Two Last First Dates

by Kate O'Keeffe

  The memory of the look on Josh’s face as we stood, almost touching at the pool hall, shot into my mind. My tummy did an involuntary flip. “No, no. I haven’t been on a date with Josh.”

  “You haven’t been on a what with Josh?”

  I turned to see the man himself, standing in the open doorway, holding his habitual box of coffee beans. He had a questioning look on his face. I swallowed. Awkward!

  Whatever happened to knocking on the door?

  I could feel a flush burst onto my cheeks. How much of our conversation had he heard? “Oh, I . . . I said I haven’t gone on a run with you.” Phew! Quick thinking saved the day. I glanced at Bailey. She was smirking, her arms crossed as she watched me. It didn’t help my blush in the slightest. I cleared my throat.

  Josh took a step into the kitchen. “Paige, have you lost your mind? We went on a run this morning, remember?”

  Dang it! “Oh, right. Yes. You’re right, I must be losing my mind.” I bobbed my head from side to side, rolling my eyes to show Josh just how much of my mind I had in fact lost.

  I chanced another glance at Bailey. She was pressing her lips together, trying to hide her smirk, still watching me closely. I glared at her. She wasn’t helping the situation in the slightest.

  Josh chuckled to himself as he walked past us, saying good morning to Bailey as though I hadn’t just totally humiliated myself in front of him.

  “Good morning, Josh. How was that seemingly forgettable run this morning?” Bailey asked.

  I glared at her once more but it was having no effect. She was clearly enjoying teasing me.

  Having delivered his box of beans to the pantry, Josh returned to the kitchen. His six-foot-something presence suddenly made the room feel very small. “It was great. Paige is definitely ready for The Color Run. In fact, I think she could do it with her eyes closed.”

  Bailey smiled at me. “That’s awesome, Paige.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled back. I had really thrown myself into my running. I was fitter, slimmer, faster—almost bionic, really. And most importantly, I felt really good about myself. Leaving AGD, working at the café, and running. They’d all helped me get my mojo back, and it felt great.

  “Paige was just about to share some news, weren’t you?” Bailey led.

  Josh raised his eyebrows. “News?”

  “Yes. I got offered a job, so I need to give you notice, Bailey,” I said with mixed emotions. Although I knew taking the job at Nettco Electricity was the right thing to do, I’d really miss working in the café with her. I needed to get my career back on track and get serious. After all, I was hurtling toward thirty at an alarming rate. Didn’t people in their thirties have their lives totally figured out?

  “Wow, that’s great, Paige,” Bailey said, walking over to me and giving me a hug.

  “You didn’t mention that on our run this morning,” Josh said, furrowing his brow.

  “That’s because you made us run so fast I could barely grunt, let alone actually form words,” I replied.

  He let out a chuckle. “You remember the run now, do you?”

  I shot him a weak smile.

  “So, what’s the job?” Bailey asked.

  “It’s an Email Marketing Assistant role, a lot like the one I did at AGD. Only without the terrible boss.” I thought of Roger-Rabbit-slash-Elmer-Fudd and his “we’re all crazy here” attitude. He was about as far from uptight, social-climbing, thin-as-a-gazelle Portia de Havilland as any one person could be. “I’ll be working for Nettco.”

  “The electricity company?” Josh questioned. When I nodded, he raised his brows and said, “Interesting choice.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why?”

  He shook his head. “No reason. Good for you.”

  “Thanks. I need to get through this thing next week, though. I have to go yachting with my new boss and his team.”

  “Yachting’s great!” Josh said. He took in my expression, which must have been one of sheer dread, no matter how much I tried to appear relaxed. “You’re not a fan?”

  “You could say that.”

  “Hey, why don’t you take Paige yachting, Josh? That way she can have a practice run beforehand.” She smiled sweetly at me, as though getting Josh and I alone together in an enclosed space wouldn’t work in nicely with her matchmaking.

  I wasn’t buying it for a second. “Funny, that’s what Marissa suggested.”

  Her eyes wide, she replied, “Really?”

  “I’ll take you out. Thursday after work good for you?” Josh asked, clearly oblivious to the coded conversation going on in the kitchen without him.

  “That will be fine for Paige. In fact, I’ll get someone to cover the afternoon so you can go straight after lunch,” Bailey said.

  “Awesome!” Josh replied.

  “Anything to help you with your new job,” Bailey added, patting me on the arm.

  My top lip curled. Where was Helena and her Tarantino quotes when I needed her?

  “When do you start?” Josh asked.

  “Well, that’s kind of up to Bailey.” Even though I could throttle her right about now, I didn’t want to let her down. After all, she’d been good to me, and me to her in return. “I figured I’d work here until you have a replacement.”

  “Thanks, you’re a sweetheart. I’ve been interviewing and I think I may have a couple of good, experienced waitresses.”

  My heart dropped. Bailey had people lined up to replace me already? “That’s great. Really great.” I forced a smile, my lips twitching as tears threatened. Why did that make me suddenly so sad?

  “Well, I’d better get going,” Josh said as he walked toward the back door. “See you for a run tomorrow morning?” he asked me.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. I was being silly. I loved working here but it was just to help Bailey out and keep me busy while I got back to my real life. “Oh, yes. Thanks.”

  He closed the door behind himself, and I let out a puff of air.

  “You okay?” Bailey questioned, returning to her work.

  “Yes, thanks.”

  Was I okay? I wasn’t sure. If I was convinced I was doing the right thing by leaving the Cozy Cottage, why did it feel so hard?

  * * *

  During the lunchtime madness that had become my way of life at the Cozy Cottage, I noticed a tall man in a black suit walk through the door out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at him, and my heart skipped a beat. It was Marcus. Although I hadn’t heard from him since our date on Saturday, I had told myself not to be worried. He was a busy man with an important job, he’d see me when he could see me. I just needed to be patient and wait. The last thing I wanted to do was put him off by being too needy.

  And anyway, he was here.

  He joined the back of the line, and I could feel his eyes on me as I served the customers in front of him. I couldn’t help but look over occasionally and smile at him, my heart skipping a beat as he smiled back. Finally, after what felt like an hour of serving customers with time-consuming needs—no pickle with this, mayonnaise on the side with that, half decaf with skim milk and cream—Marcus reached the counter.

  “What can I get for you, good sir?” I asked with a grin, the butterflies in my belly singing He’s here! He’s here!

  He rested an elbow on the counter and leaned in, a smile teasing the corners of his lips. “Oh, I don’t know. Are you on the menu?”

  I let out a light laugh. “I could be. Later.” I bit my lip, not quite believing how flirtatious he was being in the middle of the lunchtime rush.

  He shook his head. “Later is too far away while you’re wearing that.”

  I looked down at my regulation Cozy Cottage red polka dot apron. Was it weird he thought I looked hot in it? Maybe he had some weird chef fantasies? Gawd, I hoped his mother hadn’t worn aprons when he was a kid.

  “Well, it’s lunchtime.” I indicated the lengthening line behind him. The tables were all full, and Bailey and Sophie were buzzing around m
e, filling orders and restocking the cabinet shelves. I began to feel guilty I wasn’t helping them.

  “So? I want to take you somewhere special, Paige. You deserve it.”

  Somewhere special? I wondered where he meant. A swanky restaurant? A lavish picnic lunch in the Botanical Gardens? My speculation was interrupted by the man beside Marcus loudly clearing his throat.

  “I’m sorry, sir. I’ll be with you in just a moment,” I said to him before turning my attention back to Marcus. “I can’t right now. Can we meet up later? Say at four?”

  His expression changed to disappointment as he straightened up. Our shared moment was over. “I’d like that. Now, can I get a chicken pesto panini and a latte to go?”

  “Sure.” I smiled at him. We were going “somewhere special” together later, and I couldn’t be happier.

  Only later came and went with no sign of Marcus. I leaned up against the outside wall of the café, looking up the street. Perhaps I’d missed him? Perhaps he’d come to get me while I was in the kitchen and Bailey had sent him away? Only, why would she do that? She may want me to date Josh, but she wasn’t the type of person to deliberately sabotage someone. I let out a sigh. He must have got caught up at work or something. I knew there’d be a perfectly viable explanation for why he hadn’t come.

  The café door banged next to me, making me jump.

  “Paige. What are you still doing here?” Bailey asked as she locked up, the “closed” sign swinging from side to side on its string in the window.

  “I’m waiting for someone but they didn’t come, so I guess I’m heading home.”

  “That’s a shame. You look dead on your feet, anyway, so perhaps it’s a good thing. Hey, thanks for your help again today. Since the coupons went out, we’ve been so busy. It’s just great, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, I’m really happy for you.”

  “For us. It was you who pulled the whole thing together. Without your website and social media postings, I’d still be working out how to add them to the old website I had.”

  “I guess. But it’s your café.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. She looked like she was about to say something, then stopped herself, smiling instead. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “See you tomorrow.”

  I stood and watched her walk down the street, her heels clicking on the footpath as she went. I leaned back up against the café wall and decided to give Marcus five more minutes. I pulled out my phone for the umpteenth time. No messages from him, just one from Dad, asking me to pick up some mineral mountain salt on the way home. Whatever that was.

  I fired off a text to Marcus, asking where he was. At this point, I figured I had nothing to lose. He wasn’t here, I’d been waiting for forty minutes, I was cold and tired. My heart leapt into my throat when my phone immediately pinged with a message from him.

  So sorry! Work crazy. Will make it up to you xx

  My tummy twisted into a painful knot. Marcus had stood me up. After the flirting and carrying on today, he’d simply either forgotten or something else had been more important.

  I let out a puff of air. At least he had apologized and signed his name with kisses. That had to mean something, didn’t it?

  Chapter 19

  THURSDAY SWUNG AROUND FAR too quickly for my liking, and I found myself strapped into a bright orange life jacket over my warm clothes, waiting on a pier beside Josh’s boat. I felt like the Michelin Tire man’s chubbier sister. It was not a good feeling.

  To distract myself from my rising panic, I read the name of the boat: “Knot Working.” Josh loved a pun, that was for certain. I would have chuckled if it didn’t feel like my heart was about to leap out of my mouth with anxiety.

  “Here. Let me help you,” Josh said, holding his hand out for me.

  I shot him a grateful smile. Stepping aboard Josh’s yacht while clutching onto his hand like it was my only lifeline, my legs began to wobble—much more from fear than anything to do with the gently lapping water.

  I tried to take my mind off the fact I was now on a floating death trap by looking around the boat as Josh busied himself with whatever you had to do to get a yacht ready to go. It looked old-fashioned to me in a lived-in, homey way, as though it had been lovingly restored, the wood a beautiful oak color, the trim and folded sails pristine white. I could imagine Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey perched on it, their hair moving in the breeze. I took a deep breath. If famous Hollywood stars could do it, I could too.

  An image of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio at the front of the Titanic sprung to mind. Oh, god. The Titanic sunk and nearly everyone died! I swallowed, my mouth drier than the Sahara. What was I doing here?

  My eyes darted around the boat until I spotted a cabin down a ladder. I could always stand in there and close my eyes, clutching onto the rail, pretending I was somewhere else—anywhere else—if it all became too much.

  To be honest, I had held out a small hope Josh had one of those luxury superyachts you see in magazines sometimes, the ones with famous people lounging on recliners in the sun, sipping martinis. The fact I knew they cost hundreds of millions of dollars should have told me to forget that hope—Ned’s Coffee might be a successful business, but there was no way it was doing that well.

  “Paige! Catch!”

  I looked up in time to see a dark object hurtling toward me. I put my hands out and a light bag landed in my arms. “A little more notice next time, please,” I snapped.

  Josh chuckled, stepping onto the boat himself. “It’s just towels. So, what do you think?”

  “It’s . . . lovely.” My belly was so twisted up with anxiety I was finding it hard not to think about my impending demise on board this death trap.

  “Thanks. She’s a beauty. Built in nineteen fifty-two, can you believe?”

  I looked at him in alarm. “Nineteen fifty-two? Isn’t that a little old?” For some reason, I’d assumed the boat had merely been made to look old, not that it actually was. “I mean, are you sure it’s safe? No holes or anything?”

  Josh laughed again. “Holes?” He shook his head. “It’s fine. Just relax, okay? I promise, you’re going to enjoy this once we get moving. I’ve been sailing this boat since I was a kid. You’re in good hands.”

  I harrumphed. “Enjoyment” wasn’t exactly at the top of my list this afternoon. Survival? Survival most certainly was. “So, you didn’t name it?”

  He smiled. “No, that was my Dad’s idea.”

  “I see.” Josh’s whole family had a pun problem, by the sounds of things. They needed family pun-therapy. I would have laughed if I wasn’t feeling so uptight.

  “See the cabin? You can take this baby out and sleep in there. We did it a lot as a family when I was a kid, although it was pretty cramped. We didn’t care; it was an awesome adventure.”

  “That must have been”—I wanted to say “hell,” but instead went with—“fun.”

  “Oh, it was. That’s how I learned to sail, with my parents and brother. We spent a lot of time on this boat.” He patted the railing as though it were a dog, a whimsical look on his face. “Right, let’s get out there, shall we? It would be a shame to waste this beautiful afternoon.” Josh turned a key, and the engine spluttered and coughed as it started up.

  This was not a good sign. I sat down on one of the cushioned seats at the front of the boat—the hull?— and clasped my hands nervously.

  “She always takes a while to warm up,” Josh explained.

  “Okay . . .” Not okay! This thing should work perfectly every time! “I thought when you went yachting you used the sail?”

  “Yes, we’ll do that once we’re out of the mooring. For now, you get to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.” He winked at me. Was he meaning he was the show? He did look good in his cap and shades, although the lifejacket kind of ruined any yachting fashion statement he may have been aiming for.

  “Relax. Sure.” I knew that wasn’t going to happen until we were back on dr
y land. At least the thing had a motor, in case we got stuck out there. I tried to push the thought of being stranded at sea for days on end from my mind. What was that movie, with Tom Hanks in it, the one where he got stranded on a desert island for years? I knew we were only going for an afternoon’s sail around the Hauraki Gulf, but it could happen.

  The engine now running smoothly, Josh turned the wheel and drove—is that what you do with a yacht?—away from the pier and out onto the open water. To distract myself, I concentrated on the masts of all the neighboring yachts, listening to the clinking sound they made in the gentle breeze. After a while, we powered away from them—and dry, safe land—and out into the harbor.

  “Isn’t it fantastic out here? Wait until I turn the engine off. You’ll see just how serene it is, like the city is on mute or something.”

  I looked longingly back at Auckland, holding onto the railing for dear, sweet life. What I wouldn’t do to be in the thick of the noisy city right now.

  “It’s going to take us about fifteen or twenty minutes, maybe longer with the lack of wind, to get out past North Head, over there,” Josh said, pointing at the entrance to the harbor.

  Anxiety slammed into me. “You mean, we’re leaving the harbor?” I gawped at him. I hadn’t signed up to open-water yachting, with all those sharks and killer whales and colossal squids out there.

  “Of course. What did you think we were going to do? We’ll wait until we’re a little further out, then we’ll put the sail up.” He smiled at me, adding, “It’ll be all right, Paige. Don’t worry.”

  I nodded and forced a smile, reminding myself I was doing this so I wouldn’t make a total idiot of myself in front of Roger and the Nettco marketing team next week. In a roundabout kind of way, this was helping me get back to my career. Although, suddenly, that didn’t seem quite so important to me now as staying alive.

  I checked the clasps on my lifejacket, tightening them so my boobs were squished uncomfortably against my ribcage—a small price to pay for survival in my eyes. After we’d been chugging along out of the marina and into the harbor for a while, with Josh rabbiting on about winching, tacking, jibbing, and other things I never wanted to know about, I began to feel more comfortable. The sun was shining, the breeze was light and refreshing, and the water sparkled around us. Every time we passed another boat, Josh would wave and they would wave back. I leaned back in my seat, unclasping my hand from the railing for the first time since I’d boarded the yacht. I began to feel I could do this. Today, maybe, I wasn’t going to die.