V is for Virgin (17 page)

I gave Isaac my best smile because I wouldn’t want him to think I was rejecting
him
when I turned down the offer. “Oh that’s okay, Isaac. Thank you, but—”

“It’s not a problem,” he insisted. “If you’re nervous about the motorcycle thing, my house is only a few blocks from here. We could just walk there and take my dad’s car.”

“No, it’s not that. I just have to go all the way to Pasadena. I wouldn’t ask you to drive me that far.”

“What’s in Pasadena?”

“The Not Everybody’s Doing It Foundation. I have to drop off the check for the money I raised and get them to sign some papers for me.”

Isaac nodded and then continued to look at me for a moment longer. His eyes seemed to be searching for something in mine. It made him look intense, they way he had been the first time we talked, but not intense in a scary way. Well, maybe it was scary how it made my insides feel like they were going to burst from the thrill of it.

Just when I thought I might actually explode, Isaac shrugged. “I’m game for a drive,” he said. “But we should take my dad’s car anyway. I don’t like to ride my bike double on the freeway.”

I blinked twice. Not that I wanted to talk him out of it, but I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “You’d drive me all the way to Pasadena? That’s almost an hour away. Not to mention we’d get stuck in traffic all the way home. Really. You don’t have to do that.”

“We live in Southern California. Traffic is a given.” Isaac shrugged again as if it were no big deal at all—just a ride down the street. “I don’t have anything else to do today, and I’m curious about this foundation. It’d be nice to check it out.”

“Okay then!” Cara jumped in excitedly. “That is awesome of you Isaac!” She turned to me and said, “Unless you want me to take you. I’ll blow off the party for some Cara and Val time if you want.”

Strangely, it was the fact that Cara was willing to ditch her boyfriend and a star-studded night being a VIP that made me feel completely relaxed in accepting Isaac’s offer.

“If you’re absolutely positive,” I said to Isaac. He smiled and I felt my knees start to shake in response. I had to look away. Thank goodness Cara was still standing there. “We’ll have Cara and Val time later,” I told her. “Have the best time tonight. Make sure you end up in a tabloid somewhere. Tell Reid happy birthday for me, and tell Shane I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.”

Cara broke into a giddy grin and hissed, “I want every detail tomorrow,” in my ear as she hugged me goodbye. Then she danced out the door, leaving Isaac and me standing all alone just outside the door to the computer lab.

For a split second it was too awkward to say anything then Isaac nudged his head toward the exit. “Shall we?”

“I just have to go over a couple of things with Robin before we go. Should only take about ten minutes. Is that okay?”

“Sure. I’ll just drive my bike home real fast and meet you out front.”

I quickly gave Robin an overview of my meeting with the lawyer and the accountant yesterday, and went over the small list I’d made of things we needed to have on the site.

Part of me was in a hurry to get out of there while another part of me dragged on our conversation. I don’t know what I was more afraid of. That I would go outside and Isaac would be gone, having played some very cruel joke, or that he would be there, patiently waiting for me.

He was waiting, of course, exactly where he said he’d be, in his dad’s Range Rover. He was looking down at something and didn’t see me when I walked outside. That was good because it gave me a moment to steady my nerves. I took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and mustered up every ounce of courage Virgin Val had to offer me, then opened the passenger door.

“That was fast,” Isaac said cheerfully as he finished texting someone. I glanced at the clock on the dash. It’d been closer to fifteen minutes than the ten I’d told him it would take.

I buckled my seatbelt, unable to help feeling self-conscious. “Really Isaac. Thanks again for doing this. So much.”

“You know what they say, ‘When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.’ Don’t sweat it. I’m happy to help. “

“I—” I stopped, thrown by what I’d just heard.

Isaac’s face stayed even as he waited for me to say something. It took me a minute to come up with a response because it was so startling to hear such a normal, popular guy quoting
scripture
. “Wow!” I laughed. “You really do go to Bible study, don’t you?”

He cracked a smile when I teased him. “Does that bother you?” he asked. He was teasing me back, but I could tell he was curious.

I figured that Isaac was the kind of guy who would appreciate honesty, so I gave him a searching look of my own and thought really hard before I answered him. “It’s a little strange,” I admitted. “But it seems to suit you. Besides, like I can talk? I’m the girl who stood up on a lunch table and professed her virginity to the masses.”

He glanced my direction again, the corner of his mouth turning up. “You’re all right, Val.”

You’re all right, Val.
All right? I wasn’t all right. I was having a heart attack! Is it wrong that such a simple statement gave me so much pleasure I felt as if I might throw up?

Again I found myself speechless, but Isaac came to my rescue by asking me about my volleyball career. He changed the subject with so much ease that I’d wager to believe he understood the effect he had on girls and had become a pro at helping us get over it.

It was impossible not to relax with him, and when we stopped in front of the small office in the run-down strip mall I could hardly believe we were already there. It was a little disappointing to have to get out of the car.

We didn’t say anything as we walked inside. Isaac fell back a few steps, letting me do my thing. He wandered over to a small cluttered table and started flipping through pamphlets while I headed up to the counter.

There was a young woman sitting at a desk who looked to be in her mid-twenties. She gasped when she saw me. “Virgin Val!’ she exclaimed and then called out behind her. “Darla it’s her! She’s here!”

As the woman rushed over to me, a much older woman came out of a back room and joined in her excitement. “We were hoping you’d come by,” the older woman said. “We can’t say thank you enough! I’m Darla Majors, head of the organization, and this is Christina. It is such a pleasure to meet you, Valerie!”

All their doting made me a little uncomfortable. I took a step back and pulled an envelope from my backpack. “I guess you guys heard.”

“Honey, it would have been impossible not too. Our phones have been ringing off the hook since your interview aired. We’ve received more donations this week than we have in the last six months!”

“Really?”

“Well, it wasn’t that hard to do. It’s not easy for a group like ours to get much exposure. Usually we have to solicit our funds and, sadly, we get laughed at quite a bit.”

“I know the feeling,” I said.

“Well they’re sure taking you seriously now,” Christina laughed. “What
is
your secret?”

I started to blush again so I held out the envelope in my hand. “I came to give you this. It’s the money I earned at the festival. Nine hundred and eighty-three dollars.”

“It’s nothing short of a miracle,” Darla said.

The two women standing in front of me seemed as mystified by the situation as I was. Darla’s eyes even misted over a little. It almost made me not want to admit the other reason I came. “Um,” I said, shifting uneasily. “There’s actually more.”

“More?” they gasped in unison.

I pulled out the set of papers my lawyers had drawn up. “C&J Jewels has agreed to produce some of my jewelry designs. They’re calling it the Virgin line.”

“You really did it,” Isaac said, putting down the paper he was reading and joining us at the counter. “Val, that’s great!”

“It’s amazing!” Darla agreed.

Everyone stared at me with admiration, even Isaac. I blushed deeper than I’d ever blushed in my life, and quickly tried to get the conversation going again. “The thing is, I don’t know if they’ll sell or not, so it may not ever be much, but C&J Jewels has agreed to donate ten percent of all profits from the Virgin jewelry to the Not Everybody’s Doing It Foundation. I just need your signature on a couple of papers.”

Darla started to cry again.

After the ladies calmed down enough to sign the agreement and asked all their questions, I saw my chance to get out of there. “Well.” I stood up hastily. “This has been nice, but we should get going now. It’s gong to take us a long time to get back to Huntington Beach this time of day, and I still have a lot of homework.”

“Oh, no! Wait!” Darla jumped out of her seat before I could get out the door. “You can’t go yet! We still have something we’d like to ask you.”

Isaac and I glanced at one another, and I forced a smile to the women, sitting back down. Darla and Christina were glowing when Christina pushed an envelope at me. As I opened it and explored the contents, Darla said, “We’d like you to join us—become the face of the Not Everybody’s Doing It Foundation.”

“Excuse me?”

“We want you to be our spokesperson,” Christina said. “We would use your face on all of our pamphlets, and we would, of course, promote V is for Virgin. It would only be as much work on your part as you wanted it to. You could decide to just be our face, or you could be a regular speaker. You could show up at any of our main events. Or, if you wanted, we’d love for you to do a school tour. You’d visit high schools all over Southern California telling kids about your story and experiences, and your decision to wait.”

I was so stunned I was speechless. I couldn’t even look the two women in the eye. I continued to sift through the various brochures and pamphlets they’d given me, trying to picture them all with my face on them.

“Someone like you could really make a difference,” Darla whispered, startling me.

Me? I couldn’t believe they wanted me to represent them. Me! To be the one to get up in front of hundreds of people. Me, to be the face of their entire company. It was overwhelming.

And terrifying.

“Um,” I said because they were still waiting for an answer. “May I think about it?”

“Of course.”

“Okay.” A wave of relief washed over me. I gathered all the papers back into the envelope and stood up again. “I’ll give it some thought, and I’d like to talk to my parents about it, but I’ll get back to you soon. Thank you. It’s a very flattering offer.”

“Anything we can do to keep you,” Darla said with a wink. “You’re a very special young woman, Valerie.”

She was staring at me with so much admiration that I got out of there as quickly as I could. It didn’t dawn on me that Isaac had witnessed all of that until we were back in the Range Rover. It was painfully quiet. I risked a peek up at him and he was watching me with that cool, intense look in his eyes. The one I can’t ever figure out what it means.

I swallowed hard again and fidgeted with the big envelope in my lap, but I had no idea what to say to him. I glanced at the clock on the dash. It was five thirty. The absolute worst time of day to try and cross the greater Los Angeles area. This was going to be the longest drive ever.

Isaac followed my gaze and then broke the silence. “There’s no sense in trying to drive back right now,” he said, giving me the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen. “Would it be okay if I took you out for a celebratory dinner instead?”

I don’t know why the invitation was such a shock. He’d already asked me out once before, and driven me all the way across L.A. just to be nice. But, still, Isaac Warren asking you to dinner is just startling. In a dream-come-true kind of way, of course. “Um,” I said, blushing for the millionth time today. “I’d really like that.”

If you’d have asked me a month ago whether I thought I’d ever be out on a date with Isaac Warren, I’d have said it was more likely I’d be abducted by aliens. Even now, he’d given me a ride and suggested dinner as an alternative to sitting in the parking lot on the 605 freeway, but as we strolled down the streets of Old Town Pasadena, I still wasn’t sure if what Isaac and I were on was a date.

I started second-guessing my doubts when he suggested dinner at a nice little Italian place instead of a place like Rubio’s or California Pizza Kitchen. The restaurant was one of those little ones that could be described as having ambiance. It was dark inside and had candles on all the tables. There was even someone playing the piano in the corner. I’m surprised we didn’t need a reservation, but it was a little early for the dinner rush. Reservation or not, the place screamed date.