Finding Opa! Read Online Free PDF

only proved his own negativity. Plus, there was the nagging fact that he was the one who had pursued her – not the other way around.
     
    Stacey had done him a great service by saying yes, and here he was already prepared for things to go terribly wrong. His conscience ripped at him. Man up , it roared.
     
    Even as he tried to convince himself aloud that things wouldn’t work, he also couldn’t ignore the nervous excitement that made his stomach flutter. There was something about Stacey that seemed off in a good way. She was different and independent, funny and clever. If nothing else, he could at least make a friend. A friend couldn’t be bad. He had how many now? Two.
     
    Plus, he just couldn’t get her smile out of his mind. When she had agreed to his proposal yesterday at lunch, it was like someone had given him a million dollars. She had looked at him with a sincere hope. Her eyes had said to him that maybe, possibly, he could be the one that would help her move out of her own personal hell. He only hoped that she would also serve as the same stepping stone for him.
     
    For the last two years, he had done nothing but sulk, mourn and pout in solitary. Maybe God had finally answered his prayers by sending him a woman who could understand his pain and possibly knew how to heal him?
     
    He looked at himself in the mirror of his bathroom and stuck out his chest.
     
    Tonight, he was going to pursue Stacey Bryant with everything that he had in him, or he was going to make a complete fool out of himself in front of a bestselling author. Either way, it was balls to the wall.
     
    ***
     
    Stacey hadn’t been on a date in years. Standing in front of her gold-framed mirror, she and her cat analyzed her dress.
     
    “What am I saying in this?” she asked Rapture, turning to view her side profile. Confused, she smoothed her hands over her dress and sighed. “You’re supposed to wear a dress on the first date, right?”
     
    The cat looked up at her and meowed.
     
    “I’ll take that as a yes,” Stacey said, walking into her bathroom. With her toes pointed, she slipped her feet into her pumps and sprayed her perfume.
     
    It had been forever since she had seen herself look like this. Normally, she was in a pair of jeans or cargo pants, coupled with boots, a comfy t-shirt and a backpack full of tech gear. Now, she was wearing Victoria Secret, thigh-highs, stiletto heels and exposing parts of her body that she had not paid attention to in quite some time. It was mildly amusing – two sides to a very sordid coin.
     
    A nervous jitter hit Stacey when she heard the doorbell chime. He was five minutes early! With a quick glance at the wooden clock mounted on the wall, she grabbed her black clutch purse and scampered to the front door, while trying to remember how to walk in heels.
     
    Rapture followed closely behind, feeling the need suddenly to be overly protective of his master. He let out another meow that made her slow down.
     
    She turned to him and sighed. “I know; I’m nervous too, kitty.” Avoiding his fur in fear that it might rub off on her black dress, she turned back to the door and opened it.
     
    To her surprise, it was Clive. Slouching over, she looked passed him into the hallway. “What gives, Clive?” She finally eyed him suspiciously.
     
    In his normal black, matrix-like costume, he showed her a CD. “Just came out today. I’m selling them door-to-door. Would you like…no would you mind buying one to support me?”
     
    Stacey took the CD and flipped it around to read the black. “Twisted Fantasies?” she said, looking up at him. “Is it heavy metal?”
     
    “It’s alternative rock and roll,” he corrected. “You listen to it much?”
     
    Stacey shook her head. “How much?”
     
    “Ten bucks,” Clive answered hopeful.
     
    Fishing out her wallet from her purse, she pulled out a ten-dollar bill and gave it to him. “Well, I had better go.”
     
    “Got a date?” Clive asked,