might meet tonight. Such thoughts were foremost on her brain the entire way there.
When their cab pulled up in front of the coffee shop, the two of them got out and paid the driver. Fixing their clothes, they looked at each other and prepared to enter.
"Liz, will you look at that!" Keri exclaimed in a whisper, eyeing the extremely handsome, tall man in a very fashionable suit who was just opening the door inside. As they looked on, he rolled his shoulders once and then entered. The two girls exchanged a giggle over raised eyebrows.
"Perhaps this is going to be better than you thought, don't you think Ker?" Liz teased her, seeing the way she had reacted to the tall, strong looking stranger who most likely would be part of their dating event.
"How does a man like that even come to be at a place like this Liz?" She was curious, he was easily handsome enough to get dates by simply batting his eyes. Why speed dating?
"Who cares, let's go meet him!" Liz grinned, pulling Keri along behind her as they headed for the door.
Inside the coffee shop, there was a partition almost immediately, hiding most of the seating area. One sign pointed to the left and read 'Ladies', while the men were directed to go to the right. The two headed down their side, where after they turned right, it opened up into a large room full of tables. Only women, and one man who looked officious, possibly the coordinator, were occupying the room currently.
"Hello, ladies! Glad you could join us." The man walked over, introducing himself as Titus, the host for the evening.
"So, these are the rules. You will each pick a table somewhere in the room. Each table is numbered one through forty. Each man will be given a random ticket with a table number on it. They will go sit at that table for five minutes. Once the buzzer rings, they will move up one number, and so on. If at any point you wish to leave, feel free. Any questions?"
" Great!" He exclaimed as the two of them shook their heads, the concept quite simple and easy to understand. As ladies, all they had to do was sit there. When the start time arrived, the two of them sat at nearby tables and waited to see what would happen.
***
The parade of men who had gone past Keri's table was starting to get depressing. She was resting her chin in the palm of her hand now, tired out over the past hour and a half by uninteresting, weird, and downright creepy men who had done their best to try and seduce her. None of them seemed interested in more than an evening of good times.
This last one was particularly bad. He was still droning on about his mother, and how amazing she had been to him growing up. That had been the sole conversation topic the entire five minutes, starting immediately after they had exchanged names. When the buzzer finally rang to relieve her of him, she wondered if perhaps she should just get up and leave. She hadn't made up her mind when the next man sat down in front of her.
"Name, age, occupation and reason for being here," she droned out as he sat down, not even giving him the opportunity to introduce himself. She stared down at the table waiting for his response.
"Hello, my name is Derek, I'm thirty-four and I'm an entrepreneurial businessman I suppose you would call it. May I ask your name, and for the privilege to look at your eyes my lady?" The voice was a deep baritone, easy on the ears and brain. The reverberations of his words echoed throughout her body, stirring something within her she hadn't remembered existed.
She jerked up in surprise as the man in front of her registered upon her senses. His cologne wafted through the air, infusing her nostrils with a sense of hunger. When she met his eyes though, she practically gasped in surprise. The icy-blue orbs stared into her, piercing any walls she tried to build, seeing deep within her soul.
There was something about him, some sort of magnetic attraction, as if the very air was infused with an aphrodisiac and she
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