When I stepped off the elevator, I felt an urge to look into the second elevator as I walked by. Normally, I would simply walk to my office, but I couldn’t help myself as I turned and saw the door closing. Inside was a red-haired woman and a blonde woman. I only got a very quick glance, but I could have sworn they were the same two women from the club.
Being on the tenth floor meant it would be impossible for me to run down the stairs to catch them, and my elevator had already closed. I froze as I tried to figure out what would be the best option.
I ran to my office and leaned against the glass as I looked down at the front door. If it were them, I would be able to tell if I could see their faces. They just had to look up for a moment, and I would know if it was them.
What felt like an agonizing amount of time passed, but then I saw the two women as they left the building. The blonde looked up at the street sign, and I was sure it was her! It was them! Why had they been on my floor?
Merrick—the redhead must have been visiting Merrick. I walked faster than normal to his office to talk with his assistant.
“Were there two women here to see Merrick?” I asked.
“Yes, they just left.”
“What were their names? Did they leave a number?”
“Wyatt, you can’t steal women from Merrick, that’s not cool,” the assistant teased.
“I don’t have their number. Please,” I begged.
“The redhead is Emma; she left a card for her dance studio. That’s all I know,” Wendy said as she handed me the card.
“Thank you!” I yelled as I took off back to my office with it.
“Give it to Merrick when you’re done.” She laughed.
I sat at my desk, trying to think of how I was going to handle this situation. Should I randomly just call this woman and see if she was indeed the one who had been friends with the blonde? It sounded crazy to do that.
Then I realized that the two women weren’t back at the studio yet, and maybe I could call and listen to the voicemail. Maybe they worked together there or something. I didn’t know. But I dialed the number anyways, to see what the message said.
“Hello, Dancetastic Dance Studio,” a woman’s voice answered.
I hung up.
What was I? A teenager? Had I seriously just hung up on this woman?
Luckily, I had called from my office line, and I knew if she called back it would just direct her to the main line. My call hadn’t confirmed anything to me. I still didn’t know for sure it was the same women, but I was fairly confident. I needed to see that woman again. There was an urge inside me that told me to stop worrying about that silly game and instead try to find this girl.
“Are you almost done?” I said when I called Merrick.
“Not ’til closing bell.”
“Come see me when you’re finished.”
I closed out my accounts for the day and tried to figure out how on earth I was going to get to meet this girl without looking like a totally insane person. The redhead had come to see Merrick, but the blonde hadn’t called me at all. Maybe she didn’t want to see me? Perhaps, I had felt a connection that was purely based on lust and not at all what was really going on between us. I was a man, after all; I could have thought the lust between us was a real connection. Either way, I needed to talk to her. To know her name, to actually take her on a date, and it was looking like Merrick was the key to making that happen.
It felt like forever before he came back from the stock exchange floor and walked into my office. I literally felt like I was going to explode as I tried to explain to him what had happened while he was gone.
“So you want me to call her and get the blonde girl’s number for you, even though you gave her your number and she didn’t call you?” Merrick said suspiciously.
“Well, when you say it like that, it doesn’t sound as good as it did in my head.”
“Maybe she thinks you’re ugly,” he joked.
“Maybe, but she seemed interested in me when we talked. Can you just call your girl and set up a double date or something? I mean she did come all the way down here to see you, and she left her business card for you.”
Merrick looked at the card and smiled.
“She was a nice girl. Feisty, though.”
“So, is that a yes?”
“I’m actually going out with Bambi again tonight. This will have to wait.”
“Come on Merrick; do this for me. I just need some time with this girl.”
Merrick contemplated my offer and then started to dial his phone. He wasn’t a man who sat back and waited for things to happen. He liked to take control and make things happen right away; that was probably why he was the one running the company, and I had just hung up on a beautiful woman.
“Hello, this is Merrick Stanley; you dropped your card off for me?” he said sternly, not at all like a man who was flirtatious with women.
“Yes, and you’re the woman who argued with me and turned me down,” he said as a grin flashed across his face.
I couldn’t hear what the woman was saying, but it was funny to watch Merrick as his face responded to her. There was a connection between those two also, but it was close to an explosion, and not just a fun and flirty connection.
“How about we take you ladies out to dinner tomorrow?” Merrick asked. “Yes, that’s the one. I’ll bring him along so your friend can have her way with him.”
I covered my eyes in embarrassment. This wasn’t at all what I had hoped for when I asked Merrick to call the women back.
“We will be there at eight. See you then,” he said as he hung up.
“What the hell happened? Did you get her name?”
“Nope. I didn’t get her name, but we are taking them out tomorrow, so get yourself together man. What’s come over you lately?”
“I don’t know. Just too much going on, I guess.”
The truth was I had too much of a love life going on. I wasn’t used to thinking about women and relationships so much during my day. Typically, I didn’t have to think about them at all. I had my women at night, and my work in the daytime, and that was how I liked things. Everything would be better after I met this girl again.
Then the app made a noise. I rushed to open it and saw the look on Merrick’s face at my excitement. I couldn’t help it. I hoped there would be something different than what I had dealt with so far.
---Meet her at FAO Scwartz tonight at 8:00 p.m.---
I just rolled my eyes at the message. This whole idea of chasing down a girl I didn’t even know was getting exhausting. I didn’t really want to play the game any longer, especially since Merrick had arranged for us to go out with the two girls from the club.
“What did it say?”
“It’s just another message about where I’m supposed to go and try to meet this girl. It’s getting old. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be willing to keep this up.”
“What does Ren say about it all?”
“He’s working on hacking the program. I just don’t think it’s worth it. I really liked that girl from the club; she seemed very sweet. Maybe I’m just not making an effort for the right girls. I think I’m going to go after this one a little different way.”
“Like I go after them?” Merrick winked.
“No, I’m not sure yet. But I’ll figure it out.”
“Are you going to do what the app said?” he asked.
The truth was that I really didn’t know. I didn’t want to keep running around the city after this girl, but I was curious as to what she would look and act like. I wasn’t willing to give up on this 100% match from the app just yet. But I certainly didn’t want to give up on the delicious blonde from the club either.
“Yeah, I guess I’m going to FAO Schwartz tonight.” I laughed.
“And the date tomorrow?”
“I’m doing that too. This is my dating phase, I guess.”
I felt like it was all culminating into some sort of meeting, and I
wanted to follow everything through.
Chapter 12
Dakota
“Was that him?” I asked, barely able to control my excitement.
“It was Merrick. We are going out on a double date tomorrow with him and his friend.”
The rumble in my stomach from excitement was hard to control. We were so lucky that Bruce had known who Merrick was and how to get in touch with him. And that Merrick had called Emma back so quickly.
I did feel a bit like a stalker because we had gone to so much trouble to track this guy down, but I couldn’t just forget about him. I knew that dating app was trying to find me a match, and I was totally up for playing that game. But I couldn’t just give up on the idea that I would be able to find my own match. Life was confusing and messy, and I finally felt like there was a man out there that I could have a decent couple of dates with; I couldn’t let that just pass me by.
I knew that Emma wasn’t all that interested in going out with Merrick again. They seemed to have a smoldering attraction that could possibly end in one of them hurting the other. I had never actually seen Emma get so worked up by a guy before. Typically, she would just ignore him and give up on him. But this guy was getting under her skin, and it was very amusing to watch.
“You sound so excited about this date,” I said sarcastically as I laughed.
“Hey, anything for my friend. I will suffer through it if it means you find a hunky man to bang in your office,” she joked.
It was a little running joke that someday she would come into work, and I would be the one with a man in my office. I really didn’t think that would ever actually happen since I had never found myself so inclined to bring a man to my office like that. I usually preferred just to go to their house or have them pick me up for my date from the studio. They didn’t need to know where I lived, and I didn’t need to invite them into the studio for sex.
“I appreciate you being willing to go on a date with an extremely handsome, rich man. I mean, you are really taking one for the team here.”
“I know. I know. It’s a rough life I have, but I love you, so I’ll suffer through it.”
I did appreciate what she was doing, though. If Emma had protested about trying to find the guy I wanted to find, I would have backed off. Her willingness to make a fool out of herself by getting in touch with Merrick had been a life saver to me. I was way too shy to have gone after this guy all on my own. I needed Emma there as my sidekick.
“So what time is this date tomorrow?”
“Eight o’clock.”
“Oh, my gosh; I’m so excited. What should we wear?” I laughed.
“Just pretend like you’re confident and lie to yourself about it. I sometimes tell myself I’m the most beautiful woman in the room.” Emma laughed.
“You are beautiful.”
“I know. But you get what I mean. Trick yourself into believing it. Lie about it in your head. Seduction is about lying to yourself more than it is about lying to the person you are with. When you believe you’re seductive, it will come through in how you act.”
“I’ll try it if I can manage to keep a straight face,” I said with a smile.
“Go do your dating app thing, and we will talk about what to wear tomorrow. I’ve got a class to teach soon,” Emma said.
“Alright, but we are going to have to shop tomorrow. I need a cute dress for our date. I should get a cute set of panties and bra too just in case I feel like getting lucky.” I laughed.
“You go, girl. You definitely need to get a little lucky with this guy.”
When I arrived at FAO Schwartz, I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I had been for my visit to the coffee place. This time, I already knew I had an awesome date planned for the next day with a very handsome guy. So there was no need for me to worry if this guy didn’t turn out to be all that great.
FAO Schwartz was a huge toy store and not really the kind of place you wanted to be if you were trying to meet someone for the first time. My eyes got wide as I took in the tall ceiling and enormous stuffed animals. The sound of kids music played in the background and I could feel my heart pounding in pure excitement. I waited by the front door for a while and then decided to walk around the store and see if I noticed any single guys lurking around. Normally, I would think it was relatively weird if there was a single guy walking around a toy store looking to meet a woman. Toys stores were for parents, and from what I could remember on his profile, this guy wasn’t a parent.
It dawned on me that I might not have been paying that close of attention to Wyatt’s profile, though. He must come to FAO Schwartz if the meeting was set up there because I certainly never came to the place on any sort of regular time frame. I clicked back into the app to see if I could look at his profile again, but it was still not available. I was really not a fan of the online dating thing at all. It baffled me that the Date Tonight app had such wildly positive reviews. There was no way people dealt with this sort of secrecy and didn’t give bad reviews, but I had read through tons of them online, and they all raved about meeting their perfect match; it was one of the main reasons I kept going with the game.
“Oh, no,” I heard a little boy say in a sweet voice as I heard a bunch of boxes tumble from the shelf.
I rushed over to help him. There were about a dozen Lego boxes on the ground, but no pieces had spilled out. The noise from the fall had scared him, and I saw tears welling up in his eyes as I leaned down to help him. His big blue eyes looked up at me and I saw a small tear in the corner of each of them. I wanted to reach out and brush his dark brown hair out of his eyes, but held back as not to scare him.
“It’s alright. I’ll help.”
I grabbed a few boxes of Lego and started to put them back on the shelf while I looked around for his parents. There didn’t seem to be a mother or father in the direct vicinity, and that made me a little nervous.
“Thank you,” the little boy said. He was now also looking around for his parent.
“Did you come here with your mom?”
“Yes, but she’s not here. I think she is lost.”
We finished putting the boxes on the shelf, and I grabbed his hand, and we turned to stand up. I was more than happy to help him find his mother or get him to a staff person so we could find her together, but as we turned around, I came face to face with the man from the club.
He was standing right there only inches away from me, and I had almost rammed right into him. Our eyes locked on each other and then his eyes went down to my hand, which was still holding onto the little boy.
“Hi,” I said with a nervous smile.
“Hey, how are you?”
He looked damn good. His light brown hair and green eyes sparkled in the lights of the store. He was dressed in a custom made suit that clearly fit every inch of his body like perfection. I was mystified. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t think of what I should say as I stood there nervously smiling at him and not talking for what seemed like an eternity.
“Um, I’m good … I um … I hear we are supposed to go on a date tomorrow,” I managed to say without sounding too excited.
The excitement that was building up inside of me was hard to contain. He was there, right there in front of me. His navy blue suit fit him perfectly, and I wanted to reach out and touch it to see how soft it was. I also wanted to stay there talking to him, but I had a lot going on at the moment. I had a little boy I needed to help find his mother and a blind date that I had to search the store for.
“Yes, I’ll see you then,” he said and then walked away.
“Um, okay, see you tomorrow,” I said as I tried to hide my disappointment.
That had not gone well at all. Not only did I look like a maniac as I held the hand of some stranger’s kid, but I hadn’t been able to get anything to come out of my mouth to explain why I was holding the hand of a child. He likely thought I was this child’s mother. But more horrible than that, he probably thought I was a babbling idiot who couldn’t even form sente
nces without assistance. I felt mortified.
“Ryan, where have you been,” a woman said frantically as she came and grabbed the little boy from me.
“We were just looking for you,” I replied with a smile.
“Are you okay darling? I was so worried about you,” the woman said to her son as she shot me a nasty look.
She looked at me as if I had done something wrong and certainly didn’t offer me any appreciation for keeping her son safe from kidnappers. I was left standing there feeling like a total ass. I had fumbled running into the guy from the club; I had looked more like a child kidnapper than a helper as I stood holding the boy’s hand and not moving. Nothing was going my way.
My heart pounded hard as I tried to hold back the emotions that were welling up inside of me. I didn’t feel up to meeting a total stranger from the dating app, even if I happened to be able to figure out who he was.
After I walked around the store one complete time, I called it a night and made my way home. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to Emma; I wasn’t in the mood for anything. I had gone from being totally excited to being barely able to think straight.
Life had been cruising along relatively normally until the last few weeks. Recently, I felt like my whole life was out of control. I had clients trying to throw themselves at me. Online dating guys who I matched up with but couldn’t actually meet. Mysterious club guys who I felt connected to but couldn’t talk to when I needed to. Nothing was going my way.
I decided it was time to delete the Date Tonight app. It wasn’t helping me at all, and chasing after some guy that I had never met was just stressing me out. I had a date coming up with a very handsome man, and if I hadn’t just ruined it by not being able to talk to him at the store, then I hoped I would be able to fix things on our date.
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