4. Raked by Rex
4
RAKED BY REX
CHELSEA
I slammed the door to our apartment and tossed a bag of sandwiches for dinner on the counter. With my hands on my hips, I stewed about the day, and paced the five steps between our tiny kitchen and our even smaller living room back and forth. I’d storm into my own bedroom, but Sophie was studying and sitting on it—the couch.
It turned out New York apartments weren’t flashy and big in our price range. Maisy and Sophie each had a matchbox sized room, while I rolled over a privacy screen and made my bed on the couch each night. Not convenient, but I didn’t complain, considering this to be my only shot at beginning to live out my dream.
“Chels? What’s wrong?” Maisy called from her stool, perched at the breakfast counter and what had become her desk.
“Just something happened today with a fireman,” I explained.
“Ooh, was he handsome?” Sophie’s dark eyebrows shot up, and her hazel eyes begged for details. The business major never missed a beat when it came to guys.
“Well, yes, he was, in fact, and he had this interesting accent?—”
“What kind? Like dark and mysterious or?—”
“Sophie, that’s beside the point. It’s what he did that irritated me.” I spilled the events of the morning, with the mysterious man showing up asking for Uncle Doug one minute, and the appearance of the fireman the next.
I left out how gorgeous Mr. Mysterious was, though. I’d hoped to talk to him more, but he disappeared before I had the chance. In a city of millions of people, I’d probably never lay eyes on him again. But what did it matter? I wasn’t here to fool around; I had work to do.
“This is just great. Two weeks in and I’m already getting cited for violating the fire code.” I tossed my hands into the air and plopped onto the couch. “But I won’t let anything stop me.”
“That’s it, boss girl. Stay determined.” Maisy rushed over and sat on the floor in front of me, considering we had no other seats.
“I can’t help it if word has spread fast about our new menu, drawing more people in every single day.”
“I caught your social media post today and how you went live talking about the specials. You should do that daily,” Sophie encouraged. She’d been a huge help to me, modernizing the look of Uncle Doug’s deli with a new logo, and setting up social media accounts. I also created a new menu, and had the red awnings installed outside. Doug supported whatever I wanted to do, and paid for the improvements.
It really surprised me. The pace of the city certainly moved faster than home. When Mom updated the menu at Flora’s Diner a few years ago, hardly anyone noticed, and went right on ordering “their usual.” Guess that’s one difference between small town dining and here.
“Thanks. But what am I supposed to do, turn people away? If only I had a bigger place and more seating.”
Maisy set a hand on my knee. “One step at a time, Chels. Someday soon you’ll have your own place, I know it.” Her support of my dreams encouraged me, especially considering I’d supported hers of going off to study neuroscience at an ivy league school. She took after our father, and being the ultra-smart one of the family, why shouldn’t she get this degree and do something useful with it?
Sophie elbowed me in the ribs. “You know what time it is? Time to forget about all of this. We have that invitation to the speed dating event tonight, remember?” One of her friends worked as a DJ around the city and invited us. It sounded fun at the time, but now, I sighed, sinking back into the couch, and could easily fall asleep any minute.
“I don’t know. It’s been a long day. I have to get up early tomorrow.”
“No, come on. Don’t pull that old lady crap on us,” Maisy laughed. They loved to remind me I was five years older than them. “Moving to the city wasn’t only for this opportunity to help Uncle Doug, but for the chance to experience things you wouldn’t normally encounter in Holly Creek.”
“And that includes the New York City nightlife. So let’s get all cute and head out the door before we’re late.” Sophie jumped off the couch and did a little celebration dance for us.
I laughed, and she was right. While I didn’t really care to meet men, at least if things didn’t turn out for me here with the deli, this would be my chance to enjoy everything the city offered.
“Uh, ladies, I think we’re out of place here,” I said two hours later as we walked into the swanky hotel in Manhattan for the speed dating event. Among the three of us, Sophie had the best clothes for going out to party at night, so we raided her closet and decided to go with a trio of sequined short gowns. Now, here we stood inside the door to the event, all glammed up and glitzy, staring at a room of people in navy or black suits, women and men both.
“Sophie! Hey girls. Glad you could make it. You look fabulous. Come on.” Suz, the DJ, greeted us with a warm smile, despite her fierce look of purple hair shaved on the sides and slicked up in a faux-hawk with a leather vest, red plaid miniskirt, and slouchy socks ending at the Moto boots. She led us over to her setup with a turntable and speakers and such, all connected to her laptop. Since I moved here, we’d already taken up her invitations to two other clubs and had a great time. It certainly paid to know a DJ.
The lights dimmed right then, but it didn’t stop me from tugging at my hemline, wishing it to grow three inches longer. The green sequins set off my hair and eyes, but I couldn’t imagine any man here taking me seriously in this getup. Oh well, it was only five minutes to endure with each person, then we could leave.
The M.C. for the event explained how this would work, how the men would rotate from woman to woman and get five minutes with each. After the event, we could mingle and dance with people we found interesting.
The women randomly took seats on the outside of a double circle of chairs, while the men sat on the inside chairs. I found a seat and smiled at the professionalism of the women on each side of me, eyeing their conservative sheath dresses and pearl earrings.
The timer started, and for each of the five-minute sessions, I did my best to share a bit of myself and to learn about each of the men. I met a few that seemed nice who I might talk to later, but no one I’d write home to Mom about.
We came down to the final two rotations. Then he sat down in front of the woman to my left—my Mr. Mysterious from this morning—still dashing in his tailored suit, blue eyes, and wavy dark hair laying back just right. Every good thing I noticed about him at first glance in the deli.
“Hi,” I gushed. He jerked, as if surprised to see me.
“Uh, hi.” That was it from him. No smile. Nothing. I glanced quickly down at his name tag. It read:
My Name Is: Bored.
And under it in small letters he’d written:
Actually, it’s Rex, and you have five minutes to impress me.
My eyes widened. Wow! Turned out I didn’t need five minutes to judge Mr. Mysterious. In one second, he seemed like a pompous ass. Glad I found out now. Definitely not my type—not that I was looking for love or even for fun right now, and especially not with a hot man in a custom suit without a beating heart.
I turned my attention to the guy seated in front of me and I grinned at him. He smiled back, and I liked his square jawline with a little five o’clock shadow. He pushed his glasses up his nose and smoothed back his light brown hair. Then the five-minute timer started.
He cleared his throat and held out his hand. “Hi. I’m Archer.”
First impression: he seemed sweet and maybe shy. I shook it politely. “I’m Chelsea. What do you do for a living?” We both asked that question at the same time and chuckled.
“You first,” I said.
“I’m an architectural engineer.”
“Fascinating. Um, I have no idea what that means.”
“Well, it’s?—”
And that’s where I sort of tuned him out and felt bad about it. Because to my left, Rex stated loud and clear for his date, “I’m Rex Buchanan, CEO of Buchanan Energy.”
Buchanan…why did that name sound familiar? Then it clicked. Every morning when I arrived at work by six, I passed by the lit up sign for the energy company in front of the building. He’s the CEO? Like head honcho, in charge of it all, and the big man on the executive floor?
“Your turn. What do you do, Chelsea?” Archer asked.
“Oh, um, I…work in the food industry.”
Rex snorted and glared at me. “You could at least be truthful with my friend, even though this date lasts all of five minutes.”
“Excuse me, that’s rude. I’m your date. Don’t interrupt theirs,” the woman in front of him huffed.
“What? I’m just being a good wingman to my buddy,” Rex retorted.
I ignored him, then smiled again at Archer, trying to recover from Rex’s interruption. “I used to manage my mother’s diner, and now I’ve taken over my uncle’s deli for a little while. Do you have any siblings?”
“A couple of brothers. Brooks and I are twins and partners in our own architectural firm. Our youngest brother, Tucker, plays hockey and took off out west playing for a semi-pro team, and vows never to return east. How about you?”
“Yes. Colt back home in Holly Creek. And Maisy is here with me tonight.”
“Oh, Maisy.” His face and eyes lit up. Interesting. “Yes, I was hoping to talk with her later. I’m a graduate of Columbia, so we have that in common. I gathered in my five minutes with her, she seems to love the city more than her hometown.”
While it stabbed me in the heart to hear, it hardly surprised me. Maisy often talked about a bigger life far away from home. “Yes, in our family, she’s the one most likely to travel the world.” And in the remaining few minutes with him, I answered every question he had about her. I didn’t mind though, and actually kind of enjoyed being able to assess him before I let him anywhere near my sister.
When the timer was up, the men rotated one last time, and I finally came face to face with Rex. I thought maybe I should run away, but he didn’t. He sat down with his smoldering half smile as his eyes raked over me. Was I supposed to find his attention appealing?
My stomach flipped. It just so happened, deep down, I did.