Page 5

Chapter Three

Silver

I might not want to go on this date, but I wasn’t a complete jerk.

I wasn’t going to simply not show up and leave Charlie without a date for this event.

Like my brother had said, I would at least get a free meal out of the entire situation, and who didn’t like free food?

Besides, I needed to let Charlie know that there was a huge misunderstanding and that I wasn’t actually looking for a mate or to date someone.

Surely, he would understand, wouldn’t he?

I grumbled a bit about having to pay the ten-dollar parking fee just to go on this date, but once I was through the gate, I pulled into the parking lot and started looking for an empty spot.

I found one, further away from the main entrance than I would have liked, but I wasn’t left with much of a choice.

For a Tuesday evening, this place was a lot busier than I would have expected.

I guess that was good for the zoo, but again, I wasn’t exactly a fan of zoos.

I understood they did good things for wildlife, but still.

I found another line at the main entrance and muttered under my breath once more. I just wanted to find the aquarium, have my meal, and then explain to Charlie that we weren’t going to be dating, and we most certainly weren’t mates.

While standing in line to enter, I happened to notice a sign that mentioned the Mate Match event off to the left, and I quickly jumped out of the long line and into a much shorter one of only three people in front of me.

When I arrived at the counter, I did my best to smile and be as friendly as possible.

It just wasn’t in my nature to be either.

“Ticket?”

“Ticket?” I asked.

“Yes. In the email correspondence, there was a ticket attached. You don’t have to have printed it out, but I need the code from it.”

“Sorry. I didn’t see any attachments in my email,” I told her as I pulled my phone from my pocket and opened my email.

Thankfully, I had my business email on my phone because that’s what Ma had used to sign me up.

The sneaky woman. I loved her, adored her even, but I had decided that if she was going to pull stunts like this, I was going to cut contact with her for a bit.

I finally located the email with an attachment, and sure enough, there was a ticket with a long code on it.

“You mean this?” I asked, handing over my phone.

“Yes, that’s the one.” The lady in the ticket booth typed something into her computer and then handed me back my phone. “Here’s a map so you know where the aquarium restaurant is and how to get there. We ask that diners be finished and off of zoo grounds by ten.”

I nodded because I honestly couldn’t see myself still being here even an hour from now, let alone at ten tonight.

It wasn’t that I went to bed by then. I simply didn’t hold any hopes for this being anything but awkward and a bit of a disaster.

I wasn’t looking for a mate. I was only here so Charlie didn’t get stood up on Valentine’s Day because obviously, he was looking for a mate.

I felt bad because he’d been paired with me. Poor man.

After glancing at the map, I headed in the direction of the aquarium.

It was off to the left, quite a distance if the map was correct.

That meant I was going to be late. I honestly felt a little bad about that because although I didn’t want to actually be here, that didn’t mean I wanted to be late.

I picked up my pace, something that was easy when you were as tall and muscular as I was. People tended to get out of your way.

Even with my hurried pace, I still spent a bit of time looking around at my surroundings.

It not only came with my animal’s nature but with my job.

Silverback Security provided not only personal security for certain clients but also cybersecurity.

It was the personal security that added to my gorilla’s nature in taking in my surroundings.

I was always on alert, and more than one previous partner had found it too much for them to deal with, so I’d just given up trying to find a meaningful relationship.

I couldn’t change who I was, and I’d just found it easier to be alone and find a bit of relief every now and then.

When the aquarium came into view, I glanced at my watch—I was only five minutes late, so not too bad, all things considered.

Except I still had to find not only the restaurant inside the aquarium but Charlie as well.

I walked under the archway that announced I was entering the aquarium exhibit and realized that the restaurant was easy enough to locate.

It was to the immediate right, but like at the gate, there was a queue, and I had to wait in another line to get admitted.

It seemed as if all I was doing to go on this date that I didn’t sign up for was wait in lines.

All because I didn’t want to be the reason why Charlie got stood up on Valentine’s Day.

I was definitely going to be having words with Ma later this week.

While I was at it, I was going to make sure Dad knew what his wife had been up to.

I understood wanting your children to be happy and settled, but this was going too far.

“Ticket?” the guy said to me once I finally made it through the doorway.

“Umm…” I said, pulling out my phone again. It was in the email, right? Why so many tickets and not enough explanation about everything?

“It was given to you at the front gate when you entered the zoo. I can’t let you into the restaurant tonight if you don’t have a ticket permitting entrance.”

I looked through everything I’d been given at the zoo entrance, and sure enough, the lady from the front ticket booth had slipped a ticket in with the map without me having seen it.

That irked me a bit because I should have noticed.

It was my job—it was what I did. I handed it over, and the guy placed it on a stack of similar tickets and checked a long list on his tablet.

“You are welcome to enter, Mr. Thompson,” he said with a smile. “There is a mingle area just to the right around this wall, and the restaurant is off to the left. If you don’t see your date, you are welcome to look at the tables for your names. The meal should start soon.”

I nodded. “Thank you,” I told him before I entered the restaurant.

Immediately, I was in awe of the place. It was literally under at least part of the aquarium, and there were fish swimming all around us.

The restaurant seemed to fit into all of these nooks and crannies under a very large and gorgeous saltwater aquarium.

Unsure if Charlie was here yet, I decided to head to the meet-and-greet area and glanced around to see if there was anyone who fit his description.

I didn’t have much to go on, only that he had brown hair and would be wearing a bow tie and a pink rose on his lapel.

There were at least twenty people there, and all of them were standing around chatting and drinking.

I sighed because several of them had dark hair and flowers on their lapels.

I decided that it wasn’t going to be any use; I would have to ask every person if they were Charlie in order to find him, so instead, I decided to go searching for our table.

There were several tables that were secluded in little alcoves here and there, but it wasn’t until I went around a stone wall that I found the main dining room.

I could certainly see how this could be a romantic dinner location.

The place had been decorated for the holiday, and each table had what appeared to be a battery-powered lamp in the center that was surrounded by red and pink flowers.

There were place cards with names on them, and I started reading them in search of my own table.

I’d visited three empty tables when I felt a hand on my wrist, and when I turned, my first thought was that he was incredibly cute.

He was a lot shorter and slimmer than I was, but he wasn’t tiny.

You could tell he had some muscles under his blazer.

I glanced at the lapel and found a pink rose there. Was this my blind date?

“Charlie?” I asked, taking a chance.

He smiled, and I wanted to kick my gorilla, who was certainly on board with having dinner with Charlie and then taking him home with us.

What? Where did that come from? No. We were not taking Charlie home with us.

He wasn’t for us because we weren’t looking for a mate. Or even someone to date regularly.

“Silver?”

I nodded. The smile somehow grew, which made the little mate even cuter. Little mate? What was my gorilla going on about? No. Charlie wasn’t our mate. Maybe for someone else, but not us.

“The hair kind of gave it away,” Charlie said.

“And in all honesty, it’s so much better than me wearing a pink rose.

I obviously wasn’t thinking when I decided that a pink rose would stand out.

” Charlie rolled his eyes while shaking his head.

I understood his thinking though; there were a lot of roses on lapels tonight.

I couldn’t help but grin at him. He was so damn adorable. What was wrong with me? Seriously. All of a sudden, I was completely charmed by this pint-sized man who was charming in his little bow tie and blazer.

“I can’t really help the hair all that much because it kind of goes with the animal half once we reach a certain age,” I told him.

Charlie’s eyes widened. “Oh. I thought you had it done in a salon. It’s just like that? Naturally?”

I chuckled and nodded. “It is. I can tell you more about it, but maybe we should find our table first?”

“Yeah, it’s right over here,” Charlie said, pointing to his right. “I saw your hair, which was my hint as to what you looked like, so I came over to get your attention.”