The Enforcer (17 page)

Shaking Jody’s hand Aidan laughed at the tough guy act and said, “Message received.” Zoe thanked Jody for driving and then led Aidan inside. Lacey turned to Jody and started to apologize. Putting up his hand he said, “Don’t. It’s okay, and I think you’re a wonderful friend. I’ll just go home and suffer in silence. But since I’m so incredibly understanding, I think you owe me a date. I want a real date where I pick you up and take you out somewhere. Just the two of us.”

Lacey readily agreed, and they decided Jody would pick her up on Tuesday at seven o’clock. He smiled and gave her another toe curling kiss before he turned and left.

Sunday was Lacey’s last day off before starting her new job, and she wanted to spend the day with Zoe. Aidan had left early that morning, feeling marginally better, so the girls decided to have a day of pampering and started it off with a massage and a pedicure.

After being pampered and having a nice lunch, they spent the rest of the afternoon with their toes in the sand. It would start getting a bit cooler soon, and they wanted to take advantage of every beach day they could. Beach chairs in place, Zoe turned to Lacey and asked her if she wanted to take a walk or sit and stare at the ocean first.

“Let’s just watch the ocean for a while.”

“Fine by me. Let’s talk about boys. I need to find a date. Nothing serious of course, but just someone to go out with a few times, you know?” Zoe hadn’t had a date since the mysterious guy in the shower when Lacey was still in Maine; although, come to think of it, that was only a few weeks ago. Time flew by so quickly when there were so many changes happening in her life.

“Okay. Do you have anyone in mind? Oh! I know what you should do. Why don’t you do one of those online dating things? Or one of those speed dating things? Yeah, that speed dating thing. You’d be great at that.” Lacey remembered seeing that on a sitcom once. A bunch of guys and girls would sit across from each other and switch partners every five to eight minutes or something like that. It was a good way to quickly weed out undesirables.

“By myself? Oh no. I’ll do it if you do it. You and Jody aren’t an official couple yet, are you?” Zoe didn’t think Lacey would agree, but it was a good way to get Lacey to admit she felt more than a physical attraction to him. Lacey’s answer actually surprised her.

“Maybe I will. Just to be fair, though, I’ll tell Jody that you and I are doing it. I’m only doing it for fun. I’m not looking for anyone else to date. Jody and I have our first real date on Tuesday. Let’s see if we can find a speed-dating location to hit tonight or tomorrow night.” What could he object to anyway? They were not a couple, and she’d been up front with him that she wasn’t looking for a long-term relationship right then (even though she could tell she was weakening in that regards). It wasn’t really dating anyway. Just meeting a bunch of guys at one time.

“Can I listen in when you tell him? He’s not going to like it. Don’t you listen when the guys tell you how possessive he is?” Zoe would love to hear his reaction. It was good to stir the pot and see what was what (probably not the best way to be when one was a therapist – but hey, it was harmless). Telling Jody her intentions to go on this speed dating thing with her would be interesting, to say the least.

“Oh come on,” Lacey shot back. “You think it’ll bother him that much? He has no claim on me. I’ll bet you the guys exaggerate his attitude. I’ll call him right now.” She dug her phone out of her bag, found Jody’s name and hit send.

He answered on the second ring, sounding out of breath. “Hey Lace.”

“Hi. Did I catch you at a bad time? You sound like you just ran a marathon.”

“Perfect timing, actually. I was just trying to think of an excuse to stop running. I’ve only done about three miles, but I already did a workout at the rink. What I’d like to be doing is sitting on my deck drinking a cold one.” Jody loved his afternoon beer on the deck. It was a daily ritual. He didn’t drink much when he went out with the guys, but that beer on his deck was a constant in his life.

“The day I even try to run three miles is the day pigs’ll fly,” Lacey said. Now that she had him on the phone, she was kind of nervous to tell him about the speed dating. “Anyway, Zoe wants to try that speed dating thing where you meet a bunch of guys for about five minutes each and then move on to the next one. Have you heard of that?”

“People actually do that shit? That’s insane.” Jody couldn’t imagine her needing to do that to meet someone. Zoe was cute, smart and funny. Of course he had women throw themselves at him all the time, so maybe he didn’t know how hard it was to meet someone.

“Well, yes. Not everyone has
your
luck getting dates, Jody.” Why was she getting so defensive? Was it because she didn’t want to hear his opinion on the subject, or was she jealous of all the harlots that she knew threw themselves at him? “I’m going, too. Even though you and I haven’t even had a first date yet, I thought I should tell you. I’m not looking for a date there; I’m only going because Zoe doesn’t want to go alone.” He was silent. Then not so silent. Lacey pulled the phone away from her ear while Jody ranted.

“You are NOT going to a speed dating party. Listen to me, Lace. That’s not going to happen.” More silence. Then Lacey could hear him cursing. He knew he had no right to say that, but dammit, Lacey was
his.
“Okay look, I know you’re your own person, and I have no right … no, fuck that. You can’t go.” When he stopped talking, Lacey heard him mumble something about her being his.

Lacey’s voice went up an octave. “Yours?” Zoe had the nerve to laugh at Lacey as she listened in on the conversation. “You can’t forbid me to go, Jody. I’m sorry you feel so strongly about this, but you’re right about one thing. I am my own person. If you still want to go out with me on Tuesday, let me know, but you might want to think about a change in attitude.” Lacey closed her phone and looked at Zoe. “Do you believe that? I knew it. I knew he wasn’t Mr. Perfect, but damn! Yeah, I’d say ‘possessive or overly protective’ is an understatement.”

“Well, I wouldn’t throw him away just yet. Every one of us has a weakness. His is his need to stake a claim. Don’t get me wrong, I think you need to address it, but you may find that he’s worth the extra work.”

“Maybe. I’ll sleep on it. But in the mean time, let’s go home, find a speed dating thingy and get going. Maybe there’s one tonight, and I suddenly feel anxious to go now.” They packed up their beach chairs and headed back to the house.
Take
that
Mr. LaGrange!

There was only one speed dating club in the whole San Diego area, and they met on Sunday and Wednesday nights. With only two hours to spare, the girls registered online. Lacey decided to wear her new sundress, and Zoe decided to slut it up. Okay, not really, but she wore low-riding, hip-hugging jeans with a wide belt, black boots with three-inch heels and a black t-shirt that said, “I’ll be using
these
to my advantage.”

“Really Zoe?” Lacey couldn’t believe how comfortable Zoe was with making statements like that. She got away with it because everyone loved her. How did she do it? Confidence must be the answer. Zoe always said people will perceive you by the way you act. She swore that a woman dressed in a string bikini, with the right attitude, could command respect in a brothel. Lacey didn’t have that kind of confidence but Zoe sure did. She didn’t look easy; she looked cute. Men thought she was adorable and treated her that way … for the most part. There were always one or two assholes in every crowd.

Zoe looked at herself in the mirror and said, “What? I look adorable. Besides, I’m not looking for Mr. Right, just Mr. Tonight.” Then she blew herself a kiss and turned to look at Lacey. “And don’t you look sexy. Really Lacey, I think between the two of us, you look hotter than I do. You’re the perfect combination of sex and girl next door.” Lacey’s dress
was
a bit shorter than she remembered it, and the neckline a tad lower but it had tiny flowers on it for God’s sake!

“Oh come on. My dress has daisies on it.”

“Yup, it does. And what’s the length on that skirt? Two inches
above
the knee?” When Lacey looked back down and tried tugging the skirt lower, Zoe laughed. “I’m just yanking your chain. You look nice and demure. I’m sure Jody would approve … or not.” Zoe walked over to Lacey and linked their arms together. “Let’s go get me a date.”

Zoe drove to the club, and they got there with just minutes to spare. There were sixteen men and fifteen women looking for dates (well, fourteen women – Lacey didn’t want a date). The men came in all shapes and sizes. There were buff white guys, skinny black guys, a few Hispanics and possibly a Russian. It was nice to have a variety to pick from. Zoe had no particular preference, although there was that Ukrainian man she couldn’t have.

Rubbing her hands together, Zoe said, “Okay, where do I start – white, black or that cute Spanish looking guy? Yum, so many choices!” Well, no one could ever call Zoe prejudiced. She did seem to be leaning (literally) toward the Spanish looking guy.

“I think you have to wait for the moderator to set us up, Zoe. It’s not a big party, dear. As the website states, it’s an ‘organized dating opportunity.’ Just relax, be patient and
stop
undressing that guy with your eyes!” Lacey had to laugh at her. Zoe just wanted to get started. She didn’t like to wait.

Everyone was about to take a seat when the door opened and two more men walked in. “You have got to be kidding me.” Lacey shook Zoe’s arm and pointed to the door. Standing there looking pissed off at the world were Jody and Vlad. They signed in with the moderator and took seats at the end of the row. “Are they for real? We should walk out right now.”

“Screw that.” Zoe was visibly agitated. “They have no right. Vlad has got to let this go. Goddammit …” With a vast amount of effort, Zoe put on a smile and got ready to meet her first potential date. When the bell rang, Zoe stuck out her hand and introduced herself.

Gesturing to her shirt, her first guy started off with, “So what exactly would you like to use them to get? You can use them on me anytime.” Zoe thought maybe she had that coming for wearing the shirt in the first place so she gave him another chance at conversation. “What do you do for a living?” she asked.

“Oh, this and that. Tell me, what kind of relationship are you looking for? And if I pick you, what will you do for me?”
If
he
picks
me
?
Well, she was done with guy #1. Giving him her insincere smile, she answered, “Let’s just forget it. We’re not going to mesh well. We’ll just sit here and wait for the bell to ring, k?” He mumbled something about her being a tease and then sat there quietly. Zoe felt bad for the girl he’d eventually trick into a date.

Lacey didn’t fare much better with her first guy. It was easy to see why these guys were still single. Speed dating may not have been the best idea she’d ever had. To top it off, Jody was making her uncomfortable. She could feel him staring at her, but she refused to look his way. Instead, she smiled and spoke to the guy in front of her as she kept trying to keep his eyes on her face and not her boobs or legs. Of course,
she
was the idiot who picked that dress to wear. But it had daisies on it! What says ‘I’m a nice girl’ more than daisies?

Lacey’s next couple of men were actually pretty nice. Zoe seemed to hit it off with the Spanish guy whose name was Sebastian. He laughed at Zoe’s shirt and told her he loved a girl with a sense of humor. It was the right approach. Zoe was a smitten kitten. Lacey knew they’d make a date.