Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) (8 page)

Paul followed him back, ignoring an offer of a
beer from the refrigerator. "You showered, so that means you
haven't called it off. A good sign. What are you
wearing?"

"I have it handled." Ignacio tried to close
his bedroom door, but Paul had already slipped in.

Paul picked up the suit from where it lay on
the bed and shook his head. "No way. You aren't wearing
this."

As Paul took the offending suit back to the
closet, Ignacio called out to him, "I'm going to
cancel."

"No way. Wait, I found something." Paul came
to the door of the walk-in closet and threw a blue suit on the bed
before disappearing back inside. "What were you saying about not
panicking?"

"This isn't fair to her," Ignacio said,
picking up the suit to return it to the closet.

"This has nothing to do with her, buddy. It's
all about you, and you are ready." A white shirt shot out of the
door to land on the bed. Ignacio jumped back, barely avoiding a
shoe.

"You have never met this woman," Ignacio said
into the closet, before having to duck as the second shoe came
flying out.

"Don't have to. You're interested. That's all
I need to know." Paul emerged from the closet with a green
pinstripe silk tie in his hand. "Casual, a bit sporty, but still
formal."

"This is a bad idea," Ignacio repeated, not
really hearing the words.

Paul took the suit from his hands and laid it
on the bed. "Continuing to repeat it to yourself won't make you
believe it, my friend. You had all week to cancel, and you didn't.
Time to own it."

Just like Paul to be so direct and to the
point. Not something Ignacio was sure he wanted around at the
moment, not when he was trying to think of a good
excuse.

He ran down the reasons again for why he
should back out as he put on the shirt and pants. Went over them a
second time while knotting the tie exactly right. A third time as
he ran a polishing cloth over the shoes before putting them
on.

All the while the gentle face of Rachel
appeared in his head, her angry flashing eyes mocking him at his
cowardice. Irvine soon joined her, hissing at him from the top of
his rock grotto.

Paul leaned against the doorjamb of the
bedroom and took a big swallow of a beer, and then toasted him.
"Looking good."

Ignacio adjusted the suit jacket in front of
the mirror over the dresser. "I feel like an idiot."

"Welcome to dating. What time did you say she
was coming over? Hey, why didn't you go over to pick her up at her
place?"

The door chime rang. Ignacio froze in the act
of tucking the tie down into the front of the jacket.

"I'm guessing now is the time?" Paul asked.
"Time to turn on the charm. I hope you aren't expecting her to pay
her part."

He stood rooted to the floor, his hands frozen
in motion. In the mirror, he watched the color drain out of his
face.

Paul took another swallow of beer. "No
running."

"I'm not running." Ignacio glared at him as he
left the mirror to head for the front of the apartment. "She works
for the station maintenance department, which means she lives in a
restricted area. And I'm not telling you what I have planned
tonight. I wouldn't put it past you to show up to make sure I'm
doing it right."

"No way, man. I promised to babysit, and I
will. I'll count all the babies on the hour and if I see a problem
I'll call." Paul crossed his heart and gave him a
salute.

Ignacio stopped in front of the door. On the
other side would be Rachel. Too late to back out now. What should
he say when he opened the door? A simple greeting? Invite her in?
Head out immediately?

"Do I need to open it for you?" Paul
asked.

"I have it." Ignacio took a deep breath and
reached out to open the door.

***

"Rachel, wear the gold dress. It brings out the
highlights in your hair," Velda said in the short
message.

More advice followed in a message left by
Eddie. All while Rachel stood ankle-deep in water while trying to
find a drainage problem in one of the industrial areas. She knew
they meant well, but an entire day of calls and messages with
advice for the date later that night? Didn't they have something
else to keep them busy?

"I might run away," Rachel said to her
bot.

Her bot whistled to her, gliding barely over
the water as it went back and forth to the cart for more tools. The
sound mimicked Daisy so much Rachel asked, "Is your name
Daisy?"

The bot handed her hooked tool, staring up at
her without a sound.

Rachel took the tool. "Okay, fine. Your name
isn't Daisy."

Despite her intention of finishing up the jobs
on time, she ended up a half hour late. She was also a mess. She
stripped down in the industrial showers near the platform before
checking out and making sure her bot had everything put away before
it disappeared for the night to do whatever the bots did at
night.

The moment she appeared at the maintenance
platform Damien flung a flex-paper towards her. "You have messages.
Who is Eddie?"

"They've been calling here?" Rachel scanned
through the text messages sent to the maintenance department in the
form of service requests. Dresses to think about. Places to dine in
case her date had trouble thinking of a place. What jewelry went
with what colors.

"Odd service request: wear the silver shoes,"
Damien said with a grin. "I hope this isn't your date for the
evening. Seems too controlling for the likes of you."

"No, only the Naughty Knitter's
Club."

Damien's smile froze. "Naughty? Why are they
called that?"

"You don't want to know." When Damien's
eyebrows went up, she quickly added, "Get your mind out of the
gutter. It isn't anything like that. I'll clear the
requests."

Rachel headed for the back of the platform
before he could ask more questions. Her bot already finished
cleaning out the cart, turning to putting inside more valves,
joints, and other parts for the next shift. Rachel cleared out all
the requests on the flex-paper one by one, hoping Arthur didn't see
them or she would have more questions to answer. She should have
expected the ladies to be so persistent once they found out about
the date. Her switching all her calls to messages hadn't slowed
them down a bit.

With the service requests cleared and the cart
ready to go, Rachel led the way to the storage area. As she crossed
a hallway she spotted Arthur and Tish sitting at the small table at
the other end of the platform, their heads close together. A
flex-paper and tablet computers covered the small table between
them, but the way their heads leaned in to talk spoke volumes. They
might be talking business, but they were enjoying every minute of
it.

She wouldn't mind a little bit of that
euphoric feeling. A chance to feel something special. And Ignacio
was all sorts of special. She'd looked him up after first meeting
him, finding his name and his work mentioned in surprising places
across multiple planets.

His efforts to rebuild the unique newt
population in an area decimated by an industrial spill filled the
top search positions. One of the reports included pictures of the
Silky Newts, the same type she'd watched the birth of. Other
articles spoke of his expertise in several exotic lizard
species.

She still wished he could be interested in an
animal a little more fluffy and attractive, but she did admit some
of the more colorful newts had a charm of their own.

Her bot whistled at her as it pushed the cart
into the storage room. It settled the cart in a corner and then
came back to the hallway.

"Shiny? Ochre? Sunshine?" Rachel tried. The
bot stared up at her, not uttering a sound. "And I strike out
again. Okay, fine. Thanks for the help tonight. I'll see you in the
morning."

The bot whistled at her and disappeared down a
hallway, speeding away from the maintenance platform.

Which meant she had no excuse but to get ready
for the date, and she didn't have much time. Despite the ladies
trying to help her, she still didn't have any idea what to wear.
Over the past week she'd come to the conclusion her wardrobe was
horribly insufficient. Not having time to go out and buy something
new made her genuinely worried about presenting herself well. She
desperately wanted to make a good first impression on their first
official date.

She bit her lip as she deposited her utility
belt in her locker. She needed a bit of help to do this right. An
outside point of view.

Rachel headed into the main platform and came
to a stop at the table. It took a few seconds for the two occupants
to notice someone standing next to them.

"Are you finished with official stuff?" Rachel
asked.

"We just finished. Have something on your
mind?" Arthur stacked several flex-papers, the service orders on
them blinking up at them. Rachel ignored them. If one of them
belonged to her department, she would soon know.

"Nope, nothing wrong, nothing more to report
other than what I already have. I need to steal your girlfriend for
a personal matter."

Tish grinned while Violet whistled a question.
"What's going on?" Her face cleared, and she made a little jump in
her chair. "Oh, tonight is the night."

"What is tonight?" Arthur asked. "Did I forget
something?"

"Nope, not you. I'll tell you later." Tish
grabbed a tablet computer and handed it to Violet. "Needing
help?"

"Lord yes," Rachel said.

She'd expected it to be harder to pry the two
apart. Instead, Tish jumped right up and followed her to her
apartment.

She frowned as she surveyed the small front
living portion. "We really need to get these renovated. Or moved.
Or both."

"Good luck in anyone finding the time to
organize it." Rachel headed straight into the one bedroom in the
back. She pulled two dresses out of the closet and held them up.
"Like either one of them?"

"Do you have any idea where he's taking you?"
Tish asked from where she settled cross-legged on the
bed.

"Not a clue. Not the black. I think he would
have said if he meant formal." Rachel put the black dress back
inside the closet, leaving the gold dress in her left hand. She
pulled out a red dress, but then put it right back. "Too flashy.
Problem is, I really don't have much."

"Strange he hasn't called you all week to let
you know more details."

"He's busy with new baby newts."

Tish laughed. "Did you say newts?"

"Yep. He breeds them. Really rare ones. Trying
to bring them back from extinction." Rachel pulled out a dress of
green and blue with a silky layered skirt.

"That one has potential," Tish said, reaching
out to touch the material.

The front door chimed.

Rachel stared at her open bedroom door in
horror. "I was supposed to go there, not him come here. This area
is restricted."

"You know, that never made sense to me," Tish
said. "You are in your off-time. You should be able to have a
social life, including having friends over, if you want
to."

"Get some people to refurbish the nearby
apartment block and we'll be able to. These apartments are too
close to the maintenance storage rooms." Rachel lay both dresses on
the bed. She glanced back at the door. "I hope it isn't a system
emergency!"

"Right, too many valuable parts that could be
stolen. Such as by pirates." Tish climbed off the bed. "Relax. I
don't sense the station upset. I'll go see who it is while you try
on the dresses. Put on the green and blue dress first."

Rachel pulled off her shirt and shimmied out
of her pants. The dress might be okay, but it still didn't feel
right. She plunged back into the closet in a desperate search to
find something appropriate to wear on a date with a man she barely
knew, going somewhere she didn't know, to talk about who-knew
what.

Oh great, now she was trying to panic
herself.

She pulled out a dress-bag from the very back
of the closet, trying to remember what it might be. Maybe a
glorious dress she'd forgotten she'd bought in the distant
past.

As she came out of the closet Tish appeared at
the bedroom door with an odd expression on her face. Rachel dropped
the dress bag on the bed and grabbed her robe. "What is it? Is it
an emergency?"

"I don't know. It might be." Tish stopped,
grimacing. "You've been invaded."

"Invaded?"

"Never fear, your club is here!" Velda
announced, appearing behind Tish with a dark long bag held over her
arm.

Rachel cinched up her robe as Tish moved out
of the way to keep from getting run over by Eddie and Daisy joining
the crowd into the bedroom.

The three ladies stood at one side of her bed,
regarding the dresses displayed there shaking their heads
sadly.