by Rose Pressey
“All right, hairy,” Melinda said. “I don’t care if you’re a werewolf or not. I’ll dump you over the side of the boat and you’ll sink to the bottom.”
“Oh, yeah? Well, I’ll fry you up in a pan like a catfish.” Lily pushed the mermaid’s shoulder and she stumbled back a step.
Oh, dear. This was going to turn into a full-out brawl in the hallway of this condo building. I started to walk over to them so that I could interrupt the fight. But Jack rushed around me and stepped between the women.
“Ladies, ladies, let’s not argue,” he said, holding his hands up.
All of a sudden one of the mermaids punched Jack. I thought she’d been going for Lily. Jack looked stunned as he rubbed his jaw.
“Okay, that’s enough. Stop it right now,” I said. “Lily, back up.” I touched Jack’s face. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “Just a little surprised that I would be punched.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to punch you. I was going for her,” Melinda said with a flick of her delicate wrist.
Lily rushed toward the mermaid again. Jack held her back.
“I think it’s probably best if you all leave right now. If you want to talk to Shelby then maybe call her.”
Melinda stared at me for a bit longer and then said, “Okay, fine. We’ll call Shelby.”
Another few seconds went by as they watched Lily before turning and marching down the hallway. My gaze remained on them until they reached the end of the hallway. When they turned toward the elevator all three looked my way one more time. I waved as if telling them there was no sense in coming back. The answer would be the same. They disappeared around the corner. And I hoped that they were really gone.
I turned around to face Lily. “Was that really necessary?”
“Absolutely,” Lily said. “I got rid of them.”
“Only because I had to make them leave. If I had let you fight then they would’ve stayed. There’s no telling what would have happened.”
“I would’ve kicked her derriere, that’s what.”
“There’s no need for violence, Lily,” Jack said.
“Just because you say it politely don’t make it better either,” I said.
Lily scoffed. “Okay, but when the mermaids come for the werewolves don’t say I didn’t try to help you.”
She studied her fingernails. Jennifer was just standing there with a look of shock on her face. She shouldn’t be surprised. After all, this was Lily we were dealing with. This was an everyday occurrence for her. She thrived on the stuff.
“That was certainly interesting,” Jennifer said.
“There’s never a dull moment with Lily around,” I said.
“You can stop talking about me now. I’m right here,” Lily said.
“We know that. We’re not saying anything we wouldn’t say behind your back,” I said.
Lily looked confused. “I think there’s an insult there somewhere.”
When Shelby stepped out of her bedroom she stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw Lily. I knew they’d had words back at the wedding when I’d first met Shelby.
“Shelby, it’s so nice to see you,” Lily said. “Thank you for allowing me to come into your home.”
Why was Lily being so nice? I’d never known her to be nice to anyone. Maybe she really was starting to change. Though after the display with the mermaids that was hard to believe.
“You’re welcome,” Shelby said with confusion in her voice.
She might not even remember Lily. Though after the way Lily had acted at that charity event I wasn’t sure how she could forget.
“Well, I think we should all go have some lunch. It’s been a stressful day and we could use some time to relax.” Jack ran his hand through his thick hair.
He always did that when he was stressed.
“How about we go to the café where Freddie Cool works?” Jennifer flashed a bashful grin.
“Freddie Cool?” Lily snorted. “What is a Freddie Cool?”
“Oh, just some guy I met at a club. He’s so handsome,” Jennifer said.
“Good-looking guys? Yeah, let’s go,” Lily said.
“Lily Friedman, you’re a married woman,” I said.
“That doesn’t mean I can’t look at them. Of course, they can’t compare to my studly hunk of love.”
Jack shook his head and headed for the door. As we made the dreaded walk back down the hallway again I knew what was waiting for me. We were now back in front of my old friend the elevator. Shelby really needed to move to the first floor.
After waiting for the valet and piling into Lily’s rental car we headed toward the café. The lunch crowd had already slowed down so we’d no problem finding a table.
“Do you think he’s here?” Jennifer asked as she looked around the room.
“I don’t see any good-looking guy,” Lily said.
“You’ll know it’s the one when you see this good-looking guy,” Jennifer said.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Lily said.
Another guy came over to take our order. Jennifer was disappointed that her hunk wasn’t here.
“Maybe he’ll show up before we leave,” I said.
“I hope so,” Jennifer said around a sigh.
“There’s plenty of fish in the sea,” Lily said. “If he doesn’t show up just move on to the next.”
Jennifer shrugged. “Whatever you say.”
Chapter 21
As we sat there eating our food, the mermaids entered. Lily stopped with her fork mid-air on its way to her mouth.
“I can’t believe what I’m seeing. They have some nerve to come in here.”
“Well, Lily, it is a public place. We don’t know for sure that they followed us here.”
“Oh, please, Rylie, why else are they here? You know what they’re up to.” Lily started to stand up, but I stopped her once again.
“We can’t fight in a restaurant. It’s like I said yesterday, unless they do something to us then we’re going to enjoy our meal and just ignore them, all right? Don’t be an uncivilized werewolf. Will you agree to that?”
She pouted and said, “Fine, but don’t call me an uncivilized werewolf.”
“All right, I’ll just call you uncivilized. How’s that?”
“Not much better,” she said.
I tried to focus on the food, but I was a bit curious as to why the mermaids were here. Lily was right though, and I didn’t say that often—I didn’t think they were here by coincidence only. They were looking for trouble.
Jennifer pointed across the room. “He’s here.”
I pushed her hand down. “Just stay calm and play it cool. You don’t want him to know that you’re too interested.”
“Right,” she said.
It was too late. Freddie saw us and headed in our direction. Now that the mermaids were checking him out, he would be ruled out as one of the guys who could be in our plan to talk to them. That was if they were still up for it. Now I would have to find another guy.
Freddie walked over to us.
“I’m so glad to see you,” he said. “I tried to call but it went straight to your voicemail.”
“I’ve been a little busy,” Jennifer said. “I couldn’t get to my phone.”
Plus, we’d been out on that boat and Jennifer had been trying to save me from drowning.
Just then more people entered the café. They were good-looking men. Freddie tossed his hand up in a wave at them.
“Are they mermen?” I asked.
“Yes,” Freddie said.
They headed across the room for a table in the corner. The mermaids noticed the men right away and I knew they were checking them out. Maybe this would work to our advantage.
“Hey, those other guys, do you think they would go along with the plan? Because now that they’ve seen you talking to us we can’t exactly have you do it. They’ll be suspicious.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I think they would do it.�
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“We need to talk to them, but we can’t let the mermaids see us do it. So maybe you could tell them our plans when you’re taking orders.”
“Sure, I’ll do that,” he said, winking at Jennifer. “I’ll be back soon.”
He casually walked over to the other table and acted as if he was taking their orders. Everything was completely normal. Though he was standing there for quite a while. I hoped that he had good news for us when he came back over. He took their orders and headed for the kitchen. After a couple minutes he came back over with the pitcher of water, acting as if that was his pretense for being back at our table. Freddie filled up the glasses.
“What did they say?” I asked.
“Yeah, they’re up for it. No problem.”
“Well, as you can see the mermaids are eyeing them already, so I don’t think they’ll have a problem getting them to agree to dates.”
“Yeah, they’re going to go over there before the mermaids leave to make their move.”
“I can’t wait to find out what they say.”
We’d already finished our food, but we were sipping on our drinks so that we could stall and see what happened. Not long after, the guys got up and moved over to the table to talk to the mermaids.
At first, the mermaids tried to act as if they weren’t interested. But I knew differently. Before long they were batting their eyelashes and giggling. Apparently, the guys were saying all the right things. Exchanging of phone numbers took place and then the guys left the ladies alone to go back to their tables. They waved and stuff occasionally, acting like teenagers. I couldn’t acknowledge the guys, but I wanted to give them a thumbs up for a job well done. Now that we had our ‘in’ we could find out what the mermaids were really up. I felt confident about my plan. Lily soon broke that confidence when she rolled her eyes.
The mermaids got up from the table. We tried to act like we weren’t watching, but I was definitely curious. Lily glared at them as they walked by. They started laughing, of course, which made Lily try to get up from the table again. I pushed her back down. She had a hair-trigger temper. But now that the mermaids were gone, we would be able to go over and talk with the guys about our plan.
“Should we go talk to them now?” Lily asked.
“No, we need to wait a few minutes. What if the mermaids come back? They might’ve forgotten something. That’s all we need—for them to catch us having a little meeting with their potential dates.”
They probably thought it was funny that they hadn’t gotten dates from me. However, they didn’t know that they would’ve gotten the same dates if they’d used my service.
A few minutes had passed, and when we thought they weren’t coming back, we got up and walked over to the table to talk with the guys. I introduced myself and everyone. They went around the table giving their names.
“My name is Hayden, and this is Stanley. Across from us are Gerald and Cameron.”
“I really appreciate what you’re doing for us.” I shook his hand.
“Yeah, Freddie explained everything that was going on and we’re happy to help,” Hayden said.
“Did you set up dates?” I asked.
“Yeah, we set up a date for tonight, if that’s okay? For a festival.”
“Fantastic. Do you think you can get recordings? I’ll give you a list of questions that you can ask. Of course, you don’t want it to sound like you’re asking from a script,” I said.
“No, of course not,” he said. “I think we’ll do just fine.”
The other guys nodded in agreement.
“You know, if they don’t like you then all of this will be for nothing. You have to make sure they have great dates with you all. And then they’ll be more likely to give you the information that we need.”
“This is kind of bad, isn’t it?” Jennifer said. “You know, I mean, these girls really think they’re getting dates. Maybe we shouldn’t do this.”
“These girls are also really mean. They tried to do something to you. They kidnapped you and then possibly murdered…. Well, I’m just saying we shouldn’t feel too bad, right?”
“I agree,” Lily said. “We should let them have it right now.”
“Tone it down, Lily. We’re just going to find information about them. We’re not going to cause bodily harm.”
She sighed. “Fine. I still say it would be more fun to, you know, maybe punch one or something.”
Lily always wanted to punch something. That was why I’d recommended for her to take those boxing classes. I was beginning to think that maybe that had been a bad decision and could backfire on all of us.
“Okay, so maybe you can tell us what you normally would do on a date,” I said.
The guys exchanged a look.
Hayden took a big gulp of water from his glass before he continued. “I don’t know. Maybe go out for a burger and then to a club for some dancing with my buddies.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head.
“What? Did I say something wrong?”
“You have met women before, right?”
“Yeah,” he said. “What’s wrong with what I suggested?”
I looked at Jack.
Jack held his hand up. “I have nothing to say here.”
“Well, the whole purpose of a date is to get to know someone. And if you just take her out to be around friends of yours then how are you going to talk to her?”
“But what if I don’t like her and then I’m stuck with her all evening? At least if my friends are there I have something to do.”
“I think you can handle it for one evening without anyone to entertain you long enough to get through the date. You owe it to the person—if you’re not enjoying yourself then just move along. End the date and then go out with your friends.”
“Yeah, I guess, I never thought of that,” he said. “But what if she doesn’t like my friends? And then it’s kind of pointless to go out with her again.”
“Well, I can see where you would want her to like your friends, but at some point your friends are going to meet people too. And then you’re going to get less and less time with your friends.”
“That’s true.” Jack pointed. “It happens.”
“Yes, it does, and you want to be prepared,” Jennifer said.
“All right. So where should we take the dates?” he asked.
“Well, I would suggest maybe a dinner.”
“I suggested that,” he said.
“Yes, that’s good, but you said burgers. You might go for something a little less fast food. Shall we say, like why don’t you bring your date here?” I waved my hand.
“Again, I want it to be fast so that I can get out of there if I don’t like her.”
“You really are hung up on this not liking her thing, aren’t you? I think you need my services. You get a date you like, and you’ll want to linger over dinner as long as possible.”
His eyes widened. “I don’t know. That never happened to me.”
“Trust me, I can make it happen. Just as soon as you go out with the lousy dates.”
Everyone laughed.
“Okay, so dinner at a nice restaurant,” he said.
“Check,” I said.
“Then what?” he asked.
“Maybe a movie.”
“But you can’t talk to her in the movie,” he said.
“That’s true, but it takes the pressure off having to talk too much,” I said. “And you get a little bit of downtime to watch the movie. And after it’s over you can discuss the movie. See if you have similar things in common by liking it.”
“You’re kind of good at this,” he said.
“Well, I am a professional.”
“All right, so after the movies that’s it?” he asked.
“Slow down. You sound like you’re in a hurry to get rid of her.”
“Well, you said they were bad dates.”
“Yes, they are evil women, so you probably won’t want to hang out with them very much.
All right, so maybe scratch the movie. I doubt they would sit still long enough for that anyway.”
“Oh, I kind of like his idea about taking them out to a music festival,” Lily said. “I thought about going to one, but I was waiting for you all to get ready.”
“I’m not so sure about that. I guess it depends on what kind of music and how loud it is because they wouldn’t be able to talk if it’s too loud. We want recordings.”
“I think the festival is supposed to have small bands,” Lily said.
“Maybe you should just ask their opinion on what they like to do,” I said.
“But we kind of started from that in the beginning of this discussion,” Hayden said.
“Do you want the date to go well or not?” I asked.
“Well, you’re the one who needs the dates to go well,” he said.
I was beginning not to like this guy.
“Yes, but I’m setting a solid base for you to date someone else,” I said. “Because let’s face it, your plan of action before was kind of awful.”
“I think I did all right,” he said.
“Oh, yeah? Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No, but the right person hasn’t come along yet.”
“How do you know? Maybe she did and you already lost her because you gave her a lousy date,” I said.
“All right, you got me. Maybe that’s true. I’ll take your advice.”
“Thank you,” I said. “We’ll be in touch later this afternoon.”
I had to find Jennifer because she was talking to Freddie. Once we got her away from him we left the café and headed back to Shelby’s place.
“We have the rest of the afternoon to do something fun, right?” Lily asked.
“No, way,” I said. “I have to get back to the office and get things settled.”
“Yes, of course, we have work to do. I’ve taken up way too much of your time,” Shelby said.
“You couldn’t exactly help being kidnapped, now could you? And we still don’t know why.”
“Of course, now that has me looking over my shoulder all the time wondering if it’s going to happen again. Will it be worse the next time?” Jennifer said.
“Maybe Jack and Jennifer could take me to the beach,” Lily said.
Jack was shaking his head and waving his arms as he stood behind her. Lily whipped around, almost catching Jack. “Sure,” Jack said with a forced smile.