Date Shark (10 page)

They talked about Luke’s college years, as well as Leila’s, as they drove back to her car. The street was naked of any other cars when Luke pulled up behind Leila’s Jetta. The dashboard clock read just after one a.m. It was probably the longest date Leila had ever been on, but it was undoubtedly the best, as well. She didn’t want to get out, but lingering too long might give Luke the wrong impression.

“Thank you for tonight, Luke. I had a great time.”

“Thank you for saying yes to this date, and hopefully the next one.”

“The next one? Are you sure?”

He had hinted at a second date several times, but it was hard to believe he really wanted to see her again. Most of her dates ended with something like thanks for saving them from having to go alone, or a polite goodbye with their only lingering interest being work related. She once ended a date with the guy reminding her to send him the invoice he had been waiting for as soon as she got home. If that was all he’d wanted from her he could have just called her. Leila understood the reasons behind her question, but Luke didn’t. He eyed her in confusion.

“You had fun tonight, right?”

She nodded.

“So did I. So why wouldn’t I want to see you again?” he asked.

“Guys usually don’t,” she said with a shrug that did its best to hide her hurt.

Instead of asking why other men didn’t want to date Leila like she feared he would, Luke simply said, “Well I
do
want to see you again. I want to see you Tuesday for lunch, if you aren’t busy.”

“Tuesday?” she asked. He seemed serious, but see was still leery. Eli’s advice was good, but Leila knew they were only cosmetic fixes. There must have been a deeper reason men didn’t find Leila irresistible that Eli missed.

“Yeah, Tuesday. I know it’s kind of random, but I’m going out of town Wednesday for a couple of weeks on assignment for the paper.”

And there it was. He said he wanted to see her again, but just in case he changed his mind he already had an excuse built in. Still, Leila had fun with Luke. If he was willing to give her one more chance, she was willing to risk disappointed to see him one more time. Maybe Eli could give her a few more pointers to help her avoid sitting by her phone two weeks from now waiting for a call that would never come. Eli had helped her get this far, he could hopefully take her a little farther.

“Tuesday sounds great,” Leila said. “I guess I’ll see you then.”

Leila reached for her door. When Luke moved to open his door as well, Leila spoke before thinking. “Oh, you don’t have to get out. My car’s only ten feet away.”

“I am definitely walking you to your car, but that’s not the only reason I’m getting out. I have something for you.”

Before Leila could question him, he was out, heading toward the trunk, for some reason. Fear as much as curiosity pulled Leila from the car. Her fear wasn’t strong, she felt little threat from Luke, but his adventurous nature made her nervous about any kind of surprise he might have in store for her. As Luke worked at the trunk, Leila walked to her car, keys at the ready. It was several long minutes before Luke finally closed his trunk and headed toward Leila with his hands behind his back. When Leila backed up against her car, he laughed.

“Do I make you nervous?” he asked.

“Only sometimes,” Leila laughed.

He reached her quickly, but didn’t reveal his surprise. He moved in close to her. Like the night they met, Leila was instantly drenched in the conflicting emotions of anxiety and desire.

“I’m not going to bite,” Luke reassured her.

“Is whatever’s behind your back going to?”

“Would you like to find out?”

“Um, I’m not sure.”

Luke laughed and took a step back. In the dark, all Leila could see as he pulled the surprise from behind his back was a dark rectangular shape. It wasn’t until he flipped the rectangle around that she realized it was a picture frame. Even more surprising were the three expertly matted portraits of her. They were the pictures he took the night they met. Leila had loved them when she saw them on the LDC viewer of his camera, but Luke’s talent was even more finely displayed in print.

“This is for you,” Luke said, “and I hope it shows you that I really do want to keep seeing you. How could I not want to spend as much time as possible with someone so beautiful, fascinating, and sweet as the girl in these photos?”

“Your talent is what makes these pictures, not me.” She wasn’t being modest. Leila looked awful in those photos. Only Luke knowing the exact moment to capture her made them so outstanding.

“Hmm, we definitely need to keep seeing each other so I can convince you of how fantastic you are.”

Leila took the picture frame from him and said, “You have your work cut out for you, I’m afraid.”

He smiled, but this time it was less playful and more serious. “I do love a challenge.”

Chapter 9

Stressor

Leila’s first thought when she woke up late the next morning was of Eli. She wanted to tell him everything about her date with Luke the night before. She reached for her cell phone, but it wasn’t on her nightstand as usual. Pushing back her wild shock of hair, she searched around her bed for the missing phone. It wasn’t there. Leila groaned. She must have dropped it somewhere. Forcing herself out of bed, she started wandering through her apartment.

She found the phone under her couch. It must have fallen when she collapsed there after getting home. The late hour hadn’t bothered her much, especially after so many long hours getting ready for Ana’s show. Luke’s gift had kept her sitting on the couch for quite a while. In the end, she had set the frame reverently on her mantle and gone to bed in a happy haze.

Dialing Eli’s number after retrieving the phone took only seconds, despite Leila’s groggy state. His chipper voice greeting her did wonders to improve her mood.

“Hey, Eli. You sound very alert and energetic.”

“You sound quite the opposite.”

“Thanks.” She yawned, muffling the phone too late to hide it. “Got to bed kind of late last night.”

“Really,” Eli said, his voice flat. The disapproval in his voice was clear.

Leila wasn’t even sure how to classify her relationship with Eli, but his opinion of her meant more to her than just about anyone else’s. She hurried to explain, but found that harder than she expected. “I didn’t … I mean …”

Why was it so hard for her to say she didn’t sleep with Luke? She trusted Eli. She knew that despite his occasional odd behavior, he was her mentor, basically, and so far out of her realm of possibilities that discussing her sex life with him shouldn’t have been embarrassing in the least. For some reason, she couldn’t force the words from her mouth.

Luckily for her, Eli seemed to have gotten the message from her sputtering. “You’re calling me from your apartment, not Luke’s. Is that what you’re trying to say?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” he said. He sounded relieved, which made Leila smile. It was sweet that he worried about her.

“So, do you want to hear about last night?”

“Not over the phone.” Rustling carried over the line, making Leila wonder what he was doing. And what he meant by
not over the phone
. “You caught me just as I was about to head out for a run. Why don’t you join me? We can talk about your date as we run.”

“Run?” The horrified tone of her voice made giving any further opinion on the matter unneeded.

“Yes, run. Meet me at Holstein Park in fifteen minutes. We’ll start there and see how it goes.”

“But …”

“See you in a few minutes.”

The line went dead after that.
He did that on purpose
, Leila thought,
so I wouldn’t have a chance to say no
. If she wanted to discuss Luke with him, she had no other option than to meet him. The good mood Eli had inspired just a few minutes ago evaporated. Leila did not enjoy running. She really didn’t like working out in any form. If she hadn’t been blessed with good genetics and a high metabolism, she would most likely weigh twice what she did. Leila planned on letting Eli know exactly how much she appreciated being forced into running with him.

After digging out a pair of leggings and sport top, and grabbing a bagel to munch on, Leila headed out to meet Eli with a scowl. She only lived two blocks from the park her neighborhood had been named for, so it was a short walk. As her rarely used sneakers trudged along the sidewalk, she wondered where Eli lived. She doubted it was Holstein Park. Her neighborhood was nice, but not high-priced-psychiatrist nice. Surely Eli hadn’t been planning on running there before getting her call. No doubt he realized that if she had to go much farther than two blocks to meet him it wasn’t going to happen and Eli had given her a break.

When Leila reached the park, Eli was already there. He glanced at his watch just to be irritating. “You’re not the most cheerful person in the morning, are you?”

“I’m perfectly cheerful when people don’t try to make me run right after I wake up.”

“I didn’t
make
you do anything.” His satisfied smirk deepened her scowl. “You wanted to talk, I wanted to run.”

“No more free advice, huh? Now I’ve got to trade for it?”

“It’s called compromising, Leila, and it’s the key to any healthy relationship.”

Relationship. That single word brought up her earlier musings, making her wonder again exactly what Eli was to her. Was this merely an extension of their business arrangement? Were they friends? She wasn’t sure. Whatever they had, Eli didn’t seem to be plagued with a need to define it like she did. He checked his laces and started jogging in place.

“Are you ready to go?”

Leila grunted in disgust. “I guess.”

Eli shook his head at her and took off. Maybe he considered it a slow jog, but Leila certainly didn’t. “Hold up, Speed Racer!”

He looked back and held up his hands in mocking disbelief. Leila trotted up next to him and he eyed her critically. “I was barely jogging. You’ve got to be able to keep up with that, at least. You’re fit. If you can’t keep up with me, I’d seriously consider getting a new trainer.”

“New trainer,” Leila scoffed, “I’d have to have a trainer to start with. I’d have to actually exercise first.”

“Oh, come on, you must work out. You have a great figure. You can’t honestly tell me you don’t do anything.”

“Sorry. Ana’s tried to get me to try whatever Zumba is, but it sounds dreadful.”

“Other women must hate you,” Eli said as he started jogging again.

Leila was forced to follow him, but his comment made her laugh. “I make a point of not telling many people about my lack of physical activity.”

“Good choice.”

For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. Leila’s reasoning was that she was struggling to figure out how to talk and run at the same time without feeling like she was suffocating. Thin or not, she was not in good shape. Her muscles started to protest after only ten minutes. When they reached an intersection they were forced to pause while they waited for the light to change. Leila had stumbled to a stop when they reached the light, but Eli barked at her to keep jogging in place. Really, he said it very nicely, trying to help her in her dismal attempt at running, but to her it sounded like her old high school gym teacher.

Leila felt a trickle of sweat slide down her spine. Eli still looked fresh, not even winded. Her self-worth would have taken a huge hit it Eli hadn’t been so incredibly supportive. He told her that keeping her muscles working while they waited would help her not cramp up. When the light changed it actually felt better to run again. But only for about six blocks. Then a sharp pain in her side showed her true inner wimp.

“Ow, ow, ow.” She grabbed at Eli’s arm and jerked him to a stop.

“Are you okay?”

“Um, yeah, I think.” She winced, doubling over in an attempt to alleviate the ache. Eli squatted down in front of her and cupped her face in his hands. Gently, he pushed her up to face him. “What’s wrong?”

“My side is killing me. Is that normal?”

“Does it feel like someone is stabbing you in the gut?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Any other symptoms?”

Symptoms. That almost made Leila giggle. He sounded like a doctor taking care of a patient. He went through medical school, so no doubt he could truly tell her if something was wrong. It seemed funny to her for some reason, though. It probably had to do with her confusion about her relationship with Eli. She knew she didn’t want to add doctor-patient to the mix. When Eli pressed his hand gently against her abdomen, visions of a completely different type of relationship danced in her mind. It was a challenge, but she pushed those kind of foolish notions away and answered him.

“Other than my side, I’m fine.”

“Good.”

She eyed him skeptically. “Good?”

“Just a normal cramp. Happens to everyone.”

“Do you ever get them?”

“I used to,” he said, “back when I was about fourteen, first year I joined the track team. My entire body felt like one big cramp for about three weeks straight.”

“That’s fabulous,” Leila snarled.

Eli chuckled at her. “Why don’t we walk for a while?”

“Sounds heavenly. Lead on.”

He moved forward at a much more sedate pace. Leila had to keep her fingers pinched into her side for several more blocks before the cramp started to ease.

“So, tell me about last night,” Eli said.

Leila forgot her side altogether. “Oh, Eli, it was so great. I haven’t had that much fun in a while. Luke is so different from other guys I’ve dated. For once, I felt like I was the reason instead of the excuse.”

“That’s great, Leila.” Sometimes she could see something unreadable hiding behind Eli’s smiles, but this wasn’t one of those times. He honestly looked pleased that she had enjoyed herself. “What made this date different for you?” he asked.

“Well, for one, there was nothing behind Luke asking me out. Part of me had worried because I met him through work and he was trying to get a contract with Ana to shoot her catalog and website photos …”