Helen thought Mark intended to spend the whole day with her, but he got an urgent phone call from his brother and had to take off after breakfast. Helen knew she shouldn’t feel happy he was going, but being with him was a little intense and the break would relieve mountains of tension. When he said goodbye to her, he kissed her on the forehead unassumingly and told her he wanted to take her out for dinner that night, so she shouldn’t schedule anything. His business with his brother wouldn’t take all day.
When she came into the apartment, Mindy was on the phone laughing her head off.
“Helen, get in here,” she yelled.
“What is it?”
Mindy took the phone away from her ear and said merrily, “You just keep getting into trouble, don’t you?”
“What are you talking about?” Helen questioned.
“Has your little pet boy gone home for the day?” Mindy asked, biting the phone’s antenna.
“Little pet boy,” Helen quoted, her eyes wide. She couldn’t believe Mindy had the nerve to refer to startlingly hot Mark that way, but apparently… “Yeah, is he gone?”
“Yes,” Helen answered sternly.
“Well, then maybe you can help a certain gentleman down at the escort service. Apparently, he’s trying to pick a male escort for his sister and he can’t sort through the files at all. He says he needs your help or he’ll never get anywhere. Feel like helping him out?”
Helen’s eyes bugged out. How could she possibly weasel out? It was her suggestion. “Hmm… is he paying me?”
“I’ll drive you,” Mindy said sportingly even though she was clearly making fun of Helen. She smiled like a Cheshire cat and dangled her car keys in her left hand.
Helen put a hand to her forehead. She was completely stuck.
***
This shouldn’t take too long, Helen told herself as she and Mindy drove down to the agency. I can just help him with the lineup of guys and then I can go home and get ready for my date with Mark.
Once inside, Helen saw Dominic standing at the counter flipping through a laminated catalog with all the agency’s listed escorts. Naturally, the female side of it was much larger than the male, so he was only turning about twenty pages over and over again.
When Helen came in, he turned around and said, “Great, Vera, you’re here. I can’t look at this.”
“Why? They’re not naked or anything,” Helen offered unhelpfully as Mindy smirked and trotted off to the back.
“Who’s that?” Dominic asked, glancing at Mindy. He was not rattled by Helen’s hectoring.
“That’s my cousin, Mindy. She’s an escort here. Didn’t you see her profile?” Helen asked, taking the catalog from him and flipping to Mindy’s page.
“No. I didn’t look at the girls.”
“But aren’t you going on a double date with Laura tonight? Have you already asked a girl to go with you?”
Dominic was slick as a cat’s ear as he responded, “I was going to ask you.”
“I’m not in the book anymore,” Helen answered calmly.
“Does that mean you’re unavailable?”
“Yes. But, I will help you pick out a group of escorts for Laura. It sounds like a lot of fun.”
“But you won’t come with us?”
“No.”
“It would make Laura feel better about everything if she knew you weren’t with Mark.”
“But,” Helen said before taking a deep breath and continuing. “I will be with Mark, and maybe you should tell her that. The information might help her figure out that Mark isn’t available anymore.”
Dominic’s face became dark. He understood the significance of that statement as he bit, “He sure gets up early in the morning, doesn’t he?”
Helen knew she had slipped up. She should have just let Dominic find out about her and Mark through the office grapevine when the news got to Laura. Instead, she had been honest and Dominic clearly felt gypped.
“I’m sorry,” Helen started to say.
Dominic shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t worry about it. Like you said before, Mark’s not so great. You’ll see it once we start working on the ad campaign together. He won’t
have any idea how to treat you once that ball is rolling. For tonight, I’ll take out your cousin, Mindy, if she’s available. She’s going to be doing your hair and make up for the ads, isn’t she?”
“Maybe.”
“Great. I can at least talk shop to her and the evening won’t be boring, but I still want you to help me pick out a date for Laura.”
Helen took the catalog and sat down on one of the waiting chairs with Dominic beside her. Together, they flipped through the pages. At first, Helen didn’t think she had a better idea of who to pick than Dominic would have if he had been left to do it alone.
“Well, we should eliminate all the ones younger than twenty-four,” Helen said thoughtfully.
“Okay, but that doesn’t leave a whole lot.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Helen said, “but we should also eliminate all the guys older than thirty-four. If he’s too much older it’ll look strange." Then she opened the rings on the binder and pulled out the remaining sheets.
“That doesn’t leave much,” Dominic said, looking at the profiles.
“Yeah, there are only six left. Let’s see. There’s Gregory, Daniel, Vaughn, Michael, Shane, and Gavin.”
“They sound like a boy band,” Dominic commented crossly, looking away.
“Don’t be so depressing. This guy, Vaughn, is sort of cute. Clear blue eyes, ponytail, and the sheet says he likes adventures. I think he’d probably have a hay day with pretty, polished, perfect Laura. Opposites attract, right?”
“I think she’d tell him to get a haircut.”
“Okay, then someone more made up. Hmm… what about Gavin?”
Dominic glanced at the picture. “He’s a pretty boy and not only that, but he looks exactly like Laura. I’m in the modeling business and I’ve never seen a guy with hair like that. Besides, she’d never go for a guy who is her carbon copy with a stick shift.”
“Right,” Helen said, stuffing the sheet back into the binder. “Then I think that Gregory and Michael are your prime choices, but I happen to know that Michael is pretty popular and it’ll be hard to get him. We’ll probably have to schedule him in advance if you want to line him up for a date in the future.”
“I want to see how tonight works out before I set up a schedule. I guess we’ll go with Gregory,” Dominic said wearily.
Helen got up and talked with the receptionist, but quickly returned to the chair beside Dominic. “It looks like Gregory is booked for tonight, and it goes without saying that Michael is. His schedule is booked solid for the next two weeks.”
“Every night for two weeks? What is the man—”
Helen interrupted him before he finished that thought, “Look, I saw him once. He clearly knows what he’s doing, but he’s probably not the best bet for the first night out of the gate. He’s too intense and too perfect at what he does. I think you should book him now, even if tonight doesn’t work and get him to take Laura out later on.”