Last Call (13 page)

Turning towards the bar, I approached the one guy sitting there talking to none other than my Aussie antagonist, Gage.

Fabulous.

Wondering if this was my "special date" Brian, I tried to get a good look at the profile of his face.

"What the…?" I muttered to myself. I recognized that it was indeed Brian, because I already knew him. Well, sort of. ‘Brian’ was Brian Stalling: student body President and all around golden boy. We had taken a debate course together last semester.

"Brian?" I questioned when I reached his side.

He swiveled on his stool, his hazel eyes widening as he took me in and smiled. "Savannah." Getting up from his stool, he stepped forward and embraced me lightly. "Good God, girl - you look amazing."

"Thanks. What are you doing here?" I couldn't manage to conceal the confusion in my voice. Brian Stalling would
not
have answered an ad for a blind date on the campus site. That was just plain madness. I couldn’t imagine that he would need any help whatsoever finding a date.

"Cut to the chase Guthry, why don't you?" he drawled. A smile wreathed across his face as he pulled out his wallet. "Let me pay real quick and we can go upstairs, okay?"

I nodded and watched as Gage took his cash. They exchanged a few words, shook hands, and as Brian stepped away Gage called out to me, "Enjoy your meal, Savannah."

I sent a smile of thanks his way as Brian placed his hand on the small of my back to lead me upstairs to dinner. Brian was the quintessential poster boy for Brooks Brothers; neatly trimmed dirty blond hair, not too long but not too short, with a nose that was straight and thin and a touch pink today. A slight tan line could be seen over the bridge of his nose.

"Have you been playing golf lately?"

He smirked, "How’d you guess?" He rubbed his tan lines and laughed as he asked.

"My dad has made it very clear to me that the best deals - business or political - are made on the golf course."

"He's right," Brian agreed, and we walked up the stairs to Watson's.

The restaurant was an exceptionally cozy, diminutive place located above the bar. When you entered The Garage, you had to turn immediately to the left to head up a staircase that led up to the restaurant. It was unlike most establishments in that regard, but it was still a great little place to eat and was especially popular. It was just turning six o’clock on a Tuesday, so they weren't busy yet and we were seated right away. Brian, the perfect gentlemen, held my chair out for me before he sat across from me at the small table.

"Have you recovered from the last time we were in a room together yet?" he teased, as our waiter came upon us.

I ordered water to begin with and snarled back at him playfully, "Hey, not fair. My teammates were woefully unprepared at that debate."

A full bodied laugh escaped his mouth as he leaned back in his chair. "Keep telling yourself that, Guthry."

"Okay Stallings, I think it’s obvious that we’re gonna need a rematch. Just the two of us. What's hot on the list of current events right now?"

"Well I've always been told that talking politics on a first date is bad etiquette. However, if you insist." He raised his brows at me as he took a sip of his water and I laughed.

"Well where do you stand on chicken?" I teased; opening the menu. "I'm quite a fan of chicken, although there are a few questionable ethics involved in many poultry factories."

"Oh no, we are
not
going to debate food processing ethics over dinner, Savannah."

"Hmph. You're just scared you'll lose the debate. It's okay, Mr. President, let's talk about something easier. How do you feel about the cheerleaders’ new outfits for next year?"

"Now that
is
something I can get behind." He winked. "Literally."

"Pig," I shot out, fighting down the urge to throw something at him.

"You started it."

Our waiter returned and took our order, and we continued baiting each other with outlandish debate topics while we waited for our food. The first date tension that I felt began to release, and I allowed myself to sit back and simply enjoy his company. I listened to Brian talk about some of the actual hot topics coming up in his campus meetings with the Board.

Once our food arrived - chicken for me and steak for him - we lapsed into a comfortable silence as we ate.

"So can you explain to me why you're having to resort to a dating service for dates?" he asked. I instantly felt my face turn red, although he didn't say it in a particularly snotty way.

"Couldn't I ask you the same thing?"

"Well, actually I ran into Candace the other day and asked about you."

"You asked about me?" I wasn't expecting that.

"Yeah, I heard something about your dating ad from a fraternity brother the other day. You've become very popular with them."

"What?" I yelped. I slapped my hand over my mouth once I realized how loud that was. "You’re kidding, right?"

"Savannah, you know who you are, right?"

And there it was.

Who I am. I’d tried to maintain a low profile on campus over the years, but there was never a shortage of people who would ask, "Guthry? Like Guthry Whiskey?" once they found out my last name.

"Yes, Brian. I
know
who I am," I commented; disgust starting to override the happiness from earlier.

"I'm not saying that's why I asked her to set us up, though," he quickly shot out. He leaned over the table to touch my hand. "Really Savannah, it's not. Obviously some of the guys in the house knew who you were, and when they saw you on the dating site it became a hot topic."

"Of course it did."

"So why are you doing it then?"

"It was a joke, of sorts, that Sara and Candace decided to play on me. By the time I knew what they'd done it was already too late to do anything about it. Can we just change the subject, please?"

He opened his mouth to speak and then stopped. The rest of our meal was relatively quiet, and an uncomfortable stiffness settled over the table. I told him about my volunteer work at the fine arts center, and he discussed some of the changes being implemented for next year.

"I'm sorry about what I said…about who you are. That was stupid of me," he apologized, almost out of the blue.

"Forget about it. I know you didn't mean it the way it sounded, but I guess I get defensive over it. Last year I went to a tailgating party and a group of people jumped all over me to get free whiskey for the next one. It's annoying to be asked for things because of your name, you know."

"Look Savannah, I'm sure you get guys after you all the time for that, but I promise I didn't want to go out with you because of your father’s name. I really enjoyed the debates we had in class last semester, and I wanted to get to know you better." He looked genuine, so I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Ha - well I don't know if I can keep up with you and your mad debating skills, Brian."

"Well obviously not, but I'd still like to see you try."

With the exception of the uncomfortable conversation about the irrefutable power of my last name, the rest of the night went fairly well. Brian was smart, cute and definitely had a lot of ideas for his future. I wasn't really sure if there was anything solid in common between us yet, but that was the whole purpose of dating - to find those things out.

"Okay," I finally spoke. "I'm game." His smile was all the encouragement I needed.

Over dessert, Brian explained that he had planned our dinner so early because there was an early morning meeting with the Dean that he needed to go to. Then he was headed off to a ‘D.C. Young Leaders of America’ event for the remainder of the week.

"Sorry I'm heading out tomorrow, but I’ll be back late Sunday night. Can we get together sometime next week?"

"I don't know," I waffled, as I took the last bite of my chocolate mousse. "I think you’ll need to convince me better than that."

"Oh? Should I make a flip chart, madam? Do you need the pros and cons list?"

Tapping my chin thoughtfully I paused for a moment. "Do you mean to tell me there are
cons
to your proposal?"

His eyes widened in mock indignation. "Well of course not. A good debater would
never
admit to having any weaknesses. I can't think that this date would be anything but a good idea."

"Well, I look forward to seeing the presentation you provide me next week."

Thirty minutes later the dessert was finished off and the bill was paid. He offered to walk me to my car, but I decided to stick around since it was so early; maybe call Sara or Candace and have a drink. I refused to admit that I had this unabating urge to see Gage, so I stomped that little nugget back into the dark corners of my mind instead.

Promising to give me a call when he returned home, Brian kissed me on the cheek and hugged me before leaving. I walked to the bar smiling, and spotted Gage eyeing me before he noticed I was looking. I expected him to turn his head when he knew he'd been caught, but instead he raised a brow and smiled.

"What?" I asked, wiggling my way in between a group of people. I plopped myself unceremoniously onto the empty stool they'd been blocking.

"Your usual?" he asked blandly.

"You mean ‘date with a loser’? Nope, not this time." I shook my head at him while he poured a large glass of beer and delivered it down the bar.

"I meant, do you want a Tom Collins?" He laughed as I nodded and mouthed 'Oh'. "I mean, I could tell your date wasn't a loser tonight. He was more of a world dominator."

"A what?"

"You know, Tears for Fears, ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’. I see him being that guy. The future of America sat right here people," he called out, pointing to me and laughing.

"Hardy har har," I deadpanned. Inside I was silently laughing at how eerily accurate his assessment actually was.

"So what's the problem with him being ambitious?"

"Oh nothing, sweetheart. Ambition is a good thing to have as long as you don't use it to step on people as you claw your way to the top."

"Gage?" called a waitress from the other end of the bar. He walked off and I pulled out my phone to shoot Sara and Candace a text letting them know I was up for drinks.

When he made his way back to me I couldn't help but prod. "Sounds like you know about that from firsthand experience. Being clawed on, that is."

"Oh, I've been clawed all right sweetheart, by a good many pretty Sheilas just like you." He winked boldly.

Ignoring his innuendo, I turned to watch the performer who was strumming away at his guitar singing something about love and rain. My phone buzzed and I checked my messages. It was a reply from Sara:

Sara: have a drink for me! i'm stuck at the studio doing inventory

"So tell me about your world leader. Why did he leave you here all alone?" Gage asked me from behind. I turned back to find him leaning one arm on the bar in front of me. Judging by the crowd, Tuesday nights were obviously pretty slow. This was the first time Gage had been able to really stop and look relaxed while talking to me.

"First of all, he is not
mine
. It was a simple dinner date."

"Then he struck out?"

"Okay, Mr. Know It All." Sarcasm dripped out of my voice as I spoke. "Why would you say he struck out?"

"Angel, there’s no way in hell a guy would choose to leave you here for the vultures if he didn't strike out."

I didn't have a witty reply for that.

"Or maybe he's not as smart as I gave him credit for being. Should I change his song?"

Now I was confused. "His song?"

"Keep up, would you?" He smiled, nodding to someone on my right. He started to mix together another drink, but kept his eyes on me and spoke slightly louder so I could hear him over the din. "I told you he was ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’, by Tears for Fears. That's his song. It's a gift I have."

I almost spit out my drink at his boast. "A gift, huh? What, giving people song names?"

"Yep."

"How does this gift work, per se?"

"Take your date last week. The one who felt the need to stake a claim on you."

"You noticed that?" I choked. "Um, his name was Mark."

He gave an irritated hmph sound as he continued, "Well Mark was definitely ‘Creep’ by Radiohead."

"Oh my God, no he isn't," I laughed.

"Hey, you can't argue with the song picker."

I sat there and tried to recall the lyrics in my head. All I could remember was the line 'I'm a creep, I'm a loser'. The girl walking by stared when I started to laugh out loud. There was no one around, so I was pretty sure I looked like a damn fool.

"You sang it to yourself, didn't you?" Gage asked, breaking through my hilarity. I shook my head yes and continued to laugh. He raised his brows in a knowing 'Told you so.'

Gage continued to walk back and forth fixing drinks and doing bar work. He stopped in front of me after a few minutes and I asked, "So, do you assign songs to everyone you meet?"