She hurried off.
I smiled again at Emily now that we were alone. “It’s nice to meet you.” It was true. For one thing, I didn’t expect her to be so attractive. Maybe that was unfair, but I assumed that a woman who needed her mother to set her up might have issues, but given her job at a bank doing risk analysis, she had to be reasonably intelligent, and even buttoned-down for work, I had no complaints about the way she looked.
There had to be something else I didn’t know about, something not clear yet. I was sure it’d come up soon enough, but until then I’d keep an open mind.
“Nice to meet you as well,” she said.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” I said after taking a sip of coffee.
Emily nodded. “Me neither.” She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. “Well, I kind of did, I guess.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“My mother has been trying to push you on me for a while. It’s been hard to go a day without hearing about Logan Hawkins.” She slapped a hand over her mouth and gasped. Her face grew scarlet. I found it kind of cute. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Really now? I’ll admit my mother has been pushing to date, but pushing me toward you is a more recent thing.”
Her face still red, Emily nodded. “I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s nothing against you. It’s just hard to not to be suspicious.”
Fair enough. Given what I was thinking about her, she must have been thinking the same thing or even worse, especially given our near decade age difference.
I gave her a lopsided smile. “It’s hard not to be suspicious of a man who needs his mother to set him up on dates?”
She shrugged, an uncomfortable look on her face. She glanced down at her watch.
Again, I barely resisted asking if she needed to be somewhere.
I chuckled quietly instead. “To set you at ease, I should make it clear it’s not that I need my mother to set me up on dates; it’s more that she’s concerned I don’t date enough.”
“Oh. I see. And do you?”
“Date enough?”
Emily nodded, curiosity rather than unease now in those pretty hazel eyes. I could see myself easily getting lost in those eyes. That set a slight unease in my stomach.
“I suppose it depends on who you ask,” I said. “I’m…”
“Yes?” Emily peered at me.
I thought over my next few words carefully. I didn’t want to come off like I was bragging. I wasn’t sure how much Emily knew about my job, so I decided to tack more toward humility. It was hard to go wrong being humble.
“My work keeps me busy, and I have to make a lot of management decisions,” I said. “I don’t have a lot of time to date. My mother would like me with someone sooner than later, and so I agreed to this to—”
“To get her off your back for a while,” Emily said.
I grinned. “That must seem horrible to you. I’m so sorry.”
Emily shook her head, her expression turning thoughtful for a moment. “I can’t be mad at you for being here for the same reason I am. I guess we both have at least one major thing in common: busybody mothers.”
We shared a laugh, but then she glanced at her watch for the third time.
Mild annoyance bubbled up. I understood that neither of us had come there of our own free will, but now that we were here together, it wouldn’t hurt for her to at least show a little interest.
The waitress returned with Emily’s tea and took our orders. Emily ordered a chicken salad. I ordered a hummus and vegetable pita sandwich.
“Pita sandwich?” Emily asked after the waitress left.
“What about it?”