For Lucy

Sliding off the stool, she donned her coat and grabbed her purse. “Hot chocolate sounds perfect.”

She was perfect.

Perfectly not mine.

“Your nachos?” the bartender said as he plucked the twenty from the counter.

I fished another five dollars out of my wallet and handed it to him. “Give my nachos and a beer to the guy at the end of the bar,” I murmured with my back to Tatum.

“Okay.” The bartender nodded.

“Ready?” I grabbed my jacket and followed her to the door, opening it before she had the chance to do it.

“So what do you do, Cody?” She strode beside me after looking both ways at the intersection.

“Alice didn’t tell you?” It was less than convenient that I didn’t know Alice.

“No. She just said that you play softball with Derek and you’re a really nice guy. My standards are a little low because clearly I said yes to a blind date based on that alone.” Tatum laughed and it became my favorite sound.

Things were looking up for me. I could play any sport, so softball with Derek worked for me. Whoever Derek was. Alice’s husband or boyfriend, I assumed.

“That’s interesting…” I opened the door to the cafe and Tatum stepped inside “…because I heard you were a little skittish because you’ve been a recluse with seven cats in your dinky apartment for the past three years.”

She whipped around just before taking a seat in the booth at the far end of the diner. “Oh my gosh! Did she seriously say that? I’m allergic to cats. And I’m never home, so basically the opposite of a recluse. I’m going to kill her.”

I grinned. Things were going quite well for what was truly a blind date for me. More like blindsided date. The date I didn’t know I needed that night. What were the chances of my joke being so spot-on?

We sat in the booth and ordered two hot chocolates followed by a few awkward seconds of silence.

“I’m in construction of sorts. I work for Coleman. We do tree removal, environmental clean-ups, stuff like that. My brother and his wife own the company.”

“I’m familiar with Coleman. I actually sold their house after Kenneth died. It was my first big sale.”

“You’re a realtor?”

“Yes. And I’m a competitive ballroom dancer. Do you need a house? Or do you need to learn how to waltz?”

By that time, I was ready to buy literally anything she wanted to sell me. But there was no way she would teach me to dance. “I’m going to ignore your love of dancing because I can’t sway and snap my fingers at the same time. As for the house, I’m sure someday I’ll need one. Do you own your own house? Have you scooped up a good deal? A banker friend give you first chance at a foreclosure?”

“No.” She laughed just as the waitress delivered our hot chocolates. Fishing a spoon out of the silverware wrapped in a white paper napkin, she dipped it in the whipped cream and licked it.

I kinda died when she did that. It was a guy thing.

“I have an apartment with two roommates who recently decided to be more than roommates. It’s now a little weird. I’m such a third wheel. How about you? Do you have roommates?”

Taking an extended sip of my hot chocolate, I licked my whipped cream mustache and nodded slowly. “I have three actually.”

“Wow. In an apartment? Or are you renting a house?”

There was a reason guys like me were single, and Tatum teetered on the edge of finding out.

“Two of my roommates own the house.”

“Married friends?” She continued to unknowingly prod.

Cody probably owned his own place. I had a knack for playing out of my league.

“Yes. They’re married.”

“What about your other roommate? Girl or guy?”

“Guy.” I kept my answers surgically precise.

“How old is he?” She scooped more whipped cream from the top of her hot chocolate.

I found everything she did quite mesmerizing. “Uh … he’s younger than me.”

“In college?”

If I didn’t jump in and change the subject, things were going to get bad quickly. “No. Are you originally from Redington?”

“Kansas City. And that’s where our real estate office is located, but rent is cheaper in Redington. And so I’ve been given most of the listings for here.”

“That’s nice. Especially since you live in Redington. But the real question is … are you a sports fan?”

Tatum lit up, eyes wide. “Total sports fan. My roommates get Royals season tickets, and I get dibs whenever they don’t go. And my boss has season tickets to the Chiefs, and he likes me a lot, so I get first offer at his tickets when he can’t go, which lately has been quite often. And … his seats are right on the fifty-yard line.”

I robbed the bank. Lifted the biggest diamond from the museum. With Cody eating my nachos across the street, I couldn’t call it fate or any sort of serendipity, but it was something for sure.