by Nella Tyler
I pushed that idea aside; most of my clients wouldn’t have been nearly so capable of interacting with Brady in an appropriate way as Zeke had been. A lot of them that I’d worked with—past and present—would have made the event into a nightmare of epic proportions simply because they couldn’t remember that they were around a child. It was definitely a point in Zeke’s favor that he’d gone with the flow and looked out for boredom from my son.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I watched Brady for a few moments longer, making sure he wasn’t doing anything that might make a momentary lapse of attention a danger to him. He was down in the sand with some of the other kids, involved in one of the many incomprehensible projects they invented at a moment’s notice; he wasn’t likely to put himself in any danger in a span of a few seconds, and that was long enough to read whatever text message had come to my phone. I slipped my phone out of my pocket and unlocked the screen.
I have our next date set up, if Tuesday works for you. The message had come from Zeke, and I felt myself grinning almost before I realized I was doing it. I shook my head, glancing up from my phone to make sure that Brady was still okay. He was fine—still absorbed in his playing with the other kids in the sand pit. I typed my reply to Zeke.
Where will the date be? Is there any particular way I should dress? I tried to suppress the little tingle of excitement I felt, reminding myself that it was a practice session—it wasn’t a romantic thing. We would just be interacting together, conversing, and I would be coaching him about what he could do differently, how he should conduct himself in a particular setting.
It’s going to be a surprise. Meet me outside of the Burleigh Mall. That was definitely a novel approach, I felt a little uneasy at a surprise date, but I had to admit that it was unlikely Zeke was going to put me in a position to embarrass myself. Just when I was going to press for some kind of detail—at least enough to know how to dress, apart from my usual professional standards—my phone vibrated again, and his follow-up text popped up. Dress however you want, we’re not going to be going anywhere too fancy. I messaged him back that I understood and put my phone back into my pocket, telling myself that even if I was excited, I was at the park to play with my little boy.
I mulled over the possibilities of a date that would require us to meet at the mall, even as I joined Brady over by the swings. Burleigh Mall had a bunch of restaurants, an arcade, one of those rock wall places, and a whole lot of other attractions. As I pushed Brady on the swings, I tried not to let myself be too excited about the prospect of my next practice date with Zeke. After all, there was nothing between us except for a professional relationship. He had wanted to kiss me again, but I told myself that it was just because he was a guy, and only because he wanted to see what he could get from me—not out of any interest in me particularly. I couldn’t help but wonder what we would be doing together the next time we met in a few days though; even as Brady and I played until he was so tired I knew he’d fall asleep on the way home, I wanted some hint, some clue as to what Zeke had in store for me. It wasn’t a feeling I’d ever had with any of my clients before, and that—I knew—was dangerous.
Chapter Fourteen
Zeke
Natalie was standing at the entrance to the mall, waiting for me, and I grinned to myself as I walked up, anticipating the fun of the idea I’d had. Burleigh Mall was the biggest mall in the state—so I’d known when I’d planned our date that a surprise would be easy to pull off. There were so many things we could have done just within the mall itself, but I remembered something that Natalie had told me when I’d asked her in passing what kinds of dates in general were best: “Simple things—you really don’t need frills when it comes to a good date. It’s all about connecting, getting to know someone.”
She saw me as I approached, and gave me a little wave and a smile. “How’s Brady?” I asked as soon as I was within greeting distance.
“He is having a great time with his sitter. She informed me a few minutes ago by text that they’re working on a puzzle together,” Natalie replied. She looked around quickly and then met my gaze again. “So do I get to know what the surprise is now that we’re both here?”
I nodded. “I’m taking you shopping,” I told her. “Any store you want to go in, anything you want to buy.” Her eyes widened.
“That’s…” she licked her lips and for just a second, all I could think about was how it had been to kiss her; I pushed the thought out of my head. “That seems a bit extreme for a practice date. Did your PA plan this?” I shook my head.
“I planned it myself,” I replied. “And you were the one who told me that dating is about getting to know someone, and making a connection, right? Shopping seems like a good way to do that—you get to talk about the things you like and don’t like, stuff like that.” She stared at me for a moment longer.
“It seems like it could get really expensive with someone else though,” she said hesitantly.
“It’s a practice date,” I told her, shrugging. “I have plenty of money in the bank, and I think it’ll be fun.” I wagged my finger at her a bit. “I checked with the agency: there is nothing inappropriate about a shopping date.” She raised an eyebrow at that.
“You checked?” she laughed, shaking her head.
“I did. I asked if there was a price limit allowed on the dates that I go on with you as my coach, and they said that there wasn’t. And I asked if shopping would be considered acceptable, and they said it was up to me to decide how I wanted to spend my practice sessions with you—within reason, of course.” She pressed her lips together and for a second I thought I’d screwed up again, that she’d tell me that I’d come up with the worst plan for an evening out together that could possibly exist.
“We can browse, at least,” she said finally. I smirked. I am going to find a way to convince her to actually let me buy something, I told myself.
“If there’s nothing you want, then of course we don’t have to buy anything,” I agreed. “But we can at least wander around and look, right?” She gave me a quick up-and-down look, her eyes full of skepticism, and then she nodded.
“I can go along with that,” she told me. I gestured for her to precede me into the mall, and took advantage of the moment she turned around towards the entrance to take in the outfit she’d chosen; like always, Natalie looked clean-cut, professional, but slightly casual, with a pair of jeans that fit her perfectly and a blouse that went with it, green with some kind of lace on the sleeves and at the hem. She’d worn sensible heels and a bracelet on her wrist. God she’s hot. If the women they actually set me up with are even half as hot as she is, I’ll be lucky. I followed her into the mall and we started off, looking around.
“Where do you want to check out first?” I gestured all around us, ending my pointing at the big layout display. She took a quick breath, and I could see the wheels turning in her head.
“You’re going to hate this,” she said, grinning at me. “I want to look at a couple of things for Brady.”
“Lead the way,” I said, spreading my hands out in front of me and matching her smile. I had thought—once she gave into the idea of the date—that she’d turn it into something that she thought would irritate me like that. I was still determined to get her to pick something for herself that I could buy for her, but I was willing to go along with her until she started to get comfortable with the idea.
We walked towards the store that Natalie wanted to go to first: she was right that I was less than thrilled to walk into a store that carried nothing but clothes, toys, and games for young kids, but I also knew that if I wanted to get her to think about herself, I was going to have to let her think about Brady first. “Oh, Brady loves these,” Natalie said, coming to a stop in the middle of one of the aisles. She picked up a toy, turning to show it to me. It was some kind of construction toy with stick-together pieces that apparently made a variety of different things. “He’ll play with them for hours if I let him.”
“We
ll, obviously there’s a lot to get out of it,” I said, looking at the different end products the pieces could be made into. “Want to get him that kit?” Natalie looked at it and considered; I could almost imagine her weighing the appropriateness of letting me buy something for her kid.
“I think he’s already got this one,” she said after a moment, putting it back on the shelf. I resisted the urge to laugh.
We wandered around, talking about our favorite toys from when we were kids. “I had this art kit that one of my aunts got me when I was like…four or five, I think?” Natalie picked up and put down a similar type of kit, smiling to herself. “It had these little blobs of clay in it, and I made a huge, enormous mess of it. My parents were horrified.”
“Mine was an erector set deal,” I told her. “I must have begged them to buy me the same kit at least five times because I kept losing pieces. Of course, they kept turning up in the most bizarre places.” She laughed and nodded.
“That I can definitely imagine,” she said with a little grin. “I’m trying to get Brady in the habit of cleaning up when he’s done playing, but if I don’t remind him to put his toys away, they just stay wherever they were when he lost interest.”
“Sounds like a little boy, all right,” I agreed. “I can at least comfort you with the idea that once he’s old enough to start liking girls, he’ll figure out how to keep things neat.”
“Oh God, I don’t want to think about him liking girls,” she said, shaking her head. “That is going to be an interesting time in my life, I’m sure.”
I finally got her to let me buy a few little things—some toy cars, a tee shirt, and a water gun—for Brady, and we left the store together, walking out into the crowded mall. “I let you choose the first place, so I get to choose the second one—that’s fair, right?” I held her gaze until I could see the signs of her giving in.
“Fine,” she agreed. “But you can’t actually make me let you buy me anything,” she told me tartly.
I steered her towards a store called Lush—which I’d heard from Trevor was a sure bet for a date. I’d looked it up before I’d committed to the idea of shopping there in my mind; it was a boutique-style store with bath products, soaps, perfumes, and other things like that. “Here we go,” I said, taking Natalie’s wrist and keeping her from stopping short before we went in.
“This seems a little personal,” she said doubtfully as we stepped into the tiny little shop.
“It smells nice in here, though, doesn’t it? And it’s not like I’m going to expect you to use anything you buy here in front of me.” I grinned at her and caught the attention of one of the employees.
“Have either of you been to Lush before?” Both Natalie and I shook our heads, and the girl—twenty-something, with dyed-black hair and bright red lipstick—led us around the store, asking Natalie about her skin type, her fragrance preferences, all kinds of questions that I wouldn’t have known the answer to about myself, much less about anyone else. She convinced Natalie to let her demonstrate some of the different products and I hung back to watch, grinning to myself as the clerk did a better job of convincing her to buy things than I possibly could have, no matter how long or how hard I argued.
By the time we came out of the shop, I’d bought $70 worth of products—shampoo, conditioner, a body scrub, and a “bath bomb,” whatever that was, along with other odds and ends. “You totally set me up with that one,” Natalie told me, idly stroking her arm where the clerk had demonstrated some kind of lotion.
“Of course I did,” I told her, grinning. “You can’t tell me you’re not going to enjoy having a nice bath with all this stuff.” She rolled her eyes, though she was smiling just as much as I was.
“That’s if I get the opportunity to use it,” she told me tartly. “Brady doesn’t give me a nice, long hour to myself all that often.”
We moved on through the mall, going from one shop to another. I wasn’t able to convince Natalie to pick anything out from the shoe store we went into or the knickknack store we browsed, but we talked about things she liked, things I liked. I noticed that we had a lot in common while we were in a store that sold accessories—jewelry and handbags mostly. I spotted a necklace on a display and made a mental note of it, even while I stayed at Natalie’s side to watch her looking at earrings. “I know you told me all about your qualifications,” I said, moving just a little bit closer to her, “but you’ve got to have like—actual dating experience, right? I don’t think we’ve ever really talked about that.” She looked up at me through her eyelashes.
“I probably should have expected you’d ask something like that,” she said, smiling wryly.
“Well, I mean—obviously you’re qualified, I’m not questioning that,” I told her. “I’m just curious about how you got into this line of business.”
She shrugged. “I got into this after my divorce,” she told me, looking a little uncertain. I nodded, not saying anything, trying to get her to say more than that. “You’re not going to say that a divorced person probably isn’t the best source for dating advice?” She raised an eyebrow.
“No—in fact, I think you’re probably a better choice than someone who’s never been married,” I pointed out. “You know what doesn’t work just as much as you know what does.”
“That’s a very enlightened viewpoint,” she said with a little smile. “I always hesitate to tell any of my clients about the divorce because a lot of them…” She shrugged. “They’d just say that it’s proof that I don’t know what I’m talking about—I couldn’t even keep my own relationship going.”
“It’s a two-way street, though,” I said, frowning. “One person on their own can’t hold up an entire relationship.”
“But they can screw it up,” Natalie countered. A look like regret flickered across her face and she shook her head again. “Anyway, that’s my big, dark secret: I am a divorced single mom.” I laughed and looked at the necklace on display again.
“Come over here with me,” I told her, taking her hand and tugging her towards the display. “I want to see something.” I looked at the clerk hovering nearby and gestured to the necklace I’d had my eye on.
“Oh—come on, Zeke, no…” Natalie said, as the clerk lifted the necklace off of the display and handed it to me. I held it up next to her face and smiled.
“These are the same color—the exact same color—as your eyes,” I told her, nodding at the clerk to bring the mirror closer to us. “See?”
“That doesn’t—that’s not a reason…” Natalie glanced at the mirror; the blue-green color of the stones in the necklace was as beautiful, as clear, and as shining as her eyes.
“We’ll take this,” I told the clerk. I handed it to the woman before Natalie could see the price tag on it; it wasn’t the most expensive piece of jewelry I’d ever bought, but I knew that if she found out the price, she would have argued even harder against me buying it for her. I turned to look at her once more. “It’s my practice date, right?” I raised an eyebrow.
“You’re not supposed to…” I shook my head, still grinning.
“Your own boss told me that I can spend as much or as little as I want on my dates with you,” I reminded her. “And, you absolutely need that necklace.” Natalie took a deep breath and exhaled slowly; I had to admit, it was exciting to see her so flustered, so out of her element.
“Fine,” she said after a moment. “But I’m not promising to ever wear it—and you don’t get any bonus points for an expensive gift.”
I laughed. “It would be a shame, but once it’s in your keeping, you can do what you want with it.” She gave me another long look and shook her head.
“Let’s go to the food court, before you decide to buy the earrings and bracelet and outfit to go with that.”
Chapter Fifteen
Natalie
I still felt shaken up by the time we got to the food court, but I was mostly able to hold onto my composure. “I have no idea how much you spent on that necklace, bu
t I am buying food—and there is nothing you can do to make me change my mind,” I told Zeke firmly.
“I’ll allow it,” he said, grinning with that triumphant gleam in his eyes that was somehow both irritating and endearing. I had no idea how much the necklace had cost, but I knew it had to be expensive; it wouldn’t have been on a display like the one he’d found it on if it was a cheap piece of costume jewelry.
We browsed the different selections for a few moments before deciding to get a few tacos and chips at the Mexican stand, and I tried to think of a way to get this particular date back on the rails it had jumped the moment he had talked me into letting him buy things for me.
“So, since we talked about my dating life,” I began as we sat down with our snacks, “tell me about yours.”
“Isn’t it in my profile?” Zeke paused to take a bite of his taco and I shrugged.
“I’d like to hear from you—what you think, what your experience has been, all that. Much more valuable than the dry facts.” He chewed, swallowed, and laughed.
“There really isn’t a whole lot to say about it,” he said with a sigh. “The last time I went on dates with anyone, I was in college—good God, it’s been almost ten years!”
“That’s a long time to go without,” I said, keeping my voice carefully neutral.
“I didn’t really…entirely…go without,” he told me, shrugging slightly. “I mean, I had women who would go with me to events or things like that—strictly in the professional sense—and sometimes lines would get blurred, but I haven’t been in a relationship with anyone since sometime towards the end of college.”