Queen of First Dates Read online

  “Hey, thanks for meeting me. I’m serious.” He leaned forward and grabbed my hand for a few seconds. My gaze flew up to his face in surprise. “I know this is hard for you.” He looked sincere and my eyes narrowed at his tone. Was he being serious here? “I’m not the bad guy here, Jules.” I stared into his eyes, my jaw almost dropping at his words. I could see specks of gold in his irises and my heart started melting. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. “I mean, it’s not like you get many dates.”

  “Oh my God.” I pulled my hands away from Nolan. “You’re absolutely infuriating, you know that, right?” I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him. “If you weren’t my best friend’s brother, I’d…”

  “You’d what?” He winked at me. “Kiss me?”

  “Arrgghhhhh.” I folded the menu and put it down on the table. “I’m so over you. I cannot do this.”

  “What would you rather be doing?”

  “Excuse me?” I blinked at him rapidly. “What does that mean?”

  “What does what would you rather be doing mean? I always knew you were a bit slow, but…” He burst out laughing as I glared at him. “Sorry, Jules. You’re so easy to wind up, I can’t help myself.”

  “Making fun of me should not be your favorite activity.” I continued glaring at him.

  “Can I help it if you’re my favorite?” He leaned forward and for a few seconds we just stared at each other.

  “Whatever, let me see what I want to eat,” I said flustered as I opened the menu again. “So what did you want to talk about?”

  “I just wanted to make sure that you were doing okay,” he said as he opened his menu. “We’ll be together a lot in the next couple of weeks and I wanted to make sure that you were comfortable with this whole ordeal. If you’re really not comfortable, then I can speak to Malcolm and see if we can come up with a new suggestion.”

  “Really?” I just stared at him, not really knowing if he was being serious or not.

  “Really.” He nodded. “Look, I know that I love to tease you, but you’re Betsy’s best friend. I’ve known you since you were a little kid with pigtails and braces. I want to make sure that you’re all right. I know you’re a bit of a drama queen, but if this really makes you nervous, then I can see what we can do to get out of it.”

  “You mean it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But that means you wouldn’t have a job either.”

  “Hey, it’s not Hollywood. I’ll live.” He grinned. “So what’s it to be?”

  “Cheeseburger and fries,” I said. “Oops, you’re not talking about food, are you?”

  “No, but that sounds good.”

  “I guess I can see how it goes,” I said with a small smile. “I mean maybe it will even be fun. Also, Betsy, Stella, and Abby are coming over tonight to help me get ready.”

  “Oh, a girls’ night.” He smiled thoughtfully. “Going to watch a movie?”

  “No, we’re going to work on my profile,” I said, deciding to omit the part about the makeover. He didn’t need to know that part. I didn’t want him to know that I felt like I needed a new look to get a better guy. Well, I hadn’t thought that until Stella had brought it up, but I’d spent the night dreaming of looking like a supermodel, instead of my regular girl next door look.

  “Oh, your profile, huh?” He looked amused. “Know what you’re going to say?”

  “Not really.”

  “What sort of guy are you looking for?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Malcolm wants me to focus on the do’s and don’ts of first dates, so I guess I’ll test out different techniques.” I sighed. “I’ll have to think about what to say and do. I’ll make a plan tonight.”

  “So, what would your ideal guy consist of?” he asked me casually, and I watched as he called over a waiter to take our order. I wasn’t sure if he was really interested or if he was making small talk, but all of a sudden I felt slightly uncomfortable.

  “I’m not really sure, to be honest.” I shrugged and smiled at the waiter as he approached the table.

  “Hi, ma’am, sorry for the wait. Would you like a glass of water and another beverage?”

  “Yes, please. Can we have two glasses of water, I drank his.” I pointed at Nolan as a way of explanation. “I’ll also have a Coke, please.”

  “And you, sir, anything else to drink?” The waiter had a pleasant smile on his face and looked to be about my age; though I didn’t know him; which was surprising for a small town like this. He had short blond hair and big blue eyes and there was something about him that seemed familiar. I stared at him for a few seconds trying to figure out where I might have seen him.

  “I’ll have a Budweiser, please,” Nolan stated with a small smile, his eyes on my face as I stared at the waiter.

  “And are you both ready to order?”

  “Yes, I’ll have the cheeseburger, with no pickles, and a side of fries, please.”

  “How would you like the patty cooked?”

  “Medium please.”

  “And you, sir?”

  “I’ll have the same as Jules, but no onions, I’ll keep the pickles. Patty medium rare please.”

  “Great, I’ll put your orders right in.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “What’s your name again? Sorry, I didn’t catch it the first time.”

  “Oh sorry, I might not have told you.” The waiter beamed at me and made an apologetic face. He really was quite handsome. “My name is David.”

  “Nice to meet you, David. You’re new here, right?” I continued still trying to figure out why he looked so familiar.

  “Yes, I just started working here last week.”

  “Oh okay, I thought so. I haven’t seen you here before, but you look so familiar.” I gave him an impish smile, and he just smiled back at me warmly.

  “I bet you say that to all the guys.” He laughed and then looked down at his order pad. “I should go and put these orders in though.”

  “Sure, sounds good,” I said and watched as he walked away. I turned back to the table after about twenty seconds and I could see that Nolan was staring at me with a frown on his face. “Oh God, what now?” I said as I waited for him to tell me off about something else.

  “Practicing your flirting techniques for your dates already?” he said in a surly tone.

  “What?” I blinked at him in confusion. “What are you talking about? What flirting techniques?”

  “With the waiter?” He continued to stare at me. “You know he could get fired for fraternizing with you.”

  “Fraternizing with me? What is this the 1980s?” I rolled my eyes. “I asked him his name, dude, if that’s flirting then I must flirt with everyone I ever meet.”

  “Do you?”

  “Do I?” I shook my head, feeling really annoyed. “What’s your problem, Nolan? Do you just love to rub me the wrong way?”

  “I didn’t know I was rubbing you in any way.” He grinned at me suddenly. “Is that an offer?”

  “An offer to rub me?” I blushed as I said the words. “Are you offering to give me a massage?”

  “Do you want a massage?” He raised a single eyebrow at me and suddenly his expression looked very devious. “Do you want me to rub you down with hot oil? Is that what you’re asking?”

  “No, I don’t want you to rub me down with hot oil,” I said flustered. “That would burn my skin and also wouldn’t that get my clothes all oily?”

  “You wouldn’t be in clothes, dear.” He winked at me and I gasped.

  “Nolan Montgomery, that is so inappropriate.” I knew that my face was bright red, partially from embarrassment, but also partially from being slightly turned on. What would it be like to have Nolan’s warm hands all over my body? I blushed just thinking about it.

  “I’m just teasing you, Jules. You’re going to have to expect to put up with a lot more than that while you’re dating, I’m sure.”

  “Most guys are gentlemen.” I glared at him. “They would nev
er say such a thing.”

  “Keep living under your rock, Jules.” He burst out laughing. “I can’t wait to take these videos. You’re in for a lot of shocks and the readers of the paper are going to be in for a lot of laughs when they read and watch your weekly column.”

  “Ugh, don’t remind me that they’ll be watching me as well. It just seems so invasive. I didn’t sign up to be a video star.”

  “Just a radio star, huh?”

  “What?”

  “Video killed the radio star, video killed the radio star,” he sang, and I laughed slightly at his offbeat voice.

  “You’re such an idiot, you know that right?” I rolled my eyes and then paused as I noticed that David was approaching the table with our drinks. I smiled at him widely as he placed my Coke in front of me and then the beer in front of Nolan.

  “So, seeing as I’m new in town, do you have any recommendations of things for me to do or places to go?” he asked me in his friendly tone and I noticed just how handsome and well-built he was.

  “What are you into?” I asked him. “There are a lot of water activities because we’re next to the beach. So if you like surfing or snorkeling, it’s really great. There’s also Canyon Lake that’s really cool and you can paddle board and kayak there. I know some people like to golf at the country club, there are some escape rooms, some cool bakeries, bookstores, that sort of stuff.”

  “It might be cool to learn how to surf,” he said. “Do you surf a lot?”

  “No, she doesn’t,” Nolan interrupted then with a snort. “Jules rarely goes into the water.”

  “That’s not true.” I gave him a harsh look. “But, no I don’t really surf. I do boogie-board sometimes though. That’s a lot of fun.”

  “Yeah, it sounds fun.” David nodded and then looked at Nolan and then me again. “So have you guys been dating long?”

  “Oh, we’re not dating,” I said quickly. I noticed that Nolan was looking surly again and stifled a sigh. “We’re about to start a new work project together.”

  “Oh, cool.” David looked pleased and was about to say something else, but a couple at the next table was waving him over. “Hey, sorry, I have to get back to work. Your food should be out soon.”

  “Thanks,” I said with a smile and picked up my Coke and took a few sips. “So, was there anything else, in particular, you wanted to talk about?”

  “No.” Nolan took a sip of his beer. “Not really. When do you think you can have your first date lined up by?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I’m not even on any of the apps yet.”

  “Hmm, okay. Which apps are you going to join?”

  “I don’t know. I have to decide.”

  “I guess for the purpose of the articles, you could join as many as possible and then also rank how helpful each app is,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, they always say Tinder is just for hookups right?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Well, you can see if that’s right.”

  “I guess. I’m not looking to hook up with anyone though.”

  “But that doesn’t mean that they won’t be trying to hook up with you.”

  “Yeah, I suppose so.” Huh, I’d never thought about that. I’d been so nervous about Nolan watching me trying to date, that I hadn’t thought about the actual dates I intended to go on. What sort of guys was I going to meet? And what would they be expecting from me? Also, was I supposed to tell them I was a reporter that was writing a series of articles? If I told them from the get-go would they even want to meet me? And if they did meet me, would they even be their real authentic selves? That seemed to be very unlikely. And if they weren’t their real selves, then it would completely negate the whole point of the article.

  “What are you thinking?” Nolan asked me, his eyes staring into mine curiously.

  “That this is going to be a lot more complicated than I thought.” I leaned back in the chair and rubbed the corner of my eye.

  “Tell me your thoughts.”

  “Just thinking that it’s going to be weird going on dates with guys and not telling them I’m actually a reporter.” I nibbled on my lower lip. “And also, once the videos start going up, word is going to get around about what I’m doing.”

  “Well, it’s only thirty dates in thirty days, so you won’t be doing it for very long. By the time word gets out, you’ll already be done with the dates.”

  “I don’t know about that…” I sighed. “And what about if I want to date for fun, for me, how will that work?”

  “What do you mean?” His brows furrowed as he gazed at me.

  “I mean, what if I really want to find a boyfriend and want to use online dating? What if I like one of these guys, what happens then?”

  “I thought you weren’t looking to really date anyone?” His lips thinned. “I thought this was just for the job. Now you’re saying that you might actually fall for one of these schmucks?”

  “We don’t know that they will be schmucks,” I said as I took another sip of Coke. “And I mean it would be nice to meet someone.” My voice was soft as I didn’t really want to talk about my dating life with Nolan. What the hell was going on here?

  “I thought you were concentrating on your career right now?”

  “I am, but you never know when you might find yourself in a relationship. I mean, between these online dates and Lucas.”

  “Aww yes,” he nodded. “The infamous Lucas.”

  “He’s not infamous.” I blushed.

  “I didn’t even know you were interested in him.” He gazed into my eyes with a curious expression.

  “Oh I wasn’t, but the letters have been so sweet and well, he seems like he would make a great boyfriend. We have a lot in common.”

  “Oh?”

  “He likes books and I like books and well, he’s a nice guy.”

  “He’s a nice guy?”

  “Unlike you,” I said, feeling annoyed at all the questions. “Why are you interrogating me anyway?”

  “Was just curious about your letters and love life.” He shrugged and started playing with his phone. “It’s just something to talk about, Jules.”

  “Let’s not talk about me.” I shook my head, grateful to see David approaching with our burgers. “How’s your dating life going?” I asked nonchalantly.

  “My dating life?” He gave me a long look as David placed our plates on the table. “Thanks, this is good.” He nodded at David as he asked if we wanted anything else. I just smiled at David, not wanting to give Nolan an opportunity to make any more snide comments.

  “Yeah, are you seeing anyone?” I asked him, wondering if he was still hung up on his last girlfriend, Melissa, a bubbly blonde that I had hated on sight.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I’m concentrating on my career and other things.”

  “Oh yeah, Hollywood is calling,” I said and then after a few seconds, I said, “What other things?”

  “Just life.” He sat and picked up his burger and bit into it. “This is delicious,” he said, obviously changing the subject. I hid a grin. Obviously, he didn’t seem to like to talk about his dating life either. I was going to remember that. If he ever started to try to get too personal, I would ask him what was going on with his love life.

  “Yeah, these are yummy,” I said as I took a bite of my burger. The juicy goodness of the meat, cheese, lettuce, and special sauce mixing together in my mouth was so delicious that I thought I was going to die of food bliss. I grabbed a fry and stuffed it in my mouth and sat back, suddenly feeling the happiest I had in days.

  6

  “Hey, hey, we’re here.” Stella and Abby sailed through my front door hands full of bags, looking almost like twins with their long brunette hair and fashionable clothes. There were two main differences between them, Stella had green eyes and Abby had blue eyes. Also, Stella was only five four and Abby was five eight.

  “Are you ready for your makeover?”
Stella grinned at me, her perky eager smile making me smile.

  “I guess so.” I laughed as I waved them into the living room. “Come on through, I have wine and cider and Betsy is bringing cupcakes. And I was going to order some Indian food for dinner.”

  “Ooh, sounds yummy.” Abby rubbed her stomach. “Though, I really shouldn’t be eating all that.”

  “You’ll be fine pigging out one night, Abs.” Stella put the bags down next to the couch and then leaned down to rub Heathcliff’s ears. “Hey Heathcliff, how are you, my darling?” Heathcliff licked her fingers, his brown eyes dancing with happiness at the attention she was giving him. “Come here, my big baby.” She started cuddling him and then Abby also bent down to pet him and his tail started thumping down onto my cream shag West Elm rug with more enthusiasm than I’d seen from him in a long time.

  “You guys are spoiling him,” I said with a smile as my heart filled with joy. “Okay, what do you want to drink?”

  “Do you have any of that Rekorderlig cider?” Stella looked at me hopefully and I nodded.

  “I’ll have one as well,” Abby said with a smile. “I’m so excited for tonight, thanks for including me.”

  “You’re welcome, it will be a lot of fun. I hope.” I laughed then as I walked into the kitchen. “Make yourselves at home and I’ll grab the drinks.” I opened the fridge and grabbed three cans of cider and then headed back to the living room. My phone beeped as I placed the ciders on the coffee table and I grabbed it from my pocket. “That was Betsy, she said she’ll be here in a few minutes and she has a surprise.”

  “Ooh, I wonder what the surprise is?” Stella looked excited. “I wonder if she’s going to test some new cupcake recipes on us. That chocolate pistachio cupcake we had last time was divine.”

  “Hmm, I don’t know. Maybe,” I said and then I yawned slightly. “Oh man, I’m already feeling slightly tired.”

  “No bueno, Jules.” Abby said as she shook her head. “Go and get your laptop and a pen and pad so we can start getting our plan together.”

  “Ha ha, everyone’s not even here and we’re already getting to work.” I groaned as I headed out of the room to get my laptop.