The Messy Maiden (4 page)

W
hen Saskia logged
on to her computer at work there was a tentative meeting request for a Wednesday lunch with Ian. It was coded private so anyone else checking her schedule wouldn’t see who it was with or what it was for.

She’d give him points for not being careless. And also for making it so she could quietly decline and neither of them ever had to mention it again. She stared at the invite for a while, undecided. Dating was a complication she literally didn’t have time for. Did that mean she was destined to be dateless until she shut down the website? That didn’t seem fair, and yet that was turning into her reality. Dates usually happened when she was working online.

Except for lunch.

Lunch was fairly safe. It wasn’t like they were going to start talking sexual fetishes—and if they did she was out of there. That was not a first date topic. Or even a second date topic.

She ignored the request and responded to a few emails, typed up three letters, and then watched as Ian walked past her desk on his way to get coffee. It was only when he’d gone past that she released the breath she’d been holding. He hadn’t said anything; he hadn’t even glanced at her…okay he’d been talking to another auditor about one of their clients but still. Not even a glance?

Was he ignoring her until she accepted the invitation?

Maybe he was playing it cool at work, that was the smart thing to do, but he’d been quite happy to come after her on Friday night. The memory of him calling out her name still made her smile and her heart flutter in delight.

He walked back to his office alone, his charcoal grey suit immaculate and hiding what must be great body if he truly cycled. His dark hair was pushed back, the ends almost brushing his collar. His stubble was carefully trimmed. No, not classically handsome as there were too many edges. However she suspected that he’d caught the gaze of more than one female in the office. This time as he passed her desk he gave her a small smile. Nothing more than a polite acknowledgement that she existed. It set her heart racing anew.

God she was pathetic. Insta-lust in the workplace was never a good idea. Even if was only her work place temporarily. Three more weeks.

The idea of multiple lunch dates with him was far too appealing. Just lunch. They didn’t have to do anything else. It would be nice to date…a real date with a real person who wasn’t using a fake name and hiding their identity.

The older secretary cleared her throat and Saskia realized that she was still gazing into space where Ian had been.

Before she could change her mind she accepted the meeting.

W
ednesday was usually
a nothing day of the week. Halfway to the weekend. Saskia didn’t like wishing her life away—and trying to race through five days just to live it up on two was exactly that—but this week Monday and Tuesday had really dragged their heels.

She tried not to dress any better, but she made sure that instead of being in strictly boring office wear she put on nice underwear, not that he was going to see, and nicer earrings. Small things that he wouldn’t notice, but that made her feel like this was less of a business lunch and more of a date. Things that made her feel special.

By agreement she waited until he’d left the office before she went to lunch. He’d picked a café a short walk away and had taken a table away from the counter. Should anyone walk in hopefully they’d be too busy reading the specials board to notice them.

She, however, spotted him straight away. He already had menus on the table and a bottle of water. Given that they only had one hour that was a smart move. Should she have expected less from him? Of course he’d be organized so they could make the most of the time they had.

A smile formed on her lips and her chest grew tight as she walked over. She couldn’t help it. When she looked at him her body took over and her brain seemed to switch off. It took a moment, but she realized she had the first date jitters. Unlike the last couple of dates she’d been on, which had been set up by her well-meaning friends, she was hoping that this went well and that they’d get to do it again in the near future and she hadn’t even sat down yet.

Saskia gave her palms a surreptitious wipe on her skirt, before she moved into Ian’s line of sight. He smiled as she approached. The light in the café was making the difference in his eyes stand out. He had sunglasses in the pocket of his jacked. She swallowed as memories of her messages with Numbers101 snagged in her mind. She had a chat scheduled with him later this week.

Would Ian view her other job as cheating if the two of them got serious?

She pushed the thought aside. She’d cross that bridge if and when they got serious. That said, she didn’t want to become emotionally invested in a guy who couldn’t deal with her second job. This is why dating had become awkward for her. At what point did it become something that needed to be discussed?

She inhaled and sat. First date. One thing at a time. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He was smiling, and he looked just a little relieved that she’d shown up.

“Got any recommendations?” She was guessing he’d been here before. On other lunch dates or just to grab something for himself? Surely if he was a serial office dater she’d have heard some gossip over the last week. So far she’d heard none about him and she’d made sure to listen.

“The paninis are pretty good, and quick too.”

“That sounds like a good idea then.” She scanned the sandwich section and saw the paninis alongside the more usual steak sandwiches and fries. “The grilled vegie one looks good.”

“Are you vegetarian?” His eyebrows drew a little closer together.

“Is that a deal breaker?”

He shook his head.

“I’m not…I was going to ask them to add turkey to it.” She grinned. And maybe extra cheese. If she ate enough at lunch she could just skip the tragedy of cooking dinner for one tonight and just have a can of soup.

“Good I won’t feel bad about getting the three meats then.” He glanced at her, the smile on his lips reaching his eyes.

The waitress took their order and for a few moments they were alone—surrounded by the other diners and the people in line at the counter who weren’t stopping—but they were more alone than they ever had been.

She swallowed, realized her mouth was now a little dry and took a sip of water. “So, did you have a good ride on the weekend?”

“I did. Beautiful weather for it too, not too hot or cold. It’s lovely along the coast this time of year.”

“Did you drive to the coast first?”

“Change of scenery. I don’t mind the drive. I ride for a few hours, stop for lunch and a stretch then head home. In summer I might go for a swim. There’s usually a group of us, but sometimes it’s nice to go alone.”

That filled her with a lovely image of Ian getting out the ocean in his bathers. Was he a budgie smugglers or board shorts man? It was her private fantasy so she went with the smallest bathers possible.

“And that’s how you spend every weekend?”

“Saturdays, unless I’m going to a football game. During the week I go to the gym, but I prefer to get out. I’ve also gone inland to the mountains. But I usually make a weekend of it and stay overnight. How did your paint shopping go?”

The trouble with hardware stores was that most of the guys there assumed that as a chick she needed everything explaining to her. What they didn’t realize is that she was the maintenance man in her house. Nor did she need the different types of paints and preps explained to her. She’d repainted the house when she’d bought it as the original walls had been pale pink. She’d been lucky that the bathroom tiles were white, as she wasn’t ready to gut bathrooms or the kitchen. That would involve more work than she was ready for. Plus she hadn’t wanted the down time from her business, the one that was paying for her mortgage.

“Pretty good. I picked up some sample pots and did a few tests on the wall I want to paint.” The wall behind her bed was going to be a pearly shade of something. Right now she was leaning towards the sea green. The gold was a bit too much and as much as liked the lilac in the sample on the wall it was just wrong. Purple wasn’t her color in any shade apparently.

“So now you have to paint because you’ve made a mess.”

“Yep.” That would be this weekend’s job. It didn’t sound half as much fun as getting out and going somewhere new. When was the last time she’d gone for a day trip on a weekend? Not since she’d started her own business.

While she didn’t like to ask for breaks between temp jobs, maybe she’d get lucky and get a few days off. Then she’d get out of the city for a day.

The waitress put their meals on the table. And for a few minutes they ate. He’d been rights about the paninis. They were good and had plenty of cheese; some places were a bit stingy.

One thought had been crawling around her head as he’d talked about cycling. She watched him for a moment and made sure that he hadn’t just taken a mouthful of food.

“I have to know. Do you shave your legs?” She knew that some cyclists did, how serious was he about his riding?

“Is that going to be a deal breaker?”

She had no idea. Would they both be in the bathroom doing their legs? She almost choked on the idea. Her clients wouldn’t want to be watching Ian in her bathroom. She shook her head and took a drink of water. “Why, surely a little hair wouldn’t really matter to your speed?”

“It’s not about wind resistance—not unless you’re super competitive. It about what happens when you hit the road. It makes the abrasion easier to clean and bandage.”

Oh…well that made things a little more serious. “Have you ever come off?”

“Plenty of times. Want to see the scars?” He winked with his green eye.

“We don’t want to scare the other patrons.” But she did want to see the scars…or more correctly she’d like to see him out of the suit.

Ian laughed. “Good point. Got any dangerous hobbies?”

Nothing. She had no hobbies except researching what food she should use for her next video. She was thinking either chocolate mousse or tiramisu for Friday, although part of her thought that lemon meringue pie would be fun. Crunchy meringue and squishy filling. Plus pie crust. She loved pie crust.

“I like cooking and experimenting with new recipes.” Not a total lie, but not particularly close to the truth either.

He glanced down for a moment. “Cooking is more fun when it’s not for one.”

“Yeah. I cook and freeze because I don’t want to eat the same thing all week.”

“I stick to stir-fry or things like steak and salad. I try not to do too many premade meals.”

“It’s an easy trap.” But they were loaded with salt or sugar or ingredients that you needed to be a chemist to understand.

He nodded but the talk of being single had taken the shine of the conversation as if they were both reviewing the lameness of their lives outside of work and hobbies. She needed to get a fun hobby so she’d have something to talk about.

“We’ve still got some time. Should we get dessert?” As she said it she immediately thought of Numbers101 and his request. She shouldn’t be thinking of him while with Ian. Her gaze flicked to the sunglasses in his pocket. The dark red arm stood out against the navy blue pinstripe of his suit jacket. They weren’t the sunnies that Numbers101 wore; they were some polarized surf brand.

And yet…she tried to picture Ian in his sunglasses. No, they weren’t the same guy. She’d know, or he’d have said something. She wished she could see him with his sunnies on just to be sure. Why was she being so paranoid? She hadn’t been like this since she first started being the Messy Maiden. After a while she’d realized that guys using her site probably had a bigger reputation to ruin than her. Besides she could deny that she was the Messy Maiden as it wasn’t her credit card getting deducted each month.

“I wasn’t going to suggest in case you were one of…” The words faded away and she knew exactly what he’d been thinking.

“I just ate three quarters of a panini. I eat. I don’t live on salads and sure as hell don’t skip dessert.” She looked him in the eye and bit back the smile—he wouldn’t want to know what else she did with dessert. “I don’t share either.”

“Neither do I.” His smile was back.

She’d definitely had worse first dates. They’d found things to talk about and she still liked him.

The waitress came and cleared away their plates and took their dessert order. She ordered the lemon meringue—she was calling it research—and Ian ordered the choc-caramel cheesecake.

Her heart almost stopped. She glanced at him. Seriously, cheesecake. The nerves were back for an entirely different reason. No, plenty of guys liked cheesecake, she was over reacting. However in that moment she was sure she could still smell the chocolate topping on her skin.

Ian caught her staring. “Do I have food on my face?”

He picked up the napkin.

“No. I just hadn’t picked you for a cheesecake kind of guy.”

“I have a sweet tooth.” He shrugged. “Dessert has always been my weakness.”

When he looked at her there was something in his eyes, almost as though he was daring her to make the connection. For a moment she wanted to run. He couldn’t know who she was. She was too careful. There was no way she could date a client.

She sipped her water and pretended that his admission meant nothing to her. He’d probably be shocked if he knew that she was picturing him as one of her clients. Yeah, she was definitely reading too much into this. It really had been too long since she’d been on a date if she was suspecting any man who asked her out of knowing who she was online.

The smile and the glint in his eyes faded and an awkward silence formed.

I
an was
sure that he’d said the wrong thing. She’d almost flinched at the word dessert, but instead of cracking the door open she’d slammed it shut leaving the conversation nowhere to go. Had he tipped his hand too soon? If it wasn’t her, then his admission shouldn’t have drawn that reaction. She was giving him no clues.

He had to be way off base.

And as he looked at her he realized he was okay with that. He didn’t need them to be the same women, but he did want another date with Saskia.