“What can I do for you, Ms. Stone?” I walked into the large office and tried to keep my knees from knocking together.
“Have a seat.” Ms. Stone motioned to the chair in front of her desk.
“Yes ma’am.” I nodded and walked over to the big plush chair that felt like I was sinking into a pillow when I sat down.
“What do you know about our philanthropic endeavors?” Ms. Stone tilted her head and stared at me.
“I know that you give a lot of money to charity.” I raised an eyebrow and tried to think of a better answer. “Oh! And the company has a blood drive for the Red Cross every year.”
“Yes, we do our best to give back.” A rare smile spread across Ms. Stone’s lips. “One of our endeavors is sponsoring the annual Firefighter Auction. Do you know what that is?”
“No ma’am.” I shook my head back and forth.
“Basically, we host an auction where wealthy people can bid on the firefighters that pose for the Heated Hunks calendar.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a calendar. “We always pay a million dollars for one of the firefighters that goes up for auction.”
“They get auctioned?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise as I took the calendar and flipped through it.
Whoa. These guys are definitely hunks—and smoking hot!
“The auction is for a date.” She nodded as if I should already know that. “It’s all for show, but it gets a lot of media attention, and good publicity never hurts.”
“Definitely.” I smiled as I continued to flip through the calendar. “So, what do you need me to do?”
“I need you to find me a date.” She pointed towards the calendar. “You’ve got twelve to choose from.”
“Okay, I can do that.” I closed the calendar and smiled.
I thought it
would be an easy job, but once I got back to my desk and started flipping through the calendar, a worrisome realization hit me—I had no idea what kind of guy Ms. Stone liked. They were all hot, but some had tattoos, some had beards, some were more muscular than others—I didn’t want to pick a guy that didn’t meet her expectations. I asked Hannah for help and she seemed to remember that the guy Ms. Stone went out the previous year was nice—unfortunately I couldn’t figure that out by looking at their pictures. Any of them would have been a wet dream for me, but I didn’t date much. I was probably the only girl at the University of New York that walked across the stage with her cherry intact after four years at a school. Most of my classmates minored in partying and some of them majored in it. I just never got into it because I was too busy with my actual schoolwork—sometimes I regretted the decision.
One night of drunken debauchery wouldn’t have been that bad—I’m not even sure I would look back at it as a mistake.
“So, which guy are you going to buy for Ms. Stone?” Hannah looked up at me as we started packing up our stuff at the end the day.
“I don’t know.” I looked down at the calendar. “I really like Mr. February, but Mr. December—he’s got a lot of gorgeous tattoos.”
“Oh? Do you like bad boys?” She giggled under her breath. “They can be a lot of fun—until you need to introduce them to your parents.”
“I’m not sure.” I sighed and shook my head.
“Just pick a guy that you would date. It’s not like she’s going to do more than pose for a few pictures with them and go to dinner.” She shrugged and stood up from her desk.
Yeah—so what kind of guy do I like to date? Do I even know?
Three months later
“Marissa, can you come into my office for a moment?” Ms. Stone peeked her head out and then immediately slammed her door.
I knew what Ms. Stone wanted even before I walked to her office. The charity auction was later that day, and I still hadn’t decided if Mr. February or Mr. December was the best choice for Ms. Stone. They were both sizzling to the point that I thought they were going to set the calendar on fire if I stared at them too long. Mr. February was a clean-cut guy, with shoulders that barely fit on the page, and eyes that seemed to stare into my soul. Mr. December was tattooed, hot-as-sin, and looked like he was the kind of guy who would pull your hair while making you beg for more—not that I knew much about any of those things. I had to make a decision, and while it might not mean much to Ms. Stone, I felt like the choice did matter. A date meant something, even if it was just for charity. What if she didn’t like the guy? I would be the one who set her up on the date, and she didn’t seem to be the type to just brush it off as a mistake.
“The charity auction is in a few hours.” Ms. Stone looked up at me as I closed the door behind me.
“Yes ma’am.” I nodded quickly. “I think you should…”
“No.” Ms. Stone interrupted before I could tell her which guy I picked. “I’ve got an emergency with one of our biggest accounts and I can’t go to the charity auction today.”
“Oh, okay. Do you want me to call and let them know?” I tilted my head to the side.