My Nerdy Valentine (Nerds, #7)(17)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

Amanda ate faster.

"How would you know?" Mavis gave him a scornful glance. "You don’t have any hair."

"I don’t have hair because I’m highly sexed."

"You? Ha!"

Shoveling the last of the petrified meal down her throat, Amanda washed it down with milk. She hadn’t realized matchmaking could be so perilous.

"It’s a fact," Chester said. "Men with higher levels of testosterone lose their hair faster."

"And what’s that good for? You can’t even be bothered to decorate your front door."

"Oh, it’s good for something." Chester waggled his eyebrows.

Amanda decided that was about all the geriatric flirting she could handle at the moment. She slid her chair back. "That was great! Now I really need to change clothes."

"You need a Ding-Dong." Chester pushed the package toward her.

"Don’t eat those." Mavis grabbed the package. "You could get ptomaine poisoning."

"It’s a good thing you taught third grade and not high school science," Chester said. "Those there are carbs. You get ptomaine from putrefied protein."

"Well, la-de-da." Mavis fluffed her hair. "Maybe a person would get some other kind of poisoning, then. They put those dates on things for a reason, you know."

Chester looked wounded. "She won’t get poisoned. I wouldn’t give her something that would make her sick."

Amanda ripped open the package. "I’m sure they’re fine." She took a bite of a very stale Ding-Dong and smiled. "Delicious."

"If you feel sick later, it’s all his fault."

Chester leaned toward Mavis. "Listen, woman, I’m not taking any more from you." He picked up the vibrator and waved it in her direction. "And this is not a curling iron."

"Is so. Amanda said it was."

"She was trying to protect you."

"From what?"

Amanda swallowed the last of the Ding-Dong. "Mavis, I’m sorry. It isn’t a curling iron. It’s a vibrator."

Mavis’s eyes widened and her cheeks turned pink. "You mean one of those gizmos you use for sex?" Her voice rose to a squeak.

"Yes, and before you start thinking I’m the kind of girl who carries vibrators around all the time, let me explain why I have it." And she proceeded to fill them in on the secret valentine deliveries, William, and her reasons for coming home early today.

"But this William sounds so nice!" Mavis looked upset. "If he’s a nice man, you should spend some time with him. You could use a nice man."

"Someday. Not now. I can’t afford to get sidetracked."

Chester waved a hand. "You do what you have to in that regard. What concerns me is this valentine nut. I don’t like the sound of it."

"I’m not crazy about the situation, myself."

"But he only leaves these things at your office?" Chester gazed at her intently.

"So far."

"Then maybe he doesn’t know where you live."

Mavis shuddered. "I hope he doesn’t know that. What you need is a dog. Except we’re not allowed to have pets. I always thought we should be able to have pets, and I would have moved to a place that allows pets, but I’ve made so many friends here that I hate to leave. I think a dog would—"

"Mavis, you’re drifting from the point," Chester said. "And that point is that we need to keep a closer eye on Amanda from now on."

Amanda couldn’t imagine either of them keeping a closer eye than they were already doing. She could barely make a move without one or both noticing. From that standpoint, they were probably better protection than a dog.

"I understand we need to keep a closer eye on her, Chester. I just wish we could have pets. Maybe I’ll get up a petition."

"That’s a fine idea," Chester said.

Mavis and Amanda both stared at him. He’d never approved of anything Mavis proposed.

"Don’t look so amazed," he said. "If you get on a kick about allowing pets in the building, you won’t have time to hassle me about my blessed door."

"I don’t hassle you! I’ve merely suggested that—"

"I’m going to change clothes," Amanda said. "And I’ll get this thing out of sight." She reached for the vibrator.

"Wait." Mavis glanced at it with poorly disguised curiosity. "I’ve never seen one up close."

"You have so," Chester said. "You just tried to use it to curl your hair."

"That wasn’t my fault."

"No, it was mine," Amanda said. "I should have told you the truth right away, but I was afraid I’d shock you."

"I have an open mind." Mavis gazed at the vibrator. "I’d like to look at it again."

"That’s my exit cue," Chester said. "When women start playing with vibrators, it’s time for me to vamoose."

"I didn’t say I would play with it, Chester Ambrose! I just want to look. There’s no crime in looking, is there?"

"Looking can lead to other things, and I’m not sticking around to find out if it does or not. For the record, I believe in old-fashioned sex." With that, he left in a swirl of male indignation.

Mavis watched the door close behind him. "You wouldn’t think a man like Chester would be spooked by a little old vibrator."

Feeling a little Gloria-esque, Amanda gestured toward the red wand in Mavis’s hand. "Would you … uh … like to borrow it?"

Mavis smiled at her. "I thought you’d never ask."

THIRTEEN

William decided he wouldn’t sleep tonight if he didn’t go to Geekland and talk to Amanda about her problem. He knew so little about her— whether she had a roommate, a Doberman, or a triple lock on her door. Maybe the valentine guy wouldn’t track her down to where she lived, but that wasn’t at all certain.

She’d made it clear that she didn’t want his help. He could accept that more easily if he knew she had some protective measures already in place. For all he knew she was a martial arts expert who could take him down in three seconds flat. If she could reassure him that she wasn’t as vulnerable as she seemed, he’d back off.

Then he walked into Geekland and saw her behind the counter consulting her Barmaster, her fake glasses sliding down her nose and her hair in those two adorable pigtails, and he didn’t want to back off. She was so … plucky.

Take for example the way she’d handled lunch. Instead of slinking out the door when she’d spotted Gloria at the table, she’d pretended to be arriving and eager to share a table. She’d tried to help him out with his overenthusiastic client, and he was grateful.

But his feelings were going far beyond gratitude lately. Why couldn’t Amanda be hot for his body? Why did her boss have to be the one angling to get him nak*d? Sometimes he caught hints that Amanda wasn’t completely indifferent to him. She’d responded to that kiss they’d shared. And now, when she glanced up from the drink she was concocting, her first unguarded response was to smile.

She quickly changed her expression, though, masking any apparent pleasure with a blank stare. He took heart from her first reaction and ignored her second one as he walked over and took a stool right in front of her.

"Be with you in a minute." She didn’t look up from the layered drink she was concocting.

"What is that?" Her technique with the bar spoon fascinated him. Oh, hell, it wasn’t only that, it was every little move she made. She radiated competence, and he found that extremely sexy.

"It’s called a Raging Bull."

That sounded like a macho drink to him, and he could probably do with some macho. A man who ordered something called a Raging Bull would drink hard and love hard. That should counterbalance his image as a boring stockbroker.

"I’ll take one." He should probably find out what was in it first, but if he asked that, it would destroy the bar-savvy image he was going for.

She glanced up, then back down again. "Okay."

He’d caught the beginnings of another smile. "What? You don’t think I’m the Raging Bull type?"

"I didn’t say that."

"Good, because I’m all about Raging Bulls."

"Uh-huh." She finished fixing the drink and took it down to a customer on the end, a burly guy who was deep into the trivia game on the television screen above his head.

He looked like a truck driver, but here he was at Geekland playing trivia with a vengeance. As he picked up his drink in one beefy hand, William decided maybe geeks came in all shapes and sizes. He still wouldn’t classify himself as one, but the category was broader than he’d thought.

Amanda returned to stand in front of him. "Do you know what’s in a Raging Bull?" "All the good stuff." She arched her eyebrows.

Well, if she wasn’t buying the hard-drinking, hard-loving image, he’d try a different approach. "If you let me borrow your Barmaster I’ll tell you."

That little smile flashed again, but then she turned serious on him. "I’ll just tell you. Kahlua, sambuca, and tequila."

"What’s a sambuca?"

"Licorice-flavored liqueur. In other words, this drink is all booze, sort of like the Bahama Mama Justin had last night, the one that made him drunk enough that I had to call you."

"Yes, but that was on top of a truckload of other drinks. This is my first of the night. I think I can handle it."

She gazed at him. "Did you come here to drink?"

"No, I came here to talk to you. But it wouldn’t be fair to you or Geekland for me to sit here with nothing but a glass of water. A Raging Bull sounds about right."

She held his gaze a little longer. Then she concentrated on making his drink. "Since you want to talk, let me tell you a story."

"I’m listening."

"Once upon a time there was a smart girl who fell head over heels for a guy and focused entirely on him. When he died at a fairly young age, she had no money, no career, nothing to live for. Not long afterward, she died, too."

His chest tightened. "Sad story."

"My mother’s story."

"I’m sorry."

She glanced up. "I just want you to know that nothing, and I mean nothing, is coming between me and my goal. I intend to graduate with honors and a glowing recommendation from Gloria. Then I’ll head to Harvard for my postgrad work. Someday I’ll have an office and clients, just like she does."

"You will?" He had a tough time picturing her in leopard-print jumpsuits and a cabinet full of sex toys.

"Okay, not just like she does. She’s nuts."

"Justin’s ready to take her on."

"Uh-oh. Is that what you wanted to talk about?"

"Not really. But I thought I’d warn you, in case he shows up there. Maybe you could talk him out of pursuing that course of action."

She layered what looked like the licorice stuff on top of the Kahlua. "Are you sure that’s such a bad idea?"

"It’s a terrible idea. He’s not that sexually experienced. He’d be in way over his head with a woman like Gloria. You just said yourself that she’s nuts."

"She is, but she’s a therapist, too, and believe it or not, she has some very satisfied clients." She topped off his drink with tequila. "She might take Justin’s mind off his problems."

"That’s assuming she’d be interested. If she rejected him, I don’t think he could take it right now."

"She wouldn’t reject him. After he left the office the other day, she said if she didn’t already have her… um … that is, if you weren’t in the picture, she’d consider—

"Back up a minute. Exactly how did she refer to me?" He imagined all sorts of labels a woman like Gloria would use. Boy toy. Studmuffin. Love slave.

"Never mind."

"Come on, Amanda. I deserve to know how she talks about me behind my back."

"Promise you won’t get mad?"

"I promise."

"Geek of the Week." She set his drink quickly on a cocktail napkin. "Excuse me. Tina needs an order filled."

Geek of the Week. That hat with the earflaps had done more damage than he’d thought. If Gloria knew him better, then she’d … wait a minute. Justin thought William was a geek, too. He’d said that William would fit into the Geekland atmosphere just fine.

And, damn it, he did like it here, but that was only because Amanda was the bartender. Without her he wouldn’t be attracted to the place at all. Or maybe a little bit. Playing trivia was kind of cool because the people who came here presented a competitive challenge. He also got a kick out of the inventive drinks, and the clear acrylic bar and the neon sculptures on the wall.

But that didn’t make him a geek. Grabbing the glass in front of him, he took a big gulp and got a mouthful of straight tequila. His eyes watered, but he swallowed it, by God. He didn’t cough and choke, either.

Sneaking a glance down the bar, he tried to tell if the truck-driver type had taken his Raging Bull as it was served or if he’d mixed it before drinking. Just his luck, the glass was already empty, giving him no clue as to the manly way to approach this drink. Fortunately the very act of tipping it had stirred up the contents some, so his next sip, and he did take only a sip this time, went down easier.

He should have ordered a beer. A beer was uncomplicated, but it had a solid, non-nerd sound to it, especially if you stuck to the domestic brands that used promotion images like rearing stallions and men in hard hats. William had never worried about things like that before, but no one had ever called him their "Geek of the Week" before, either. Time for an image makeover. He took another sip of his Raging Bull.

Amanda seemed to be avoiding him, probably because she didn’t want to discuss his Geek of the Week status. So he grabbed a keyboard so he could play trivia. The first step was choosing a screen name.

The liquor hadn’t made him drunk by any means, but it had made him loose. The last time he’d played here with Justin he’d used his initials. This time he typed in DOW DUDE. He liked it. A screen name with attitude.

Because he soon was kicking serious butt at trivia, he attracted a small crowd. Some wanted to compete, although he annihilated all comers. Some wanted to cheer. A skinny woman in a Star Trek T-shirt bought him another Raging Bull.