9781618853158SpecialKindofWomanBergman (3 page)

“Yeah, I completely
forgot about that. You know we never finished our conversation in the elevator.
You left so quickly once the doors opened. I swear you looked like you were
running a hundred yard dash or something.”

This time it was Regina
who started laughing. “I’m sorry but I had to laugh because what you said was
too funny.”

“No need to apologize,
you have a cute laugh by the way,” Collin said with a smile. She stopped to
look up at him wondering what he was getting at with that comment and continued
down. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I’ll stop.” And he did just
that as they finally made it down to the mailroom.

Regina wanted to die
laughing seeing the shocked look on Linda’s face as Collin stood there with
some boxes in his hands.

“Don’t tell me the
elevator broke down again?” Linda asked and they nodded their heads. “Well this
is just great, did Jerry say how long it was going to be before they fix it?”

“Probably not for
another hour or so, but knowing him, he’ll probably start after lunchtime.” Regina
turned and got caught in those flashing green eyes. Now that they were so close
to each other, she could really get a good look at Collin. He was a very
handsome man with an amazing smile, she thought, but then Linda coughed and brought
her back to reality. “I want to thank you for helping me by the way, you honestly
didn’t have to.”

“Anything to help out a
lady in distress, I don’t mean to be forward with you by asking this, but would
you like to have lunch with me this afternoon?” Collin asked her.

“Can I think about that,
please?”

Collin smiled. “I’ll be
waiting for your answer then.”

He walked away, leaving
Regina breathless and holding onto the side of the table. Linda came over to
her giggling.

“Oh my God, I can’t
believe that Collin Noonan came down here and not only that, he asked you to
lunch. Oh Regina you got to go, if you don’t I’ll never let you forget about it,
ever,” Linda demanded as Regina attempted to compose herself.

“Why in the hell would
he want to take me out to lunch?”

“Who cares? You just
got asked out to lunch and knowing him, he’ll probably pay for everything. Plus
he’s Collin Noonan. Of all the men in this building, you have one of the most
eligible choices asking you out. You don’t have to think about it girlfriend,
go for it while the getting is good,” Linda told her before she went back to work.

Regina started to sort
out some mail while she tried to come to grips with the idea of going out on
her first lunch date with Collin Noonan.

As the time slowly
approached noon, her stomach churned. She knew Collin was going to want an
answer but the thought of saying yes or no to him scared her half to death. The
phone rang and she jumped as Patrick answered, “Hello mailroom? Yes, hold on a
second. Regina, it’s for you.”

Lord
it’s him
. She grabbed the phone and took a deep breath
before starting to talk. “Hello?”

“Hi there, it’s Collin.
I was calling to see if you have finished thinking about going to lunch with
me. Do you still want to go? I’ve already made reservations?” To her
disappointment, Regina now knew she had to go through with him.

“Well, I was supposed
to go with my friend Maxine, but I guess we could probably have lunch another
time. I don’t want to ruin the reservations you’ve made on my behalf.”

“Good, I’m glad that
you accepted my invite. I’m heading to the parking garage, would you like to
meet me?”

“All right, goodbye.” With
that, Regina hung up the phone and saw Linda take a big gulp. She could tell Linda
was nervous as hell, even though she appeared calm.

“You’ll be just fine
Gina, just enjoy your free lunch today, you deserve a nice looking man taking
you out.” Linda smiled as Regina went into her locker and grabbed her purse.

“Wish me luck,” Regina said
with a small smile walking toward the door as Linda gave her thumbs up. She
waited at the parking lot knowing it would be a while before he came down
because he had to use the freight elevator. Soon she saw the door open but a
group of people came out, as some of them looked her way she lowered her eyes
from their stares while they continued on. Once she felt comfortable again, she
saw him standing there looking around for her.

When he noticed her, he
walked over and said, “Are you ready?”

Nodding her head,
Regina followed him to a black Mercedes Benz. Very gentlemanly, he opened the
door for her and held it while she got in, then walked over to his side and
slid in. “I hope you like where we’re going, it’s one of my favorite places.” They
headed out onto the street, to where she didn’t know but was excited to find
out. It didn’t take them long to get to the restaurant and when she saw where
they were, Regina was completely shocked that he brought her here of all
places.

“Bagwell’s for lunch?
You brought me to Bagwell’s for lunch of all the places in town.” Regina asked
as the valet opened the door and extended his hand to her.

After handing the young
man his keys, Collin walked over and smiled at her. As he walked her toward the
front door someone opened it for them. When they got inside, Collin smiled as
he saw the hostess at her podium. “Hello Mr. Noonan, I have your table ready.”

Regina couldn’t believe
how beautiful this place was. She’d read articles in the paper about the dances
and fundraisers they held here, but seeing the pictures was nothing like
actually seeing it live and in color. Collin pulled out a chair for her, which
made her blush at the offering as she sat down, and he scooted her toward the
table.

“Thank you,” she told
him ever so softly. As he sat down, the hostess gave them their lunch menus.

“You’re most welcome. Order
anything you like, it’s all on me,” Collin assured her with a wink and a smile.

Looking over the menu,
her eyes bugged out as she saw the prices of each item. “Are you sure you can
afford this, I mean the prices here are insane.”

Collin chuckled at her.
“You don’t get the chance to have someone wine and dine you often huh?”

Regina felt her throat
tighten up a bit at his comment.

“I’m sorry Regina; I
didn’t mean to say it like that.”

“Oh that’s okay, I
shouldn’t have let it get to me. I know you were only joking, but no, I don’t
get asked out to lunch unless my friend Maxine offers. Other than that, I tend
to keep to myself.” Giving him a reassuring half smile, she was putting up a
front so he would think she was all right.

“How about this, from
now on we’ll go out and have lunch together. I don’t normally go out to lunch
unless it’s for business. But other than that, I stay in my office most of the time
and have Nancy bring me something or I order in. Besides, it would be nice to
spend lunch with a lovely lady everyday instead of alone in my office.”

“Are you serious?”
Regina asked as a waiter brought them some water with lemon to drink.

“Very serious and we
don’t have to come here, we can go wherever you like to eat. What do you say
about that my dear?”

The smile he gave her
honestly made her want to melt. She could stare at his face all day.

“I don’t know Collin.”

“Why don’t we do it like
this, if you don’t want to keep having lunch with me after this, then we can
stop and you can go back to your old routine?”

“It’s just that I eat
with my friend basically every day and I wouldn’t want her to be put off by the
fact that I’ve dropped her for you.” She didn’t want to hurt Maxine’s feelings,
especially after all she had done for her over the years.

“But what about what
you want my dear, like you said, you don’t get asked out to lunch very often so
why not enjoy having it with me?”

He did have a point,
Regina thought, how many times was she ever going to get the chance to be asked
out by a handsome man? How many times had she been the one left out of doing
things?

Maxine would just have
to get over it because now it was her turn to have some fun.

“All right, I’ll have
lunch with you Collin,” Regina said with a small smile.

“Good. Now, I do
suggest the Cesar salad. You can get it with grilled chicken. It’s pretty good
here.”

After they ate, they
decided to share a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Collin asked her
question after question about herself the entire time. “So what do you like to
do when you’re not working?”

“I sometimes hangout
with my friend Maxine, but sometimes I like to be by myself, take my MP3 player,
and go for a walk in the park. Either that or I’ll pack myself a little snack
and if I get tired, I sit under this tree that I like and watch the world go
by. It doesn’t take much to please me, though I do have fun doing it.” She was
full, she thought, as she set her fork down on the plate.

“That sounds nice. I
wouldn’t mind going for a walk myself one of these days. That’s if I can fit it
into my schedule,” Collin told her and she laughed at his comment. “I hope you
don’t mind me asking you all of these questions but there is one more I have to
ask you,” he said as he raised his hand to get the waiter’s attention.

“Sure what do you want
to ask?”

“Was everything all right
with your meal this afternoon?” the waiter, whose name was Don, asked them.

“Everything was perfect
and I would like the check please,” Collin requested, and with that the waiter
was off once more toward the back. “What I wanted to ask is has a man ever done
something like this for you?”

Everything had been
going fine, Regina thought, until he brought up that particular subject. Why he
would ask her that, she wondered to herself. Quickly taking a sip of her water,
Regina told him bluntly, “No, none of the guys I’ve talked with or met have
ever done anything this nice for me. So you’re the first and probably only one
who will. Can we please head back; my lunch break is almost up.”

Don came back with his
receipt and Collin paid him. Regina walked toward the front of the restaurant,
too embarrassed to see if he followed or not. She stood there waiting next to
the valet booth while he gave the young man his ticket. Regina knew that she
shouldn’t have let such things get to her, but she couldn’t help it at times
especially when she felt as if she was put into a corner by someone. Fiddling
with the tassel on her purse, she prayed that the guy would hurry so she could
get back into the comfort of the mail room. When the car finally came and they
drove off, Collin didn’t say another word to her throughout the ride back. In a
way she thought it was a blessing at first but it wasn’t until they made it
back to the parking garage when she heard him say. “Please don’t be cross with
me Regina. I didn’t mean to be so blunt with you; all I wanted to do was be
friendly.”

“It’s not your fault Collin,
it’s mine. I’m not used to men asking me out anywhere. I’m generally a loner.
Just please bear with me as far as how I might react toward you at times. This
is all pretty much new to me, you know.” Regina was shocked as he put his hand
on hers causing a wave of sensations to go through her body. Her heart started
racing as she bit her lower lip.

“If I ever make you
uncomfortable Gina, you let me know and I’ll stop,” Collin told her, staring at
her intently. They smiled at one another for a moment before getting out of his
car. As they made their way inside they said their goodbyes and she went back
to the mailroom.

After work, Regina
waited for Maxine to come out and before she could have the chance to say
anything about her lunch date, Maxine chimed in, “I cannot believe you had a
lunch date with Collin Noonan!” Regina couldn’t help but giggle getting into
the car. “So how was it? How did he look? Where you freaking out or what
because honestly if that man had asked me out I would have been totally
freaking out.”

“First off, who told
you?” Regina questioned her with a cocked brow.

“Patrick because I came
down to the mailroom to tell you I was having lunch with some clients. So go on
and don’t leave out anything because I want to hear it all,” Maxine said with a
giddy laugh that made Regina giggle even more.

“Well to answer your
questions, it was really nice. We went to Bagwell’s, which was amazing in
itself. He looked so hot and handsome Max. I swear I almost wanted to die. He
smiled at me the entire time we were together. I kept thinking to myself that
this must be some kind of a dream or something because I know I couldn’t be living
through this in real life but I honestly was Max, I was having lunch with a
very handsome man in a fine restaurant. I had the grilled chicken Cesar salad
that he recommended and we shared a piece of chocolate cake. But he kept asking
me all these questions though, which really freaked me out. I think even though
I know he was just being nice to me Max, I let everything he said get to me but
he told me that if he ever made me uncomfortable with his questioning, he
wanted me to tell him.” They stopped over at the grocery store.

“Well at least he
understands what not to say, which is good. I honestly can’t believe how lucky
you got today. Do you know how lucky you got today, Regina? Women would give
their first born son to have any interaction with Collin Noonan,” Maxine said
while they started for the doors.