First Date- a Novella Read Free

Daniel’s.
    Glenda smiled, following Teresa’s gaze. “You’ll find you a good one, one day.”
    “I hope,” Teresa huffed.

Chapter 2
    When Daniel got to his office, he started on a massive pile of reports. After making a few phone calls and having to sit in on a phone conference, he grabbed his coffee cup. He liked getting coffee from the break room to listen to how people were talking and also getting a chance to see Ginger.
    It didn’t take a genius to figure out why guys didn’t ask Ginger out on dates after they got to know her. Ginger intimidated many men. She knew several different fighting styles and even fought MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) but quit because it had too many rules. Then take into account the many other extreme sports she did, most men didn’t want to admit she was more of a man than they were.
    As he passed the reception desk on the way to the cubicles, Daniel smiled at Teresa and Glenda. Daniel wasn’t an idiot; Teresa was the definition of Barbie only life-sized. When he took into account she had two teenaged kids, it only made her more attractive. Teresa was also very sweet, and anyone would say she loved her kids, but Daniel wanted someone to do stuff with, and Ginger was only the second girl he had found that liked doing the things he did.
    Walking in the break room, Daniel saw Ken, Don, and Joe, whom he called the three stooges. The only time he could recall seeing only one was when they came out of the bathroom. If Ginger could be called a nerd, the stooges were the textbook version complete with pocket protectors and thick, black glasses.
    “Hey guys,” he said, walking to the coffee pot.
    Ken looked up from a pile of paper they were studying. “Hey, Daniel,” he said. “What are you doing this weekend?”
    “Nothing much, Kenneth.” Daniel shrugged and caught himself before he called Kenneth “Moe.” In Daniel’s mind, the three even looked like the stooges. Ken was the leader as Moe with a black bowl cut. Don was Larry with curly hair, and Joe was Curly with a crew cut.
    “Heard you had a hot date. Who’s it with?” Don asked, grinning as he looked up.
    Daniel just winked. “Kenneth, did you get my e-mail about that attempted hack yesterday?”
    “Yeah,” Kenneth scoffed. “It originated from Europe.”
    “Look familiar to you or anyone you’ve heard of?”
    “Nope, and whoever it was, was very good,” Kenneth said and looked back at the stack of papers they were studying.
    Daniel shook his head, grinning at the stooges, and walked out. Moving through the cubicle maze, he headed to the far side to the offices along the wall. Looking around, he only saw a few people when there should’ve been over a hundred.
    Looking through the window to Ginger’s office, Daniel grinned, watching her hands blur across the keyboard as she chewed on an ink pen. He counted four more ink pens and one marker shoved in the back of her hair, giving her a porcupine halo. “Where is everyone?” he asked, walking in.
    “Huh?” Ginger said, never looking away from the screen.
    “The rest of the staff, where are they?”
    Registering who it was, Ginger looked up, spitting the pen out of her mouth. “Oh, umm…” she said, embarrassed that Daniel caught her chewing on a pen like a cigar. “Getting flu shots,” she finally said. “Memo was put out last week that everyone could take three hours off with pay to get their flu shots but only from ten to noon, but you could tie your lunch on at the end.”
    “I don’t remember that,” Daniel mumbled.
    “VP Gordon put it out. He said it would save the company money in the long run.”
    “No wonder; I never read what he sends,” Daniel said with grin. “Hey, it’s not part of our date, but you want to head over to the food court and grab some food?”
    Ginger smiled then glanced at her computer screens, and the smile fell off. “Ah, I really want to, but I need to figure out what is wrong with this program,” she said then looked at