I went inside my house and I looked at my phone. There were no phone calls from Donovan. It bothered me a lot that he hadn’t called. Our supposed date was in two hours.
Did he remember that we had a date?
He was the one who had asked me out. I hated when guys did this. I knew it sounded silly when I just went on a great lunch date with an entirely different man. It was the principle involved. I was getting mad.
I decided to get my mind off Donovan and look through my spell books. The good ones.
It was nearing 6:00 p.m. I just bit the bullet and called him. I was doing exactly what I had done to Robert. It did feel really shitty. I didn’t care if I sounded desperate. I was going to call him.
He answered on three rings. “Hello,” he said in a sexy voice. Not as sexy as Robert’s, but I thought that was the only thing that Robert beat him at in the sexy department.
“How are you doing? It’s Sahara.”
“Hey, Sahara. How’s it going?” Donovan had no clue.
“How’s it going?” I said. “Did you forget we had a date tonight?”
“No, I didn’t,” Donovan said. “I actually just got off the phone from finalizing the plans.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yeah, really,” he said and now he sounded a little insulted.
Great I’m going to have to apologize to this guy for not calling me. I’m not going to do it. Principles are principles.
“Where to?” I asked.
“Parker’s Lighthouse in Long Beach. It’s in a cool spot called Shoreline Village. Right next to the pier.”
“I like that place,” I said. “Fish food right? My junior prom date took me there and then proceeded to talk to his buddy that we were double-dating with the whole night.”
“So, you still good to go?” Donovan asked. “I kind of spent all day getting ready.”
“Getting ready? How?” I asked.
“I got a trim and bought some clothes and I got this new cologne. It smells pretty awesome.”
If it was on his body, I imagined it would smell quite lovely. “I’m sorry for thinking you forgot or decided you just weren’t going to go.”
Dammit. He got me to apologize.
Donovan paused and said, “I’m really sorry if you were expecting a phone call to confirm. Once we set it up, I set it in stone.”
“You probably don’t have too many dates cancel on you,” I said.
“Yeah, I really don’t know what that is like. You never answered my original question.”
“Yes, we’re good to go,” I said. “When do you want me to pick you up?”
“How about six,” Donovan said.
That was in less than an hour. Was this guy crazy?
“When are the reservations?” I asked.
“I think they said 9:30,” Donovan said.
“You think?” I laughed. “There is a big difference between 7:30 and 9:30.”
“I know it wasn’t 7:30,” Donovan said. “Maybe it was 9:30. Why don’t you pick me up in about an hour and we’ll head up that way? If it is 9:30, we can walk around the shops and enjoy our surroundings.”
“That actually sounds really great. Okay, you live ten minutes away. Long Beach is about forty-five minutes from your house. It’s 5:15 right now, so that gives me at least an hour to get ready.”
“All right, I’ll see you then,” Donovan said.
You would think I was good as far as primping because I got fixed up this afternoon. No way, a dinner date along the shore required some serious extra attention.
Again, I used up every minute I had to get ready. I was wearing a cute little dress that was high on the knees and low on the cleavage. I liked this dress because it seemed to magnify my best features. My legs and my chest. At the same time, it sat on my less-flattering places rather nicely. It was an amazing dress. And it was black. I decided to go a little more Goth tonight than I normally did. My makeup was darker and my foundation was whiter. I looked like I had a little more edge to me. I wasn’t sure at what level Donovan was attracted to me, but I thought I would at least have some fun with the spell before it wore off.
I got back in my Mazda and headed over to Donovan’s house. It was pretty easy to remember where he lived because I grew up in this area and apparently he had, too. We had just had way different lives.
I had to be honest with myself. Why was I continuing to see Donovan, even though I knew his fondness for me wasn’t legitimate? I knew the answer. I kept seeing him because no one that beautiful had ever said the kind of things he’d said to me. He sounded so genuine that I forgot he was under a spell. I just thought this sweet, gorgeous man was expressing who he was. He was rough around the edges. But I saw a diamond in the rough. He was as not well-rounded and well-versed as Robert, but he was just as honest and real.
I pulled up to his driveway. I decided to honk for his butt to come out. I wouldn’t ever do the picking him up bit we did at the gym ever again.
I was just about to get reheated by that when Donovan walked outside. He was dressed in an outfit that made him look a tad like a pirate. He had on scarves and accessories that I had never seen a man wear. He pulled it off the way Johnny Depp had pulled it off in that movie. With a cavalier sense of style.
I unlocked the passenger door and pushed the door open. I could at least do that. Donovan stepped in and he smelled exactly like Robert.
“Is your cologne called Guilty?” I asked Donovan.
“I think it is. I went to this fancy place in West Hollywood earlier today and I took like this electronic test that was on the wall of the shop. It has you pick all your interests. When you’re done, it tells you your perfect cologne match.”
“You know for sure the cologne is called Guilty?” I asked.
“Yeah, I got a ton of it back at the house. What’s the big deal about the cologne?” Donovan asked.
“Nothing, I just have a friend who wears the exact same cologne and it’s just weird, that’s all.”
“It has been known for two men to wear the same cologne,” Donovan said, laughing. Again, his humor was random, but he was trying to be funny and I thought that was cool.
I input the address to Parker’s Lighthouse in my GPS on my phone. And then, we were off as I listened carefully for my GPS to get me to Long Beach. For some reason, that part of Long Beach had always confused me and gotten me turned around. So, using this GPS was going to be extra important.
We got to the freeway shortly and the GPS voice said that we had 14 miles until the next freeway and I thought it would be safe now to talk to Donovan. I had so many questions to ask him.
I spent the next twenty minutes having one of the freshest, most engaging conversations I had ever had. Not only did he answer any and every question I asked, he did so with vigor and then asked me the same questions back.
Some highlights of our conversation were that we both had our houses given to us by our parents. That was the extent we had anything else in common. He liked the kind of music I hated. He liked the kind of movies I disliked. Okay, he passed one item. He liked Seinfeld. Didn’t love it. He said he liked it.
How could anyone with half a sense of humor not love that show?
So far, from what I can tell, Donovan does have half a sense of humor.
The most engaging thing he told me was he was a Big Brother to a kid from Whittier, the same city I’d worked in. He said he took him out to pizza and to baseball and basketball games. I thought that was amazing and I told him so.
“What about you?” Donovan asked.
“What about me,” I said.
“Do you give back?”
Give back? That’s an interesting way to put it.
“I do my fair share of giving to others,” I said. “I’m a pretty damn good person.”
“I believe you. I wasn’t implying anything, I swear.” Donovan reached out and held my hand. Just his mere touch shot tingles through my spine.
We were getting closer and closer to
the restaurant. Donovan continued to hold my hand. My forehead was sweating. Donovan did something to me that was magnetic.
We made idle chit-chat until I got to the Shoreline Village parking lot. I parked my car rather close to the front. I got lucky. Maybe spells are working already for me, even on parking spots. Or just maybe it was a coincidence.
Chapter Twenty-five