by Cherry Kay
“I really am sorry.” She said quickly. She noted that he had yet to take his hand off her arm.
“It’s really ok.” He chuckled, looking down at his soaking wet paper.
“Let me buy you another paper and make you another coffee.” She started to move away and back towards the counter.
He followed after her quickly and shook his head. “No it’s ok. I actually have to get going. I was just stopping in for a quick coffee. Although I will take the coffee, just no paper.” He said going to stand at the counter.
She nodded and began to make it all over again. Once she was finished, she carefully put a lid on it and slid it over to him.
“I really am sorry.” She said again.
He laughed and pushed a twenty over to her. “It’s ok.” He said before turning to leave.
“Actually, it’s not. Maybe I can make it up to you?” she offered hopefully.
He paused mid sip and lowered the cup to regard her.
“Like how?” he asked curiously.
“Maybe I can take you to lunch or dinner tomorrow?” she offered sheepishly.
As she watched his facial expression go from curiosity to something she couldn’t pinpoint, she wondered why she had offered to buy him dinner. He probably had a girlfriend or was married. He probably wasn’t attracted to her or—
“Alright.” He said taking a card out of his back pocket. “My cell’s on the back.” He added sliding the business card towards her.
She smiled and took the card. She read the name and her smile widened. “Douglass Von Warren. That’s quite a name.” she said reading the little off-white card.
He chuckled. “My parents like to torture me. What can I say? How about we meet at the restaurant across the street. Have you been there?” he asked curiously.
She shook her head feeling a little idiotic that she had yet to explore the neighborhood she’d been living in for five months.
“Well, there it is. They have a killer steak there that you have to try. Wait, you aren’t vegan or anything, right?” he asked, worry latching into his tone.
She laughed and shook her head, “not a chance.” She said, before carefully tucking the card into her pocket.
“Good, I love a girl that can eat meat.” He said before winking and moving to leave.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, say 5?” he called behind him as he reached the doors.
She nodded and grinned as he walked out the door. She couldn’t believe that she had actually just asked him out on a date. She had never asked anyone out on a date. But she reminded herself that technically it wasn’t a date, she had spilled coffee on him and now she was paying him back for having ruined his paper and probably his morning. She frowned and tried to repeat to herself that this wasn’t a date. It was just two people having dinner together, she thought as more people began to filter in. Thankfully it got so busy that she didn’t have enough time to contemplate whether or not it was a date.
That night she went over to Missy’s to tell her about her encounter. Missy had luckily had the day off so it was only Bianca and another new girl who was even slower than Bianca, named Rachel. Bianca really liked her, except she was the slowest barista worker on the planet. Bianca swore that was the case. She was unable to make anything in a halfway decent time, so once again, Bianca was doing all the heavy lifting as Rachel told her each and every order. Bianca didn’t mind so much, really got her mind off everything, but at the same time she knew that if only she had been a little faster the day would’ve been better than it ended up being. Bianca had gotten yelled at by no less than five times by various customers. The beverage was too hot, it was too cold, too much sugar, not enough sugar, and so on. By the time the end of her shift rolled around, she was much too happy to get out of there. She went directly to Missy’s to ask her for advice about what to wear the next night for her non-date.
She knocked loudly on Missy’s door and grinned when she came to open up.
“Bianca! What’s crackin, girl?” Missy asked, moving to the side to allow Bianca to come in.
“I’ve had the best and worst day,” Bianca exaggerated, going to sit on the comfy white couch in the living room.
“Tell Missy all about it.” Missy disappeared for a moment to get beers for both of them.
“Well, first of all, I’m never staying that late or drinking that much ever again when I have to be up for the morning shift.” Bianca began taking a long drink of her beer before settling back into the couch.
“No news there,” Missy said, rolling her eyes and opening her own beer. “I told you not to stay up that late or drink that much. Did my tale of misery teach you nothing?” Missy exclaimed.
Bianca giggled and leaned back into the couch taking another sip of her beer. “I spilled coffee on my first customer.” Bianca said regretfully and then perked up at what came next.
“What? Shut up! No way!” Missy said slapping her lightly on the thigh.
“Yes way. It was terrible. I was totally checking him out and tripped and poured coffee all over him.” She said burying her head into her hands.
“Oh Bianca.” Missy said laughing at the expression on Bianca’s face.
Bianca glared at her and continued on with her story. “It was awful. Anyway, I offered to buy him dinner,” she said quietly, making Missy squeal in joy.
“Oh my God! No way! That’s great! Who was it, though? I mean like how cute was he?”
“His name is Douglass Von Warren.” She took his card out of the safety of her pocket.
Missy’s jaw dropped as she stared at the card and back to Bianca. “Do you know who that is?” she asked eagerly.
Bianca frowned and looked back at the card as if it was going to give her the secrets of the world. “Uh…Douglass’s card,” she said, pocketing it back into her jeans.
“That’s THE Douglass Von Warren.” Missy nodded her head as if this was the best news ever.
“Ok…” Bianca said confused.
“As in the Real Estate mogul?” Missy said, trying to get Bianca to understand.
“Ok…”
“As in the BILLIONAIRE.” Missy was waving her hands around.
Bianca’s eyes widened. “He’s a billionaire?” .
“Yeah, and a pretty big one too. He has properties all over. That’s insane! I can’t believe you dumped coffee on him. How pissed was he?” she asked, taking another drag of her beer.
“He wasn’t at all. We’re going out to dinner tomorrow.” Bianca said feeling even more nervous now.
“That’s crazy. Oh my God, let me dress you. I have a great red dress you’d look amazing in.” Missy said excitedly.
Bianca laughed and they began to talk about her outfit. On the outside, Bianca was calm and collected, but internally, she was a mess. She was going on a date with a billionaire. How in the world, she thought.
Chapter 2
Bianca stared at herself in the mirror, feeling more nervous than she had the day before. Now it was four thirty in the afternoon on Sunday and she was due to meet Douglass in only thirty minutes. She was dressed in the borrowed slinky red dress, a pair of black heels that were also borrowed, and her makeup was done just right. She had spent over two hours perfecting her appearance and she hoped that it would do the trick. She spent most of the day telling herself that this was not a date. It was just an apology dinner between two people who barely knew each other.
“This isn’t a date, Bianca.” Bianca muttered as she turned to scrutinize her outfit from the side. She continued to tell herself it wasn’t a date and she shouldn’t be so wrapped up in how she looked. For all she knew Douglass could be married, but on the other hand, she highly doubted it. Why else would he say yes to the date with her? But then she backed tracked and reminded herself it wasn’t a date. It was so cyclical it made her head hurt.
“This is as good as it’s going to get.” She muttered before turning and grabbing her purse and winter coat before leaving her apartment. She walked her
usual way to work and took in the Christmas decorations that filled the stores and street lamps. The trees on the block were decorated with lights and there were giant lit up snowflakes on each of the light poles. People. she noticed, seemed extra chipper and said hello to her as she walked to the restaurant. She took a moment to breathe the crisp air and the twinkling lights made her heart beat erratically for Christmas to come. Or maybe it was because of her date. She didn’t know, but eventually she got to the restaurant. She checked her appearance one last time in her little compact and flipped her thick black hair before entering.
It was a small hole in the wall kind of place, but those were her favorites and she looked forward to trying something new. She looked around the establishment taking in the decked-out holiday walls and the twinkling Christmas tree in the corner. She noted that the waitresses were wearing Elf hats and looking just as chipper as the people outside. Bianca wondered if she’d missed the memo to be extra nice today. Regardless, she looked around the restaurant and finally spotted Douglass. She waved at him and walked hesitantly towards him feeling a little over dressed when she saw he was in a pair of jeans.
“Wow.” He said as he helped her out of her coat.
She grinned sheepishly. “Is that a good wow or a bad one?” she asked a little worried that she had overdressed.
“A good one. You’re really…You look very nice.” He stuttered, sitting back down across from her.
She smiled again and sat in her seat. “I’ve never been here before.” She said quietly.
He grinned. “It’s actually one of my favorite spots. Here and the shop you work at.” He said nodded at the Coffee Shop that they could see in the window;
She nodded. “Yeah. I mean I love the coffee shop it’s been really great working there.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“Have you worked there long?” he asked right as the waitress came over.
“Welcome to Trudy’s. My name is Vanessa I’ll be your waitress today. Can I start you two with something to drink?” she asked smiling at both of them and setting down two glasses of water in front of them.
“I like your hat.” Bianca said, gesturing to the Elf hat on her head.
Vanessa blushed. “I hate it. It totally gets in the way while I’m working. But the boss loves this time of year and makes us all wear them.” She rolled her eyes and then caught herself. “Sorry. Anyway, what can I get you two to drink?”
“I’ll have a scotch.” Douglass said and turned to look at Bianca who briefly glanced down at the menu.
“I’ll have a vodka tonic.” Bianca said and watched as Vanessa wrote down the order before scampering off to get them their drinks.
“So how long have you worked there?” Douglass asked again.
“A few months. I really am sorry about yesterday. One of the girls asked me to go out with them Friday night and I was so tired and not ready for my Saturday morning shift. Two hours of sleep is not going to cut it.” Bianca rambled, stirring her straw around the water Vanessa had sat down in front of them.
“I know how that is. It really is ok. I shouldn’t have sat down anyway. I was due for a meeting at nine so I just wanted to sit and read the paper while having a quick cup of Joe.” Douglass said with a slight smile.
“I really had less than fifteen minutes to read the paper and drink my coffee.” He added sipping from his water.
She laughed, “I can see how that would be a problem. What do you do?” she asked curiously despite the fact she already knew. She didn’t want to come off creepy, having already Googled him and knew he was a major real estate mogul.
“You know a little of this a little of that.” he said vaguely waving the subject off.
“So do you only work in the coffee shop?” he asked curiously.
She sighed, “Well, I went to school to become a teacher. After four years I looked for a job in the school districts and couldn’t find one. I was going through a bad, um, breaking up and needed a job immediately so, well I ended up at the coffee shop.” She shrugged.
“Bad break up, huh?” he asked, concern flickering in his wide hazel eyes.
She nodded and sighed. “Yeah, I was actually married. We uh…well. He – he uh left me.” She said feeling incredibly awkward and embarrassed, all rolled into one.
“Oh! I’m sorry.”
She sighed and shrugged again. She concentrated on the utensils on the table and fixing them so they’d be straight before she responded.
“Yeah. We were high school sweethearts. Got married right out of high school and then right as we graduated college, he started acting really weird.” She paused and took a sip of her water.
“Then one day he up and left. I got a note telling me he’d run off with his boyfriend and that he wanted a divorce.” She said finishing off the story almost apologetically. She mentally asked herself why she was telling an almost stranger about her terrible, awful, eye-opening marriage.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be telling you this.” She said taking another sip of her water since she wasn’t sure what else to do.
“No it’s perfectly fine. I’m just sorry that had to happen. When did all of this come about?”
“A few months ago, actually. I mean we finalized the divorce a few months ago right around the time I started working at the coffee shop.”
“I see. Well I’m sorry that had to happen. Divorces are always pretty messy.” He said apologetically.
“Yeah. I mean if he had told me upfront it would’ve been a lot better. But since he completely disregarded my feelings and just up and left I was a bit pissed off about it.”
The waitress chose that time to come into the conversation and set down their drinks. Douglass ordered an appetizer and she ordered the house salad so she could have a few extra minutes to decide what she wanted for dinner.
“So, yeah. Now that we got all of that horrible business out of the way, tell me something about yourself.” She was trying to get away from the subject of her messy divorce.
He laughed and leaned back in his chair. “What do you want to know?” he asked.
She shrugged, “anything. Something you wouldn’t normally tell anyone.” She said about to add ‘on a first date,’ but yet again she had to remind herself that this wasn’t a date. It was simply a meeting of the minds. Or a dinner with two people who hardly know each other. There would be no kissing at the end of the night of a tale of romance that will become of both of them. Just dinner, she thought as he contemplated her question.
“Well…I love onions and my secret favorite food is frog legs, but I tell everyone my favorite food is spaghetti.” He said, grinning at her.
She laughed and shook her head. “Seriously? That’s too funny, I actually love frog legs!” she exclaimed.
His eyes widened. “Seriously? You do? Like you aren’t fucking with me?” he asked, astounded.
She shook her head. “No, not at all. I love frog legs and I mean spaghetti is pretty great too, but frog legs are what I love really.”
“Well isn’t that something.” He mumbled gazing at her in a way that made her face warm.
“So what else do you like?” he asked.
She laughed. “All types of things. That’s kind of a broad question.”
“So it is.” He said.
“So what do you recommend here?” she asked looking down at the wide variety listed on the menu.
“I like the steak, but like I said. I’m a meat man.” He said causing her to laugh.
“Alright, well I think I’ll go with the salmon.” She said looking over her options.
“That’s a good choice too.”
She nodded and put the menu down as the waitress came over to set their appetizers in front of them. While she was there they both ordered their main meal and they set to work on eating the appetizers.
“So what did you get?” she asked curiously.
“Calamari. Do you want some?” He pushed the plate closer to her.
Sh
e stared at the fried tan food for a moment, not knowing what to do with it. “Don’t laugh, but I’ve never actually had it.”
He bit his lip to keep from laughing, no doubt, and then took a piece off the plate, dipped it in some of the marinara sauce and then leaned forward.
“Open up.” He said watching in delight as she did just that. Then he dropped the slimy fish into her mouth and watched as she ate it.
She chewed on the off food and then her eyes widened in shock. “That’s not bad.” She said taking another piece off of his plate.
He chuckled and pushed the plate closer to hers as he picked a fork up and stabbed some lettuce on it. They took turns eating off each other’s plate until the main course arrived and they cut most of their food in half to share.