The date had been going well, to Lauren's surprise. Daniel was neither boring nor self- absorbed, and Lauren began to understand how one might end up in a relationship after all. If she had been even remotely interested in him physically, she might have agreed to a second date. And maybe a third, and then who knew? They might be picking china patterns by the end of the year.
"I need to apologize to you, Lauren," Daniel said, looking uncomfortable for the first time all evening. His blue eyes darted around the restaurant nervously, and Lauren began to wonder if she'd been wrong about him all along. Perhaps he was a con-artist, or a Pap in disguise. Perhaps the real Daniel Thornton was tied up and gagged in the trunk of a car somewhere.
Lauren put down her glass of Château Margaux and regarded her date, with what she hoped was a curious-but-not-panicked expression.
"I know that our mothers set this up, and I'm truly honored that you'd even want to go on a date with me, considering who you are and everything. And I realize this must make me an idiot in about thirty different countries. I mean, who wouldn't want to be dating Lauren Jauregui, right?" He reached for his drink and finished it before continuing. "It's mainly that... my last relationship... she and I were very serious and I... I'm not quite over her yet. God knows I should be. I mean, she broke my heart in every way imaginable. I'm just... not." He breathed, meeting her gaze. "I wanted to tell you that because you're so lovely and I feel horrible agreeing to this date when I knew I wasn't over Angelica yet."
Lauren relaxed and offered him a sympathetic smile. To say she was relieved was an understatement. "I understand completely," she said, and was pleased when he returned her smile. "Why don't we just enjoy the rest of the dinner and then at least we can tell our respective mothers that we made it through the evening without embarrassing either of our family names. That's all they really care about anyway."
Daniel laughed. "Isn't that the truth?" He studied her suddenly and looked pensive for a moment. "Forgive me for asking, but, why are you single? I can't imagine there's a shortage of men wanting to take you out to dinner."
Lauren lowered her gaze, feeling uncomfortable under his scrutiny; as though he might be able to guess what it was just by looking at her. "I guess I'm just picky."
He nodded, as if she'd said something wise. "That's good. Don't settle. I dated so many women. Family-approved women, of course. I was pretty certain at least one of those Stanford girls would turn out to be the One. Didn't happen. Then I started working and you know, crazy hospital hours didn't leave me much of a social life. And one day, after I'd given up on ever meeting anyone at all, there she was: Angelica. The maid's daughter. It was a disaster from the beginning." He shook his head sadly, and shrugged. "But you can't help who you love, right?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Her cell phone chimed the second Lauren stepped into her house, and an image of Ally hiding out in the bushes outside crossed through her mind before she answered. "You have impeccable timing. Are you stalking me?"
"Always," came Ally's voice. "Your paychecks have funded my entire arsenal of tools. Night vision goggles, binoculars, the works. I heard some college kids came up with a type of camouflage suit. I'm putting in a pre-order."
Lauren took off her heels and carried them the rest of the way to her bedroom. Her feet ached and she was anxious to change into something comfortable. "I guess that means I don't need to fill you in on the details of my date tonight since I'm sure you have video footage already. Let me know when it's up on YouTube."
"You seem to be in a good mood," Ally noted. "It couldn't have been a total disaster."
Lauren sat down on the bed and rubbed her feet. "It wasn't, actually. It was quite nice, in fact."
