A Gentleman's Affair (2 page)

I make my way into the kitchen only to find
Lily cooking away as if nothing had happened. “Lily, everything
under control here?” I look around and see no evidence of any fire
left.

“Yes, sir.” Lily nods, then explains that it
was nothing more than a kitchen towel that got too close to a flame
and that it was put out before it even started. She adds, “I told
Patrice not to bother you, but she insisted.”

“That’s alright, Lily…no harm done.” I take
a last look before thanking her for being so quick on her feet,
then I leave the kitchen and make my way to the elevator.

The elevator doors open and I walk across
the hall to the door of my suite. I occupy the entire top floor of
my hotel, in fact. But I’ll get into that later.

I check my cell for messages before jumping
into the shower to prepare for my date later tonight…hmm, no
message from her yet. Even though we barely spoke, I got the sense
that she was a nice girl. No harm in a meal, in any case.

After my shower and a quick shave, I splash
on some cologne before smoothing my unruly thick hair with a little
gel. I think that it’s time for a haircut. I’ll have to let Patrice
know that she needs to call the salon for me and make an
appointment. I walk back into the bedroom to check my cell again. I
see that I have a message and that it’s from her. I listen to my
voicemail, jotting down her address and cell number on a pad of
paper. Deciding to get dressed before I return her call, I go over
to my large walk-in closet to choose an outfit for the date.

Already having an idea of what I want to
wear, I decide on a midnight blue button-down dress shirt with a
black silk tie. The blue in the shirt will set off my blue eyes…or
so my ex who bought me the shirt always had said that it did. I
take out a pair of jeans, my favorite pair of black Bruno Magli
shoes, and I get dressed.

Now that I’m dressed and ready, I call
Louisa to make arrangements for tonight. She is staying at her
friend’s place, which is close to the hotel, and we decide to meet
in thirty minutes which just gives me time to check on a few things
downstairs before I leave.

I take the elevator down to the lobby and go
straight to the front desk to go over the schedule with Renee for
next week. Normally I don’t handle these things, but we have four
new employees and I need to make sure that they have been worked
into the schedule properly. I check the time on my watch—time to
go. I excuse myself and leave the hotel, walking to my private
covered parking area that is out back past the fountain and the
garden area. I get into my Hummer, deciding that my McClaren is too
showy for a first date. Well, at least for this particular date. I
don’t know anything about this girl—best to play everything down,
at least until I know more about her. 

On the drive over, I think about where I
should take her for dinner. I’ve been so busy I completely forgot
to make reservations somewhere, and even though the restaurant in
my hotel has the best food in town, I think that taking her there
goes under the category of me being “showy”.

I’ve got the perfect place…Duke’s on Pacific
Coast Highway. It’s very close to my hotel, on the beach…very good
food. Plus I’m very good friends with the owner, so I never need a
reservation there. Duke’s it is.

I pull up at the address that Louisa had
given me, and she’s already waiting outside for me so I pull up
along the curb and put my Hummer in park. Being the gentleman that
I am, I get out to walk around and open her door. She’s wearing a
tight, sexy, extremely low-cut black dress. Her long dark hair has
soft curls that cascade down past her shoulders. She looks
amazing…

“You look beautiful, Louisa.” I open the
door and give her my hand to help her up into the Hummer. If I’m
being honest here, I did check out her ass as she climbed in. Don’t
judge, I’m a guy…that’s what we do.

“Thank you, Donovan.” She winks at me as she
flashes a very flirtatious smile.

I smile back, tell her to buckle up then
walk around getting back into the Hummer.

“Have you ever been to Duke’s?” I ask, as I
pull away from the curb driving back to PCH.

“No, but I’ve heard about it. My roommate
loves it there.” She turns to sit sideways in the passenger seat so
that she’s now facing me…obviously she wants to check out the
goods. I pretend not to notice.

“Ahh, I see. Tell me about your roommate and
what really brought you here.” I turn onto PCH, listening intently
as she explains.

“Well to be honest, I came here to get away
from an ex. Well, him and…” She frowns, shaking her head. “I found
out that he was fucking my mom, so I decided to leave and come
here. My friend, Tasha, has been begging me to move here forever
anyway.”

What the fuck? She turns and stares out the
window at the water. The sun is just setting and there is a shimmer
on the waves that’s just hypnotizing this time of the day. I’d like
to go jump in right about now, actually.

“I, uh…I don’t know how to respond to that.”
Nice to meet you too. That’s what’s called TMI to the tenth power.
“I’m sorry to hear that…I can’t even begin to imagine what it was
like to find that out.”

“Yeah, sorry I even brought it up, I don’t
even know what made me blurt that out.” She begins to laugh.
“Sometimes when I’m nervous, I say the stupidest things.” 

“Don’t even worry about it, Louisa. It’s all
good.” What the hell else can I say to that? Thank fuck we’re at
the restaurant. I need a drink. 

Now inside, I see that Claudine is
hostessing tonight, and she quickly seats us at a small table along
the window…the best seats in the house. The ocean view here is the
perfect setting for a date.

“It’s good to see you again, Mr. Hart.” She
smiles as she hands us menus, asking if I want to see the wine
list, or do I want my usual bottle?

“My usual sounds perfect. Thank you,
Claudine.” Without thinking, I shoot her an innocent wink—bad date
form. I hope that Louisa missed it. “I’m sorry, do you drink wine?”
I ask her. She nods and says that she drinks anything…followed with
a sort of snort/chuckle combo. Whoa. 

“Perfect.” I look down at the menu hoping
that I was the only one that caught that hyena-like shrill that
just came out of this beautiful girl’s mouth. I decide to ignore
it…

“So…what are you going to have?” I try to
redirect the conversation, hoping that she doesn’t bring up her
mother again. “Everything here is really good.”

“Oh, I don’t know…it all sounds good. You
order for me, ‘kay?” Her eyes widen as the server fills our glasses
with Veuve Clicquot. “It’s about time.” She smiles as she takes her
gum out of her mouth, wrapping it up in a cloth napkin before
picking up her glass taking a long, long…long drink. Oh boy.

“I think we’re ready to order.” I’m not
letting the server get away. I have a feeling that this will be a
quick date.

“We’ll start off with the Layered Seafood
Cocktail, and we’ll both have the Seven Spice Ahi with the
Macadamia Nut Roasted Broccolini and the Five Cheese Mac.” I hand
the server the menus and thank her, followed with a wink. Fuck, I
did it again. 

In my defense, I’m a natural born flirt, but
when in a relationship, I am 100 percent committed. Now that we’ve
gotten that out of the way, we can move on.

“Wait until you taste the Mac ‘n’ Cheese
they make here, it’s not your mama’s Mac ‘n’ Cheese.” I laugh as I
pick up my glass and take a sip of the wine. She looks at me with
an odd, confused stare.

“My mom wasn’t much of a cook, actually. We
ate out a lot.” And, yet another drink, or should I say guzzle, of
wine goes down her throat. “So, where do you work again?” She
manages to spit out a sentence between swigs. And it’s obvious that
she didn’t read the info on my business card that I gave her
earlier this afternoon.

“I work at the extremely large hotel across
the street from the café. Actually I own it.” I search her eyes for
dollar signs…hmm, she seems unaffected by it. Good sign.

“Oh, that’s right, now I remember.” We both
drink. “That’s really cool. What’s your name? David?” She does that
giggle/snort thing again. “I’ve always been so bad with names—with
remembering anything really.” She hits her forehead with her palm.
“I’m like, duh, most of the time.”

Whoa. What the fuck was that?

“It’s Donovan.” Thank god the server is here
with our appetizer. I need food and my brain needs a short break.
We both dig right in. “So, what do you do for work, Louisa?”

“Well, I’ve been a waitress, a receptionist,
a bartender. That was super fun.” She pauses to take a bite. “Oh,
and once, I was a model…like when you go to the mall and the girls
spray you with perfume?” She giggles, minus the snort this time.
“Perfume models, we were called. But that was boring.” 

“Quite a wide range of occupations you’ve
had there.” I can’t help but chuckle…perfume model? “What kind of
work are you looking for now?” Lion tamer, perhaps? 

“Well, I applied at my friend’s work. She
works at Hooters.” She scrunches up her face and giggles again.
“She makes great tips.” 

“I can imagine that she does.” The server
clears the now empty appetizer plate and sets our meals in front of
us.

“Mmm, this looks yummy.” She picks up her
fork and begins to eat. “You weren’t kidding about the Macaroni and
Cheese, sooo good.” 

“I know, I told you.” I smile and somehow
manage a laugh. She may be a directionless goofball, but she is
rather entertaining and extremely beautiful. I do tend to go for
the beautiful girls that have no idea just how beautiful that they
are. I can’t deal with a conceited girl.

“So…Hooters. Is that what you plan to do for
the rest of your life, or…?” Seriously. Give me something to work
with here.

“Well, I really just wanna get married—be a
stay-at-home mom, you know?” 

“Sure, there’s nothing wrong with that. But
what if that doesn’t happen for awhile? Don’t you want a career of
some sort?” I settle in, leaning back in my chair, taking a nice
long sip of wine as I await her answer. Why do I already know
exactly where this will go?

“Eh, not really. Like, why bother with
school and getting a degree and stuff, just to stop when I get
married? It doesn’t make sense to waste all of that time. I hate
studying. I mean, like…reading puts me to sleep. It really does.”
And there goes the snort/laugh combo again. I have to give this one
a rating of ten-point-five. 

“Right. Reading is so overrated.” I turn my
head to roll my eyes. “That’s why so few people actually do it.”
And my sarcasm is completely lost on her. She is nodding her head
in agreement, her eyes wide and full of…well, full of nothing, it
seems. 

“Ooh, ooh...my turn. I have a question.” She
actually just raised her hand, as if we’re in class.

“Alright, go ahead.” Kill me now. I can’t
wait to hear this.

“Okay, so if you were stranded on a desert
island for like, a year…what three things would you take with you?”
She actually seems extremely proud of herself to have come up with
such a riveting topic of conversation. That’s fine, I’ll play.

“What three things. Well, I guess I would
have to say, my father—I can’t leave him here alone. My iPod with a
solar panel that I created especially for it—I can’t live without
music. And probably one year’s supply of toothpaste.” I
chuckle…that was a half-serious answer. “Now, you answer, same
question.”

“Oh my gawd. This is a good one. Huh…” Her
eyes light up as she begins to answer. “Okay, so like, I never go
anywhere without my favorite watch.” She holds out her arm to show
me. It’s bright pink, covered with rhinestones and the face has
tiny plastic hearts that float around inside. Interesting. “Cute
huh? Okay, and I’d take my dog—her name is Paris. And my last thing
would be…” She rolls her eyes and giggles. “Duh, dog food.” She
bursts into laughter. “I don’t want my baby going hungry.”

She guzzles the last of her wine down before
setting the glass back on the table and asks, with extremely
slurred speech, I might add, “Should we do some
shots?” 

“I think that you’ve had enough to drink
tonight, Louisa.” Alright, that sounded like something that a
parent might say to their child, but I’m not prepared to hold her
hair as she vomits tonight…or any other night for that matter.
Check please.

So, here’s the million dollar question. Do I
end this now? I think that it’s time to get this crazy lush home. I
don’t know how much more of her snorting I can endure. While she
seems to be a sweet girl, we just don’t have anything in common.
Maybe I should just drop her off at a bar on the way home…

I’m not exactly new to the dating world:
I’ve dated all sorts of women in the past. I’ve had one long term
relationship and that ended pretty badly, and yes, scared me just
enough to stray away from anything serious for a very long time. I
know that finding the right woman is going to take some time and
effort, so I’ll just add this date to the list in my head of shitty
dates and move on.

By the way…Louisa started talking to a bus
boy on her way to the bathroom and never returned to the table.

Chapter Two

~Gina~

After my disaster date last week with the
not so charming Louisa, I’ve decided to take a short break from
dating. I will definitely not be picking up a woman in a coffee
shop again anytime soon. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with
some people?

It was an extremely busy week at the hotel.
There was a convention in town, and since I own the nicest hotel
around, we were booked to capacity. The weekend is finally here,
and my staff is used to me leaving them from time to time, so I
decide to get away for a couple of days to take some much needed
R&R.