Simply Be Mine Matchmakers

11. Date Three

For the third time, Tim glanced down at his shirt to ensure the red heart-shaped lapel pin he was supposed to wear was truly fastened in place; it was how the two Simply Be Mine Matchmakers' clients were meant to identify each other when meeting for the first time. He waited at the hostess stand for his date to enter the upscale restaurant named Osia. All he knew was that her name was Ashley, and she was not a punctual person as she was not ten minutes early to their dinner, which he deemed to be appropriate. A woman entered Osia wearing a brown dress and a red heart pin. She had a nervous smile and blonde hair, but aside from that, his cop eyes were not working to assess her properly, because Tim was disappointed that his date was not Lucy. They introduced themselves to each other, and then a hostess lead them to a table for four, which did not make sense; still, he took a seat across from Ashley when one of the other hostesses appeared to direct two people to join them. One of them was Lucy in a beautiful maroon dress and her hair cascading in waves looking as beautiful as ever. He stood up to greet her without even realizing what his feet were doing, because she was there, and he was so happy to see her, but she did not meet him with her usual kind grin and instead flashed him a look of confusion.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Lucy said, somewhat flustered, when she realized that she was being seated with Tim and his model-like pretty date. "There must be some mistake. I'm supposed to be at a table for two." She could feel his gaze warming her up, and she had to get away, or she feared her date with Chris would go as miserably as her date with Caleb.

"I took the call for the reservation myself," the hostess responded. "This is supposed to be a table for four under Tim and Lucy."

As wounded as he was that Lucy did not want to sit with him for dinner, he did understand the awkwardness of such a situation, so he piped up, "Is there any chance that we can be seated at two separate tables?"

"We're fully booked every night this week. I'm sorry," the hostess apologized.

"It's fine. The more the merrier," Ashley chimed in happily.

Tim pulled out the chair beside him to help Lucy take a seat then pushed her in.

After all four people at the table introduced themselves, there was silence as the unlikely group was unsure what to say to one another. To interrupt the uncomfortability of the situation, Lucy decided to break the ice and prompt Tim by touching his forearm while saying, "You should tell us about your day. As a Metro Sergeant, your shifts are always pretty exciting."

"You're a cop? I'm a District Attorney. We spend a ton of time working with the police," Chris said.

Lucy heard him speak, but she still had her hand on Tim and was squarely turned to him, so she did not make any show of even having registered Chris' words.

Her big brown eyes focusing on him was all he could see, so he told her, "We had a mandatory re-training day. We had to go to the shooting range and run drills on a training course."

"A shooting range? You know, I'm really good at laser tag, so I bet I would be a shooting champ," Lucy boasted.

"Laser tag isn't the same thing, and you do realize you would be competing against a bunch of cops that have been training for years."

"Would I get a trophy for being the shooting champ? I love trophies!"

"Don't make space on your shelf just yet. We'll have to go laser tagging to test your skills before I put a real gun in your hand."

"Are you suggesting an activity for once?"

"It's actually a fun one, and I wouldn't make a complete fool of myself playing laser tag unlike everything you've picked."