Page 6 of It Happened Duo
“I don’t know. It’s been a long day. I have to get up early tomorrow.”
“No, come on. Don’t pull that old lady crap on us,” Maisy laughed. They loved to remind me I was five years older than them. “Moving to the city wasn’t only for this opportunity to help Uncle Doug, but for the chance toexperience things you wouldn’t normally encounter in Holly Creek.”
“And that includes the New York City nightlife. So let’s get all cute and head out the door before we’re late.” Sophie jumped off the couch and did a little celebration dance for us.
I laughed, and she was right. While I didn’t really care to meet men, at least if things didn’t turn out for me here with the deli, this would be my chance to enjoy everything the city offered.
“Uh,ladies, I think we’re out of place here,” I said two hours later as we walked into the swanky hotel in Manhattan for the speed dating event. Among the three of us, Sophie had the best clothes for going out to party at night, so we raided her closet and decided to go with a trio of sequined short gowns. Now, here we stood inside the door to the event, all glammed up and glitzy, staring at a room of people in navy or black suits, women and men both.
“Sophie! Hey girls. Glad you could make it. You look fabulous. Come on.” Suz, the DJ, greeted us with a warm smile, despite her fierce look of purple hair shaved on the sides and slicked up in a faux-hawk with a leather vest, red plaid miniskirt, and slouchy socks ending at the Moto boots. She led us over to her setup with a turntable and speakers and such, all connected to her laptop. Since I movedhere, we’d already taken up her invitations to two other clubs and had a great time. It certainly paid to know a DJ.
The lights dimmed right then, but it didn’t stop me from tugging at my hemline, wishing it to grow three inches longer. The green sequins set off my hair and eyes, but I couldn’t imagine any man here taking me seriously in this getup. Oh well, it was only five minutes to endure with each person, then we could leave.
The M.C. for the event explained how this would work, how the men would rotate from woman to woman and get five minutes with each. After the event, we could mingle and dance with people we found interesting.
The women randomly took seats on the outside of a double circle of chairs, while the men sat on the inside chairs. I found a seat and smiled at the professionalism of the women on each side of me, eyeing their conservative sheath dresses and pearl earrings.
The timer started, and for each of the five-minute sessions, I did my best to share a bit of myself and to learn about each of the men. I met a few that seemed nice who I might talk to later, but no one I’d write home to Mom about.
We came down to the final two rotations. Thenhesat down in front of the woman to my left—my Mr. Mysterious from this morning—still dashing in his tailored suit, blue eyes, and wavy dark hair laying back just right. Everygoodthing I noticed about him at first glance in the deli.
“Hi,” I gushed. He jerked, as if surprised to seeme.
“Uh, hi.” That was it from him. No smile. Nothing. I glanced quickly down at his name tag. It read:
My Name Is: Bored.
And under it in small letters he’d written:
Actually, it’s Rex, and you have five minutes to impress me.
My eyes widened. Wow! Turned out I didn’t need five minutes to judge Mr. Mysterious. In one second, he seemed like a pompous ass. Glad I found out now. Definitely not my type—not that I was looking for love or even for fun right now, and especially not with a hot man in a custom suit without a beating heart.
I turned my attention to the guy seated in front of me and I grinned at him. He smiled back, and I liked his square jawline with a little five o’clock shadow. He pushed his glasses up his nose and smoothed back his light brown hair. Then the five-minute timer started.
He cleared his throat and held out his hand. “Hi. I’m Archer.”
First impression: he seemed sweet and maybe shy. I shook it politely. “I’m Chelsea. What do you do for a living?” We both asked that question at the same time and chuckled.
“You first,” I said.
“I’m an architectural engineer.”
“Fascinating. Um, I have no idea what that means.”
“Well, it’s?—”
And that’s where I sort of tuned him out and felt badabout it. Because to my left, Rex stated loud and clear for his date, “I’m Rex Buchanan, CEO of Buchanan Energy.”
Buchanan…why did that name sound familiar? Then it clicked. Every morning when I arrived at work by six, I passed by the lit up sign for the energy company in front of the building.He’sthe CEO? Like head honcho, in charge of it all, and the big man on the executive floor?
“Your turn. What do you do, Chelsea?” Archer asked.
“Oh, um, I…work in the food industry.”
Rex snorted and glared at me. “You could at least be truthful with my friend, even though this date lasts all of five minutes.”
“Excuse me, that’s rude.I’myour date. Don’t interrupt theirs,” the woman in front of him huffed.
