Date Shark (26 page)

“Luke actually believes you and Leila are just friends?” Vance asked.

“I doubt it, but I think he realizes that Leila thinks we’re just friends.” Because that was all she would allow them to be. “Not to mention that when he asked her to stop spending time with me, she flat out refused.”

Vance grinned. “Did she now?”

“She did.” Eli was smiling as well.

For several moments they were both quiet. Eli couldn’t take his eyes off Leila. Stephanie talked way too much, but Leila never seemed to mind. She answered her questions, returned compliments, and enjoyed their friendship. It was encouraging to see Leila talk to another woman besides Ana. Making friends wasn’t easy for her, but luckily Stephanie had no sense of personal boundaries when it came to pushing her way into other people’s lives. She built friendships by sheer enthusiasm.

“You’ve done a great job with Leila,” Vance said as a psychiatrist name Karen Peterson approached the table and began speaking with Stephanie and Leila. “Look at how natural she is with everyone. She never would have considered attending an event like this when you first met her. She barely made it through that night at the club. It was obvious she felt intimidated by everyone. Now it’s like she’s been a part of poker night for years.”

Eli watched as Leila spoke easily with the woman. Stephanie had met Karen several times before at similar events, but Leila didn’t know the woman at all. He smiled as he watched her. There was none of the hesitation and hiding he had seen when she first met Vance and the others. Leila talked to her like an equal, which was perfectly fitting. Then he thought about Vance’s comment.

“I didn’t do anything with Leila—nothing more than be her friend, anyway,” he said.

Vance made it sound like he was secretly treating Leila, manipulating her into becoming more confident. That wasn’t it at all. He gave her advice like any friend would, encouraged her, and told her what a wonderful person she was. There was no trick to it, no treatment. It worked the same way beating down a person did. If you told someone something for long enough they eventually believe it, for better or worse. This time happened to be for the better.

“How’s the date shark thing going?” Vance asked.

The change in topic pulled Eli’s mind away from Leila. “I’ve only been doing lunch dates lately so I can spend time with Leila in the evenings, and only one or two a week. I’ve turned down at least a dozen in the past month.”

“You know you have to give it up before anything can happen with Leila.”

Eli bristled at the comment. Of course he knew. He and Vance had spent the last four months talking about him giving up the date shark business. Eli had tried. He thought it would be easy now that he had Leila in his life, but the wounds that inspired him to start the service in the first place went too deep to ignore.

“You can’t fix them,” Vance said. “And even if you could, it won’t change the fact that your mom is where she is.”

“Maybe I can’t fix them, but what if I can prevent them from ending up like her?”

The shake of Vance’s head was both sad and frustrated. “Eli, what is the first thing that has to happen before behavior can change.”

The answer rolled off Eli’s lips with practiced ease. “The patient has to want to change.”

“Exactly.”

“But they do want to change,” he argued. “Why else would they call me?”

Vance sighed. “They want you to give them the magic key to relationship happiness. They don’t want to change. They want to be less lonely. Most of them, anyway.” He glanced at Leila in concession.

“Leila doesn’t count,” Eli admitted. “There was nothing wrong with her. She just needed someone to believe in her.”

“If you agree that one date with a woman who has obvious psychological issues isn’t going to change anything, why are you still taking clients? Isn’t Leila worth giving that up for? You’re in love with her!”

The panic that welled up in Eli’s chest at his friend’s words sent his eyes snapping over to Leila. Thankfully, she was busy laughing with Karen and Stephanie and hadn’t heard Vance. All the same, Eli shoved his friend a little further away from the table before speaking in a low voice.

“Yes, Leila is worth giving up the date shark business, but it’s not that easy.”

Vance rested his hand on Eli’s shoulder. “I’m speaking as your psychiatrist now. This date shark thing is a substitute for your mom. We both know that. If you want to get over the obsessive need to save mentally unstable women, go talk to your mom.”

“No.”

“Eli, you need to.”

“I can’t.”

His friend looked past him, and Eli knew his eyes were resting on Leila. “You only have two months left before Ana’s fall show. If you’re not there, Leila will know she’s the reason. You promised me and yourself that you would tell her everything if it came to that. If you tell her you’re in love with her, but can’t give up your side business for her … it won’t end the way you want. You’ll lose her for good.”

“I know,” Eli said quietly.

A voice filled the room, announcing that it was time to begin. Everyone, including Eli, quickly found their seats. A hush spread over the room as the speaker introduced important people and laid out the schedule for the night. Eli heard little of what he said. His thoughts kept wandering to the future, and for the first time a real sense of fear that he would not meet his deadline crept into his mind.

Leila asking him a question after the speaker stepped down pulled him back toward the present, but the fear never left completely. Every time she touched him or leaned closer so he could hear her better, every time she laughed or smiled, he pushed his worry further back. Eventually it was enough that Eli could enjoy the evening. He listened to the keynote speaker, applauded when Edgar took the podium, and even found himself smiling when his mentor presented him with an award for distinguished service to the field of psychiatry. It helped that Leila was beaming at him the entire time.

By the end of the night, he was actually sad to see it end. The drive back to his apartment was quiet, but comfortable. It didn’t bother him that Leila nestled into her seat and closed her eyes when they got in. He loved that she felt comfortable enough with him to not try and fill the empty silence with small talk. The first step in trying to make Leila see him as someone she belonged with was to become her true and real friend. Knowing that she had accepted him as such was gratifying, but it had taken four months to get there. How long would it take before she would see him as anything more?

Eli pulled into his usual parking space before remembering Leila had probably left her car in the visitor’s lot. “I’m sorry, I forgot where you parked,” he said. “Would like me to drive you to your car?”

“Actually, is it too late to come up? I left all my clothes from earlier in your apartment.”

“If you’re tired I can bring them too you in the morning,” Eli offered, although inviting Leila up was an appealing idea.

Leila chewed at her lip, hesitating. Eli’s hope that the clothes weren’t only reason behind her desire to come up was dashed a moment later when she said, “I kind of needed your help with something for work, too. Ana and I couldn’t agree and I thought you could tell me which one was better. Do you mind?”

Not exactly what Eli had been hoping for, but it meant more time with Leila. “No, I don’t mind. Come on up.”

Eli remembered taking the stack of St. Claire embossed notebooks from Leila earlier that night, but hadn’t given them much thought at the time. He supposed he should have questioned why she would bring them up to his apartment. At the time he had been too surprised and thrilled to see her that it hadn’t occurred to him. As they sat down on the couch with the notebooks open, Eli wasn’t sure what Leila expected from him.

“What is all this?” he asked as he looked through dozens of different product logo designs.

“Ana is ready to retire the Bohemian Bead line and debut something new in the fall.”

Eli frowned. “I thought the bead stuff was doing well.”

“Oh it is,” Leila assured him, “but with fashion it’s best to go out before your sales start to drop. If customers are still adoring your current line when you switch they’re more likely to pick up your new line right away. The Bohemian Bead line won’t go extinct, it’ll just take a back seat to her new brand, Goldenline. It’s a retro style from the 30s and 40s with a contemporary face lift.”

The Golden Age of Hollywood. Eli had no trouble imagining what had inspired this new line. Clearly Ana had spent too much time watching classic movies with Leila. He smiled at the idea of Leila influencing such a major direction change in her boss’s career interests without her even realizing it. It was a thought that took an interesting turn, leading him to the beginnings of an idea.

“So, what I need your help with is to help me figure out which of these designs are the best,” Leila said. She looked at him expectantly.

Eli was lost. “What would I know about logos? Or color and design? I think we already established the fact that I can’t even choose my own clothing without screwing it up.”

The exaggerated roll of Leila’s eyes was amusing. “It was only that one outfit,” she said, “and I’m not asking you to help design anything. I need you to tell me what customers will think when
they see each of these designs so we can pick the one that draws the right response.”

“Oh.” Now that made sense to him. He sat forward on the couch and looked at the mockups again, this time was a more analytical eye.

First, he glanced through each image looking purely at the esthetics of each one. Of the twelve, he picked up four and set them aside with a quick explanation to Leila of why he had cut each one. The reasons varied from problems with symmetry to displeasing color combinations, or layouts that drew the eye to the wrong aspect. She agreed with each one. His second pass through looked more closely at fonts. Another three were removed because the fonts chosen evoked feelings of sadness because of drooping letters, tension from strict and compact lettering, and one because it looked so happy and bubbly that he felt it clashed with the idea of the line.

He stared at the remaining five, selected two more to cut, then looked over at Leila. “How am I doing? I haven’t cut the top choices, have I?”

“No. Those were the ones we threw out pretty fast as well.” She smiled and bumped against his shoulder. “See, you are good at this.”

“We’ll see.”

After yawning, Leila gestured at the remaining logos. “Tell me about the rest of these.”

“Okay, let’s start with this one.” He picked up the image and held it between them. “The color layout puts the focus on this flower in the corner. It’s big and gold. Yes, the gold inspires thoughts of wealth and society, but it completely drowns out the rest of the logo. No one will pay attention to the brand name, they’ll only remember the giant golden rose. And even though the rose is gold, is doesn’t translate to Goldenline naturally.”

Leila’s body tensed up immediately. At first Eli thought he had said something to offend her, but then she spilled out her frustration. “That is one of the arguments I’ve been having with Ana. She wants a rose because roses are classic. She thinks a classic rose will remind them of classic movies.”

“Nine times out of ten, people see roses and think of love and romance. For people like you that might bring up thoughts of Bing Crosby and Audrey Hepburn, but for most it won’t. Roses are too strong of a symbol by themselves to try and attach it to something else.”

“Thank you,” Leila said, dropping back against the couch looking quite vindicated.

One more glance at the remaining two logos made him realize that they also had roses. “What flower do you want to use?” he asked.

Leila chewed at her lip. “Tell me about the other two first, and then I’ll show you.”

“Okay,” he said, not totally sure why she wouldn’t tell him then. But he did as she requested.

The next logo he picked up was better, but still not what he wanted to see. “This one, I don’t care for the brand name being written in gold. It doesn’t stand out enough. The white background makes it look dull and this deep reddish color inspires darker emotions. Together they remind me of a funeral.”

“Well, we definitely don’t want to bring up thoughts of death with the new line, so that one’s out.” She looked at the last remaining image. “What about that one?”

Eli picked it up and examined it carefully. “The maroon background could be slightly lighter to give an impression of opulence without detracting from the rest of the logo. I like the brand name in white with the gold line under it. The name stands out very sharply and the line emphasizes it and ties it to the name. The rose still doesn’t work, though.”

He set the logo back down and looked over at Leila. She sighed. “That’s the logo Ana wants, but I agree with you. It’s not perfect.”

She took the image from the table and stared at it. “It’s no problem to lighten the maroon. I see what you mean about it being too dark. It misses that universally royal shade. I doubt Ana will have a problem with that.”

“It’s the flower she’s stuck on, right?”

Leila nodded.

“Show me your idea.”

Still somewhat hesitant, Leila removed a piece of paper from another folder and held it. She looked over at Eli very seriously. “You have to be honest.”

“I will,” he promised.

Leila held it for a few more seconds before handing it over with a nervous huff. She seemed unsure that he would like it, but as soon as Eli looked down he knew she had hit the mark exactly. The big white flower corresponded to the brand name and helped to tone down the maroon. And in the center was a golden yellow tuft of pollen atop a stem. It was exactly what the other logos had been missing. It tied the name of the line to the image perfectly.

“What is this flower?” Eli asked. The large, broad petals looked familiar, but he couldn’t place them.

“It’s a magnolia. It reminded me of Marilyn Monroe’s famous white dress. You know, the one she wore standing over the air grate.”

Eli laughed when he realized how right she was. The layered, curled petals looked exactly like Marilyn’s dress as it billowed up, tantalizing everyone who looked with the promise of even more luscious skin being revealed. Even the pollen tuft in the center resembled Marilyn’s bleach blonde hair. The magnolia was exactly what Ana needed to pull customers in.