The Dating Itinerary Read online

  …

  Geo winked at the assistant as she placed the microphone on his lapel. He’d used his voice on the page for years, and he was confident with himself. Being on local TV was a step in the right direction. It could only help his ultimate goal. If he got the job Michael had presented to him, his career would soar—and so would his sister’s charity.

  “And next, on Morning News, we’ll talk with some local writers about dating in the city. This new segment will be ongoing, and we’ll get a taste of several different dating avenues around the area. This week, Speed Dating,” Alicia Hammond, the show’s anchor, teased the upcoming segment along with a brief overview of the weather forecast before the commercials gave her a break.

  The assistant led Geo out to the studio floor and sat him in a comfortable chair on set. Alicia adjusted her suit and hair before heading his direction. Geo squinted into the bright lights of the studio as he waited his turn. He didn’t hear the other person come up behind him until his name was stated in a less than friendly manner.

  “George Monais.” Penny seethed. “I should have known you’d horn your way in on this, too.”

  “Penny?” Geo said, genuinely surprised. “I didn’t think I’d see you again this soon.” He raised an eyebrow. He was curious about the extra spark in her eyes. The flame he recognized the last time they spoke was a full-on inferno now.

  “I’d hoped you’d see me again never,” she said through her teeth in a low voice as she seated herself in the chair next to him. “It’s bad enough you stole our idea and our entire game plan for this feature. Now you’re trying to steal the spotlight on the local news as well?”

  Geo frowned. What was she talking about? “I didn’t see you complaining when you begged me to meet with you.” He felt like he was on the defensive. He was trying to at least put out one or two of the flames with his charm. It usually worked, but he wasn’t so sure she was going to back down.

  “Is that what you think begging looks like? Let me tell you…you have another thing coming…” Penny took a deep breath.

  The red hue of her rosy cheeks fit her. Geo couldn’t keep the half-smile from his face as he took in her flushed appearance.

  Alicia approached and seated herself on the couch next to the two chairs. Penny turned, and her demeanor changed in the blink of an eye. “Good morning! So nice to meet you. I’m a big fan.”

  Geo watched her shake hands and exchange small talk with the host. He forced a smile and inserted himself into the conversation with a handshake of his own and pleasant head nodding as they spoke.

  “We’re live in five,” the producer shouted off set.

  Geo sat back in his chair and tried to look comfortable. He couldn’t say he blamed Penny for being taken aback by his article, if she’d seen it. She probably felt used. But what was she doing there now? Geo’s eyes widened as he recalled his agent, several times on the phone, avoiding his questions as to where the Dating List had come from. Geo thought it was better for him not to know. If it was stolen, which it was appearing more likely that it was, he had deniability as an ethical journalist. Geo felt a single bead of sweat form on the back of his neck and start to roll down his back. He ran his hand through his hair and over his neck to stop any other moisture before it started.

  “Welcome back, St. Louis.” The anchor smiled into the camera that blinked red in front of them. “We have with us special guests Penny Coyne from St. Louis Happenings and George Monais, a freelance writer who appears in newspapers and magazines all over the country.” The anchor turned to the two of them. “Now, I understand you both went Speed Dating this past week. Tell us about that experience.”

  “Well, I really didn’t know what to expect.” Penny inserted herself before Geo could even open his mouth. “I’d never done such a thing before, but it was really an interesting experience. I got to meet a lot of different men from all walks of life, and I even learned a thing or two about myself.”

  “What was that?” Geo asked. Was he trying to prod her into embarrassing herself or did he really want to know? He wasn’t sure.

  “Excuse me?” Penny turned to him.

  “What did you learn?”

  Penny frowned at him and turned back to the host. “Well, I learned that perhaps I’m too quick to judge. I really should give a larger variety of men a chance. I met this one man with gorgeous red hair, and while I may not have given him a second look on the street, getting to know him in those two minutes led me to think it might be nice to see him again.”

  “Did you? See him again?” The host leaned forward conspiratorially, like they were best friends having a chat.

  “I never kiss and tell.” Penny gave the camera a shy look. “But no…I lost his number.”

  Penny and the host laughed.

  “What about you, Geo?” Alicia turned to face him. “What was the night like for you?”

  “Well—” Geo began.

  “Oh, he was there, too,” Penny interrupted. “And he had all the ladies swooning over him. But let me tell you, speed dating only gives you two minutes to talk, and many of the women didn’t get a chance to see through Geo, here. I know him from before, so it was easy enough to figure out why he was there.”

  “That’s right, you used to work together,” the host inserted.

  “Yes, I was Penny’s superior.” Geo finally got a word in, and he wasn’t letting Penny stomp him down any longer. If this was how she wanted to play, she was playing with fire.

  “But George couldn’t handle the pressure of the magazine world, so he set off on his own.”

  Alicia shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Geo and Penny stared at one another. Geo felt the heat from her eyes burning into his own.

  “So,” the host began, “it’s off to the virtual world this week, right? Tinder, is it?”

  “That’s right.” Penny smiled brightly into the camera. “If you see me on your app this week, swipe right.” She swooshed her finger through the air.

  “One thing our fans are probably wondering and that I want to know myself is are you both really looking for love or is this just an investigative feature?”

  Penny glanced at Geo and then took a deep breath. “Well, if I’m being honest, it’s a little of both for me. I’ve been burned enough times that I’m a little gun shy when it comes to dating. Doing this feature is a way to stick my toe in the water, see what the city has to offer, and write helpful tips on dating for others who are single as well.”

  “Geo?” Alicia asked.

  “There are a lot of definitions of love,” Geo said. “I’m looking for love, sure, but that might mean different things to me than it does to other people.”

  Penny rolled her eyes. “I think you have your answer, there.”

  Geo shot a look her way as the host interjected before things got more awkward.

  “Thank you so much for your time, Geo and Penny. We’ll be seeing you both again next week for a full report on Tinder.”

  Geo watched Penny stand and thank Alicia after she completed the segment and the weather report started against the green screen in the other room. Geo slowly stood and numbly shook her hand as well. He wasn’t sure what to say. The TV appearance had not gone as he’d hoped. In fact, Penny’s rude remarks were enough to make him look a fool if anyone from the network had caught the show.

  As Alicia returned to sit behind the anchor desk in the other room, Penny turned to Geo, and the easy smile slid from her face. She narrowed her eyes and pushed a finger into his chest.

  “Lose my number, George,” she said firmly.

  Chapter Six

  Penny could see why Tinder was addictive to those fully immersed in the dating world. Her eyes remained glued to the screen after she signed in with her Facebook account and started swiping. She gave every guy on the screen a full five seconds before she swiped left or right. She wasn’t as di
scriminating as she usually would be because she wanted to get some matches, but there were definitely some that deserved to be in the “no thanks” pile on the left.

  While she didn’t like the idea of judging people based on looks alone, these were just first impressions, and that was the name of the game with Tinder. She barely looked up from her phone as she walked to her lunch meeting with Di. Her sister was on a break from the construction site down the street, and they agreed to catch up over a sandwich.

  “What’s got your head in the clouds?” Dime asked, tapping Penny on the shoulder when she arrived at the sub shop.

  Penny jumped and whirled around. She hadn’t seen Di arrive; she’d been too into the men on her screen. “Sorry.” She waved her phone in Dime’s direction before closing the screen. “Just Tinder.”

  “Tinder? Seriously?”

  Penny shrugged. “It was on the dating itinerary.”

  “Ah.” Dime nodded as they placed their orders at the counter and found a booth near a window. “I know I’m around men all day every day in my line of work, but…can I see?”

  Penny smiled at her sister. She was outspoken and told it like it was. A hardened construction worker by day, but she had a soft side to her as well, and while she didn’t like to show it, she wanted to find love just as much as Penny. “Of course.” Penny opened the screen to the Tinder page once again and leaned over as her sister took a look.

  “Whoa, look at him!” she exclaimed.

  Penny glanced at the man upside down and noted that he had plenty of muscles, but no shirt. “Swipe left,” she instructed.

  “Left? Really? Isn’t that a no? Did you see him?” Di tilted the phone in Penny’s direction.

  “Oh, I see him. Way too much of him. I like a man who leaves a little to the imagination.”

  Dime shrugged and swiped left. “Like him?” she asked, tilting the phone again.

  Penny laughed. “Something like that.” The man had on a shirt, but it was straining across his chest, as if he’d bought a child’s size just for that purpose. The man at the counter called their number, and Penny rose to grab their order. “Have some fun with it, but don’t go hog wild,” she said over her shoulder. “I trust your judgment.”

  Penny glanced back and saw her sister swipe once, twice, then three times within a matter of seconds. She shook her head. Not everyone adhered to her five-second rule. Penny grabbed their sandwich meals and returned to the table.

  “What did I miss?” she asked.

  “Not much.” Di turned the phone off and slid it across the table as she turned her attention to the sandwiches. “Just some serious swiping.”

  “I could tell.” Penny unwrapped her sub and took a bite. “Did you see the TV spot the other day?”

  “Oh, man, did I ever!” Dime’s mouth was full of her own sandwich, but that never stopped her. “You really told that Geo guy.”

  Penny smiled. She knew Dime of all people would be proud of her. She studied her sister as a strange look passed over her face. “What?” she asked.

  “Uh, nothing,” Di replied, stuffing another bite of sandwich into her mouth.

  …

  “So what are you going to do about this Penny gal?” Maggie got straight to the point when Geo opened his apartment door. Eliot flew past him to the tub next to the coffee table where Geo kept the toy trucks, dinosaurs, and building blocks.

  “What do you mean?” He wanted to hear if her experience as a viewer had been as painful as his on the other side of the camera.

  “She totally crushed you on TV. What’s her deal?”

  Geo followed her into the room and threw himself back on the couch as his nephew began running trucks over his feet. “She might have a little chip on her shoulder.”

  “From you? Why?”

  “Remember when I got promoted at St. Louis Happenings?” He watched as his sister put the pieces together.

  “And she works there now… Did she get passed over for you?”

  Geo sucked in a breath. “Something like that.”

  “And now she has it out for you.”

  “It’s worse.” Geo picked a truck up from between his feet and ran it across the arm of the couch, down to his waiting nephew. “I’m on a new assignment, this Dating List thing where I check out different dating avenues.”

  “Sounds good. You could use a woman to straighten you out.”

  Geo chuckled. “Well, I think my agent may have stolen the idea. Possibly even from Penny’s magazine.”

  Maggie whistled. “I’m starting to see it now. So she just gave you what you deserved.”

  “Hey! Whose side are you on?” By then, Eliot was climbing on the back of the couch, running a truck over Geo’s shoulders.

  Maggie held up her hands. “Yours, always yours, but I can see why she’d be, well, upset. What comes after Speed Dating?”

  Geo tossed his phone at her. “Tinder, have a look.” He’d finished his profile just before they’d arrived. He grabbed his nephew from behind his head and flipped him over onto his lap. “How’s the wife?” he asked.

  Eliot stopped what he was doing and got still. “She’s in a fight.”

  “A fight? What kind of fight?”

  “Well, yesterday, I asked another girl to marry me, and the first girl didn’t like that.”

  “No, girls don’t really like that,” Geo agreed.

  “So the two of them are in a fight.”

  “Over you?”

  Eliot nodded. He was in kindergarten and already had girls fighting over him. There had to be something wrong with that. Geo tickled his ribs and rolled him down to the floor where he resumed playing with his trucks.

  “Looks good. I’d date you.” His phone landed back in his lap, his profile Maggie-approved.

  “Gross,” he replied.

  Geo spent the next hour on the floor with his nephew while his sister baked a frozen pizza in the oven and fed the trio. Once they were gone, he had time to check Tinder out a bit more closely.

  Geo swiped right twice more and left once. He had a specific type, and it seemed Tinder knew that and brought it up more often than not. It wasn’t so much about hair color or length but rather about the eyes. He looked for a certain sparkle in a woman’s smile. He didn’t want a woman who was easy-going at all times. He wanted someone with pizzazz, and he felt he could tell that through a person’s eyes.

  He glanced up at the icon on the top of his screen. “New Matches,” it read. Geo tilted his head and tapped the flying flag. A photo appeared on his screen with a heart icon above it. Huh, he shook his head. This must be someone who has already “liked” me.

  It would certainly be much easier to find a match if he was able to weed through women who already swiped right on his picture. It looked like his photo had gotten around, as he already had a dozen women to inspect. Geo smiled. If only dating were this easy. Sure, looking through photos was fun, but going on the actual dates would be a lot harder. In that way, it wasn’t much different than any other dating avenue.

  Geo swiped right several times. These weren’t all women he would approach if he saw them out and about, but they already liked him, so it would be much easier to move on with the article if he could make a few matches happen. He didn’t have to get married because of the app. He just needed a date or two. Once he got through this batch, he’d go through his matches and see who he should message first.

  After swiping left once and right twice more, the last matching picture came up on his screen, and his heart leaped into his throat. “Penny?” he said out loud in his surprise. He squinted at the phone. Sure enough, the heart icon above the picture told the story. She’d seen his profile—and she’d swiped right.

  That had to be some kind of joke. Hadn’t she just told him to lose her number? He hadn’t texted her again since their TV appearance, though
he’d felt the urge to do so several times for no particular reason.

  He stared at her picture. She smiled up at him with a look that told him she had her life together. She was a beautiful, successful woman who didn’t need a man to complete her. She had enough life on her own. Though the fact that she was on Tinder and doing this whole dating feature for the magazine told him she was open to love. But it was her eyes that revealed the most to him. She had that sparkle. The one that drew him in and held onto his attention for longer than the other women.

  Penny had told him in no uncertain terms that she wanted nothing to do with him. So why would she even bother swiping right if his picture came up onto her screen? It didn’t make sense.

  Geo shook his head. That woman was nothing if not confusing. Before he could analyze why she did what she did, he simply swiped right on her photo and hit the home button on his phone. “There you go, Miss Coyne. The ball’s in your court.” He had other things to do with his time outside of analyzing Penny Coyne. He’d let her figure out they matched and message him, if she so desired. He took the initiative last time. It was her turn. If they were going to have more successful appearances on TV, they might want to get on the same page at some point. If not, he wouldn’t let her get the best of him again.

  Chapter Seven

  “His name is Roger, and we’re meeting for drinks after work.” Penny was in the midst of updating Josie on her Tinder success. She’d done her best to keep her swipes to a minimum during work hours. At least since she matched with several eligible locals and started receiving messages. “And I got a text from Pete, you know, from speed dating last week? He wants to get together over the weekend.”

  “Look at you!” Josie exclaimed. “You’re on your way. Pretty soon, you’ll hardly have time for bowling with all the dates you’ll have.”

  “Oh no.” Penny shook her head. Bowling with her sisters wasn’t optional.