Queen of First Dates

by Case, Jaimie

  I could barely stop myself from blurting out my plan to Betsy as I waited to hear Nolan come home. There was no way I could tell her what I was going to do or how special that night was going to be. She just wouldn’t understand and I knew that she’d most probably be able to talk me out of it.

  My heart was beating so fast that I thought it would pop out of my stomach and run away when I heard Nolan’s footsteps walking down the corridor toward his room at around eleven p.m. Betsy was already snoring away as I’d told her I’d been really tired and just wanted to sleep after we’d watched some Friends episodes on her laptop. I got out of the bed slowly and quickly put on some makeup as best as I could in the dark. I pulled off my pajamas and pulled on a white T-shirt that only made it to the top of my thighs. I patted down my hair and headed for the door.

  “Screw it,” I mumbled to myself as I quickly pulled off my T-shirt so that I could remove my bra and flung it to the ground. I then pulled my T-shirt back on and slipped out of Betsy’s room. I hurried down the hall to Nolan’s room and took a few big gulps before I opened the door. I couldn’t believe that I was doing this. The lights in his room were off as I opened the door and I felt a sense of disappointment as I wondered if he was asleep already. Had I waited too long?

  “Jules?” His voice sounded surprised and I could make out his silhouette in the darkness as he sat up. “You okay?”

  “Yes, was uh, was just hoping to talk?” I said as I stood in the doorway.

  “Sure, come in,” he said and I closed the door behind me and crept to his bed. He flipped on the lamp on his nightstand and I stared at his beautiful naked chest as his green eyes surveyed me. “What’s going on?” His expression looked a little dazed and his hair was an adorable mess around his face.

  “I just wanted to talk.” I sat on the bed next to him and smiled shyly. I couldn’t believe that I was in Nolan’s bedroom and on his bed.

  “Oh?” His eyes looked down at my long bare legs and ran up to my black thong that was visible now that my T-shirt had ridden up slightly.

  “Yes,” I said and then I reached my hand over to his chest and ran it down to feel his washboard abs. Warmth spread through me as I touched his body.

  “Jules.” He groaned, and he reached for me and pressed his lips against mine. I melted against him and kissed him back passionately, my hands running through his hair as his tongue invaded my mouth. I ran my hands down his back and I felt his fingers touching my thighs gently, tracing invisible lines up and down. I felt myself shivering at his touch and I stared into his eyes as he kissed down my neck and toward my collarbone. His eyes watched me as his hand moved up the inside of my T-shirt and cupped my breast gently, his fingers teasing my nipple so delicately that I gasped. I licked my lips and fell back as he positioned himself over me and I felt his palm between my legs on my pussy. I squealed as he kissed me again before slipping two fingers inside of my panties and feeling my wetness.

  “You wanted to talk, huh?” He grinned against my lips and I grinned back, my hand reaching down to touch all of him. My eyes widened as I felt how hard his cock was.

  “I want you to be my first,” I said as I kissed him and squeezed my legs tight around his hands. “I want you to make love to me.”

  “What?” Nolan groaned as he shook his head and sat back on the bed. “Jules.” He muttered something unintelligible under his breath, as he pulled away from me completely. “Jules, what are you doing to me?”

  “Nothing, yet.” I smiled at him innocently and he stroked the hair away from the side of my face.

  “I can’t do this.” He shook his head as his eyes swept over my face and body. “I’m sorry, you should go back to Betsy’s room.”

  “But…” I almost whined. “Please?”

  “Jules, you’re still in high school.” He shook his head. “And you’re Betsy’s best friend. No.”

  “I’m going to college in a couple of months.”

  “Sorry,” he said, and he gave me one last long lingering kiss before he jumped up off of the bed. He grabbed my hands and pulled me up. “Now, go back to your own bed, put on a bra and go to sleep.” He dismissed me and I walked back to Betsy’s room with tears in my eyes. I’d never been so humiliated in my life.

  * * *

  “Just think, I could have taken you that night and given you all sorts of pleasure.”

  “Nolan!”

  “Do you still sleep with no bra on?” He winked at me and I blushed.

  “Just take the photos. I’m not answering these stupid questions.” I could feel my face burning bright red. I wanted to ask him how many women he knew that slept with a bra on, but I didn’t really want to know the answer.

  “Stupid questions?”

  “That was in the past. I was in high school then.”

  “But that wasn’t the last time though?” he said with a small smile. “I still remember that time you were in college…” His voice trailed off and we just stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. There was no way in hell, either one of us wanted to talk about that night. I was positive about that.

  “I’m back,” Betsy said, walking into the room at exactly the right time. “How’s it going?”

  “Great, just great,” Nolan said through gritted teeth. “Jules is a natural.” And for the next two hours, everything was extremely professional.

  “I’ll have the photos to you in two days,” Nolan said as he packed up his camera and lenses and tripod. “And then you can set your man-trap up.”

  “Just ignore him,” Betsy said as she grabbed me and squealed. “I saw some of the photos on his camera screen and you looked beautiful. I know this dating stuff is for work, but I feel like you could also meet the guy of your dreams. The man that can give you the orgasm of all orgasms.”

  “Betsy.” I squealed embarrassed that she’d said that in front of Nolan. I looked at him for a few seconds and his expression was furious.

  “We all can’t be Mr. Darcy’s, you know.” He gave me a poignant look and then he marched out of the living room and through the front door without another word.

  7

  “How’s it going, Jules?” Malcolm gave me a huge smile as he cornered me in the small kitchen.

  “Good.” I nodded at my cup filled with recently brewed coffee. “Better now.”

  “Any dates lined up as yet?”

  “I’m working on it.” I gave him a small smile. “In fact, I just got an email from Nolan with the photos for my profile, so I’ll be up and running soon.”

  “Have the profile up and running by the end of the day,” he said, his expression kind, but his voice insistent. “I want these articles online as soon as possible.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said, gripping my coffee cup tightly. I still hadn’t gotten used to the idea that I was going to be dating and writing about it. This really wasn’t the career I’d seen for myself when I first started working at the paper. The breaking headline stories I’d envisioned were nowhere to be seen. No Pulitzer prize was going to be making its way to my shelf anytime soon. And I couldn’t believe that I had to create the profile myself. Betsy had gotten a call and had to leave earlier than planned the night before so we hadn’t gotten around to setting up my profiles as yet.

  “Now, Jules, I know you weren’t happy with this assignment, but I can guarantee that by the time you’re done, you’ll be thanking me.”

  “You can guarantee that, can you?” I tried to raise one eyebrow at him, but I knew I wasn’t successful as I felt my eyebrows raising up on my face.

  “Is something wrong?” He looked at me with a concerned face as I kept wiggling my eyebrows.

  “No, no, I’m fine.” I sighed and put my eyebrows to rest. “I should go now though and drink my coffee and get my profile set up and all that good stuff,” I said and hurried through the door and to my desk. I moved quickly and sat down, grateful to be away from him. I placed my coffee cup on the table and eagerly opened my email account. I wanted to see the
photos Nolan had taken of me. I clicked open and waited for the attachments to load impatiently. I was so annoyed at how slowly they were loading. “Stupid Internet,” I muttered under my voice, but my breath caught as the first photo loaded.

  My eyes almost popped out of my head as I saw the first photo. There was no way that was me. The girl in the photo looked beautiful and radiant. I clicked on the image to see it better and moved my face closer to the screen. “Wow,” I said as I stared at the best reflection of myself that I’d ever seen. My skin glowed, my eyes looked bright, the smile on my face looked genuine and the angle of the camera gave me an hourglass figure that I’d never seen before. I grabbed my cell phone and called Betsy.

  “Hey, doll,” she answered the phone in one ring. “How’s it going?”

  “Your brother…” I said breathlessly, unable to say anything else.

  “Oh no, what’s he done now?” She sounded annoyed. “I swear to God, I’m going to strangle him.”

  “Nothing, nothing bad. He’s just an amazing photographer.”

  “Oh, you got the photos?” She sounded pleased. “And you like them?”

  “They’re great,” I said happily. “Do not tell him I said that though.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not about to give him a big head.”

  “Good.” I laughed. “I just wanted to let you know they arrived. I should actually create this profile now though. Malcolm is going to kill me if it’s not done by the end of the day.”

  “Send it to me as soon as it’s live. I can’t wait to see it.”

  “Okay.” I giggled and then groaned. “Ugh, this is going to suck.”

  “Think of all the dates.”

  “I hate dating.”

  “This will be different. You’ll see.”

  “Ugh, I hope so.” I opened a new tab and put in the name of the dating website. “Okay. I gotta go. Talk later.”

  “Sounds good,” she said as I hung up. I looked at the OkCupid website and groaned at all the questions I needed to answer. “This is too much.” I whined and went to the app store on my phone and searched for dating apps. The first two that popped up were Tinder and Bumble, and underneath them were Hinge, Coffee Meets Bagel, and Plenty of Fish. I felt tired just looking at all the apps and so I decided to just focus on two, Tinder and Bumble. They seemed the easiest to set up and least complicated to get going. Even though I knew Tinder was the “hookup app,” I decided to try it because I knew it was a fast way to meet men. And well, I only needed to go on one date. I could shut them down easily if I had to. And Nolan would be there so it wasn’t like they could do anything too crazy.

  Name: Julia Gilbert

  Age: 26

  Looking for: Single male aged between 26-33. Preferably 5’8” and taller.

  Blurb: Single, fun-loving gal seeking funny, adventurous male for hiking, kayaking, coffee, ice-cream, and romance.

  I looked at my blurb, my eyes scanning the words quickly. “No, no, no, this sucks.” I groaned under my breath. No men were going to read this profile and think “ooh, she’s the one.” I sighed and called Stella’s number quickly. I needed help setting up this profile.

  “Hey, honey, how’s it going?” Stella sounded breathless as she answered the phone and I frowned.

  “What are you doing?” I asked suspiciously, my mind in the gutter.

  “I’m on a ladder.” She giggled slightly. “Stacking a new shipment of books.”

  “Oh, okay,” I said with a little laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked, her voice tinged with curiosity.

  “I thought you were having sex,” I admitted and grinned as she burst out laughing.

  “You thought I was having sex and still answering the phone?” Stella asked, her voice amused. “I don’t know what sort of sex you’re used to but I don’t have time to answer the phone when I’m in the throes of passion.”

  “Stella.” I rolled my eyes as I looked around the office to make sure no one was listening to my conversation. “I’ve had plenty of good sex.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so. No one calls great orgasm inducing sex, good,” Stella said, and I laughed.

  “Well, that’s why I need to meet a good man.”

  “I bet Nolan could give you great orgasms.”

  “Stella!”

  “Sorry.” She giggled. “I couldn’t resist. He’s such a good-looking guy, even though he’s such a douche.”

  “Isn’t he just the biggest douchebag?” My voice rose as I thought about Nolan. “He was so rude the other night.”

  “He was just jealous.”

  “Jealous of what?” I asked, my heart racing.

  “That you’re about to meet an awesome guy and leave him in the lurch,” Stella said. “Some guys never realize what they’ve got until it’s gone.”

  “Well, he doesn’t have me,” I said with a frown. “You know I don’t have a crush on him anymore, right?”

  “Uh-huh,” Stella said, and I was about to pursue the matter of convincing her that I didn’t have a crush on Nolan anymore but I stopped myself. What was that saying? When one protests too much, it meant they were really still into that person or something like that. I wasn’t going to give Nolan the satisfaction of even uttering his name anymore. He didn’t even deserve one more second of thought in my brain. “So what was this call about? I need to start reorganizing the biography and memoir section.”

  “Sounds exciting,” I said and was only partly kidding. I was a little envious of the fact that Stella had her own bookstore. It was something I could see myself doing if I wasn’t a reporter. I absolutely loved books more than anything.

  “It’s so exciting. So what’s up?”

  “I need help with my blurb for my dating profile. It sounds tired and boring.”

  “Read it to me,” she said and I read it to her quickly.

  “Yeah, no,” she said as soon as I stopped talking. “You sound fake, like someone with no actual personality of her own. Why don’t you craft something truly heartfelt and honest?”

  “Really, but wouldn’t that make me sound boring?” I asked, thinking out loud. “I love to read under the night sky and sing in the shower along with my dog.”

  “That’s not boring, and that’s who you are. If a guy doesn’t like that, why bother going on a date with him?”

  “Well, this is for my work, not an actual date.”

  “I think the two are mutually exclusive,” Stella said thoughtfully. “I think it’s high time you met a good guy and well, your job is even willing to pay for you to meet him.”

  “You really think I’m going to meet a guy to truly date during this process?”

  “I really do,” Stella said, her voice sounding more excited now. “I actually have a really good feeling about this.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Why don’t you rewrite the profile, then email it to me and I’ll respond with some feedback after I finish stacking these books.”

  “Okay,” I said with a little sigh. “I’ll be my full-on honest and boring self.”

  “You’re not boring.”

  “I am, but thanks for saying I’m not.”

  “Love you, cuz.”

  “Love you more,” I said with a grin and hung up. I stared at my phone screen and then brought up Word on my computer. I was about to start typing when I realized that what I really needed to do was to use a pen and paper. I always felt more inspired when I handwrote and then typed up my notes into the computer. I grabbed a pen and my yellow legal pad and started writing furiously. About ten minutes later I reread what I’d written and smiled. “This is much better,” I said under my breath as I reread the paragraph again.

  Some people say the pen is mightier than the sword and I agree. I love the written word. As an avid writer and reader, I’m looking for someone that can appreciate the hidden beauty of the everyday moments that people take for granted.

  I like to dance along the sand as the water splashes on my toes. I like
to lie in the grass and stare up at the night sky looking for constellations I can’t name. I like to sing in the shower to songs playing on my iPhone as my dog sits in the corner, howling along with me. I like to eat pizza, and fries, and then stuff my face with ice cream on a Friday night. I like to go to the drive-in and watch movies in the car. I like to huff and puff as I hike as I’m not as fit as I’d like to be, but I love nature. If you like any of these things, please feel free to say hello.

  I smiled as I started typing the words into my dating app. I knew that my paragraph was a bit long and flowery, but any guy that didn’t like that wasn’t the guy for me anyway. I groaned as I got a message on the app that my blurb was too many characters. I couldn’t fit it in. I sighed and then sat back for a few seconds. I hadn’t expected this to be so hard. I erased what I’d written and started typing quickly. Books, stars, sandy beaches, milkshakes, movies, sunrises, sunsets, beating hearts, smiling faces. I read the very brief sentence and then quickly added, warm kisses. I needed it to be a little flirty and cute after all. I needed to match with enough men that I could have frequent dates. I knew that wasn’t going to be as easy as Malcolm thought it was going to be. At least not if I had some standards. I didn’t want to be one of those people that swiped right on everyone. I quickly posted my blurb to Tinder and Bumble and set up the accounts. I sat back feeling satisfied that I had now launched myself into the world, but then I remembered that I actually had to start swiping on the photos of the guys. I was about to start swiping when my phone started ringing. I looked at the screen and was surprised to see Nolan’s name flashing on the screen.