Virtually Mine: a love story (8 page)

Kate caught herself. Despite how
challenging it was, she didn’t want to get bitter. She didn’t want to give up
hope on all men just because of what she was going through. Of course, it
didn’t help to overhear Dustin’s nearby table of coquettes, flirting with him
relentlessly as he took their order.

“Gotta be from Arizona,” one said. “All
the cute guys are from Arizona.”

Dustin preened. “No, but you’re warm. You
like your chicken grilled, right?”

“You remember everything, don’t you?”

Not to be outdone, another interjected.
“My turn. New Mexico.”

Dustin reared back playfully. “Ow!
Sizzling now, Baby.”

Kate inwardly imploded as the girls
reacted with delight.

Yet another girl toyed, “Yeah, you give
me your number, I’ll show you some sizzle.”

“Gotta guess it, or no number,” Dustin
replied.

Kate strode by the table, reflexively
intervening. “He’s from Colorado. And believe me, I’ve already got his number.”
As Kate skulked back behind the counter, she wondered if her face looked as
scarlet as it felt. Unmercifully, the flirts continued.

“Colorado! That’s what I was going to
say!”

“Shut up!” another teased.

Kate pretended not to mind.

Dustin egged the girls on. “No, no, gotta
guess it. You’ll just have to come back another day.”

Kate put an order slip on the wheel and
spun it around for the cook. “Andre, can you put a rush on this? And skip the
butter, he’s vegan.”

Andre snatched the ticket. “Two pieces of
dry, stick-in-the-throat, whole grain toast comin’ up.”

Reesa sidled up next to Kate, and then
nodded knowingly. “Well, lookee who’s back in the game.”

Kate let out a sigh. “I know. But does he
have to do that right in front of me?”

Reesa planted herself. “I’m talkin’ ‘bout
you, Child. Check it out. Those flowers that just came, they’re for you.” Reesa
directed Kate’s view to the register. By it, sat a bouquet of fresh daisies.

An excited glow came over Kate as she
drank in the sight of the daisies with their dark green foliage, white-white
petals, and sunny centers. She pulled the card out, noticing the
Virtually
Mine
logo, a red VM, encircled with a heart, on the envelope.

Reesa leaned close. “Tell Reesa who’s
seein’ other people now.”

Even realizing that this bouquet was from
her Imaginary Boyfriend, Kate was still impressed. She’d said nothing about
daisies being her favorite flowers. That alone gave her goose bumps. She opened
the card and was surprised to see that the text had been written in by hand. Shyly,
she read aloud to Reesa:

I could have sent you roses,

Or the lilacs I
passed by,

But I am just a
country boy,

And daisies
caught my eye.

Yours, Brad

Kate blushed with sheer delight. It was
all much more personal than she had expected. She flipped to the enclosed
snapshot of Brad. Not only was he charming, he was also goo-gobs of gorgeous.
Kate couldn’t help herself. She melted at the very sight of him. For a moment,
Kate forgot all about Dustin and Wissy, much less his table of flirty customers.
Then, suddenly remembering, Kate quickly glanced over to see if Dustin had
noticed that she’d received a bouquet. Clearly, he had.

Reesa looked puzzled. “Yours, Brad.”
Who’s Brad?”

Kate glowed with resurging confidence.
“Looks like my new boyfriend.”

six

♥

E
ric Bender waited as Samantha smoothly
tore off a
Virtually Mine
check, and then handed it to him with a smile.
This being his first paycheck, Eric was more than a little curious at what it
would amount to be. Seeing the total, his chiseled chin dropped. “
Whoa. And this
is on top of the license fee?”

Sam rose from her desk, circling closer.
“The lion’s share is in commissions. Every time your face is successfully
assigned to a new client, your take jumps.”

Eric studied the check stub. “How many
does this represent?”

Sam perched becomingly on the edge of her
desk. “Seventy-eight pitter-pattering hearts by my count. I’ve been pushing you
with the drones.”

Eric looked over the workstations at the
ordinary guys who kept
Virtually Mine
afloat. He noticed Charlie among
them. Somehow, he felt the need to confirm their understanding. “So, I don’t
have to do anything.”

Sam shook her head. Her raven tresses
swished side to side, then settled back, perfectly into place. “It’s the
privilege of beauty. They do the work. You visit me to collect, just as often
as your heart desires.”

Eric was used to women coming on to him.
Whether it was ego or insight, there was no question in his mind about what was
going on. It was a hazard he had come to accept of the way he happened to look.

There had been times in Eric’s life that
he might have let the attentions of a woman as beautiful as Samantha get the
better of him. It wasn’t that he had moral qualms. It wasn’t her age that
bothered him. It was just that something told him the shelf life on such
dalliances wouldn’t be so very long. He decided that he wanted to keep the
paychecks coming as long as he possibly could. Giving into Samantha’s allures
simply wasn’t a justifiable risk.

Eric eased back toward the door. “You
could always mail my check next time. Or direct deposit, that’d be fine by me.”

Sam studied Eric, a smoldering smile on
her burgundy-painted lips. “I’m more of a face-to-face woman, Eric. I prefer to
press the flesh.”

♥   
♥    ♥

Kate trotted briskly towards her old ragtop convertible, her arm around the
bouquet of daisies balanced on her hip. She didn’t have to look back to know
that Dustin was following her out. She heard him pick up his pace, trotting
after her. She also knew him well enough to know that there was no way in the
world that he would let this go.

Dustin
caught up. “
You
need some help with that?”

“I’ve got it.”

Dustin passed by, getting between Kate
and her car. “Your mom sent them. Right, huh? Is it your birthday?”

Kate let out an exasperated breath.
“That’s next month and no, she didn’t.” She opened the car door.

“Then who?”

As nonchalantly as she could, Kate
secured the bouquet between the seats. “Just a guy.”

Dustin knitted his brow. “A guy-guy?”

“His name is Brad. I met him on the
Internet last night and yes, by every applicable definition, he’s a guy-guy.”
Kate attempted to get into her car, but Dustin blocked the way.

“I was going to send you flowers once,”
he insisted. “I was.”

Kate looked up at Dustin, her eyes
filling with regret. “But you didn’t.”

“You know I have no money, Kate.”

Kate rolled her eyes. She didn’t like to
do that much, but she couldn’t help herself. “That is so not what this is
about. Daisies aren’t expensive, Dustin. They’re just a few dollars a bunch. We
used to grow them every summer all along Mom and Daddy’s fence.
 
They make me think of home.”

Dustin threw up his hands. “How am I
supposed to know that?”

“I guess you’d have to know me,” Kate
replied.

“I know you.”

Kate realized that she had a decision to
make. She could let this pass, or she could say all the things that she’d
stifled for the three solid months they’d been dating. “What’s my favorite
color, Dustin?”

Dustin looked at her blankly. “Oh, come
on.”

“Where did I go to high school?
 
What do I binge on? What’s my secret
obsession? Who do I admire most?”

“You don’t know that about me,” Dustin
defended.

Kate took a deep breath. “Named Best
Looking in your graduating class, Theodore Roosevelt High, Denver. Chose
wrestling instead of hockey to protect three years of orthodontia and wound up
All State in the process. Your two older sisters, Darlene and Alva, financed
your move here out of their day trader earnings, much to the dismay of their
twin husbands, Ronny and Johnny Beck, who had earmarked that account for a snowmobile.
You’re afraid of spiders. You have an oily T-zone. Tattoos weird you out. Your
favorite food is marshmallows. Cheap detergent makes you itch and as far as
you’re concerned, Jack Black is the finest actor on the planet.”

“Well, he is!” Dustin shot back.

“That’s not the point!” Kate implored.
“It isn’t always all about you.”

In a flash, Dustin whipped out his
dinette order pad and clicked his pen open. “Okay. Fine. Tell me all your
stuff. Spill it. I’m listening. Go.”

Kate could hardly believe it. “What,
you’re going to write it down?”

“How am I supposed to remember?”

“I remember yours,” Kate countered. “You
remember your lines.”

“I have to do that! Work is work.
Relationships are not work.”

Suddenly the veil was lifted for Kate.
She saw exactly who and what she’d been fighting for. Something inside her
shifted. She finally spoke her heart, realizing she had nothing left to lose.
“You know what? I thought I wanted you back. I really did.”

Kate got in and started her car as
quickly as she could. She threw on her sunglasses, fighting tears.

Dustin persisted. “You can still have
me!
 
Come on!”

Kate sped away. In her rear view mirror,
she could see Dustin blustering after her.

“You’re afraid of spiders, too! Aren’t
you?!”

♥   
♥    ♥

It had been the longest two hours in recent memory for Charlie. He’d placed the
order for Kate’s daisies, and then he’d taken the rest of the afternoon off
from
Virtually Mine
. It wasn’t as if he could get anything done anyway,
not with his mind completely preoccupied with wondering just how Kate had
responded to what he had sent on behalf of the Imaginary Boyfriend she’d
ordered.

Charlie
wished he’d had the nerve to stop by the Doo-Wop Dinette, to have seen Kate’s
face when the daisies had arrived, but given that he’d never even eaten there
before, he decided not to risk it. It was risk enough that he’d used part of
his middle name.

He
reasoned that Kate would be home soon. He knew she was smart, that she’d keep
in mind that this was just lark to help her get Dustin back. Still, he wanted
to do whatever he could to mend her broken heart.

Charlie
had picked those daisies out special. He wasn’t sure why, but as soon as he’d
seen them, something inside had said
yes
, daisies were the way to go. Though
cards with printed verses had been available, he’d spent some concerted time on
the poem he composed to attach instead. Beneath the safe cover of Eric’s
handsome face as Brad, Charles Bradley Butters had finally found a way to get a
little more comfortable with Kate, the way he’d long wished he could be with
her in person.

Charlie listened to muzak on his phone,
peeking out the front window intermittently to the street. Abruptly, the muzak
halted. Charlie sputtered. “Hello, yes. This is Operator Number 52 with
Virtually
Mine
. I was calling to confirm the delivery of...Yes, I can hold.” The
muzak resumed.

Charlie stretched the phone cord to look
out front again, just in time to see Kate drive up in her ragtop with the vase
of daisies beside her. “Okay. Nevermi...you can’t... Bye.” Completely
flummoxed, Charlie whirled, wrapping himself up in the cord and pulling the
phone’s base off the table, which went crashing to the floor.

The moment Charlie had been waiting for
had finally come and every cylinder of every impulse within him suddenly
started firing. “All right, look normal. Look normal.”

Charlie’s self-directed pep talk did
little to slow his racing pulse. He flung open his utility closet and grabbed
for a broom. Of course, it got tangled with the mops and the garden hoe and
anything else it could possibly get stuck on as it and every other pole-handled
tool in the closet came clattering out.

The broom triumphantly in hand at last,
Charlie deliberately paused. He closes his eyes and coaxed himself to relax. He
tried to remember what his dad had taught him about just such circumstances.

What was it that he had said?

Oh, yes
, Charlie recalled. In situations like
this, always remember to breathe. It tended to keep him from fainting dead
away.

Charlie scooted outside. He skidded to a
stop and, as casually as he could, he began to sweep the walk outside Kate’s
door. Not a split second later, there she was, climbing the stairs with the
bouquet he’d sent on her hip. Charlie swallowed, desperate to moisten his
drying throat.