cover Penny’s meal, and scooped his free arm beneath Penny’s knees to lift her from her chair.

  “I’m so sorry about this,” Penny said over his shoulder as he carried her out of the restaurant.

  Outside, Geo carried Penny a short way down the block and around a corner until they were out of the restaurant’s view. The second he set her down, her small fists were lightly beating against his chest.

  “What was that? My ex? A baby?” she asked with what he hoped was mock rage.

  “Did you see his face?” Geo asked, opening his mouth a bit and waving his eyebrows.

  Penny stared at him for a second and then burst into laughter, her palms now slapping Geo’s chest in delight.

  Geo threw his head back and joined her. He’d just carried a woman out of a restaurant. It was a first for him. He was just glad she’d gone along with it.

  “Oh my gosh, Geo, that was something else. I’ve never been on a worse date in my life. And I’ve never laughed so hard, either. Whatever are we going to name our child?”

  Geo shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe Dollar?”

  Penny giggled. “I guess Quarter, Nickel, and Dime are already taken. How far along am I anyway?”

  Geo glanced down at her flat midsection. “You just found out. I’d say maybe five weeks? Six at most?”

  Penny hugged her stomach. “She’s going to have my red hair.”

  “Well, he’s going to have my muscles.” He flexed his arms on either side as Penny laughed and felt his biceps on both arms, nodding her approval.

  She slid her hands from his arms to his chest. “You’re too much.” She took a deep breath as her laughter subsided and rested her cheek on his chest next to her hands. “And I can’t thank you enough for saving me. I had no idea what I was going to say to him, and I swear, if I saw those eyebrows move one more time…”

  Geo pushed back from her slightly. “What, like this?” He waved his brows one at a time, like they were doing the worm crawl on his face.

  “Now that’s talent.” Penny started laughing again.

  Geo wished he hadn’t pushed her back to show off his talented eyebrows. The place where her cheek had been on his chest was burning, but her hands were still there, and he wanted to keep it that way. He grabbed her wrists so she wouldn’t move any farther away.

  “Didn’t you have your own date tonight?” Penny asked.

  “I did.”

  “And it’s over so early?”

  Geo nodded. “Let’s just say maybe our two dates should go on a date. We’ll tell Ivana to set them up.”

  “That bad?” Penny asked.

  “She didn’t have food in her beard, but she certainly wasn’t you.” Geo blurted that line out before he had a chance to recognize how it would sound. He meant to go back to the other day, when they were joking that the matchmaker might set the two of them up on a blind date. And wouldn’t they be surprised if Penny walked in to find Geo was her date? He hadn’t meant to make it sound like his date wasn’t Penny and that’s why he’d been unhappy with her—had he?

  The smile slid from Penny’s face as she stared at her hands on Geo’s chest, his fingers wrapped around her wrists. The moment was passing, and George had to either act or let go. The feel of her lips on his just moments ago at the restaurant were vivid in his mind. He felt powerless to stop what happened next. He saw her rising on her toes, willing him forward with her gorgeous eyes. Their first, just moments ago, was meant to be an act, though it turned more serious for him. But this time, as Penny moved closer, there was no denying the spark between them. Her lips met his with a fervor unlike one he had felt before. He drew her closer to him and embraced her as fully as he could, enveloping her with his lips and trying to speak everything he couldn’t say with his body.

  One of her hands moved up from his chest and into his hair, squeezing the tendrils that met his neck. When she made a small noise of pleasure, he was almost undone. His hand moved up her back and around to cup her face and stroke her cheek. He wanted to do whatever he could to hear that sound again.

  A shrill whistle sounded from across the street. “You go, man! You go!”

  “Get a room!” a second voice sounded as the audience laughed, and Penny broke away from the moment.

  Geo wasn’t willing to let her go, but he couldn’t force the broken moment back into existence, either. He watched as she straightened her shirt and ran her hands over her hair.

  “So, what are we going to tell our matchmaker about our dates?” Penny asked as she turned and started walking down the sidewalk with Geo by her side. She was going to casually pretend like nothing had happened, huh?

  He shrugged. “They weren’t a match.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “No, I’m not seeing anyone.” Penny shook her head as she held the phone against her ear. “And I’m most certainly not pregnant. I’m sorry, it was just a misunderstanding.”

  “But your date said the man carried you out of the restaurant. That he was an ex who came back to win you over so you could raise your child together?” Ivana Date had all the information correct.

  “Okay…” Penny couldn’t deny the truth. Her date apparently had told the matchmaker all of the details. “Can we just say I wasn’t into my date?”

  “Ah, so it was a rescue? You didn’t like him? Really? Was it the beard?” Ivana sounded almost surprised that Penny would reject such a man.

  “Not so much the beard,” Penny spoke slowly, “more of what was in it.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. If you’re willing, I’d like to have another date soon. I need to give this a fair shot, and I just wasn’t feeling it last night.” At least not with her bearded date.

  “Okay, I’ll give you another chance, but if you run out again in the arms of another man, I’m afraid I won’t be able to take you seriously any longer.” Was Ivana scold
ing her? Penny imagined her wagging a finger in her office behind her giant desk.

  “It won’t happen again. You have my word.”

  “Okay. Then you can meet Jack tonight at six. I’ll email you the details.”

  “Perfect. Thanks.” Penny hung up the phone and tossed it onto her desk. She’d never been so glad to get out of a date as she was last night, and she had to admit she liked the way Geo had swept her off her feet. The things he’d said in the restaurant sounded sincere, and the kiss…well, it certainly was anything but soft. Was it strange that she found herself thinking about him more than any of her dates? She’d known him longer, so maybe that was it. And he certainly knew how to infuriate her. And the kiss they’d shared wasn’t easy to put out of her mind…but he was New York bound, and she wasn’t going anywhere outside of city limits any time soon.

  Penny shook her head to clear her thoughts as the phone on her desk vibrated with a text. Date tonight? the message box read.

  Penny smiled. Did he know she’d just been thinking about him? Her fingers moved swiftly over the screen as she typed back. Yes, you?

  I’m getting a second chance.

  Penny was glad Geo hadn’t been identified and ruled out because of his part in the date debacle. Even though the matchmaker likely didn’t know it was him who saved Penny, it didn’t sound like his date went much better than hers, though there had been no soup involved.

  Me, too. Where are you going?

  Museum. You?

  Don’t know yet.

  Have fun. Let me know if you need help.

  You, too. Penny set her phone back down. She almost hoped Geo was the one who sent her a cry for help this time. It would be a nice change of pace, and she owed him one. Or maybe they were even since he’d planted their first kiss and she’d initiated the second… Penny shivered as her fingers mindlessly ran across her bottom lip.

  …

  Geo stood on the steps of the St. Louis Art Museum. He leaned against one of the columns, waiting for his date. The matchmaker said he’d know her because she would be wearing a red dress. When a woman approached wearing a black trench coat over a bright red dress, he straightened. She had legs that went on for days, and the dress accentuated her…attributes. While Geo may not have a specific type, if he were to be drawn to a woman, she would be it.