Dating Disaster
Summary: Paige accepts a dating invitation from a guy she met at the grocery store. It doesn't take her long to regret that decision.
Author's note:
Everyone, thanks you for the reviews you left on the first chapter of this story.
Sorry for the delay in updating - life has interrupted unfortunately…
When I started to write this, I was planning a very light, even funny story of Paige having an awful date - but the story had other plans and I have learned to do what the story wants…
I promise I am not going too dark! But we're not at this point in the story yet anyway. I
On to the story:
Chapter 2:
In hindsight, the whole idea had been stupid.
How had she ever come to the conclusion that dating was a good idea to try and get over Walter instead of facing her inner demons and trying to salvage the best romantic relationship of her life?
The way Walter had looked at her the last time she had seen him - and the way she had heard him softly call her name when the door closed behind Team Centipede, Paige was half-way sure he would be open to at least talk about the possibility.
She blamed Toby!
Toby had encouraged her when she had told him about the dinner invitation - something she had started to regret the second the first sentence had tumbled out of her mouth.
Toby had been all over her business the same instant. Well, actually he had been all over her business even before that, but he had jumped at the occasion and had gotten even more involved in messing with her life.
She could not help wondering if there was a hidden agenda behind Toby's advice.
Perhaps some form of reverse psychology, because she was sure the Quinn-Curtis couple was just biding their time until Paige and Sylvester announced their willingness to try and reconcile with Walter.
She had to be blind to not notice that Happy was suffering from the break-up of the only family she had ever known.
And when Happy suffered, Toby suffered as well.
Still, Paige was not happy with Toby meddling in her life.
Perhaps having to babysit the angry teenager with the IQ exceeding 200 who had made the past weeks even harder for her would teach Toby to keep his nose out of her business.
Ralph had instantly let her feel his disapproval - just another point to add to the growing pile of reasons Ralph disapproved of her and her actions since she had broken up with Walter and walked out fo the garage.
No - since Ralph had learned exactly what had been said in the garage. He had been on her side as long as he had only heard her side and Ralph had had the impression that Walter had mindlessly hurt his mother again.
But then he had heard the other side - not even from Walter himself, but from Sylvester, who was incapable of lying to his family and friends and had recounted not only his own words and tone to Ralph, but that of all parts present.
Hearing her own words and tone days after the fact… she had to admit it did not put her into a good light.
Sylvester's vivid recount had held up a mirror in front of her - and she had not liked the image that had looked back at her.
It didn't matter that Walter had kept going to the lecture with Florence from her. No one deserved to be dumped the way she had dumped him that night.
Paige had unleashed all her anger on Walter and an angry Paige that no longer held back was an unstoppable force. A force someone still as inexperienced with human interaction as Walter was unable to cope with.
Ralph, of course, had taken it as could be expected of a child, no, teenager, who identified with the recipient of her anger like he did with no one else.
Then he had learned about them starting a new team instead of trying to resolve things with Walter and Paige had sunk in her son's opinion even lower.
And instead of seeing her son's growing disapproval and distance as a sign that she was going down the wrong path, she had to go and up it even more by agreeing to date a guy she had met in the grocery store a few times.
She should have known that it would bite her in the butt.
It had started like a normal date - not that Paige had much experience with dating since Ralph had been born. She only had had dates with Tim in the last few years.
Paige didn't count the times she went out with Walter as dates in the sense of dating someone to see if there was something more. She had known Walter for more than three years when they had become a couple.
As if by unspoken agreement, they had skipped the dating phase and gone straight to couple date night. Though she wasn't sure Walter knew the difference.
Paige shook her head to shake off her thoughts.
She was here now, she would sit through this date, see how it went and then decide on how she planned to move forward. With or without Chad.
Though she had to admit she was leaning heavily towards 'without' already.
Paige had arrived in one of those new pink cabs that exclusively hired female drivers and only transported girls and women to give them a safe way of traveling especially after dark.
Walter would have happily supplied her with the information that Pink Cabs originated in Dubai, where the drivers were only allowed to transport passengers if at least one of them was female.
On the other hand, if she had been going out with Walter, he would have been their designated driver. While she usually drove them to cases so Walter could work on his laptop en route, he usually drove when they went out so she could drink wine or a cocktail, something Walter didn't care for.
She shook her head again, trying to banish the thoughts about Walter from her mind that had crept back up at her.
How was she supposed to get through this date if Walter continued to invade her thoughts?
Paige had debated taking her own car - not ready to give her date her address before they even had completed their first date - a woman had to be careful after all. But she wanted to be able to have that glass of wine Walter driving always allowed her to have… darn it! This was going to be hard!
She had met Chad only a few times at the grocery store and barely knew anything about him aside from the fact that he was visually pleasing and was pleasant to chat with while waiting for her turn to pay her groceries.
As her driver dropped her off in front of the restaurant, Paige saw Chad emerge from the cab in front of hers. Out of habit she took note of the taxi service he used. Working with Scorpion had taught her every little detail could be important and by now it had become second nature to her.
Chad had held the door open for her, led her to the table and pulled her chair out for her.
At least he seemed to be a gentleman.
The first thing she noticed was the table they were seated at.
It was the table Walter usually had reserved for them. She was even sitting in her usual chair, while Chad sat in Walter's chair.
Sitting with Chad on that familiar table brought another realisation.
Chad looked a lot like Walter. From his dark curly hair and brown eyes to his olive complexion and even the body type matched.
The problem was: Chad wasn't Walter.
Her heart started aching the moment she sat down and across from her sat someone who was not Walter. Someone who did not behave like Walter. Or sound like Walter.
"The lady will have the chicken salad and I will have the filet mignon." Chad's voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she shot him a glare he remained oblivious about as he was looking at their waiter.
It irked her that he had just ordered for her, no matter if her attention had briefly been elsewhere.
She had not pecked him for a guy who did that and she was pretty sure she did not come across as the kind of woman who liked that kind of behaviour.
He barely knew her - and he hadn't even checked in about allergies with her.
The restaurant was not unknown to her, in fact both Tim and Walter had taken her here and she was familiar with the menu - therefore she was well aware that Chad had chosen the cheapest meal for her, while he treated himself.
Paige resisted the temptation to call him out - perhaps he was not aware of what he was doing, or it was just coincidence and he really thought she might like what he had chosen for her.
Paige still bristled inside, but she didn't want to ruin their date before it really began. She wanted to give Chad an honest chance. It was not his fault she was aching for Walter and as she now slowly started to realise might have only accepted his invitation because of his visual similarities to her ex-boyfriend.
So instead of calling him out for his inconsiderate action, Paige just forced herself to smile, while a tiny voice in the back of her mind reminded her that any other day, she would have made her point more than clear.
The date only went downhill after that.
The humour she had found entertaining at the grocery store wasn't as funny anymore at the restaurant and she was slowly getting agitated as Chad kept talking about nothing else than himself and what he seemed to think were is biggest accomplishments as employee at the legal department of a department store and as a collector of train models.
She hadn't felt that bored since Walter had taken her and Ralph to a lecture called "The Beauty and Truth in Mathematic and Science". It had been a series of lectures and while Walter and Ralph had enjoyed them immensely, she had made sure to find an excuse to not attend more than the first one.
How she would have enjoyed attending the whole series in one sitting right now - preferably with Walter by her side, his presence taking her mind off of the boring lecture.
In the privacy of her mind she berated herself again as her thoughts once more brought up Walter.
That brought her to the next problem with her date.
He might have managed to get through College to get a degree and work in the position he blathered on about in exhausting detail, but she couldn't shake the impression that otherwise he was dumb as a brick.
Or perhaps she only felt that way because from the moment he had sat down in front of her in the restaurant, she had started comparing him to Walter.
And truth be told, it was hard to make an exceptionally intelligent impression if you were a normal measured against a genius with a 197 IQ.
Toby would have probably spewed some nonsense about her subconscious expecting a highly intelligent intellect in the man simply because of the visual similarity to Walter.
She knew she would have dismissed Toby's explanation, but deep down, she had to admit the guy in front of her was definitely not Walter - and that she loathed that very fact.
Paige was just about to excuse herself to the bathroom so she could text Happy and Toby to make a 'rescue call' to give her a reason to leave, when Chad asked her about herself.
Grudgingly Paige stayed in her seat, after all it would have looked weird if she had run to the bathroom right after his question. She was a bit surprised he had stopped his longwinded speech about praising himself and his accomplishments to hunt down a particularly rare train model long enough to show interest in her.
Perhaps her first impression at the grocery store had been right and he was just nervous. Some people tended to overshare when they were nervous after all…
Back at Casa Dineen:
"I have to admit I feel kind of bad for hoping Paige has a horrible date." Happy sighed as she leaned back in her spot on the couch.
They had been watching a TV movie in silence for a while now, so Happy's statement came seemingly out of nowhere.
"Me. too." Toby admitted. "But at the same time I don't want her to enjoy Grocery Guy's company either. We want her to make up with 197, remember?"
"It's for the greater good!" Ralph said with conviction. "She'll get over a bad date in the end! Walter will more than make up for it, once they are back together."
"Uh huh - for the greater good!" Toby chuckled. "Of course it has NOTHING to do with your preference for who will one day become your step-Dad!"
Ralph shot him a glare. "Dad! If we're going down that road! Walter doesn't subscribe to additions like in-law or step - and neither do I."
Happy grunted.
"Fitting! You sure your Mom hasn't met and had a one night stand or an affair with O'Brien and you actually ARE his son?"
"Or perhaps Walter donated sperm to touch up his funds so he could start Scorpion or feed his god complex by making his superior genius sperm available to the world and your Mom, wanting to bind her baseball playing beau to herself to avoid him running off into the world to play professionally by getting herself some sperm from a sperm bank. Paige has had abandonment issues from an early age, that can do weird things to people. And now she is too far into this scam to tell the truth." Toby said with a straight face.
Happy scrunched up her face as she stared at him in disbelief.
"Are you drunk? That sounds like the plot of a crappy movie." She turned to Ralph. "Don't you have anything to say to my idiotic husband? He's talking about your Mom after all!"
Ralph chuckled. "It DOES sound like a bad movie plot. Though I would be more than happy if there was some weird twist and I were Walter's biological son. Unfortunately the chance for that or a similar scenario being true, are less than 3 percent."
"But could you imagine Walter's face?" Toby laughed.
"Walter would be thrilled!" Happy said with conviction. "He adores Ralph and I bet he'd give anything if there was a way to make such a scenario come true. Drew's face is the one I'd like to see when Paige would tell him he has no parental rights in regards to Ralph. He'd have to finally get off her case about sending Ralph to live with him for a while."
Toby sobered up instantly. "He's been bothering her about that? How do you know?"
"I've walked in on her giving him a tongue lashing over the phone - I'm just saying as much: the dressing down she gave Walter was a pep talk in comparison. The idiot thinks just because he found out Paige and Walter br… are currently taking a relationship vacation, he can swoop in and try and steal Ralph from her, if even only temporarily."
Toby flinched at Happy's problem calling Paige and Walter's break up what it was. The break up of the couple was synonymous with the break up of Scorpion and their cyclone. He made a mental note to try and pick that topic up with her when they were alone again.
"How come you didn't tell me?" He whined instead. "I always tell you everything!"
"Because she asked me not to tell anyone and unlike you I am not a blabber-mouth that can't keep a secret."
"Ralph!?" Toby's whine turned dramatic. "Buddy, you got to help me out here! After all we just revealed interesting news to you."
The teenager snorted.
"You ARE a blabber-mouth! Besides, who do you think told Drew about the breakup?"
Toby's jaw dropped. "You truly are making her suffer for breaking up with Walter!" He wasn't sure if he should be impressed or scared. If Ralph didn't hold back when it came to his Mom…
"Like I said, it's all for the greater good!"
Author's note:
Sorry for Walter not making an appearance in this chapter - he will be present in every other chapter from Chapter 3 on.