The One After [SHAWN MENDES]

Chapter 125

I parked in hotel garage and took the elevator to the rooftop. As I stepped out of the lift, Stephen was waiting for me with a broad smile on his ruggedly handsome face. In person, he was more obviously the antithesis of Shawn as far as looks went. They were both tall, but my date was a big guy, similar in build to a professional hockey player. His hair was dark blonde and in need of a haircut, and his jaw was covered in reddish stubble. He had on loose khaki pants along with a cobalt button-down, which made his blue eyes pop. I expected him to look more like the cowboy in his Bumble pics, but the look he'd chosen worked for him.

"Hi," I said brightly as I approached him. "I'm Lucy."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he replied warmly. "We're both a little early and when I checked in with the host, I was told they wouldn't have our table ready for twenty minutes. Would you like to get a drink at the bar?"

"I'd love to."

We sat down and I admired the decor of Kōst, which definitely had a California look. I'd never been, but I'd seen enough movies and TV shows to know the vibe when I saw it. When the bartender came over, Stephen ordered the house special mojito and I opted for the watermelon margarita.

"I have to warn you," he said with a teasing grin, "you're the first person I've met up with after starting the dating app thing."

"You'll be happy to know that I'm in the same boat, so we navigate these new and scary waters together."

"I Googled you, which I know sounds crazy, but my best friend insisted I do it. He said that there are a lot of psychos in the world and that you can't be too careful. It's not like I planned to dig deep, but if you'd been arrested or had some kind of weird past, I wanted to know."

Why hadn't I thought of that? Clueless me went with the info he put on his profile and assumed that was everything significant. "That's honestly pretty smart and I wish I'd done it."

"If you want to pull your phone out and do a quick search, be my guest. I doubt you'll find anything other than a couple news articles about my college hockey achievements or how I won a rodeo event as a kid."

"I thought you might be a hockey player! And I'll save my sleuthing for later if I feel the need, though I suspect you uncovered quite a bit about me," I said before sipping my potent drink.

"I did. I'm really sorry you were attacked, but I'm glad the man ended up in prison. As for the things I saw on the celebrity news sites...I don't really care who you've been involved with in the past. In the name of transparency, I was engaged last year, though that ended when she cheated on me. I've only recently been open to meeting anyone new."

"I'm sorry you went through that."

"It was horrible, but at least the truth came out before we got married," he said.

We hadn't known each other more than ten minutes, but I was compelled to be honest. "Shawn isn't that far in my past, and while I'm up for dating, I don't want a serious relationship right now because I am not completely recovered from the last one. If that makes you want to bail after our drinks, I understand."

Stephen nodded thoughtfully. "I really appreciate you telling me this. Let's see how tonight goes, and if we want to go out again, then great. If either of us isn't up for that, at least we got a nice dinner out of it. I was looking at the menu at work today and it had me drooling."

The host came over and informed us that our table was ready. We took our drinks with us and were guided out to the patio, where we were seated next to the pool. At first, I had a direct view of the CN Tower, but Stephen offered to switch places with me since the sun was in my eyes. The bigger issue was that it was a reminder of my morning on the patio with Shawn, but I kept that to myself.