The Random Acts of Cupid (Christian Romance) (5 page)

Elise felt a jolt of fear. Maybe he was right. She tried so hard to make her matches in ways to wouldn’t compromise her faith or ethics, but maybe she was wrong to do any of it.

“Ryan, would you please reserve your judgment of me for twenty-four hours?” Elise asked calmly and quietly. “Then I give you permission to rant and rave and lecture me all you want.”

“Fine.” Ryan replied, though his tone suggested his attitude about their arrangement was anything but fine. “But you can’t exactly expect me to be a silent observer.”

“Of course I don’t. You can talk or ask whatever questions you like. I would just prefer to postpone questioning my character and labeling me a liar until you really know me.”

Ryan’s brooding silence was his only response.

“Look at them, Ryan,” Elise urged, as she moved over a few inches so he could see past the end of the bookcase to the window of the study room.

Ryan moved closer, his arm brushing hers.

Elise spoke softly. “Do you think they really care that they were set up and the rest of the group isn’t going to be here?”

It looked as if Clay and Shelby had completely forgotten they were supposed to be studying. But even from a distance, the smiles on their faces were obvious. Clay looked as if he’d just found out he was heir to a fortune, and the soft glow on Shelby’s face was reminiscent of what Snow White must have looked like when first awakened to find her prince.

“They’ve been needing an excuse to break the ice and be together for months. All I did was provide a time and place for them to meet and get past the awkwardness. From here on out, they’re on their own.”

“What will you do when they find out there wasn’t really a study group session today?”

Elise shrugged. “I doubt they’ll even bother looking into it. They’ll probably be too occupied with each other to think it anything other than good fortune. If they come ask me, I’ll just show them the schedule that says this room was reserved for their group. Their leader isn’t very organized anyway. This isn’t the first time one of their study sessions hasn’t happened as scheduled. It’s just the first time Clay and Shelby have been able to reap the benefits.”

“Congratulations, Miss Hutchins. That’s quite impressive. You’ve managed to successfully deceive two people and justify it as being for their own good. I don’t know that I’ve seen a hardened criminal do such a brilliant job of appeasing his own conscience.”

Elise met his eyes, and for a brief moment, she forgot to mask the hurt that was surely reflected in her own. Then she turned around and left.

This wasn’t going to work. Ryan had already made his mind up about her, and now it was apparent that nothing she could say or do would change that.

Elise sped back down the staircase and to the front doors, attracting strange looks from those she passed. She didn’t know if the attention was because she was obviously upset or because her wet hair was plastered to her scalp. She figured she must look terrible, but right now, she just wanted to make it to her car before she let loose in a good tear fest.

Ryan’s hand on her upper arm stopped her right before she left the shelter of the library and headed back down the front steps and into the rain.

“Wait, Elise.”

Elise turned around, but she kept her eyes lowered and focused on breathing deeply. If he said one more hurtful thing, she’d lose what little control she had left.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I agreed to give you twenty-four hours before I made any final judgments, and I still intend to do that.”

Ryan’s words and sincere tone brought Elise’s head up to cautiously scan his face. His brow was furrowed in regret, and his hazel eyes were gentle, expressing concern for her.

“I know I can tend to be judgmental,” Ryan continued with a grimace. “I guess it’s a side effect of the job. But the real problem is probably that I feel very disillusioned about you. My impression of you had been that of a nice, shy, Christian girl with great integrity. Then to find evidence to the contrary has shaken me. I’m not accustomed to being wrong in reading people.”

In almost a reflex, Elise opened her mouth to defend her character, but Ryan held up his hand to stop her.

“That being said, you were right. All of my opinions of you so far have not been based on first-hand experience. I haven’t given you a chance to defend yourself. So if the offer still stands, I would like to give you that opportunity. And I will do my best to keep from handing down a verdict until this time tomorrow.”

Elise was quiet a moment. She was never one to hold a grudge. And, although she was still afraid that, in the end, his opinion of her wouldn’t change, she had to at least try.

“Do you have plans tonight?” Elise asked.

“No,” Ryan replied hesitantly, appearing a bit wary of her sudden subject change. “But I thought you were just talking about tomorrow afternoon.”

“No, that would be a waste of a good eighteen hours,” Elise replied with a smile. “I still have plans for tonight. I need to run home and change clothes, but can you meet me at the Paramount Theatre? I’ll leave a ticket for you at the Will Call. The show starts at 7:30.”

Though still reluctant, Ryan agreed.

As Elise left him and ran across Red Square once more, she realized that Chandra had gotten her wish. For as much as Elise longed to go to the show by herself, she had a date.

The downside of being in her seat at the theater early was that Elise then had to nervously wait for Ryan. Would he even come, or would he just not show up?  Then, if he did come, would he find her other matchmaking ploys unethical as well? Added to this was the knowledge that Ryan was an extremely attractive man, and she was going to have to sit close beside him for the entire duration of the show. And that was enough to make her shaky and a little nauseous.

Elise didn’t date much. It might be more accurate to say she didn’t date at all. She never had. Being brutally honest with herself, she knew her lack of a social life was really her own fault. Even after all these years, she was still painfully shy. If a man happened to glance her way, which didn’t seem to occur very often, she ducked her head and pretended to ignore him. Yes, she knew it was childish. And yes, she sometimes got really mad at herself over it. But she could never seem to talk herself out of her same reclusive behavior. She could acknowledge full responsibility and blame, and yet she felt helpless to change.

Elise reached her hand to the back of her hair, checking to make sure no stray hairs had escaped the loose up-do.  She shivered. It was cool in the theater, and even though she’d worn her white shawl, the material of her dress wasn’t exactly designed for winter wear. But Elise had wanted to look nice. Her vanity and sense of fashion had won out over comfort when she’d put on her delicately embroidered white gown. As much as she wanted to deny it, she’d worn her best for Ryan.

Although Elise kept reminding herself that this was not a date, it still didn’t help her apprehension. As silly as it sounded, Elise wanted Ryan to like her; not necessarily romantically, she was too realistic for that. But she did want to have his respect. Knowing that anyone would question her character and think so ill of her was extremely hurtful. Knowing that someone was just about the most handsome man she’d ever seen made it even worse.

“So what’s the mission, Cupid?” the quiet voice at her ear startled her. Their seats were close to the aisle, and Ryan had seized the opportunity of the empty seats behind her and snuck up. Obviously enjoying her reaction of surprise, Ryan came around the aisle and slid into the seat beside her. “So we’re seeing ‘Warhorse’? I’ve heard it’s a great show. But I somehow don’t think you invited me here to trick me into a date. Though, considering your record, maybe you would?”

Elise knew he was teasing, but she couldn’t help the wide-eyed blush she knew flooded her face. She would have never tricked Ryan into a date with her, but that didn’t mean the mere sight of him didn’t send her heart aflutter. Whether at church or the library, Elise had always seen Ryan in a suit. Tonight was no different, except that it looked to be a more formal suit, a tux. And the man made that tux look incredible.

Taking her reaction as a denial, Ryan continued. “So if the pleasure of my company isn’t your purpose, why are we here?”

Elise handed him a pair of opera glasses. “Look below on the orchestra level, about halfway between us and the stage.”

Elise waited while Ryan tried to locate their target. She had chosen their seats well. They would have a great view of the stage and the matchmaking scene Elise had planned  It was a beautiful, massive theater with gorgeous architecture that had a way of making one feel wealthy and elegant simply by being there. The soft glow of the lights made everything look golden, and Elise could easily develop a crick in her neck from studying the beautiful artistic detailing on the ceiling. Everything considered, it was a very romantic setting—perfect for what Elise had planned.

“Is that . . . the youth minister from church?”

“Yes, Clint Evers is our youth minister,” Elise admitted as she lifted up her own pair of binoculars. “Oh, good. Here she comes up the aisle on the right.”

“Who?”

“Janice Pasco. She also goes to church. I’m sure you’ve at least seen her in passing at some of the singles functions.”

Ryan was silent as they both watched with rapt attention as Janice found her seat beside Clint. Clint immediately stood up, his body language showing his surprise and his smile showing his pleasure. After speaking for a few moments, both Clint and Janice sat in their seats, but their faces remained turned toward each other in a conversation that painted both of their expressions with what could only be described as a glow.

“So they obviously didn’t come together,” Ryan surmised, lowering the glasses. “I take it you arranged a ‘chance’ meeting.’”

Elise nodded. “Clint has liked Janice for a while now, but she had a boyfriend. The boyfriend was a jerk and didn’t treat Janice well at all. They finally broke up a few months back, but it left Janice very hurt and fearful of relationships. Clint has wanted to ask her out for a long time, but now he’s afraid it’s too soon. He doesn’t want to be the rebound guy, but he isn’t sure how long Janice will need to heal. Janice likes Clint, but she’s so nervous after her last relationship that she’s not sure she can handle another one. She’s already come a long way since her breakup, but now both she and Clint seem at a stalemate. Both are waiting for some kind of sign from the other, and both are terrified of giving that sign.”

“So how did you get them both here?”

Elise took a deep breath. Ryan wasn’t acting offended, at least so far. He just seemed interested. But she knew that if he was going to object, it would be over her methods.

“They both love theater, and they really wanted to see ‘Warhorse,’ which of course, has been sold out for a while. I sent each of them a ticket, saying in a note that it was a gift given by someone who wished to remain anonymous. Neither one of them knew the other one was coming. It’s my hope that, after having the opportunity to ‘accidentally’ spend the evening together and enjoy the show, they’ll be able to continue the relationship on their own.”

“How do you know all this stuff, Elise? I mean this is personal. Their likes, their histories. Not to mention their attraction to one another. Do you have some kind of magic power over people that they will automatically open up to you, or are you actually a mind reader?”

Elise shrugged. “I’m not a mind reader, but I guess I’m pretty good at both watching and listening.”

“But how do you even know they like each other?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Even now, you can look at their body language like their goofy smiles and the way they are using exaggerated hand gestures. If you’re close to them, you can also see the attraction in their eyes. I read once that if someone feels attraction, the pupils of their eyes dilate. I guess I’m good at picking up that kind of thing.”

“But what about the details? How do you set something like this up? How did you know they both wanted to come to this show? How do you even know Janice is ready?”