Love at First Write

by Jae

  Chi Lo regarded her with a slow shake of her head. “How can someone who writes sappy romances for a living have such a jaded view of love and women?”

  “I’m not jaded, and my books aren’t sappy.” Tricia resisted the urge to clutch her laptop to her chest in a defensive gesture.

  “If you think your novels are oh-so-realistic, why not give this date a chance?”

  “Because…because… Well, because I create my characters with care, pairing them with their perfect matches, while your track record isn’t the best when it comes to picking dates for me.”

  “This one is different,” Chi Lo said.

  Tricia snorted. “That’s what you said when you set me up with the Candy Crush woman…and with Liv.”

  “Yeah, but this one really is. Wait till you hear where she wants to meet you.”

  “The bar or some restaurant?”

  “Nope and nope.”

  “The park?” That wouldn’t be so bad. At least they could go their separate ways without having to sit through an awkward dinner if they didn’t hit it off.

  “No.”

  A smile crept onto Tricia’s face. “The ice-cream parlor?”

  “Better.”

  “Better than the ice-cream parlor?” Tricia gave her an incredulous look that made Chi Lo laugh.

  “Well, you were the one who said your ideal date would take place in a bookstore, weren’t you?”

  “This mystery woman wants to meet in a bookstore?”

  Chi Lo nodded. “And not just any bookstore. She suggested The Booklover’s Lair, your favorite hangout. If that’s not a match made in heaven, I don’t know what is.”

  Hmm. Tricia rubbed her chin. She had to admit that her curiosity was piqued. How bad could a woman who suggested a bookstore for their first date be? “Tell me more about her.”

  “So you’ll meet her?” Chi Lo bounced up and down on the recliner, nearly catapulting the cat off her lap.

  With a growl, Jasmine stalked off in search of a quieter place for a nap.

  “I didn’t say that. But if I did, what else could you tell me about my hypothetical date?”

  “Why not just go and find out yourself? That’s half the fun of a blind date.”

  “For you, maybe. I’m the type who reads the ending of a book before I buy it, remember?”

  Chi Lo shuddered. “Oh yeah. I forgot. You’re one of those people.”

  “So?”

  “I don’t know her that well. She’s friends with Sarah, but I’ve only met her once or twice. She’s pretty cute, about our age, and taller than me.”

  Tricia laughed and eyed her friend’s slender five-foot-one frame. “Now there’s a helpful description. Everyone’s taller than you.”

  Chi Lo stuck her tongue out at her.

  “So, does mystery woman have a name?” Tricia asked.

  “Jenny.”

  “That’s all I’m getting? How am I supposed to find her?”

  “Easy,” Chi Lo said. “You’ll meet in the LGBT section of The Booklover’s Lair. She’ll be holding Karin Kallmaker’s latest novel.”

  Tricia arched her brows. “Why not one of mine?”

  “Because it’s a date, not a promotional opportunity. By the way, Sarah also texted you Jenny’s cell number, just in case you can’t find each other. Now get dressed, or you’ll be late.”

  “Why? When am I meeting her?”

  “At five.”

  “Today? Are you crazy?” Tricia picked up her wristwatch from the coffee table and glanced at it. “That’s in an hour!”

  Chi Lo shrugged. “Less time for you to back out. Now chop-chop.”

  “I swear my next novel will be a murder mystery with a character named Chi Lo,” Tricia said as she moved toward her bedroom. “She’ll die a slow, horrible death. Electrocution, torture, fire ants, or maybe a combination of all three.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Chi Lo called after her. “As long as she can die after your blind date, I don’t care.”

  Blind date. Tricia shook her head and stared at herself in the mirror that hung in the hall. Apparently, she was really doing this—going on a blind date.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Oh, hell no!” Chi Lo said when Tricia emerged from her bedroom. “You’re not wearing that.”

  Tricia glanced down at her favorite pair of jeans and a T-shirt that was free of holes and geeky writer sayings. “What’s wrong with this?”

  “Ever heard of dress to impress?” Chi Lo pushed her back toward the bedroom. “Pretend you’re one of the characters in your books, about to go out on a date. What would they be wearing?”

  “My characters are spies, millionaires, CEOs, and actresses, not writers with a very modest income. But if I ever create an author character, she will dress exactly like this.” She gestured at her comfortable clothes.

  “God, you’re so stubborn. No wonder you’re single.” Chi Lo slid the closet door open. “At least wear a button-down or a polo. Something that lets your date know you give a shit.”

  Tricia bit back a sarcastic reply and pulled a dark blue polo shirt from a hanger. “Okay, okay.” She took off her T-shirt, threw it onto the bed, and put on the polo before striking a pose. “Happy now?”

  “Getting there.” Chi Lo reached out and undid the button on the polo shirt. “Come on. I’m driving you.”

  “No, you’re not. I have a perfectly good car.” On the way out the door, Tricia ran her hands through her short hair, slid her wallet into her back pocket, and picked up her keys from the hall table.

  Chi Lo followed her out. “If I find out you chickened out, I’ll disinherit you.”

  “So I won’t get any of the riches you don’t own?” A glare was aimed her way, so she quickly added, “I promise to go to The Booklover’s Lair.” She could hide behind a bookshelf and take a look at this Jenny first. If anything about her triggered her date-from-hell alert, she could browse the store for a while and then drive back home.

  “That’s not good enough,” Chi Lo said. “Promise that you’ll meet Jenny.”

  Damn. Her friend knew her too well. Tricia sighed. “All right. I’ll meet her.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Tricia pulled open the door to The Booklover’s Lair, raised her nose into the air, and sniffed appreciatively. There was nothing like the smell of books, especially when it mingled with the aroma of coffee from the coffee shop in the back of the store.

  She strode past the bargain tables and the new-releases shelf, not allowing herself to stop and browse. When she was around books, she easily lost track of time, and Chi Lo would kill her if she was late for her date.

  Channeling Jade, the spy character in her latest lesbian thriller, she crept up to the paranormal romance shelf, which was right next to the LGBT section. She pulled a random book from the shelf, hid her face behind it, and peered over the edge of the novel.

  Only one customer was browsing the LGBT aisle.

  The woman was indeed taller than Chi Lo, but probably not by much. Faded jeans clung to her butt and thighs, and the hoodie she wore couldn’t hide her shapely curves.

  A hoodie? Clearly, she hadn’t dressed up for their date either. Maybe she’d been roped into it too.

  The woman’s dark brown hair was swept up into a loose bun on top of her head, held in place by a pencil. A few tendrils had escaped, curling down on either side of her face. A pair of black-rimmed glasses completed the sexy-librarian look.

  She held a stack of novels balanced against her chest with one hand, while running the index finger of her other hand over the spines of the shelved books, almost like a caress.

  Tricia stood and watched her, spell-bound.

  Her date pulled a book off the shelf, flipped it over to read the backcover description, and then opened it to the very last page.

  Ha! She’s reading the ending! Maybe, just maybe, they would hit it off.

  The woman put the book back on the shelf, picked up another, and repeated the process, her face so focused as if w
orld peace depended on her making the right decision. Finally, she added another novel to her stack.

  Tricia craned her neck to see which one it was.

  She would know that cover anywhere: it was one of hers—or, rather, of her alter ego, Trish Hoffman. And if she wasn’t mistaken, the one beneath it was Karin Kallmaker’s latest, their item of identification.

  The stranger was definitely Jenny, her blind date.

  Tricia gave herself a mental shake. If she waited much longer, Jenny would leave, thinking she had stood her up. She slid the book she was hiding behind back onto the shelf and walked over to the LGBT section. If only she had the confidence of her characters. Their palms never sweated when they approached a woman.

  Softly, she cleared her throat. “Um, excuse me? Are you Jenny?”

  The woman turned and stared at her through those sexy librarian glasses. Her eyes were the color of dark chocolate, and they were squinting at Tricia. “Jennifer,” she said.

  Tricia held out her hand. “Hi. I’m Tricia.”

  Jennifer continued to stare at her.

  Maybe she had gotten even less information about who her blind date would be. “Sarah’s friend,” Tricia added.

  “Oh.” Finally, Jennifer slid her hand into Tricia’s. Her fingers were soft, but her handshake was firm. “I know you from somewhere. Have we met at one of Sarah’s parties?”

  Tricia was sure she would remember a woman like her, but if she said that, it would sound like a cheap line, so she shrugged. “Possibly.”

  Silence stretched between them for a moment.

  Come on. You’re a writer. Say something witty and charming. “Uh, want to grab a coffee?” She pointed at the coffee shop in the rear of the store. Okay, it was neither witty nor charming, but she supposed it would do.

  “Um…” Jennifer’s gaze went from Tricia’s face to her stack of books and back.

  For a second, Tricia thought she would be dumped for a bunch of lesbian romances, but then Jennifer nodded.

  “Why not? Let me pay for my books first.” She glanced toward the coffee shop section, which was pretty busy, the tables and chairs filling up quickly. “Why don’t you try to grab us a table? I’ll get our drinks once I’m done.”

  A woman with initiative. Tricia liked that. “Sounds like a plan, thanks.”

  “What do you want?” Jennifer asked.

  “Why don’t you surprise me?” Tricia made up a preferred beverage for each of her characters, and she firmly believed that you could tell a lot about a person by the kind of beverage they chose. She called it the latte oracle.

  “All right.” Her stack of books in a secure grip, Jennifer marched toward the checkout counter.

  Tricia watched her for a second, admiring the unselfconscious way she moved, before she made her way toward the back of the store. With a triumphant cry, she dove into a chair at the last free table. After a quick glance toward the cash register, to make sure Jennifer was busy paying for her novels, she checked her cell phone. Her battery was still at eighty percent. Good.

  In about fifteen minutes, Chi Lo would call, providing her with an excuse to leave should she need it. They had done that for each other since they had met in college.

  When Jennifer walked toward the coffee shop counter, carrying a bag with her purchases, she quickly put the cell phone away.

  She watched her interact with the barista, ready to catalog each and every one of her flaws so she could report back to Chi Lo.

  So far, she came up empty. Jennifer said something to the barista that made the woman smile—or maybe she was a generous tipper. But in a moment, the latte oracle would probably earn Jennifer her first strike. She would walk over and set a pretentious concoction on the table, just to show off her ordering finesse. Maybe a low-fat decaf latte with a shot of sugar-free vanilla that should have been named Why Bother. Her last date had ordered one of those.

  But when Jennifer slid two mugs onto the table, neither of them held a fancy latte—at least not the low-fat type. Both mugs were topped with whipped cream and adorned with sprinkles of dark chocolate shavings.

  “I took a chance that you’re not the low-fat-sugar-free-latte type,” Jennifer said as she took the seat across from her.

  “I’m not.” Tricia took a careful sip of her beverage. Yum. It was hot chocolate. She started to laugh.

  “Something wrong?” Jennifer asked. “You don’t like hot chocolate?”

  “I love it. It’s what I get every time I come here.”

  Jennifer grinned, and for a moment, Tricia’s overactive imagination showed her flashes of Jennifer taking off her glasses, pulling the pencil out of her messy bun, and shaking her hair loose.

  She fanned herself, pretending it was the beverage making her hot. “So,” she said to distract herself and get a conversation started, “do you come here often?” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Real smooth. It really had been too long since she’d been on a date. “Uh, I mean…you’re a fellow book addict, right?” She gestured to the bag of books Jennifer had put down on the table.

  “Oh yeah. Some months, I think my clients should make their payments directly to the bookstore, because that’s where my money ends up anyway.”

  Tricia laughed. “What did you get this time?”

  Jennifer slid her mug to the side and pulled her treasures from the bag, holding each one out to Tricia.

  “Trish Hoffman,” Tricia read off the cover. She put on her best poker face. “Do you like her books?”

  “Well,” Jennifer traced the letters of Tricia’s pen name with her fingertip, “she can definitely write, and I love her sense of humor.”

  Tricia beamed.

  “But I often can’t relate to her characters,” Jennifer added. “They’re all rich, beautiful, and glamorous. None of them would be caught having hot chocolate, dressed in a hoodie.”

  Tricia’s ear-to-ear grin fell. No, she admitted to herself, they probably wouldn’t. Suddenly, she wondered why not. Watching Jennifer lick a bit of whipped cream off her bottom lip was damn sexy.

  “Oh.” Jennifer studied her with a concerned look. “I didn’t just insult your favorite author, did I?”

  “No. I just…” Should she tell her? But that would only make things between them awkward, since she had talked about Trish Hoffman in the third person. Maybe she would tell her during their second date, should they end up having one. “I never saw it that way, but I guess you’re right.”

  “So you have read her books?”

  Tricia gave a vague nod. “I’ve got them all.”

  “All of them? Wow. You must have quite the collection.”

  “You could say that. I’d let you share them, but I never loan out books before the third date.”

  Her charming grin didn’t have its intended effect. Jennifer just stared at her.

  “Um, do you think that’s weird?”

  “No. I’m the same. If I lend someone a book, it’s like an award of my trust.”

  Was it strange that Tricia wanted to earn that award more than she wanted another literary prize?

  Jennifer took a sip of her hot chocolate and let out a happy hum. She seemed entirely relaxed, with none of the nervousness or forced attempts to impress her that Tricia was used to from previous dates.

  “So,” Tricia said, “tell me about yourself. What do you do for a living?” The question was out before she could stop herself. Damn. What was she supposed to say if Jennifer returned the question?

  “Um…” Jennifer squirmed a little.

  Tricia arched her brows. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one reluctant to reveal her job.

  “I’m a hypnotherapist,” Jennifer finally said.

  “Oh, wow.” She had read about hypnotherapists when she had researched ways to cure her latest main character’s insomnia, but she had never actually met one. “That’s…”

  “That’s what?” Jennifer prompted. She sat with her head held high, a stubborn tilt to her chin. For the first tim
e, tension had entered her shoulders.

  “Really cool. I mean, helping patients lose weight, stop smoking, or deal with anxiety… That must be pretty rewarding.”

  Jennifer squinted over at her.

  “Let me guess. Most people who find out what you do for a living think you make your clients flap their arms and squawk like a chicken.”

  Jennifer burst out laughing.

  The sound of her laughter sent tingles down Tricia’s spine and made her smile.

  “Something like that,” Jennifer said. “Most people confuse hypnotherapy with a party trick or a stage act. How come you don’t?”

  Without looking at her, Tricia stirred her hot chocolate. “I read a lot, so I know you don’t actually have superpowers.”

  “I didn’t say that.” Jennifer’s eyes sparkled.

  “True. So, what are they?”

  Jennifer licked whipped cream off her spoon. “I can read minds.”

  Tricia snorted into her hot chocolate. Hopefully not, or Jennifer would know how erotic she found the way she had just licked her spoon.

  “What? You don’t believe me? I did guess your beverage of choice, didn’t I?”

  “That you did.” Finally a woman who could hold her own when it came to banter.

  Jennifer wrapped both hands around her mug as if wanting to soak up its warmth.

  Amused, Tricia watched her huddle down in her hoodie, even though it was June and a pleasant seventy-two degrees outside. “What happens in winter?” she asked with a nod toward Jennifer’s warmth-seeking hands.

  “I go into hibernation,” Jennifer answered without missing a beat.

  Tricia couldn’t remember when she had last laughed so much on a date.

  “How about you?”

  “No hibernation for me.” Tricia playfully batted her lashes. “I’m naturally hot-blooded.”

  “No, I meant…what do you do for a living?”

  “Oh. Um, I…” The ringing of her cell phone saved her from having to answer. Chi Lo’s name flashed across the screen. Was there a word that described being grateful and resenting a person at the same time? She could fake an emergency and leave without revealing her identity.

  But truth be told, she didn’t want to go, so she left-swiped to reject the call and slid the phone back into her pocket. “I don’t normally reveal my job before the third date either,” she said with what she hoped was a charming grin.