by Lynn Red
“Well,” he said, again tentatively, “I suppose coffee wouldn’t hurt anything. Do you mind that I have kids? Twins?”
“No way, why would I mind? And remember, it’s just coffee, nothing to worry about.”
“Right,” Monte said. “Nothing to worry about.”
“Awesome! Meet you tomorrow morning across from the police department? Half past seven? We can finish up the paperwork on our friend... you never told me her name.”
“I guess I didn’t,” Monte said. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.” He got a flash of mischief. “I’ve got to have something to make sure you show up.”
“I knew I liked you,” Dora said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Who is that?” a third voice—likely the person she was being told about—spoke up. “Are you on the phone?”
“Uh... no one! Nothing, got to go, bye-bye then.”
The receiver clicked in her ear, but that didn’t stop the smile. All joking aside, she really did like the way the guy sounded. She’d always had a thing for nerdy guys with brains bigger than their egos, and if nothing else, it’d be fun to meet someone new. There was something a bit odd in what he’d said about his twins, but Dora pushed it out of her mind. Everyone’s lost things at some point, so she figured whatever it was that haunted Monte, it was just something for them to deal with eventually.
After all, even if you’re in the business of mating, that doesn’t mean you actually do it very often.
More to distract herself than anything else, Dora hit the button on the intercom and reported in about the new girl they had. “She sounds like a winner, but I’ve got to meet the guy who called for her tomorrow to get her name.”
For a moment, Yvette Lorraine, Dora’s boss and best friend, was silent. “You got suckered,” she finally said. There was a smile in the back of her voice. “But I’m guessing you don’t mind getting suckered? Because I can almost hear how happy you are over this staticky-ass old intercom.”
Dora found herself shrugging. “You never know what can happen around here,” she said. “Thing is, I was the one who asked him out. Oh shit, that’s not a conflict of interest, is it?”
“Well,” Eve clicked her teeth. “I think it only counts as a conflict of interest if you end up using him to kill me and take over the business.” What would have been a joke from most people on earth was a deadpan monotone from Eve. “Other than that, I think we’re safe. Also, there aren’t any conflict of interest rules in the mating agency business.”
“Say, Eve, how many lick does it take to—”
“Shut up,” Eve said shortly. “I know I’m an owl, I don’t need you to constantly babble out the oldest punchline in the world.” She laughed softly. “Get back to work, we’ve got someone coming in this morning. A firefighter.”
“Really? I guess he isn’t that one that saved the family from the fire last night is it?”
“The very same,” Eve replied. “Apparently his captain tricked him into coming in to visit us. You think this is fate?”
“Huh?” Dora asked. “You mean these two?” She was busily thinking of her date, which was admittedly one of the more interesting things that had come across her plate in quite a while. “I thought you didn’t buy into the whole fate thing.”
“I don’t,” Eve said. “Fate is nothing more than being ready when luck turns your way. I... facilitate all that. Make it easier. But I’m just thinking, we’ve had two people who weren’t just referred by friends, their friends made appointments for them. Oh well, I’m just thinking out loud. Get the interview packet ready for this firefighting bear. Just saying that makes my ladyparts quiver.”
The intercom went dead before Dora could reply to that particular jewel. It wasn’t long though, before she realized that hers were quivering too, but for a whole different reason. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was actually happening to her. Fate might be a big pants load full of crap, she thought, but sometimes it’s really, really hard to put it all down to dumb luck.
“Dora?” Eve’s voice came through the intercom, as static-laden as ever. “Let me guess, you’re still daydreaming about your date and not actually doing anything useful?”
Dora chuckled. “Well you do know me pretty well, I guess.”
“For the record, I don’t believe in fate,” Eve said. “But I do think that sometimes events work out in such a way that there’s too much coincidence to really be believable. Now don’t get all weird and excited on me, but if somehow these two work out, and you work out with your nerd man, this might just be one of those times I can’t explain away with cold, calculating logic.”
Dora didn’t respond immediately, instead letting herself think for a few moments. “I dunno,” she finally said, “don’t you think it’s possible that we can fall into weird patterns? Like, something cosmic just lines up and somehow things fall into place?”
For a moment, Eve stayed silent in thought. “Yeah,” she said. “I call it luck. Get to work.”
Dora couldn’t help but smile. Her cranky, funny boss was incapable of being anything but Eve. But that’s okay, Dora thought, because she’s just perfect the way she is. Of course, that meant that Dora was too.
She leaned back in her chair, eyes glazing over at the thought of arranging an entire stack of interview papers. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes. For just a second, the whole world seemed to fall into a very nice, comfortable, perfect line.
“Everything as it should be,” she whispered to herself. “Never lasts for very long, though. Which, I guess, is just the way things go.”
“Get to work!” Eve shouted from the back. “Get that interview together or we’re gonna have a hell of a problem with a hell of a bear!”
Sighing again, Dora flipped open the file folder labeled ‘Breaker Hart’ and thumbed through the first couple of pages. “Hell of a bear indeed,” she said as she scanned page after page of firefighting accolades attributed to this big, muscled, sexy creature. She imagined him in a pair of Batman underoos instead of those giant, fire-proof pants. She imagined him in a line of other firefighting bears, hairy chests bare in a calendar. And then she started thinking about how that wasn’t her style.
What was her style? She wasn’t exactly sure, but she thought that maybe—just maybe—this date she had might tell her a thing or two.
3
“This is the stupidest damn thing,” Rory was growling like a mongoose about to jump on a cobra. She had quiet, intense anger boiling inside her, but deeper down, past the irritation, was a definite sense of ‘why the hell not?’
She pushed open the door of the Dating Call Mating Agency not knowing what on earth to expect. Her only prior exposure to dating agencies were those dorky commercials where people talk about how hard they got married, or creepy Craigslist ads with very dubious intentions. This place was... certainly not either of those two things.
No one was in the front room, which was smallish, and had decor that reminded her of a college freshman’s dorm room. There were boxes piled up next to the door, and a desk in the back center of the room was completely covered in papers except for a huge name plate that must’ve been a joke, because it looked like it came out of a Dilbert comic. DORA, SECRETARY AND EXPLORER, it read. Rory walked across the room, pushing a box top out of her way with one of her boot toes. She’d come in right before she was supposed to be in the lab. Monte had completely blindsided her with the fact that she was expected to make an appearance, and she went along with it.
Usually, she would have just gotten defensive, maybe a little prickly, and probably irritated. As it stood, she was there, in the office, and her only anger was just pretend. Still, the place was empty and that wasn’t normal for an office when you have an appointment.
“Hello?” she called out, knocking on the desk top on one of the few places not covered in junk. “Anyone here?” She was just about to go back past the desk to the door marked MS. EVE when the door behind her opened.
She spun on a hee
l, and before she could manage to form a coherent thought, immediately imagined the huge guy in front of her without a shirt on. She was used to imagining what people’s skulls looked like—weird trait of her profession—but this was something new. He had close-cropped, dark blond hair, a pair of eyes that were so dark blue they seemed to be almost purple. His jaws were lined with just perfectly grown stubble, although she had the idea in her mind that this guy was probably not the sort to try very hard with trimming his facial hair. That’s just how it grew.
“Who are you?” she asked. She was surprised that it came out slightly breathy, like she’d been caught off guard. “I’ve got an—”
“Appointment?” he finished for her. “I’m Breaker Hart, are you Yvette? Er, Eve?”
“No,” she said. Rory had her mouth opened to say something else, but for just a second, a brief splinter of time, she was caught off guard by the vaguest hint of a smile on the left corner of his mouth and a little twinkle in his eye. “I’m—”
“Oh good lord!” a very big voice coming from a very small woman interrupted the two of them. “This is what happens when my secretary is distracted. This is not good, not good at all.”
“You, come in here,” she said to the man who looked just as confused as Rory felt. “You wait out here. This will all work out, I just know it will, we have to calm down and we’ll get through it together.”
As the big guy followed the worried, tiny woman into the office in the back, he and Rory exchanged a glance for just a moment. He smiled, she felt a little swirl in her stomach and smiled back. He swept his eyes away from her, not without some amount of effort, it seemed to Rory, and was gone, just like that.
When the two of them were gone, Rory exhaled sharply. What in the hell just happened? she wondered. Was that some kind of dream pushing its way into reality, or did that bizarre little scene actually play out in front of me? Am I still asleep somehow?
She looked around, trying to get a sense of what was going on in her brain. This is the last time I ever do what Monte says without asking questions. A whole, whole lot of questions. She sat back, after digging a chair out of the piles of junk, and put her feet up on the wall. Normally she’d never do that, but given the circumstances, she figured if nothing else, she deserved to be comfortable while she waited for... whatever was supposed to happen.
The single magazine she found was an issue of Time from 1984 that featured an article on the hot new kid, Emilio Estevez. She shook her head, but thumbed through it anyway, endlessly entertained by the high hair styles, teased out bangs, and stone washed denim jackets. As a person who had only really been aware of the land of neon and rattails by watching old music videos, she’d always had a fascination with all things 80s. Partway through an article about the upcoming Princess Bride movie starring Andre the Giant and a then-unknown Cary Elwes, she heard laughter coming from the back office.
Her ears perked up. The actual words being said were just on the edge of her canine hearing, but the emotion she could definitely pick up. The guy was nervous, the woman was grilling him, but they both seemed to be enjoying their little chat. A few words here and there came through clearly – hero for one, something about firefighting, and something about chili – but none of it made a huge amount of sense without context.
Wait, wait, wait, she thought as the idea of what was going on behind that door started to dawn on her, is THAT the guy I’m supposed to go on a date with? That giant, muscle-headed calendar hunk? With ME?
Rory started laughing uncontrollably. She wasn’t cackling or squealing, rather it was the sort of nervous laughter someone has when they’re trying to get into a bar and know their fake ID is terrible. She couldn’t stop herself, couldn’t quell the giggling. Of all her strange habits, this was one she hated the most. Well, the laughing, and her really weird compunction to constantly recite the dirtiest jokes she could think of when tense, serious situations reveal themselves. Still, that was just annoying – the whole laughing to herself thing seemed a little more nuthouse than crude.
Her thoughts turned briefly back to work, back to the strange arson, but just when she was about to settle in to considering the finer points of rocket fuel thermodynamics, the door to the back office opened up.
Breaker looked, well, broken. His hair was smooshed down in the front, like he’d been habitually smoothing it out of nerves. His cheeks seemed a little pale and slightly thinner than they’d been before, but he still had that damn grin that could have slid the panties off a frost wolf shifter.
“Your turn,” he said softly. “I hope she’s easier on you than she was on me. I just admitted that I was jealous when my brother had a girlfriend before me in eighth grade.”
Eve was standing behind him, though she only appeared when he stepped to the side. “I feel like she’s the principal and I’m back at high school skipping class to get hot dogs at the 7-11 across the street.”
He had a grin that was by turns sheepish and drop-dead sexy on his face, but nonetheless he did seem quite shamed by how he was carrying himself. Eve’s glasses had slid partway down her nose, and seemed to be held up by a slight crook in her nose. She extended a finger and curled it, telling Rory to come over. “He’s right about one thing, it’s your turn. We’ll be in touch, Breaker. Keep saving kids, you hear?”
“Don’t plan on stopping,” he said. Rory caught him watching her after he went past, and couldn’t help stopping herself from smiling at him. Well if nothing else, he’s definitely a looker, she thought. And I’m not usually the muscle man type. Hell, I don’t even know what my type is, I guess.
“Done looking at the merchandise?” Eve asked, breaking Rory’s apparently evident gawking. “He’s beautiful, I’ll give you that, but so are you so what the hell. If you’re not completely insane, he apparently likes you too.”
“Me?” Rory asked. “But I just met him. Or I didn’t really meet him I guess.”
“Sometimes you don’t need all the formality of meeting and dating and all that. Sometimes your heart just knows what it wants as soon as it sees it.” Eve clicked her teeth together. “By the way, he’s gone now, you can stop watching him and come back here.”
Rory laughed in her nervous way, following this slightly odd matron back to her office and settling down in a folding director’s style chair when it was offered. After she sifted through some papers for a moment, Eve settled down, pushed her glasses up, and sighed.
“This isn’t normally how this goes. Usually the girl calls in, we take her information and then when I find a good match for her, I let her know. With Dora getting all excited over your colleague, I think—”
“Monte?” Rory cut in. “Really? He’s seeing someone? That’s... that’s amazing.”
“Oh well, not necessarily,” Eve said. “They just had a date before the lab opened up today.” When Rory didn’t immediately respond, Eve continued. “The lab where you work? I think you know what I’m talking about but your mind is still stuck on that bear.”
“Bear?” Rory knew she sounded dumbfounded, but she couldn’t do anything to stop herself. “Oh Breaker.”
“Right, he’s a firefighter and you work in a forensics lab. Any good cases right now?”
“Sure, this one crazy arson with... wait, wait, I can’t tell you any of that. Didn’t you have some questions for me?”
Eve grinned. “I just asked one. But okay, I know you have your rules. So, tell me what kind of life you have. Relaxed? Adventurous? Do you diddle yourself in public?”
“Pretty relaxed and... wait, what? Do I what?” Rory started blushing furiously, which was no small feat for someone who works in a forensics lab.
“Just making sure you were awake,” Eve said. “Now, hobbies? I can tell you’re good at your job, and from the way Monte was rambling on and on about you, he thinks of you like an overprotective uncle. He’s obviously a good friend and he thinks the world of you. But everyone’s good at their job unless they aren’t.”
“You�
��re running my head in circles,” Rory said with a smile. “But somehow I really like you. I’m so confused.”
“I like you too. I would’ve kicked you out already if I didn’t. So, hobbies?”
Rory shrugged. “My job, I guess. And I like watching old movies and eating that really unhealthy popcorn. Super butter, mega butter, whatever.”
“Right so your interests are watching television and also butter?” Eve paused for a moment. “That was a joke. I like old movies too. What else? Give me something to go on.”
“Baseball too. I know that’s kind of old fashioned and all that, but there’s something supremely relaxing about watching the grass and listening to the announcers talk as much about their own lives as about the game going on.”
Eve considered this for a moment, tapping the top of her pen on her teeth. “So you were close with your dad?”
“Still am. Why?”
“Baseball is usually one of those things people are nostalgia-ridden about because they watched it with their parents. That and professional wrestling, but that’s a different issue altogether. How do you feel about firemen?”
“Uh... love ‘em, I guess. I mean, they do hard work and they also spend a lot of time eating chili, which I can appreciate.”
Eve scribbled again and then looked back up. “I meant, more specifically, how do you feel about men who do dangerous work? Is that something you’re willing to put up with? Never knowing if they’re coming home from their job?”
For a moment, Rory sat in thought, chewing on her bottom lip. “It’s about the same as anything, right? You never know if they’re coming home if they have a normal job, either. At least this way it’s something worthwhile to worry about instead of...” the chewing on her bottom lip continued unabated. She could hardly believe she’d just laid that out there, but that’s how it goes when you’re free associating.
“Problems with that in the past?”
“Not specifically,” Rory said. “Okay well yeah maybe. I’m not sure what they’re doing and so I can’t ever trust them. I see too much in my day to day to be fooled by much.”