Christina sat across from Mark in a tiny booth in a downtown diner. She had never been taken out for breakfast before, so being there with him was a totally new experience for her. She ordered pancakes and drummed her fingers impatiently on the surface of the table while Mark looked over the complimentary newspaper.
He looked up at her quizzically. “You seem nervous. What’s the matter?”
“You’re an idiot,” she blurted.
“Really?” he asked, hardly able to keep his mirth in check. “You know, Christina, you have this way of lashing out at me for no explicable reason. It’s intriguing. So tell me, why am I an idiot?”
“I already explained that dating you would be like a dream come true for me. I know you don’t believe me, but it feels one hundred percent impossible for us to be sitting all chummy like this at a restaurant. I’m having a hard time believing it.”
He stared at her but said nothing.
“Sorry if I feel like I’ve been dropped on my head, but I’m still recovering from the shock.”
“You’re a weird girl. Can’t you just be happy that something so stupendous has happened to you?” he asked sarcastically like he didn’t believe for one second that it was honestly a dream come true for her for the two of them to be a couple. “From my perspective, I practically had to hunt you and even still, you might split at any moment. I was thinking before we left your apartment that I might have to tie you up to get you to give me a chance.”
Christina rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you’re still thinking I’m Tina, the escort, and it’s impossible for you to get me. I keep telling you—that’s not me. If you asked me to marry you today, I’d take you up on it… if I wasn’t absolutely certain that you harbor some extremely false, funny ideas about me. You’re going to feel awfully stupid when you realize you have to dump me because I’m not what you thought I was. But don’t you worry; I won’t even say, ‘I told you so.’”
“Okay,” he drawled disbelievingly as he picked up the paper again and opened the business section. He scanned through the headlines quickly and then folded up the paper and put it behind the menu stand. Christina had already spent enough time with him professionally to know there was no way he could miss checking out the business section no matter what was happening in front of his face. “I think you’re wrong,” he said finally. “But let’s not talk about this anymore. I still have a lot I want to learn about you and if you keep yowling we’re not right for each other, I’ll never learn anything.”
“What do you want to know?”
Mark clicked his tongue on his front teeth and leaned forward with his elbows on the table. “What happened with Dominic last night?”
Christina frowned. She should have known he would ask something like that instead of something about her. How could she answer him? It seemed like a bad idea to tell Mark that Dominic offered her five hundred dollars to ditch him the night before, and she had taken it. Likewise, it seemed stupid to tell him Dominic had asked her to take a job as his personal assistant and he’d told her that he loved her. Ouch! She’d forgotten all about it until that very second. Christina’s frown deepened. And then there was Laura’s involvement. Christina still believed Dominic wouldn’t have gone so far for her if Laura hadn’t asked him to. Since he owed Laura he had to do what she said. Christina tapped her toes under the table and prepared to answer Mark’s question.
“I’m not a tattletale. Besides, it doesn't have anything to do with you or me,” she said.
“I don’t think I understand what you mean. If Dominic took you out than it has everything to do with both of us.”
Christina sighed. Mark had been there through those two dates with her and Dominic, so he thought he knew what the two of them were like together. He didn't know how they talked when they were alone and how different it was. The conversation would be easiest if Christina could just talk about Laura's problem and say what Dominic had told her instead of worrying about the love issue. But she didn't know what Mark already knew. She'd have to probe him. “How much do you know about Dominic and Laura?” she asked cautiously.
“They’re twins. Alexander is their older brother, but I was under the impression that they were only born about thirteen months apart, so in many ways, they are all the same age. I’ve known Laura for about a year and a half,” he paused. “I’m not sure what else to say. I already told you I find her hopelessly programmed. As for Dominic, I have only met him on half a dozen occasions, but he strikes me as an incredibly tough character. He’d have to be to put up with Alexander.”
Christina nodded and began to say slowly, “Do you think that it was a coincidence that Dominic asked for me to be his date on Valentine’s Day?”
“Huh?” Mark gaped.
“Laura asked him to hire me so you wouldn’t be able to. Did you know that?”
Mark looked like there was suddenly something sour in his mouth. “I should have known.”
Suddenly Christina’s heart took courage and continued. “That was what Dominic wanted to talk to me about last night. He wanted to ask me about the best strategies to either get you to fall in love with Laura or to get her to change her mind about you.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him there was no way any amount of time or inducement would win you over. I advised him to hire a male escort for her. From your conversation with her this morning, it sounds like Dominic has already taken my suggestion and arranged a date for her.”
Mark gaped. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am. Professionally, I thought that would be the best solution. Not because I want you myself, but because you don’t bend-over-backward for Laura. I thought if she was taken out by a heartthrob who treated her like a goddess then she’d realize the distinction between your feelings for her and concentrated consideration.”
Mark’s face became clouded and Christina was positive she’d offended him.
“Please try not to take that the wrong way,” she said quickly. “It’s just that you’re not interested in her and she may be confusing your mild friendship for something more. She needs to see how a man acts when he’s infatuated, not friendly. I mean, have you ever volunteered to make supper for her?”
“No.”
“That’s the sort of thing I’m talking about. Not that you’re a jerk or that you don’t know how to treat a woman properly. I think you do. It’s just that it’s clear by the way you stared off into space at the restaurant on Valentine’s Day that you weren’t thinking about her.”
“I was thinking about you.”
A blush rose on Christina’s cheeks like a soaring hot air balloon.
“Oh, come on,” Mark said, examining her expression. “You can’t tell me that no one has ever said something like that to you before. You’re supposed to be an experienced dater.”
Christina put a hand to her cheek and glared at him. “Yeah, I keep telling you that’s not the truth about me. And for your information, usually a guy who takes an escort out isn’t thinking about how to treat her nice, he’s thinking about how she can treat him nice. That’s why I thought Laura would do better with a male escort as a rebound date rather than an ordinary guy. Ordinary guys are stupid.”
“Do you know a lot of male escorts?” Mark suddenly asked as their food arrived.
“No. They don’t hang around the shop much. I think it embarrasses them. The girls like hanging out and talking, whereas the guys like to be on the other side of the world.”
“Huh… I wonder what type of guy Dominic will choose for Laura.”
“It would be fun to see him choose the perfect man for her, eh?”
***
Christina thought Mark intended to spend the whole day with her, but he got an urgent phone call from his brother and had to take off after breakfast. Christina knew she shouldn’t feel happy he was going, but being with him was a little intense and the break would relieve mountains of tension. When he said goodbye to her, he kissed her on the forehead unassumingly and told her he wanted to take her out for dinner that night, so she shouldn’t schedule anything. His business with his brother wouldn’t take all day.
When she came into the apartment, Mindy was on the phone laughing her head off.
“Christina, get in here,” she yelled.
“What is it?”
Mindy took the phone away from her ear and said merrily, “You just keep getting into trouble, don’t you?”
“What are you talking about?” Christina questioned.
“Has your little pet boy gone home for the day?” Mindy asked, biting the phone’s antenna.
“Little pet boy,” Christina quoted, her eyes wide. She couldn’t believe Mindy had the nerve to refer to startlingly hot Mark that way, but apparently… “Yeah, is he gone?”
“Yes,” Christina answered sternly.
“Well, then maybe you can help a certain gentleman down at the escort service. Apparently, he’s trying to pick a male escort for his sister and he can’t sort through the files at all. He says he needs your help or he’ll never get anywhere. Feel like helping him out?”
Christina’s eyes bugged out. How could she possibly weasel out? It was her suggestion. “Hmm… is he paying me?”
“I’ll drive you,” Mindy said sportingly even though she was clearly making fun of Christina. She smiled like a Cheshire cat and dangled her car keys in her left hand.
Christina put a hand to her forehead. She was completely stuck.
***
This shouldn’t take too long, Christina told herself as she and Mindy drove down to the agency. I can just help him with the lineup of guys and then I can go home and get ready for my date with Mark.
Once inside, Christina saw Dominic standing at the counter flipping through a laminated catalog with all the agency’s listed escorts. Naturally, the female side of it was much larger than the male, so he was only turning about twenty pages over and over again.
When Christina came in, he turned around and said, “Great, Tina, you’re here. I can’t look at this.”
“Why? They’re not naked or anything,” Christina offered unhelpfully as Mindy smirked and trotted off to the back.
“Who’s that?” Dominic asked, glancing at Mindy. He was not rattled by Christina’s hectoring.
“That’s my cousin, Mindy. She’s an escort here. Didn’t you see her profile?” Christina asked, taking the catalog from him and flipping to Mindy’s page.
“No. I didn’t look at the girls.”
“But aren’t you going on a double date with Laura tonight? Have you already asked a girl to go with you?”
Dominic was slick as a cat’s ear as he responded, “I was going to ask you.”
“I’m not in the book anymore,” Christina answered calmly.
“Does that mean you’re unavailable?”
“Yes. But, I will help you pick out a group of escorts for Laura. It sounds like a lot of fun.”
“But you won’t come with us?”
“No.”
“It would make Laura feel better about everything if she knew you weren’t with Mark.”
“But,” Christina said before taking a deep breath and continuing. “I will be with Mark, and maybe you should tell her that. The information might help her figure out that Mark isn’t available anymore.”
Dominic’s face became dark. He understood the significance of that statement as he bit, “He sure gets up early in the morning, doesn’t he?”
Christina knew she had slipped up. She should have just let Dominic find out about her and Mark through the office grapevine when the news got to Laura. Instead, she had been honest and Dominic clearly felt gypped.
“I’m sorry,” Christina started to say.
Dominic shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t worry about it. Like you said before, Mark’s not so great. You’ll see it once we start working on the ad campaign together. He won’t
have any idea how to treat you once that ball is rolling. For tonight, I’ll take out your cousin, Mindy, if she’s available. She’s going to be doing your hair and make up for the ads, isn’t she?”
“Maybe.”
“Great. I can at least talk shop to her and the evening won’t be boring, but I still want you to help me pick out a date for Laura.”
Christina took the catalog and sat down on one of the waiting chairs with Dominic beside her. Together, they flipped through the pages. At first, Christina didn’t think she had a better idea of who to pick than Dominic would have if he had been left to do it alone.
“Well, we should eliminate all the ones younger than twenty-four,” Christina said thoughtfully.
“Okay, but that doesn’t leave a whole lot.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Christina said, “but we should also eliminate all the guys older than thirty-four. If he’s too much older it’ll look strange." Then she opened the rings on the binder and pulled out the remaining sheets.
“That doesn’t leave much,” Dominic said, looking at the profiles.
“Yeah, there are only six left. Let’s see. There’s Gregory, Daniel, Vaughn, Michael, Shane, and Gavin.”
“They sound like a boy band,” Dominic commented crossly, looking away.
“Don’t be so depressing. This guy, Vaughn, is sort of cute. Clear blue eyes, ponytail, and the sheet says he likes adventures. I think he’d probably have a hay day with pretty, polished, perfect Laura. Opposites attract, right?”
“I think she’d tell him to get a haircut.”
“Okay, then someone more made up. Hmm… what about Gavin?”
Dominic glanced at the picture. “He’s a pretty boy and not only that, but he looks exactly like Laura. I’m in the modeling business and I’ve never seen a guy with hair like that. Besides, she’d never go for a guy who is her carbon copy with a stick shift.”
“Right,” Christina said, stuffing the sheet back into the binder. “Then I think that Gregory and Michael are your prime choices, but I happen to know that Michael is pretty popular and it’ll be hard to get him. We’ll probably have to schedule him in advance if you want to line him up for a date in the future.”
“I want to see how tonight works out before I set up a schedule. I guess we’ll go with Gregory,” Dominic said wearily.
Christina got up and talked with the receptionist, but quickly returned to the chair beside Dominic. “It looks like Gregory is booked for tonight, and it goes without saying that Michael is. His schedule is booked solid for the next two weeks.”
“Every night for two weeks? What is the man—”
Christina interrupted him before he finished that thought, “Look, I saw him once. He clearly knows what he’s doing, but he’s probably not the best bet for the first night out of the gate. He’s too intense and too perfect at what he does. I think you should book him now, even if tonight doesn’t work and get him to take Laura out later on.”
“Fine,” Dominic said aggressively, like he was already tired of the escapade. “But who are we going to get for tonight if both those guys are taken?”
“There’s Daniel and Shane, but if Laura doesn’t like long hair than Daniel is out. However, I don’t think Shane is such a bad choice. He’s blond with big honest eyes. He looks like the boy-next-door, so he’s probably had plenty of women cry on him before. I’ll bet he knows all about healing a broken heart.”
“But is he available?”
The receptionist, obviously listening to their conversation, smiled and said, “Yes, he is. Would you like me to put a request through to him?”
“Right away,” Dominic said impatiently.
“We need to talk to him though,” Christina interjected as the receptionist started dialing. “He’ll be dating a girl with really specific needs and so he has to be careful in the way he treats her.”
“How does he need to treat her?” Dominic asked curiously.
Christina thought for a second before she responded, “He needs to know that she’s upset about Mark and feeling bad. He needs to pay attention to her body language and look carefully into her eyes when she talks about what’s wrong like he really wants to hear. Then when he gets a chance to say what he thinks of everything Mark did, he should be noisy about how he would never treat a woman that way and give a length, descriptive explanation about how he would treat someone he cared for. And he should bolster her confidence by complimenting her and letting her know how desirable she is.”
“Wow…” Dominic mouthed.
“Then after Shane,” Christina continued, “if it works out to your satisfaction, you should get Gregory, but his instructions should be different. He shouldn’t be comforting her. If she’s constantly being consoled than she won’t be able to stop thinking about Mark, so her date with Gregory should be all about distraction. You should know the kinds of things that interest her and would get her mind off Mark.”
“What about her date with Michael? What should that date be like?”
“Well, I don’t think you should double date that night. I think she should go on her own. Michael is smart. By the end of the night he’ll probably have her purring. He should wake her up to the idea she could be happy and attracted to someone who isn’t Mark.”
“So, what do I do when those three dates are over?”
“Set her up on a date with a guy who isn’t an escort and see how it goes.”
“And what if she falls in love with one of the escorts and is furious when she can’t have him?”
Christina sighed. “That’s a risk,” she stated baldly.
“Okay,” the receptionist said. “Shane’s booked.”
Dominic got up and made the final arrangements. He also booked Mindy, so everything was settled. When they were finished, Dominic said he had to go. He still had some things to do before the date that night.
“Wait,” Christina said, calling him back with only her voice. He was such a decisive guy she wasn’t sure if he’d stop, but he did. He carefully turned and looked at her through his yellow tinted glasses. He stood there waiting patiently for what she had to say. “I just wanted to know if you meant what you said earlier.”
“About?”
“The photo shoot,” Christina stammered.
“What about it?”
“It sounded like you thought Mark wouldn't be able to handle watching me model, or manage me.”
“I meant it. There’s no way you’ll still want him by the end of it. I promise. See ya later, Tina,” he said coolly as he disappeared onto the street.