Chapter 4

Darren recognized Daphne as soon as she got out of her rideshare. She was taller than he expected, but she was striking in motion. Her grace coupled with the elegant bun in her hair made Darren think ballerina. She smiled brightly as he stepped forward for a greeting hug, one of those tentative embraces that were a little awkward but also a little exciting.

“Darren, it’s nice to meet you,” she said and seemed like she meant it. “Vanessa has said a lot of nice things about you.”

He pulled open and held the door for her. “Well she’s told me absolutely nothing about you,” he said wryly. “I don’t even know your last name.”

“Jansen,” she replied.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Daphne Jansen,” Darren said with what he hoped was charm. She humored him with a laugh at least. The hostess led them to their table and when they sat down he said, “Do you want to tell me a little about you, or do you want me to correct all the stuff Ness got wrong?”

Daphne laughed. “What do you think she said?”

This was easy. “Let’s see. She probably told you I work too many hours. I’m in marketing, so unfortunately true sometimes. She definitely told you about how media school got rid of my twang. Apparently I tell that story too much. I bet she said Hemingway is my favorite author, which, no, by the way.” She probably mentioned Miranda, tactfully, of course, but he wasn’t going to dive into that from the jump.

Daphne pursed her lips. “That’s pretty good, actually, three for three.”

Darren kept his satisfaction to himself. “You know, I gotta admit, I don’t know much about wine, so I’m just going to copy you.”

Daphne snickered. “Gee, no pressure. But I appreciate the honesty.” She studied the list. “I’ve been wanting to come here for a while. I hear it’s good.”

Darren nodded. “Likewise, but I have another confession. I don’t really know much about French food.”

Daphne’s eyes shone with amusement as she looked across the table at him. “Vanessa really set you up for success here huh?”

The server interrupted them and Daphne made an expensive sounding selection. “I’ll have the same,” Darren said like he knew what he was doing and he liked the way Daphne grinned, like she was in on a benign little conspiracy. “But yes,” he continued when the server bustled away. “She evidently thinks I’m more endearing when I’m in unknown territory. Getting the jackass out of the way.”

Daphne nodded in assent. “She either really likes you or despises you.”

Darren gestured. “Yep, exactly, you get it.” Their server appeared waiter poured their glasses and gave them time to ponder the menu. While Darren scanned for something he might like, he asked, “How do you know her?”

“I’d just started working in the law library at Northwestern when she started her Master’s program. She was in there all the time. A regular, you know? She invited me out with her and her little clique one night and we’ve been friends ever since.” Daphne held up her glass. “To Vanessa,” she toasted. Darren grinned and clinked his glass with hers.

“That’s good,” Darren remarked. Daphne gave a little bow that said “of course it is” and he found her confidence alluring. “So you’re a librarian, then?” And when she nodded he asked, “Is that something you always wanted to do?”

“I have no idea what I wanna be when I grow up,” Daphne said, flicking her wrist. “I went to Wellesley for Biology and thought about going into neuroscience. How the brain works has always fascinated me.” She took a sip of her wine. “But your plan when you’re nineteen kinda falls apart sometimes you know? I decided it wasn’t for me. An advisor put the idea of library science in my head.” She shrugged ruefully. “I pivoted. Ended up down in Champaign, thanks to her contacts there.” She gestured with her hand like was connecting dots. “After I graduated from U of I, Northwestern was my first real job.”

Daphne nudged her plate forward. “Try one of these. They’re so good.” Darren gave her a questioning look. The name of her canapés was something he’d never hope to pronounce. “It’s squash and cheese. Trust me.” She was right, they were good. He offered her some of the French Onion soup he’d ordered as an appretizer and found out she was a vegetarian. Beef stock was a no go.

He felt doubly bad he’d ordered the steak frites. She waved away his apology. “I personally don’t eat meat, but I do appreciate from afar.” Her smile was a little guilty when she added, “sometimes I will eat shrimp, though.”

So. He was with a vegetarian librarian who looked like a ballerina that had wanted to be a neuroscientist and gone to an almost-Ivy out east. There were about ten years in the interim, and he found himself interested in learning more. Good job, Ness, he conceded.

Before he could decide where to start solving her mystery next, she fluttered a hand at him. “What about you? I know you grew up in Texas and went to media school. How’d you end up in Illinois?” She leaned forward and cocked her head in a way he’d associate with thoughtfulness. He imagined that’s how she looked when she was engrossed in a book.

“Well, I grew up in west Texas. Midland, if you know the geography?” She shook her head. “It’s about five hours from anywhere. Lotta nothin’ and oil fields.”

Daphne grinned at him. “There’s the accent!” It sounded like she was making fun but he liked the way she smiled.

He found himself grinning back. “I was about, I dunno, ten when we went on a school field trip to a local TV station. I was hooked.” He held his hands up to his ears like they were headphones. “They let me wear the headset, and I wanted to be the guy who was like ‘okay, go for camera two.’ You know?” She snickered at his silly voice. He put the imaginary headphones away. “Went to UT-Austin for broadcasting.”

“Hook ‘em!” Daphne said, making the signature hand gesture that was also well known among metal fans. “I love that movie with Tommy Lee Jones. Where he’s a Ranger who goes undercover as a cheerleading coach.” She waved her hand. “That’s the extent of my knowledge of Texas.” She gestured for Darren to continue.

“Well, you’ve got the gist,” I said with a half grin, suspecting she actually knew lots about the Lone Star State. “For a while, I wanted to do sports. I thought live TV would be exciting to produce. Like Rangers games.”

Daphne put her hands on the table and leaned forward. “I love baseball.”

Darren didn’t actually believe it. “You do not.”

Daphne leaned back and folded her arms. “Yes huh! My grandpa was a huge Yankees fan. He taught me how to keep a scorebook. I still do it sometimes,” she added triumphantly.

He thought he his surprise well enough with mock derision. “Yankees?”

She rolled her eyes. Her grandfather had been a Long Islander. Growing up in Connecticut, her choices had been them or the Red Sox. “I rest my case,” she finished as their food arrived. “Sorry for interrupting again.”

Darren waved it off. “The story isn’t exciting anyway. My first job out of college was helping with radio spots. I liked doing it well enough. Ended up meeting some guys from Macpherson at a conference and applied for a junior copywriter job. They took a chance on me, I moved here.” He did his own version of connect the dots.

“You like it then?”

Darren bounced his head. “Keeps me busy. I get to travel some and work with exciting clients.” He gestured. “We just pitched something to Pringles. They seemed excited.” He smiled ruefully. “They tend to be up until they see the budget.” He nodded at her plate. “How’s your selection?”

She nodded approvingly. “I’m a fan.” She stabbed at the food for a second. “So Hemingway…?” she prompted.

Darren shook his head as he remembered. “So Ness had been talking about how she hated the Old Man and the Sea and it was so boring and all that. I said it was a good story and that Hemingway is good at what he does. That, somehow, has made him my favorite author in her mind.”

“I really liked To Have and Have Not…as a movie. Did you know Lauren Baccall was only ninteen in it?”

Darren braced himself. “I’ve never seen it.”

She looked at him dumbfounded. “What? Okay. Homework. You have to see it and get back to me.” Darren gave her an “are you serious” face and she nodded assertively before continuing her original train of thought. “So your favorite book is….”

Darren sighed. This was always a tough question to answer honestly. “Catch-22.”

Daphne sat back and folded her arms with something like a smirk on her face. “I’m not sure even Joseph Heller likes that book.”

Darren’s ego oscillated between wounded and bolstered, as it does when gently mocked. He met her gaze and it told him how to take it. “Hey, there are a few dozen fans!” He joked and it felt very good to amuse her. “I actually hated it the first time I read it. Then, I saw rhe crazy spreadsheet he made to engineer the whole thing and gave it another read. It hit way differently as an adult. Reminded me not to engage in some systems so seriously because almost everything is absurd.” He could see her reading the subtext of that as her expression softened. It was exciting and uncomfortable ao he shifted. “And you?”

She leaned forward again and balanced her chin on her knuckles. “Let’s see if you can guess.” She was alluring as she challenged.

He took a breath. “There are an awful lot of books to choose from. Any hints?”

She made a face that was almost wink. “It’s pretty well known.”

That didn’t really help, he thought, but he didn’t want to keep dragging feet. “So the cliche answer is Jane Austen.” She raised her brows and pursed her lips. “But, you have an affinity for sciency stuff. You’re eccentric.” Her eyes widened slightly so he explained that it was a good thing, not a slight. She accepted the explanation by relaxing her shoulders and letting some of the tightness out of her smile. She was quite pretty.

“Dracula…no that’s not it. Just thinking out loud,” he held up a finger when she opened her mouth and she enjoyed watching him mull. Or squirm, rather. It came to him. “Frankenstein.”

“Final answer?” she challenged, with the smug expression you use when you want to throw someone off. Darren nodded and she shook her head with exaggerated disappointment. “Good guesses. I do love wll those, especially Dracula.” She straightened up. “It’s the Divine Comedy.”

“Dante?”

Daphne nodded vigorously. “The Inferno gets all the press, but Paradise is where it’s at. It’s so subtle and cerebral.”

A slow smile spread across Darren’s face. “I’m not even sure Dante likes Paradise.”

Daphne narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “Oh shut up.” She leaned forward again. “So listen, how do you feel about Carl Jung?”

Darren blinked at the non sequitor. “The Swiss psycho analyst?” Daphne nodded again. “Uh, he’s cool I guess? Something about archetypes right?”

“Right, yeah,” she said, “and you know about his theory of the shadow self?”

“Vaguely,” Darren said tentatively. It’d been a long time sincr Psych 101. But, his ignorance didn’t seem to bother her. Rather the opposite.

“Okay, well, I’m fascinated by Jung and he thought the Divine Comedy was an excellent metaphor for psychological transformation.” Her enthusiasm lit her up and it was beautiful. Her eyes fell on his smile. “I’m losing you aren’t I?”

“No ma’am, I’m excited to see where this goes next,” he said and meant it.

She studied him for a second and decided he wasn’t making fun of her. “Okay so I have this other book about Jungian archetypes and the chakra.” She paused with an unasked question.

“There are seven right? One for each color?” Where was she going with this?

“The color thing is a Westernization, but yeah there are seven, starting with the hips and working your way to the crown of your head.” She kept going as Darren accepted her explanation with a gesture. “I’m reading both books now and you can map Dante’s journey using the chakra system.”

Brilliant or insane, Darren wanted to see her in action. “Give me the outline.” Then he added a challenge he knew she wouldn’t be able to resist. “If you can.”

She launched into her explanation. The waiter came and cleared their plates. Darren ordered an ice cream he didn’t really want just so he could listen to Daphne’s mini lecture. She took a few bites, but the scoop became a puddle. Darren added a hefty tip because he knew the waiter was annoyed by their lingering, then he suggested they go for a little stroll, because it was a nice night.

Daphne was almost done but agreed to go anyway. She finished up with the enlightenment chakra being represented by the final cantos of Paradise. Darren would never be able to repeat half of it, but then again that wasn’t the point. Just seeing her mind in motion was.

“So, that’s the Jansen Unified Jungian Theory on Dante?” he said almost like he was ribbing her. She shrugged and seemed a little shy about spending the last half hour or so divulging her ideas. “You know you’re basically writing a dissertation for fun, right?” Darren placed a hand on his chest and the other on the small of her back. “I think it’s impressive, but other people might think you’re crazy.” She gave him a mock glare but didn’t shy away from his touch. “You should write it down. I’ll read it.”

She snorted. “I’m sure.”

“I will!” he insisted and found he meant it. She smiled and he thought maybe she blushed slightly. It was hard to tell under the street lamps. Either way, he wanted to kiss her. The moment stretched a little too long though and he felt the urge to make her laugh again. “So, how often do you get Scooby-Doo jokes about your name? You must hate it.”

“Ahh, you get used to it. Even as a kid, I always identified more with Velma. So I usually say I’m ‘actually a Daphne who’s a Velma.’” She struck a little pose with one hand on her hip and laughed at herself. “Anyway, it’s better than describing the myth.”

“Oh yeah, with Apollo and the laurel tree?”

Daphne shot him a look. “You checked Wikipedia didn’t you?”

Darren grinned guiltily. “At least I knew it was a myth! I thought Daphne was the footrace one.”

She shook her head. “You don’t know anything do you, Tipton? That’s Atalanta.” Playful derision and his last name. He loved when Ness did stuff like that too.

“Which chakra is that one related too?”

Daphne stuck out her tongue. “Don’t make me regret telling you all that.” She pulled put her phone.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. It was very cool, by the way. Also,” he rattled off his number and she tilted her head at him. “Weren’t you getting out your phone to text me so I’d have your number?” The smile that bloomed on her face was intoxicating. Kissable. “You know, so I can text you my review of the movie.”

“Right,” she agreed. “What were the last four digits.” He repeated them and a second later his phone buzzed.

He read the text. “What is this?” he asked as he saved her contact.

She shrugged nonchalantly. “The chakras most closely related to the Atalanta myth.” Her expression softened a bit. “So I really am having a nice time but I have to leave. My sister and nephews are in town and they fly out tomorrow. I stupidly agreed to breakfast with them.”

Darren shook his head. “Family’s important,” he said, trusting this wasn’t a dodge. “I’ll call you so we can do this again.”

She finished up tapping some things on her phone then met his eyes. “I’d really like that.”

“For sure,” he agreed. “I’ll hang out with you until the ride gets here.”

She tilted her head up the street. “She’s up at the light.” Her eyes lit up like she just thought of something. “Yoss-darien!”

“What?” It dawned on him. A pun on Catch-22’s protagonist. “That’s awful. You just ruined the whole night.”

She gasped. “Take it back, it wasn’t that bad.”

He grimaced and looked away.

“Wow,” Daphne said, drawing the word out. “Vanessa said you were cool.”

He whipped his head around to feign his own injury. “I’m very cool.” Daphne made the so-so gesture. He leaned in a little closer. “I am!”

She didn’t back away but she did shrug. He leaned a little closer.

He pitched his voice a little lower, almost a whisper. “I think you’re cool. You don’t think I am?”

“Eh,” she said, rolling her eyes a bit. She didn’t stop the kiss though. In fact, she leaned into it. A tentative collision, followed by something a little more insistent. Warmth ran from his mouth down to his belly. She was a very good kisser.

She broke away a momer later, pausing with her forehead against his. “Woulda been cooler if you did that when you wanted to ten minutes ago.”

He chuckled as she stepped up to the curb. “Good night, Darren Tipton.”

“Goodnight, Daphne Jansen.” It was impossible to completely conceal the giddiness of a good first kiss. “Text me when you get home please.”

She wiggled her fingers with a tiny wave through the window of her rideshare.

His phone buzzed as it pulled away into traffic. He figured it was Daphne, but no. It was several question marks from Ness. “Shut up,” he texted her. She called him immediately.

“Paris, bitch!” She said when he answered and hung up immediately. He rolled his eyes. He was in too good of a mood to let her annoy him.

He ordered a copy of To Have and to Have Not while he waited for his own ride home.