Operation Date Escape

before taking a sip. “Mmm.”
    She could feel her mood lifting already. It might have buoyed even higher if it weren’t for her upcoming date with Cornelius. Mug in hand, she made her way back to her room. There had to be some way to get out of this date.
    “ Think, Kelsie,” she muttered to herself. “You’re supposed to be the expert on date escapes.”
    It wasn’t until the end of her work day that it came to her. M aybe she couldn’t ‘break’ a leg. She could, however, pretend to sprain her ankle. Cornelius wouldn’t expect her to continue their skate date if she had an injured ankle.
    A slow smile spread across her face. It was the perfect plan. Now if she could only figure out a way to ‘escape’ her thoughts of a certain hunky firefighter...

CHAPTER THREE

The security
intercom by the door buzzed , making Kelsie cringe. She walked over to it and pressed the button. “Hello?”
    “Uh, yeah, I’m here for Kelsie,” a male voice replied.
    He didn’t sound all that bad. No nasally whine. No feminine inflection in his voice. “I’ll be down in a sec,” she replied, feeling a lot less enthusiastic than she sounded.
    Grabbing her purse, she stepped out into the hallway and locked her apartment door before heading downstairs. She made her way to the security gate at the apartment complex’s entrance where her blind date waited.
    “Wow,” he exclaimed, giving her the once-over the second she opened the gate. “You’re better than I thought you’d be.”
    You’re not.
    Trying not to laugh as her gaze moved over him in an equally assessing manner, she managed a very forced, hopefully polite smile. What in the world had her mother been thinking when she picked this guy up?
    It wasn’t that she judged men only by their looks, but he was wearing spandex pants for God sake ! And it looked like he could pull a rabbit out of the crotch of them.
    Scary.
    Well, there was no need to look any further for Cornelius’ imperfections. He was a bad dresser with the ‘package’ of a porn star.
    Yuck. So not for her.
    She forced her gaze up from what was either a male oddity or a portable pet rabbit and continued to smile at her date. “Um, Cornelius, right?”
    Just when she didn’t think it possible, his smile widened, reaching his three-inch long sideburns. Maybe he was an Elvis fan. “The one and only ,” he replied with a slight bow.
    She could only hope there was just one of him. The thought of Cornelius having a twin out there somewhere in the world was more than a little unsettling.
    “I...uh, it’s nice to meet you.” Not.
    “Same here.” He looked around the complex. “Nice place.”
    Yeah, well, don’t get too used to seeing it . You won’t be back.
    “Thanks,” she managed with an inner shudder. The spandex thing was freaking her out. “Look, about our date...”
    “Yeah?”
    “I’m really sorry to make you come all the way here, but this isn’t going to work.”
    Disappointment registered on his face. “Why not?”
    Maybe because you’re wearing ballet pants?
    “Because I don’t have any skates. I would’ve called to tell you, but I didn’t have your number.”
    “ Not a problem,” he assured her with a wave of his hand. “Your mother mentioned that you had recently donated your roller blades to a local charity drive.”
    Funny how her mother had failed to mention that little tidbit of information when they’d spoken that morning. Apparently she’d just been teasing her about Cornelius taking her rollerblading.
    She shrugged. “Afraid so.”
    “ Not a problem. That’s why I brought these.” His smile widened as he whipped a pair of in-line skates with hot pink laces out from behind his back.
    “Roller blades,” she muttered in shock as she eyed the hot pink laces.
    “Yeah, they’re my sister’s.”
    Thank God. For a moment, she wondered if they were his.
    “Your mother was nice enough to give me your skate size when I inquired. Lucky for us my sister’s feet are small like yours. She let me borrow them for our date.”
    Her mother was going to pay for this one!
    “You didn’t have to go to so much trouble,” she said as she reached for the skates he was holding out to her.
    “It was no trouble. Really. Besides, my sister can’t use them until the cast comes off.”
    “Cast?”
    He nodded. “She broke her arm rollerblading a few weeks ago at our church picnic.”
    Oh, that was reassuring.
    He pushed his glasses further up on the bridge of his