Chapter 4: A Date With Dennis

I stood in the yard with a bag of burnt capers and told the lens good evening.

It did not answer. The leaves closed over it and the hedge went back to being a hedge.

I told no one, because the top comment the next morning had a better idea.

"bookbabe_91: Don't hide from the camera. USE it. Date another man and let the photographer deliver it. (2,880 likes)"

I thought about it over my first coffee.

A photographer who works for Rosalind is a messenger. All I had to do was give him something worth delivering.

I found Dennis in the garage, polishing a car that was already clean.

"I need a date," I said.

Dennis put down the cloth.

It was the first time I had seen him look surprised. It lasted about a second.

"With me?"

"Only for the photographer."

"Ma'am," he said slowly, "Mr. Renner has a very good aim with a stapler."

"He doesn't know about it."

"That," Dennis said, "is what worries me."

He came anyway.

He wore a grey suit and had combed his beard, and he held the car door open for me.

The first stop was the bookshop café across from my own shop.

I had chosen it because the window was big. Dennis ordered two lattes and pulled my chair out for me.

Outside, behind a parked van, a lens flashed.

"He's early," Dennis said, stirring.

"Smile."

"I am smiling."

He was not. He looked at the van once and winced.

The second stop was mini-golf.

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