Playing with Fire: Chapter One
Megan
“This was such a bad idea,” I mumbled to Kelly as I glanced around the dim restaurant. We stood with thirteen other women, most of them looking nervous, and waited for further instruction. “Who holds an event like this mid-week, anyway?”
She chuckled and reached out to squeeze my hand. “Open mind, Gan, remember? You promised.”
I rolled my eyes instead of responding and mentally berated myself for ever agreeing. The term ‘Speed Dating’ even sounded stupid. Kelly had wanted to try it for a while but refused to do it alone. She didn’t need something like Speed Dating to get a guy, but instead needed to stop picking the biggest losers to trust her heart with. I had watched my gorgeous sister be involved in several dud relationships during her twenty-five years, each one seemingly worse than the last. She’d been cheated on, stolen from, and even had one guy leave her the night before her wedding saying ‘He just wasn’t in love with her’. She’d been through the ringer but continued to pick men who were obviously not right for her from the start.
“Ladies, welcome to Cupid’s Circle Speed Dating. I’m so happy you could all join us this Wednesday evening!” A short, plump lady with her grey hair pulled into a bun at the top of her head smiled as she walked towards us. “I am Danielle Washburn, owner of Cupid’s Circle, and the facilitator of this event. I’ve been running these for several years and I can honestly say that they are successful. This one is for those aged twenty-five to thirty-five. So you’ll see a wide range of men.”
I bit back a groan of annoyance and Kelly leaned her head on my shoulder while Danielle continued.
“I’m going to show you to your assigned tables in just a moment and then we will bring out the gentlemen. Each one will sit at your table for five minutes and you can get to know each other best you can during that time. When the five minutes are up, I will ring the bell and they will switch tables in a clockwise direction.” Danielle smiled widely at all of us. “At the end of the session, you will each fill out cards with who you’d like to see again. We will pass along your information to those men and let you know who would like to see you again as well.”
Kelly bounced on the balls of her feet nervously and I squeezed her hand even tighter as I looked over at her. My baby sister was breathtakingly gorgeous, with her soft, light brown hair falling just past her shoulders and strikingly dark blue eyes that provided the perfect contrast between the two. She was an inch or two shorter than me, only five-foot-five, but she had the killer body that was toned from her time spent at the gym. Her flat stomach constantly had me trying to suck in mine and wishing I’d skipped the mid-afternoon snack.
Danielle started calling out names and showed each woman to her spot. Kelly was called and placed at a table in the middle of the restaurant. I let a smile turn my lips up slightly as I watched her sit and take deep, calming breaths.
“Megan Gold,” Danielle said, gesturing for me to take the table that was about ten feet from my little sister. “This will be your position.” She offered me a friendly smile as I pulled my chair out to sit.
The restaurant we were at was one I’d never been to before, and I had been studying it since we walked in. The atmosphere was quiet, romantic even, and I wondered if the French food they boasted about was any good. It wasn’t a chain restaurant but instead seemed to be something local and unique to New Hope. I resisted the temptation to lean over and blow out the candle that was lit in the middle of the table and a glance to Kelly, whose head was shaking knowingly, told me that she was aware of exactly what I was thinking. Speed dating by candlelight. Not cliché at all.
Five minutes later, Danielle clapped her hands together happily and wiggled her eyebrows.
“I’m going to get the men, ladies, and then the games will begin!” She walked towards the banquet room to where I was assuming the men were stashed and knocked twice.
Two employees pushed open the doors and Danielle led each man to a table one by one. When she got to mine, a man pulled out the chair across from me and flashed me a grin. He was decent looking. His brown hair was shaved short on his head and his matching brown eyes seemed friendly enough. He was wearing a dark blue dress shirt that had a black skinny tie affixed at the neck, and he held out his hand.
“Hi, I’m Colt.”
I offered him a small smile as I shook his hand. “Megan.”
“Okay, and your five minutes begins now!” Danielle rang a bell and chit-chat instantly filled the room.
“Tell me about yourself, Megan.”
I shook my head slightly and looked at him. “Why don’t you go first?”
“Okay.” He cleared his throat. “Well, I’m twenty-nine and an investment broker. I’ve never been married, I own my own home, my own car, and I love to hike. I also think that you have the most beautiful hazel eyes that I have ever seen.” He ended his speech with a cocky, sideways grin and I just stared at him for a moment.
“Oh, thank you.” I kept the small smile on my face and resisted the urge to sigh tiredly. “I’m twenty-six and a nurse for a family practice. I live in an apartment with my little sister and my golden retriever. I’m not a big fan of physical exercise and would probably be a terrible hiking partner.” On my last words, a real smile finally hit my face, but Colt frowned.
“Ah, so what do you like to do then?” He glanced to the right where a clock showed we still had three minutes to kill.
I shrugged my shoulders slightly. “I love to read and I’m kind of a movie buff. Do you like movies?”
“Uh, not really,” he replied quietly with a disinterested look on his face. We sat in our awkward silence and I glanced over at Kelly, who spoke animatedly to a man who couldn’t keep his eyes off of her breasts. I rolled my eyes and looked back to Colt. He was trying to be secretive about checking Facebook on his phone.
It felt like an hour before the timer finally went off, and Colt gave me a sharp nod before getting up and moving onto Kelly’s table. I sighed and shook my head. One down, fourteen more to go.
The next guy, a thirty-year-old middle school teacher named Andy, was more personable than Colt. He and I chatted for the full five minutes, and I laughed as he told me a few quick stories about his classes. He reached out to shake my hand when the timer sounded.
“It was a pleasure, Megan.” His smile was genuine and I returned the sentiment as he moved towards Kelly. A surly looking man sat in front of me and I barely held back a groan.
Over an hour later, blind date number fourteen plopped down into the chair across from me and sighed with a smile on his face. He was handsome and he brushed his dark blonde hair off his forehead in a careless way. His blue eyes were kind and friendly and they twinkled when he raised his eyebrows.
“Ready to go yet?”
I let out a small laugh and nodded. “About thirteen rounds ago.”
His smile turned into a grin. “Me, too. Glad I stayed, though. I’m Alex.”
“Megan,” I replied as I tried to size him up with my eyes, bringing my glass of water to my lips.
“Well, Megan. Where do I start? I like long walks on the beach, really expensive champagne and cuddling on bear skin rugs in front of fireplaces.”
I sputtered as I tried to keep from choking on the large amount of water I’d inhaled and after a moment, I was able to stop coughing and regain my composure.
“You’re a smartass. I like it.”
Alex laughed with a small shrug. “Life is boring without humor.”
“I completely agree.” I smiled and wiped my face with a napkin.
“So, really. My name is Alex, I’m twenty-six and an EMT, but I’m currently working on becoming a paramedic. I like the color orange, football, extra cheese on my pizza, and spiders creep me out.” He paused and his smile softened. “Deal breaker time. I’m divorced and have two kids, six and eight. They’re my world and it seems that people can’t understand that.”
I nodded my head. “Huge deal breaker. Who would kill the spiders if we’re both scared?”
Alex’s grin spread so wide that I thought his face might break. He opened his mouth to speak but the timer sounded loudly and he slowly stood up instead.
“Well, Megan. I know nothing about you, but it was a pleasure watching you choke on water.” He reached for my hand and gave it a quick squeeze before moving on to Kelly’s table. He was almost there when he glanced over his shoulder and sent me another smile.
The last person fell into the chair across from me and I quickly learned that he was the breast-man that Kelly had started with. Not only did he stare at my boobs the entire time, but he smelled faintly of pickles and I had to breathe through my mouth for the full five minutes. When the timer finally went off, Danielle clapped her hands from the middle of the room.
“Time’s up, Speed Daters! If the men could stand and head back to the banquet room they can fill out their interest cards there. Women, your interest cards are in front of you so if you could please fill them out as well.”
I said a quick goodbye to Pickle Man and sighed before looking at my sister. Kelly was scribbling furiously on the card in front of her and I turned back to my own, picking up the pencil slowly. I hadn’t planned on filling out the card at all in the beginning, but I was tempted to write down both Alex and Andy’s names. In the end, I put my pencil down and handed my card back to Danielle with it still blank. She announced that we were dismissed and that she’d email the results over to us by the end of the week.
Kelly grabbed my hand in hers and pulled me from the table. As we walked out of the restaurant, she replayed every detail of her conversations, but I just made affirming noises as I zoned her out.
Once we’d made it back to my Toyota, Kelly climbed in the passenger seat and was quiet as she stayed lost in thought. We were almost home when she released a sigh and I saw her turn to face me out of the corner of my eye.
“Which one did you like the most? I really enjoyed Ashton, Brian, and Alex.”
“I’m just glad you didn’t like Colt or that guy who smelled like pickles.”
Kelly burst out laughing and nodded her head. “I thought I was crazy, but he really did smell like pickles, didn’t he?” Her laughter died down and she pointed an accusing finger at me. “Don’t avoid my question, Gan.”
“Eh.” I shrugged as I drove through the dark streets towards our apartment. “Alex and Andy were the only tolerable ones.”
Kelly squealed so loudly that I cringed away from her. “Did you write them on your sheet?”
I waited until we were stuck at a stoplight before turning to my sister and offering her a guilty grin. “I didn’t fill it out.”
“Megan…” Kelly narrowed her eyes at me, shaking her head. “Damn it, you’re impossible.”
I didn’t respond for a few moments and when we made it to our apartment complex, I sighed. “I’m not in a rush, Kelly, and I don’t think you should be either. We should spend less time worrying about potential husbands and spend more time just having fun while we can.”
“So, by your own declaration, you and I should go out next Saturday.” Kelly’s eyes sparkled as we walked to the front door of our apartment.
I groaned and tossed my purse onto the kitchen counter. “I’ll agree as long as it’s not a trendy club.”
My golden retriever, Simba, sauntered out of my room with his tail wagging and I bent over to give him some love.
Kelly clapped her hands together as she kicked her shoes off. “Deal. We can go to the new brew bar that has live music. It’ll be fun.” She collapsed on the couch and turned on the TV.
“Ha, fun. You and I have very different definitions of that word. I’m going to walk Simba and go to bed. Love you.” I leaned down and kissed the top of her head before grabbing the leash and taking the dog out the door.
Kelly and I were close and always had been. Being less than a year apart would do that to you. I was often the oldest one in my class at school, but Kelly was the youngest. We were mistaken as twins for the majority of our childhood even though we looked nothing alike. Kelly favored our mother in both looks and personality and I favored our father.
Our parents lived about twenty-five miles from us in the same home we had grown up in and they had the model marriage. I was certain that’s why Kelly wanted to find someone so quickly- because she felt like she needed to find her soul mate and have the happy relationship we’d grown up seeing. It wasn’t a bad ideal, obviously, but the way she went about finding it wasn’t the best approach. I was a fan of the ‘if it’s meant to be, it will be’ saying, but Kelly went with ‘we make our own fate’.
So far, she sucked at it.
After Simba was ready to go back in, he and I walked to my bedroom slowly and I silently waved to my sister. I changed into a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt before my nightly ritual in front of my bathroom mirror and cuddling into my comfortable king-sized bed.
I could hear Kelly still out in the living room and I smiled. She was such a night owl and would be up until late but then would complain when she had to be up before eight the next morning.
The two of us had lived together ever since we left our parents’ house. We shared a dorm for the first two years of college and had moved into our current apartment before we started our junior year. The apartment we had was perfect because it came with two master bedrooms, both on opposite sides of our space and divided by the common areas. It was twenty minutes from where we both worked in New Hope but we had stayed in Canyon City, closer to Vegas and the university because we were too lazy to move.
I had never not lived with my sister and I was nervous for when that day came. When she’d almost married Mason, her side of the apartment had been depressingly bare as she’d prepared to move in with him after the wedding. I never liked him and, though I wouldn’t admit it to her, I was happy when he called it off. She deserved someone better than him.
I tried to remember that when my phone chimed from my nightstand and I saw that she’d forwarded me an email for a singles mixer that was taking place in three weeks.
She was my best friend and the biggest pain in my ass.