Page 11 of Alistair

It was nearly four, so he could call his sexy female soon.

He hadn’t lived anywhere but the underground living quarters for the memory since he’d moved to the park, so staying away from his people was going to be interesting. But he’d do anything for his soulmate, and at least with the apartment he didn’t have to lie about where he lived.

He placed the empty duffel in the bottom of the closet in the master bedroom and shut the door. The bedroom had a king bed and matching dresser and side tables, with a black blanket and gray pillows. The family room and small kitchen were done up inshades of gray as was the master bathroom, the monochromatic theme reminding him of his elephant.

There was a knock at the door, and he walked through the space and opened it.

“Hey, Seneca,” he greeted the large bear shifter.

“I heard you found your soulmate today,” he said as he handed over a large box.

“I did, she was one of the teachers with the kids visiting today.”

“That’s really awesome, gives all us unmated males hope. So, here’s the things you ordered from the market. Jeanie threw in some frozen breakfast sandwiches, and since you might be bringing your female back here tonight, I put in a box of chocolate-covered strawberries and two pieces of Lexy’s peanut butter cheesecake.”

“That’s awesome, thank you so much.”

“Anytime. Have you made plans for a first date yet?”

“Tonight.” Alistair set the box on the coffee table and returned to the open door, leaning against it. “I’m supposed to call her soon once she’s home from work. I’m still trying to narrow down the options for the date.”

“What are the choices?”

“Well, there’s Manriados, the Italian place, or Doones for a good steak.”

Seneca hummed. “I just saw something online called a progressive date.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s where you pick an area with a lot of different restaurants and you go to each one for one course. Like you could do appetizers at Manriados and the main course at Doones, and then dessert somewhere else, even here if you’d like with what I packed for you. I think the point is that all the different places and moving around helps to keep conversation going.”

“That’s pretty interesting, I never heard of that, thanks.”

“Hey if it works, maybe that’ll be good karma for me and I can be the next one to find my soulmate.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.”

Alistair said goodbye to the young male and shut the door, then hurriedly put away the groceries so the apartment looked more like he’d lived there for a while and hadn’t just moved in that day.

He glanced at his watch and saw the time ticking away.

Soon enough he’d get to call Maggie.

But first, he would plan this progressive date. It sounded like a winner to him.

Maggie paced in the family room, biting her bottom lip and occasionally catching her heel on the old rug near the front door.

Alistair was on the way to pick her up!

She’d originally had on jeans and a cute top, but then he’d told her about the progressive dinner idea and one of the restaurants she knew for sure was pretty upscale, so she’d changed into a spring-patterned skirt with an off-the-shoulder thin sweater in a matching pale blue.

He was taller than her, so she felt comfortable with heels that brought her petite five-four up a couple inches, and she’d spent the last twenty minutes fussing with her hair and eventually just leaving it down. Normally she wore it in a loose braid or bun, but tonight was special.

She hadn’t been able to stop thinking of him, even when her mom had called and asked her to come over and help with her sister’s wedding prep and she’d bowed out because of her date. She’d promised to stop by tomorrow and help with a few of the last-minute things ahead of the wedding, which was next Friday.

She heard a car door shut and her heart sped up.

A few moments later, there was a knock at the door and she nearly had a giggle fit as she bounced on her toes and tried tofigure out how long she should wait before answering so she didn’t look like a loon standing at the door.

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