The Cat and the Kitten Ch. 15-17

The raucous laughter at an adjoining table had caused the Nerd Warehouse one to all look over in that direction. Rob McLean held his breath when he saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, without question. Jet black hair tumbled about her face from the mass that was pinned up on the top of her head. She had very dark eyes and looked over at him with a small mysterious smile. He stared for a few moments until someone at his table spoke to him and forced him to look away. Imagine, he thought to himself, some lucky guy is here with her tonight.

"Yeah, he's pretty cute," Lynn remarked again as the target of her conversation turned his gaze away from her.

"His name is Rob McLean. He went to school with me, a year ahead of me. He's really shy, played baseball I think. Seems to be a nice guy and was in a few classes in high school with me. He's pretty smart, but I never really got to know him too much."

"Rob McLean," Lynn repeated quietly to herself as if in thought. One of the people at his table said something to him and he looked over in her direction again. They made eye contact this time and she smiled at him while he blushed. Then he turned away again.

"She's not looking at me, Mark," Rob told his friend. "She's just looking this way, probably in boredom. She looks like a model."

"Telling you man, she's checking you out. She still is. What a fox." Rob looked over again, made eye contact with Lynn once more, and turned away just as fast.

"He's noticing you noticing him!" Amanda giggled.

"That's a song, right?" Will asked.

"Don't go staring, Lynn. You look like a cat looking at a mouse." Kathy told her.

"Mer-rrrrow!"

"You're going to make him uncomfortable. It's not like you're an average gal. I'll introduce you later, if you want, or maybe you can ask him to dance. If I remember right his mom has a studio in her basement and she does some classes for the girls. My sister went to her for a year before she decided she wanted to do soccer and basketball instead. He would do dance in some of our school plays and was really good. He stopped when he got older, because you know how guys are. Most guys," she corrected as she smiled at both Will and Stephen.

"I LOVE to dance!" Lynn exclaimed, "I did classes for years when I was growing up."

Their conversation ended as they were subjected to several speeches. They all clapped loudly when Kathy was introduced to stand and be acknowledged for her volunteer work with the project. Eventually it ended and they stood and mingled as some of the tables were moved to accommodate dancing.

"Let's go hunting," Lynn instructed Kathy and they went to move through the crowd. Eventually they found Rob and approached him. They could see him gulp as it became evident that they were headed straight for him.

"Hi, Rob!" Kathy greeted him warmly.

"Oh! Hi, Kathy." He smiled at her and quickly glanced at Lynn.

"Rob McLean, this is Lynn Delaney." Lynn smiled at him with her perfect pearl like teeth and held her hand out daintily.

"Hi, Lynn," he said as he clumsily took her hand.

"Hi," she replied in a low sultry voice and he gulped.

"Lynn hired me at Cormorant, you know the company? She's been so good to me."

"Are you here with a date tonight, Rob?" Lynn asked him quite directly.

"Ahhh no. I'm single. I mean I'm here single."

"Me too. Both."

"You are?" he said in a mixture of amazement and fright.

"Stephen must be getting so lonely by now, Kathy," Lynn said by way of a reply without breaking eye contact with Rob.

"Oh! Right! Nice seeing you again, Rob!" Kathy quickly moved off.

"So, since we're both here single maybe you can be my date?"

"Your date? Oh wow. I mean sure. Yeah. I can be your date."

"Lovely!" Lynn moved in and took his arm. Rob looked like he had a bad case of constipation or indigestion. A waiter moved through with a tray filled with glasses of wine and they each took one, he with a somewhat trembling hand.

"You're nervous," she whispered, "Don't be."

"I'll try."

"I'm just another girl."

"No you're not."

"What am I then?" she laughed and she let go his arm to stand back to look at him.

"Not just another girl, that's for sure," he gave a weak forced laugh.

"I'm pretty hot. I get it. Not wanting to be conceited or anything but it's been pretty evident since puberty that guys find me attractive. But I'm still just another girl. A bit direct maybe. I like to think I'm confident. And, you know, I find you attractive too, so I guess we're on the same page."

"Did any of my old high school buddies put you up to this?" he laughed as he looked around.

"Well, Kathy Byrne introduced us. Do you really think she'd take part in any childish cruel prank?"

"No," he admitted, "Kathy isn't like that at all."

"So, maybe I'm just here, single 'cause guys I'm interested in think I'm too hot for them and won't ask me out; and I see you and think, hey, there's a cute guy, so I say to my friends, hey, there's a cute guy, 'cause that's what girls do; and one of my friends say I know him and he's sweet, so I say, introduce us. Could something like that maybe even be possible? Holy fuck, that was a mouthful. Ooops ... sorry." She grinned as she drank some wine.

"You are a bit direct, aren't you?" he nervously drank some wine as well.

"So, why don't we just try to get to know each other a bit? Like, really. Before you decide, 'she's too hot for a guy like me'. Maybe I'm a complete bitch and that would be a better reason for you to say, 'I don't want to see you again'. Or maybe I'll say 'he's cute but he's not for me'."

"Yeah sure. You may want to give me some time first, 'cause I'm pretty overwhelmed right now."

"Ok. What's your favorite food?"

"She works fast, doesn't she?" Amanda said. She stood next to Kathy, with Will on the other side with his hand around her trim waist. Stephen stood by looking longingly at Kathy.

"She's so beautiful." Kathy remarked.

"Poor guy," Will laughed.

"Stop it, Will!" Amanda laughed as she playfully hit him on the stomach. Her hand lingered there.

"Baseball? I love working out. I usually do an hour at least in the gym every day. And I used to do gymnastics and dance. Do you like to dance?" Lynn asked with a twinkle in her eye.

"Ahhhh yeah. Sure I do."

"Now, Rob," she laughed, "Probably not a good idea to start off a relationship on a lie. Kathy told me that your mom basically forced you into dance and you hated it!"

"Well, I never had you to dance with before," he grinned red-faced.

"Awwww! How sweet! Can you Salsa?"

"Wow. Never did it in a long time but I could wing it I guess. I just hope we don't fall."

"If we do, let me land on top! You can be on top later on!" His face started to burn again, "I'm sorry, Rob!" she laughed, "I'm so bad sometimes! I shouldn't tease you like that!"

"Ahhhh ..."

"I'll ask the music guy to play something. Come on!" She took him by the hand. They crossed the empty dance floor and Lynn went to speak to the DJ. "Next song! Should we do some stretches?"

"I wasn't expecting to Salsa in front of an audience tonight," he gulped. He didn't get much chance to worry about it anymore as the current song ended and a Caribbean beat started. Everyone turned to watch as they walked out to the middle of the dance floor. With one hand joined and the other on the other's shoulder, at a full arm's length distance, they started with foot work. Rob was really impressed with Lynn, it was hard enough for him but she was wearing high heels. They laughed when they goofed from time to time and he twirled her so her dress swirled out, displaying more of her shapely tanned legs, causing a cheer from the guys. Lynn swayed her hips to the music and occasionally they came in close together so that their faces were just inches apart, looking into the other's eyes. Another two couples, Latinos, joined in to more cheers from the onlookers. That made Rob a bit less self-conscious and he spun Lynn around as she gave squeals of delight. At one point when he tugged her hand to pull her in close, she jumped and he almost dropped her but managed to hold her with his hand almost on her ass as she stuck against him with one her legs curled up against him for a second. The crowd cheered wildly as he put her back on her feet. She laughed with delight and threw her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek when the song ended and they left the floor, with the other couples highfiving, as the onlookers cheered.

"Holy shit! I didn't know you could dance like that!" Amanda ran over to Lynn laughing, "That was great!"

"That was SO much fun!" Lynn laughed as she clung to Rob, "You just earned at least one more date, buddy!" she slapped Rob on the chest and he grinned back obviously pleased with himself. Lynn introduced him to Will and Amanda, looking kind of smug in the process.

The dance progressed and Rob and Lynn danced to the more mainstream music and waltzed at every opportunity. Rob hoped she couldn't feel his raging erection as they waltzed towards the end of the night on the more crowded dance floor, with their bodies pushed close together, but he knew that was highly unlikely. His cheek was damp from hers and her scent had him intoxicated.

His phone buzzed when they sat down at the end of one of the songs. "Oh God! I forgot Dad said he was going to pick me up at twelve thirty," he said as he looked at his phone. He realized what he said and colored a bit, "I mean I thought that I may be having a couple of drinks and I didn't think I'd be wanting to stay any longer than that anyway, so I asked my dad if he could drop me off and pick me up."

"You don't have to explain yourself, Rob. You made arrangements and that's that," Lynn told him, "I'll walk you out, though?"

"Oh? Ahhhh yeah, sure."

They walked out of the ballroom and into the lobby of the hotel. She could see a car pulled up to the curb outside with the motor running. "Rob, I had such a great time tonight. Seriously." She stopped when they were halfway to the door.

"So did I, Lynn. Jesus, you're even prettier out here in the light."

"You have my number?"

"Yeah."

"Text me."

"I will."

"I'm serious, Rob. Text me when you're home and get squared away. Don't go away and think she's not really interested, it was just a one night thing where she didn't have a date or she was half drunk or something."

"I will, Lynn. You have my number too. God," he exhaled as she walked into his arms and hugged him again.

"Come on. Show off for your dad," she grinned as pulled him by the hand.

"You don't have to do that!" he laughed.

"Not ashamed of me are you?"

"No," he laughed.

"He's not ultra-religious or nothing like that?"

"No!"

The doors opened as they went out into the warm summer night. Lynn smiled brilliantly at the middle aged 'Rob' in the modest sedan waiting for his son and now gaping at the girl his son had just come out with holding hands. "Like I have a bit of an evil streak, Rob, you know that, right?"

"Starting to realize that."

She turned to him again, "Text me!"

"I will. Promise."

She stepped in to hug him again, her lips pressing against his cheek. She lingered a bit before stepping back. "See ya!" He turned and went to the car with his heart beating wildly.

Lynn turned away to walk back inside swaying her hips as she went, while Rob and his father gaped.

"Who was that?!?!?!" his father asked as they drove off.