Chapter One: A Lonely Heart
Harper
I sat across the table from a man with classic good looks and a dimpled chin. His blond hair was short and styled to the side. Dark eyes stared at me, surrounded by long eyelashes.
Too bad, his good looks were all flashy window dressing.
This man was annoying. So annoying that I kept biting the inside of my cheek to hold back snarky remarks to keep the conversation polite.
This was what I got for agreeing to a blind date in the first place. I should have known better. I’d never gone on one before, but I’d seen enough romantic comedies to know that letting my co-worker set me up with some guy I didn’t know was bound to be a disaster.
When she brought it up for the third time since I started the job a month ago, the only reason I’d said yes was because my love life was a disaster. The type of men I usually went for ended up being so boring that the relationship never lasted long. Every time I broke up with some stick-in-the-mud I was never really that into in the first place, I promised myself I would go for someone different next time, someone exciting.
But inevitably, I’d fall right back into my pattern of picking the ‘safe guy’ the one I was sure wouldn’t hurt me. How could he if I never cared about him much in the first place, right?
It wasn’t working out for me. So, I figured, why not give a blind date a shot? If I wasn’t picking out the guy myself, he might not fall into the boring category, like my last three boyfriends. Quite frankly, if I found one more man like those three, and I would probably give up on dating altogether.
Greg was my date’s name and it turned out that he wasn’t like those guys as he was a conceited jerk. I think maybe I should just give up on the idea of finding a happily-ever-after because luck didn’t appear to be on my side in the matter. I felt like it was turning me into a negative person and I wasn’t usually like this.
“…And my boss told me that he’d never promoted someone so quickly before, but I was the perfect man for the job,” Greg said, the smile on his face a little too smug. “Of course, I’ve always moved up quickly in every company I’ve worked for.”
“Of course,” I repeated, trying not to let my voice betray how obnoxious I found him to be. Bragging a little wouldn’t have been so bad– it was a date, after all and trying to be impressive was expected– but we were thirty minutes into this dinner and all he’d talked about so far was how great he was. According to him, he had a black belt in karate, the singing voice of an angel, and was the hardest-working employee in the entire tech firm he worked for.
All of it was a bit much.
He hadn’t even asked me anything about myself yet.
It was strange. At first sight, I wouldn’t have thought this man to be at all like my stepfather– who was the opposite of what I wanted in a relationship– but it turned out that he had the selfish part down pat. Rick, the man my mother married when I was fifteen-years-old, was so self-involved that he never seemed to notice how his behavior negatively affected my mom. The man liked to drink and party pretty much every night of the week. He blew all of their money on it and he didn’t make that much in the first place.
Rick had a glorified garage band with some of his party-hard friends. He’d been sure it would take off and make him a rock legend someday, but they sucked. There was no nicer way to put it. He devoted so much time to it, but the small amount of money they made playing in dive bars on the weekends wasn’t much to help my mom, so I’d gotten a job at sixteen and helped her pay the bills, despite her protests. I also promised myself I would never fall for the irresponsible ‘bad boy.’ I didn’t need that kind of grief in my life.
“But, you know, there’s more to life than work,” Greg said, pulling my attention out of the past and back to him. “What do you do in your free time?”
Finally, he was showing an interest in me.
“I’m a big fan of gardening,” I told him, leaning forward to be more engaged in the conversation. I’d found myself glancing around the room, easily distracted as he talked about himself up until now, not that there was much to see in the Italian restaurant where we were. “I rented a house in Las Vegas, where I lived before moving here, but now I’ve got an apartment, so my options are a little more limited.”
“You’re from Vegas? Brianna didn’t mention that.” Greg chuckled. “She’s probably still a little jealous of what happened the last time I went to Sin City.”
He waited for me to ask what he was talking about and inside I deflated. I’d gotten in two sentences about myself before he turned the conversation back around to himself.
“What happened?” I asked, emptying my wine glass. I was tempted to ask for more of the Merlot, but I had a feeling this date would end soon, and I didn’t want to drink too much and be unable to drive myself home. I needed to be able to escape.
“Let’s just say I’ve got a heck of a poker face and it paid off.” Greg flashed me a charming smile, but I wasn’t feeling it.
“How do you and Brianna know each other?” I asked, realizing that I’d never even asked her that question. In fact, I hadn’t asked anything about my date, thinking it would be exciting to go into it knowing nothing. Lesson learned.
Don’t worry, baby.” He leaned his elbows on the table, his eyes seeming to grow darker as his gaze swept over me, “You have nothing to be jealous about. Brie’s my cousin. She won’t get in the way of this.”
Greg reached across the table, laying his hand on top of mine and rubbing his thumb over the back of it. I pulled my hand back, uncomfortable with his forwardness. As good-looking as the guy was, I wasn’t attracted to him. His personality was getting in the way of that.
“Right … let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re still getting to know each other.”
It amazed me how quickly his flirty demeanor disappeared.
A slight frown marred his face and he straightened in his seat. “What’s that supposed to mean? You’re not feeling this? I’m a hell of a catch, you know.”
“Just ask ya,” I muttered, rolling my eyes.