Chapter 7 – Double Date From Hell

“This is a bad idea.”

Adeline rolled her eyes as she stepped out of the car and onto the pavement, smoothing her dress down.

“It's a bad, bad, bad idea,” Lance repeated as she shut the car door and he pushed the remote on his keychain, locking the doors.

“Would you stop it?” she asked him, stopping in place in front of him. “It's just dinner.”

“A doomed dinner,” he said. “Mark my words.”

“Oh, what are you now, psychic like Stephanie?” she asked with a smile.

“She's not psychic, she's psychotic,” he said. “But this dinner, Ad – it's a bad idea.”

“You said that,” she said, deadpan. “About five million times already.”

He leaned against his car door, his arms crossed. “I have this feeling.”

“That feeling is just my stomach doing flip-flops,” she said. She put her hand on her stomach, hoping it would settle down before appetizers arrived at the table, fearful that the sight of food would have her rushing to the bathroom right away. Lance's flu had only lasted twenty-four hours, but he had been the lucky one; a week later, she still felt lingering effects of it hanging around, especially during the evenings.

“Are you sure it's a good idea for you to be going to dinner feeling the way you do?” he asked, putting his hand on her arm. “You're still not feeling good, I'm not feeling great about this evening...”

“You're just finding any excuse you can to get out of dinner,” she said, grabbing his arm. “Don't try to use me as your scapegoat; I'll be fine. We're going on this date, you unromantic jerk.”

She pulled him, gently but forcefully, to her side and hooked her arm through his.

“I resent that,” he said, pretending to be hurt. “Call me unromantic – I held your hair up for you the other day when you were throwing up. Some appreciation would be nice.”

“Ahh, it's the little things,” she said with a smile. “My Romeo.”

“You know, I really don't like your tone,” he said, looking at her as she smiled at him.

She considered responding to him, but when she looked away, she saw Chris walking toward them.

“Chris,” she said, holding her arms out in his direction. She smiled and looked at him from head to toe, dressed rather dashingly in his button-down shirt and slacks.

“Hello, Addy,” he said, only a slight smile grazing his lips. “It's good to see you. I'm really looking forward to the evening of torture you're putting me through.”

She rolled her eyes before he enveloped her in a hug. When he let her go, he immediately looked over at Lance.

“I told her,” Lance said, shaking his head slightly. “I said, 'Addy, this is a bad idea.' Now you see what I'm talking about, how she listens to me.”

“You,” she said, pointing at Lance as the two of them greeted each other with a half-hearted fist bump. “Zip it. I've had enough of your lip tonight.”

“I feel the love in the air,” Chris said. “If you two are any indication of what it's like to be married – well, consider me off the market.”

“I give up on both of you,” Addy said, looking at the two men with slight smug grins on their faces. “What's wrong with you guys? We're at this swanky restaurant on this beautiful spring night, and you'll have two great women in your company. Can you behave yourselves at all?”

“I think that's asking a bit much,” a voice interrupted her.

Addy turned around slowly, recognizing Melissa's voice.

“Asking that one to behave alone,” Melissa said, pointing at Lance with a smile. “How much can you really expect out of him?”

Chris could only describe himself as stunned. All he knew was that Addy had set him up on what amounted to a blind date – except he was the only blind one in the whole ordeal. To say he hadn't been happy about it was an understatement.

But when he saw her – he forgot why he was ever angry with Addy in the first place. As the two women hugged, he looked her over. Her short blonde hair was pulled back in a half-ponytail with rhinestone studded bobby pins holding back a few stray pieces. She wore a dark gray sweater dress with a pair of dark-washed jeans, a scarf wrapped around her waist as a belt, and black wedge-heeled sandals.

“Hey Mel,” Lance said. “Found a life yet?”

“Hey Lance,” she responded. “Did Addy forget to take you on your walk this morning? Feeling all out of sorts about it?”

Chris couldn't help but laugh.

“Damn,” he said, looking at Lance. “She got you.”

“Yeah,” Lance responded. “She's sugar and spice and everything nice, isn't she?”

“You're only mad because now I have someone on my side,” Addy said, smiling at Mel. “Chris, this is your date for tonight.”

Melissa looked directly over at Chris, almost shyly.

“Hey, I'm Chris,” he said, holding his hand out to her, trying to be polite.

“Chris Kirkpatrick, I know,” she said with a smile, grabbing his hand. “I'm Melissa – Melissa Weston. It's nice to meet you.”

Adeline and Lance looked on as both Chris and Melissa shook hands and held their grip for a few moments as they looked at each other. Adeline walked over to Lance and he felt her reach down and grab his hand, giving it an affectionate squeeze. He looked over and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a smile on her face.

After a few seconds, Chris felt the stares of everyone on him.

“I guess we should go inside, then,” he said, releasing Melissa's hand to reach for the door behind him.

Lance tried to judge his face as Chris held the door open for Melissa, who gladly walked through as Lance hung back with Addy. He didn't have to look over at her to know she was looking at him.

“Don't say it,” he warned. “The night's just started.”

“You saw the way they looked at each other,” she said nonchalantly. “You'll eat your words before the night's over.”

“This is the calm before the storm, baby,” he said as he held the door open for her.

Lance was thankful that they were seated immediately and fairly discreetly near the back corner of the restaurant, only catching the attention of one twenty-something female waitress when she looked directly at him, stared wide-eyed for a few seconds, then turned and walked away quickly. Any other night he would be amused at the reactions of the staff and customers young enough to recognize them; tonight, he had a feeling that Addy's grand plan would only blow up in her face, and he didn't want the extra attention.

“So are you still nervous, Mel?” Addy asked as they sat down to look at their menus after they had ordered their drinks.

“Oh good,” Mel said. “The fact that you asked means you can't see how much my hands are shaking.”

Adeline laughed. “Melissa is apparently a big fan, Chris.”

Chris immediately felt a bad taste in his mouth. “Is that so?”

“I was like sixteen when you guys hit the States,” she said, looking first at Lance then at Chris. “Started with 'I Want You Back,' progressed to 'It's Gonna Be Me' – now I play your Christmas CD from Thanksgiving Day on through New Year's.” She smiled. “Okay, and every other holiday in between.”

“What's your favorite song?” Lance asked, noting Chris's facial expression and trying to avoid a lull in conversation.

“No contest, 'I Thought She Knew',” she responded. “When you guys harmonize, I melt – and Joey's solo...”

“You like Joey, huh?” Lance said, smirking in Addy's direction.

“He always was sort of my favorite,” she said, grimacing in slight embarrassment.

“Well, that's promising Chris,” Lance said, breaking into a full smile as he looked from Chris's unimpressed face over to Addy.

“Chris has always been my next favorite. And I don't love one more than the other,” Mel said, trying to recover, hoping she hadn't hurt her date's feelings. “And Joey's married, so that's definitely a no-go.”

“It's good to know that I only outrank Joey because of a technicality,” Chris mumbled.

Melissa was about to speak, but their waitress brought their drinks to the table and interrupted them asking if they were ready to order – probably just as well, she figured. After they had ordered, Adeline looked up at both Chris and Melissa with a smile on her face.

“Be comforted, Chris,” she said. “From what I hear, you still outrank Lance by leaps and bounds.”

Melissa grinned in Lance's direction. “He moved down even more after I met him and got to know him.”

“Oh, darn!” he exclaimed. “Guess I'll have to live with what I have already.”

“Well damn,” Addy said. “I thought for a second I could unload you onto someone else.”

While the other three laughed and carried on with each other, having a good time, Chris sat back and evaluated. The physical attraction was there, because he found her beautiful – she wasn't some stick-thin, bottle blonde bimbo who could barely form words in his presence. Nor did she appear to be like some of the other women he had dated who wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise. But what turned him off already was knowing she was a fan – he had dated too many of those, and it had never ended well for him.

Talk about the band lulled for a few minutes when Adeline and Lance switched the subject, and he found himself getting back into the conversation and almost having fun when she suddenly stopped after hearing the music in the restaurant change.

“Oh I love this song,” Melissa said as Chris noticed the beat to Justin's 'What Goes Around' come over the speaker. “Is it true that Justin wrote this song about Britney?”

Lance had opened his mouth to say something when Chris stood up from his seat at the table.

“You know guys, I just remembered I have something to do at the house,” he said, feeling annoyed. “Thanks for inviting me out man, I'm sorry I have to bail.”

Lance was slightly surprised, but not by much. He knew this was why Chris's last few relationships hadn't worked out; he was only surprised that it had taken this long for him to find an excuse to leave.

Melissa sat a moment and watched Chris. She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to put on a smile, but it didn't work.

“Ah, okay. I guess I'll see you around then, Chris.”

It hurt, even though she wasn't sure what she had done to make him leave so suddenly. She wasn't naïve enough to think he would immediately fall in love with her – and she wasn't going to apologize for being herself.

Addy looked from Chris over to Melissa, and then to Lance who only sat staring at his drink uncomfortably. Before she could say anything, Chris had turned around and headed out the door.

“Stupid man,” she muttered as she threw her napkin down, scooting out of her chair.

Lance and Melissa only looked on as she walked through the crowd of tables and other diners, trying to keep Chris in her sights as he walked out the door.

“Chris!” she called out when she saw him in the parking lot leaning against his car, cell phone in his hand. She walked up to him with her hands on her hips when he didn't even look at her. “You can't leave.”

“It won't work out, Addy,” he said simply, looking over a text he had gotten. “She's just like the others.”

“How do you know? We were there for fifteen minutes,” she said, pulling the cell phone from his hand and tipping his chin up so he was forced to look at her.

“I have no desire to spend any time with a woman who only likes me as that guy who can harmonize with Lance – or rather, the second choice to Joey.”

“She's nervous, for God's sake,” she responded. “Have you ever considered that someone might not know how to react and how to talk to you because suddenly you're someone she can actually touch and feel and see without barriers or bodyguards? There are millions of girls in this world who, for them, that was a pipe dream ten years ago.”

“So I'm someone real – big deal,” he said as he ran a hand through his hair. “I was real before she met me. I'm not just a celebrity, Addy. I'm a person.”

“She knows that Chris. But you mean to tell me that even in your position, you've never been nervous meeting a celebrity? Ever? What about when you guys recorded with Richard Marx? Or when you performed with Michael Jackson? And don't lie, I saw the home videos of you guys in Europe when you realized No Mercy was in the same city.”

She smiled when Chris didn't meet her stare anymore.

“Yeah, so what?” he said, taking on the tone of a defeated teenager. “Those people were awesome.”

“And so are you, especially to her,” she said. “Here I told her you were the guy that was always nice. And boy did you shoot that one right out of the water.”

“You set her up for disappointment early,” Chris said with a chuckle. “I'm still not sold on the whole thing, but I'll try to make up for being an ass, go back in there and at least finish dinner.”

She smiled and slipped her arm through Chris's as they walked back toward the restaurant.

“Good boy,” she said.

“Bite me, Addy.”

“Sorry, I'm taken,” she said as she smirked and bumped his hip good-naturedly.

She smiled when she saw Lance and Melissa talking to each other, neither paying attention to the comings and goings of anyone else. She gave Mel a small smile when Chris sat back down, and reached for Lance's hand under the table to give it a squeeze.

“It wasn't so important that I can't finish dinner after all,” Chris said, trying to make eye contact with Melissa.

“Yeah? That's good,” she responded, looking away from him. She wasn't sure how to feel, knowing he'd wanted to bail on the whole date over something, and knowing he didn't really have something important at home to tend to. She couldn't help that she was nervous and was trying hard not to say something stupid – which had only led her to say even stupider things. It didn't help that Addy and Lance were along for the ride – like there was an audience and she was on display, waiting for something bad to happen.

Chris was relieved when a few minutes later, in the middle of tense conversation, the waitress came by with their food.

“So, are you used to New York yet, Mel?” Addy asked, hoping it would open up the conversation more.

“Ha. Not sure I ever will be,” Mel responded. “There's so many people, and things to do and see. I have a bucket list of stuff to do and that's only here in the city. I did get brave and go to a Starbucks. I've never been to one before.”

She blushed when three people only stared and blinked at her.

“What rock have you been hiding under?” Lance asked with a chuckle.

“Not all of us want to pay six bucks for coffee we can make at home,” Melissa told him with a smirk.

“Coffee is overrated,” Chris said with a shrug.

“He's the drink snob,” Addy explained.

“Then obviously you've never had one of my White Russians,” Melissa said with a smile. “I had a roommate for a semester that was a bartender on Dickson Street in Fayetteville. I needed some extra money for living expenses and she let me come work with her on the weekends and keep half the tips. Later on, I went to bartending school. You can't taste the coffee in mine.”

“I call bullshit,” Chris said.

“Call it all you want, it's true.”

Lance sighed. He knew that Chris was only looking for a fight now.

“You'll have to prove it,” Chris said.

“You know, I don't have to prove anything. If you don't believe me, that's fine.” Melissa's voice had gone decidedly cool. “I didn't come here looking for your approval, Chris. Get over yourself – go get laid or something.”

Lance's eyebrows raised in amusement as Adeline's jaw dropped.

“I liked meeting you, it was fun, but this...” She gestured between the two of them and gave him a cold look. “This is clearly not going to work. I was nervous, I'm sorry. But now I'm not nervous, I'm actually sort of pissed off. You don't know me, I don't know you, so I can't say if you're doing this to try and feel me out, or whether you're really just an asshole who masquerades as a nice guy.”

She pushed her chair out and looked at Lance and Addy.

“Sorry guys, I really like you, and Addy, I appreciate the thought you put into this night. But I'm going back to my apartment and doing what I wanted to do this evening – sit in my pajamas, eat ice cream, watch Back to the Future and be a dork and quote the entire movie.”

Her gaze went back over to Chris and she hoped it didn't look as sad as she felt. When she looked at him, something was there. She had no idea what it was since he seemed to be two different people – but it was something.

“Addy, I'll call you later this week,” she said as she grabbed her purse and proceeded to walk out of the restaurant.

This time, Adeline didn't bother getting up to go after her friend. She picked up her water glass and took a sip, watching Melissa as she paid for the meal she didn't even eat and walked out the door.

“Wow,” she said as she looked at Chris, who sat in silence. “In the words of a song, you kissed that opportunity bye bye bye.”

Lance, who had been drinking out of his own glass, half-choked. Addy looked at him as he coughed and recovered.

“Sorry,” he finally said. “I couldn't help it. Those puns got a little old after a few years but that – that one was pretty good.”

“You know, I think I will go home after all,” Chris said. “Now I feel like an asshole and a third wheel. You guys can have a nice dinner together, you need it. I'm going to go home and lick my wounds.”

Chris stood up out of his seat and patted Lance on the shoulder as he walked away. Addy sat and picked at her food as she watched Chris repeat Mel's actions – paying for his untouched meal and walking out the door. Listening to Lance's silence, she shook her head.

“Don't say it,” she said, warning him.

“Save room for dessert baby,” he said, “'cause it looks like you're the one eating your words tonight.”