Watchin' The Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance by Louise Hathaway

almost
over.”
    “Let’s go into the kitchen,” Joshua tells
her. “I’m running late because my teacher kept us over.”
    “I know what that’s like. I used to go to
Orange Coast College, too.”
    “You never told me that. What was your
major?”
    “I was a Liberal Arts major. I went to OCC to
take all my General Education classes before I transferred to
UCI.”
    “I wish I could go to UCI. It’s way out of my
budget.”
    “It was for mine, too. I got scholarships and
grants, but I’m still paying off my student loan debt.”
    “It’s a lot more expensive these days than
when you were a student.”
    “Yes. Back in the dark ages.”
    “I didn’t mean it like that.”
    He is struggling with some pots and pans in
the lower cupboard and says, “I haven’t even had time to start
dinner for you yet.”
    “Why don’t you let me take you out to
dinner?”
    “Oh, I couldn’t do that.”
    “No. I mean it. Those tickets for the mystery
theater were really expensive. I want to return the favor.”
    “Well, I am hungry.”
    “Great. Let’s go.”
    “Let me go finish getting dressed.”
    “But you already are dressed.”
    “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he tells
her.
    Isabella joins his roommate in the front room
and watches TV with him. She says, “I like this show, too.”
    The roommate just nods his head. He’s not in
the mood for small talk.
    Joshua comes out of his bedroom five minutes
later wearing his dressiest black pants, a white long-sleeved
shirt, and a skinny black tie.
    “Wow! Joshua. You look like a million bucks,”
Isabella says, thinking, Aww…He’s dressed just like the
detective was that night .
    “I can’t be seen dressed like a slob while I
am going out with a girl in such a gorgeous dress.”
    “I’m glad you like what I’m wearing,” she
says.
    As they walk out the door, Joshua says to his
roommate, “We’ll be back in one hour. To an empty apartment.
Okay?”
    “I hear ya. Loud and clear.”
    Joshua holds Isabella’s hand as they walk to
his car.
    Isabella asks, “So, how’s Gunther?”
    “Feeling humiliated. He fears he didn’t make
a good first impression.”
    “He shouldn’t worry. We were all upset. I
mean, how often in one’s life do you witness the scene of a crime
and a dead body right in front of you?”
    “I don’t suppose Nicole wants to go out with
him?”
    “I’ll ask her.”
    They walk over to his restored VW bug. He
opens Isabella’s door for her. As he gets into the driver’s seat,
puts his key in the ignition, and turns his headlights on, Isabella
says, “Do you realize that you don’t have a front windshield?”
    “What are you talking about?” he says, and
reaches into the thin air where the windshield should be. “Damn
it!” he says, pounding on the steering wheel.
    “Isabella says, “I guess not.”
    “I’m going to kill those kids.”
    “What kids?”
    “There’s a group of teenagers around here
who’ve been breaking into cars. I came out one day to find that the
wheels of my car had been stolen and my car was sitting up top of
four piles of bricks.”
    “Oh, Joshua. That’s terrible!”
    “Now I have to call it in to the police. I’m
sorry, Isabella. Some date I turned out to be.”
    “Don’t worry. Do what you have to do and
we’ll eat later.”
     
    *******
     
    The police finally arrive and take down all
the information. They tell Joshua that it is unsafe and illegal to
drive without a front windshield and he must get a new one. After
they leave, Joshua tells her, “I’ll see about getting it fixed
tomorrow. Let’s go eat.”
    “Good thing there’s no rain in the forecast.
Let’s take my car so you don’t get a ticket, okay?”
    “Sure,” he says, feeling like a loser of a
date.
     
    ******
     
    They pull into the parking structure at South
Coast Plaza and Isabella says, “We’ll go to my favorite place,
Wolfgang Puck’s.” They walk by Missoni where Isabella bought the
dress that he likes.