The following evening…
It should’ve been criminal to be this nervous. It wasn’t as if I’d never been on a date before, but this was different.
Aaron Goode drove me up the wall. He made me angrier than I’d ever been with a man before, and I wasn’t sure if that was because we were so similar personality-wise or if he was just that annoying. But if he was that annoying, I would never have agreed to go on a date with him in the first place.
A part of me really liked the guy.
Besides, this date would distract me from Gamma’s absence today and her dodging my questions about why she hadn’t gone on the recon mission with me last night.
I exhaled slowly and checked my reflection in the mirror over my dressing table.
Sunlight and Cocoa Puff sat on my bed, watching with varying degrees of interest as I studied my reflection.
I had chosen a pair of jeans and a silk blouse. A nice change from my usual pair of jeans and t-shirt look. I had thrown on some makeup, styled my hair, and even spritzed on perfume and borrowed a golden bracelet from Lauren. More like she’d forced it on me.
I’d taken the bracelet as a concession to get her to not try to style my hair in a fantastic beehive. How she thought she’d get that right with my thin blonde locks was another question entirely.
“You can do this,” I said to my reflection, pointing. “It will be fine.”
This morning, I had called the leader of the anime club and found out that Mrs. Cruz was, indeed, telling the truth. She met with them at a hotel in the town over where they would gather, dressed up as their favorite characters, and discuss the show they were watching.
When I’d asked about the show itself, he’d yelled, “Subs before dubs!” Whatever that meant.
Regardless, I could officially cross Mrs. Cruz off my suspect list.
A good thing.
I gave each of the kitties a kiss then exited my bedroom and started down the stairs. Detective Goode had said he would pick me up in the foyer.
This was silly. I should’ve been calling him Aaron at this point, but it felt like… I would be giving something up if I did. That didn’t make much sense, but oh well.
Goode was in the foyer as promised, looking dapper in a buttoned long sleeve shirt and a pair of jeans. The scent of his cologne drifted over, and I swallowed, offering him a smile that I hoped didn’t come across as too nervous.
“Smith,” he said. “You look great.”
“Such a charmer,” I replied, sarcastically.
“Uh oh. What did I do?”
“Nothing,” I said, relaxing my shoulders. “You look good too.”
“You hear that?” Goode asked, cupping a hand to his ear. “That’s the sound of pigs flying. I can’t believe you just complimented me.”
“Don’t start,” I replied, laughing.
The ice was officially broken.
Goode and I kept a respectable distance from each other and headed out into the night. I got into his car, a white hatchback, and we drove off. Goode hit the button for the stereo and music flooded the car.
“So,” he said, “I know there isn’t much to choose from in this town, food-wise. Did you have anywhere in mind?”
“The most popular place is the Hungry Steer.”
“Oh yeah? I’ve been there a couple of times,” he said. “The burgers are pretty good.”
“Burgers sound great.” My stomach actually grumbled, and I blushed. What the heck? I never blushed about food. Food was one of the great joys of life. Food and cats.
We drove in nervous silence to the Hungry Steer.
Goode leaped out of the car, raced around to my side, and opened the door for me.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said.
“I wanted to.” A warm smile parted his lips, and the butterflies in my stomach decided to put on a gymnastic performance.
Oh boy, was I in trouble with this guy.
We entered the Hungry Steer, with its country Christmas music, hay bales, and cute booths with red vinyl seats, and took a place near the back. Not too close to the bathroom or kitchen doors, but close enough. It was a Friday night, and the place was busy enough. Heads turned, intrigued gazes wandered our way.
I’d banked on people gossiping, but yeah, I was pretty sure my date with Goode would be headline news by tomorrow morning.
An elderly woman nearby removed her phone from her purse and began typing away frantically, glancing at us every few taps of her thumbs on the screen.
Make that headline news within the hour.
A server sidled over to us and took our order, root beer and two bacon burgers with fries, and then we were alone.
“So,” I said, “how was your day?”
“Good,” he replied, easily. “Good as it can be when I’ve got a murder case.”
“I heard about that.”
“Oh? I bet you did.” Goode laughed. “You’ve heard about every case I’ve been involved in.”
I didn’t blush about that at all. “That’s… well.”
“Well?”
Did I say it outright? He would find out anyway, wouldn’t he? Surely, the rumors about me being a problem fixer had already reached his ears. But to tell him that that was what I wanted to do as a job?
“Nothing.”
“Go ahead,” Goode said. “I can tell you want to say something important.”
Was it important? It’s only your future, Charlie.
A future that I had yet to discuss with Gamma because she was never around these days. Right before Christmas too.
“I’m a fixer,” I said, blurting it out.
“Huh? Like… a handywoman?”
“No,” I laughed. “I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about me around town, but yeah. I help people by fixing their problems. They hire me to find out the truth about things, or if they’ve lost something to find it, that kind of thing. That’s why you think I’ve been involved in your cases. I was just doing my job.”
“Right.” He glanced away, irritably.
“What?”
“Nothing, it’s just that that job already exists. It’s called being a law enforcement official.”
“That’s not entirely true,” I said. “I do things that officers can’t.”
“You mean that you break the law.”
Openly hostile on a date. Nice.
“OK,” I said. “If that’s how you want to see it. I help people.”
“By breaking the law.”
I glared at him, burning hot all over. “Are you good? You’re being kind of rude.”
“I’m being rude,” he said. “Sure. I’m the one being rude. Do you know what your problem is, Charlotte? You think that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, without consequence. You act like you know better than everyone else. Than the police. That’s the reason you got arrested not so long ago.”
“Excuse me, but last we spoke, you thanked me for helping you,” I said. “Where’s the gratitude now?”
He opened his mouth to respond, but I shoved up from the table and slipped out of the booth.
“Forget I asked,” I said. “This was a mistake, Goode. Don’t bother asking me out again because I won’t say yes.” And with that, I marched from the Hungry Steer, hunger forgotten and shame burning hot in the corners of my eyes.