Just Horsing Around

Chapter 13

“You’re wearing that?” Sophie asked as I came out of my bedroom.

“Seriously? What’s wrong with this?” I asked, looking incredulous.

“I’m with the dog owner on this one,” Bee added unhelpfully.

“What do cats even know about fashion?” I shot at her. I’d decided to go with something simple, but a little bit flirty. A nice pair of dark blue bootcut jeans, with a flowy, pink and flowery hippy top.

“Not slutty enough,” Sophie said. “You want to wear something that says ‘I’ll definitely give it up for you, and possibly tonight, but definitely by date three’.”

“That is not at all what I want my clothing choice to say.”

“Well it should be.”

“I knew there was a reason I didn’t ask you for your advice.”

“Yeah, well, one of us has a little bit more experience than the other in these sorts of things.”

“And one of us hasn’t dated anyone who turned out to be a criminal.”

“Yet! Remember, you thought Jason Black was a murderer.”

“It turned out he wasn’t. If he had been a murderer, I can say with confidence that I would not be going on this date. Which I wasn’t even looking forward to, until now, because at least leaving here means I can leave your judgemental ass behind,” I shot back at Sophie, who laughed.

“Fine, wear the prude outfit. You look good, seriously. You always look good Angela. Go out there and have some fun, ok? You of all people deserve it. And if he ends up being super weird or whatever, at least you’ll get a good story out of it.”

“A good story that I’m sure you’ll never let me forget for as long as I live.”

Sophie beamed. “Exactly.”

I shot Sophie a smile, gave me a quick pat on the head that earned me a scowl and a demand to bring home some Sushi when I was finished putting out, and I grabbed my purse and headed out the door to the first date I was going to have been on in a long, long time.

I got to the Seaside Pub right on time. Jason was already waiting for me; he’d scored a booth out towards the back. My stomach did a little flip-flop as soon as I saw him, which was incredibly annoying. It wasn’t my fault though; his hair had that same just-got-out-of-bed look it always had, and he was smiling, which made his chiselled cheekbones stand out. It wasn’t that I actually liked him, it was just that my body was betraying me in every single way. I made my way over to him, where he already had a beer sitting in front of him, and one for me as well.

“How did you know I liked beer?” I asked, taking a sip of what ended up being an awesome craft beer from Cascade Brewing Company up in Portland.

“I just kind of hoped,” he said, grinning, as the waitress brought over a couple menus. “So how are things going? Thanks for that tip on the murder, by the way.”

“Yeah, well, I really just hated the cop in charge and wanted to make his life a bit more hellish.”

Jason pretended he’d been stabbed in the heart. “And here I thought it was because you were so impressed with my journalistic integrity, you wanted me on the case.”

“Sure, that too,” I replied. “I liked your article though.”

My brain kept going stop talking about work. Stop talking about work and a murder case. Seriously, this is a date, murder is not a good first date subject, but I couldn’t stop.

“Thanks. I got some good props from my boss for it, we beat all the dailies in Portland to the scoop. But it still wasn’t worth missing this date with you,” he replied, and I could feel the redness crawling all the way up my face. I decided to bury it in the menu to hide my embarrassment. Plus, I just straight up had no idea what to reply, so I decided to let him comment hang there awkwardly between us instead. Way better.

“So, how are you liking Willow Bay?” I eventually asked. I knew it was lame, I just couldn’t think of anything else to say at all.

“It’s pretty cool here. I like it. Totally different from the big city, but in a good way. I can see why people come here on holidays.”

“So you’re not going to just pack up and leave anytime soon?” I asked, and Jason looked at me funny.

“No, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I said, that blush creeping back up my face, and Jason laughed.

“Are you this incredibly awkward with everyone you meet, or is it just me?”

“It’s mostly just you,” I had to admit.

“That’s ok, with my stunning good looks, I get that a lot,” he joked, and I just knew my face had reached a shade that could kindly be described as “tomato”.

“That’s so not it,” I stammered, just as the waitress came by to take our orders. She barely even glanced at me as I ordered a black bean burger with sweet potato fries. All her energy was focused on Jason, so much so that it was actually kind of comical. She made sure to ‘accidentally’ brush his arm as she went to grab the menus, too.

“There’s like an eighty percent chance I’m not going to get my burger at all,” I told him when she left. “And I have no idea if it’ll be on purpose to spite me, or if it’ll be because she legitimately didn’t notice I was here.”

Jason laughed. “Yeah, well, that’s just one of the downfalls of being on a date with me. I promise you can share my fish and chips if you don’t get any food.”

“As much as I’d love to, I’d have to stick to the chips. I’m a vegetarian,” I told him.

“Oh really? If I’d known I wouldn’t have ordered something with meat in it. My bad,” he told me, and I had to admit, despite the fact that Jason Black was infuriating, it was really nice of him to say that. Most people, when they found out I was vegetarian, still ate meat around me. And while I absolutely didn’t mind them doing that at all, I still appreciated the few people that did do it.

“It’s ok,” I told him with a smile. “Thanks, though.”

“Any specific reason you’re vegetarian? Health? Don’t like factory farming?”

I can speak to animals and I can’t stand eating the flesh of a being I’ve had conversations with was the truth. But of course, I was absolutely not allowed to say that to Jason.

“I don’t like the idea of feeding on meat when there are so many other options,” I told him. “I’m a vet, I’m supposed to help animals, not contribute to their deaths by eating them.”

“Cool. I grew up in an Italian family, despite the name, so meat wasn’t necessarily a big part of the diet. Like eighty percent of what I eat is carbs.”

“I wish I could do that and keep a figure.”

“I dunno, I think your figure’s not half bad.”

There was that blush again. Our food arrived just then, thankfully my burger did in fact, show up.

I poured ketchup onto it and took a big bite while Jason watched on in amusement.

“What?” I asked with my mouth full.

“Nothing, nothing,” he replied.

Ok, maybe Sophie had a point about me not having a ton of practice with dating.

“So are you trying to figure out who committed this murder, too?” Jason asked with a small smile on his face.

“What makes you think I’m trying to solve a murder?”

“Well for one thing, you pretty much solved the last two we had here. Willow Bay’s very own Sherlock Holmes. Plus my guess is you’re actually a suspect in this one.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely true.”

“I’ve asked around about Hawthorne, the Wawnee chief, and let’s just say people pretty universally think he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.”

“What I don’t understand is how people like that manage to get a job like his!”

“People always rise to a level they can’t do. You promote people over and over, but you never demote them. So eventually, everyone ends up in a job that they’re in over their head in, but they can’t get out of it. Unless they really screw up, and then they get fired. But that often doesn’t happen, so you end up with people like that in a position of power instead of sitting behind a desk taking reports of teenagers smoking pot behind the high school on weekends, which is really what a person of his calibre should be spending his time doing.”

I laughed. Jason’s theory actually made a lot of sense. And he was funny! Who knew someone so infuriating and annoying could actually be funny, too.

Uh oh. I realized with a start that I was actually enjoying myself.

“Anyway, even if I was trying to figure out who murdered Caroline Gibson, I’d be pretty bad at it. Our prime suspect, Corey, the stable manager, was murdered last night.”

“Yeah, I saw that. I didn’t know he was your main suspect.”

“He was dating Caroline Gibson’s daughter, Ellie, but really secretly because she didn’t approve.” I started to almost tell him about the letter I’d found, but then I’d have to admit that I’d broken into Gibson Farms somehow, and that was one thing I really didn’t want to have to explain.

“What about the others?”

“To be honest,” I replied, dipping a fry in some ketchup and popping it into my mouth, “no one else really stands out. The jockey openly hated her, but he’s almost so vocal about it that it makes him less of a suspect somehow.”

It was funny, I found it really easy to talk to Jason. Before I knew it, two hours had passed, the waitress was giving me the stink eye every time she walked past our table, and the sun outside had well and truly dipped below the horizon.

We finally got up to leave, and Jason grinned.

“See? Going out with me wasn’t that bad, was it?”

“I’ve definitely had worse first dates.”

“Well, that’s about all I can hope for, isn’t it? How about another one sometime? Maybe catch up for lunch and a coffee one day when you’re free?”

“Sure,” I found myself answering, and for the first time since I’d known Jason, my brain didn’t start screaming at me, wondering what kind of crazy folly I’d just signed up for. Maybe this guy wasn’t so bad as I’d thought.

I went home, knowing I was going to get a barrage of “I told you so” from both Charlotte and Sophie, and I smiled. Totally worth it.