“I think I should go. I’ll talk to you later.” He grabbed his keys off the counter. “Thanks for dinner.”
As quickly as he’d barged in, he left, leaving Kayla, still on the couch, more confused than ever.
ChapterNine
Evan
Somehow, Thursday had snuck up on him and now it was here.
Evan:Come on, Kayla.
Kayla:If I had known you were going to be like this, I would never have agreed to do this.
Evan:Give me some kind of hint.
Kayla:Go back to work.
Evan:Throw me a bone here.
Kayla:If you don’t leave me alone, I’m going to block you.
Evan:No you won’t.
Kayla:Try me.
He sighed and dropped his phone on his desk. She was serious and he knew it.
He couldn’t help it. He was more nervous for his date tonight than he had been for any of the other dates. Stupidly, he’d thought getting to know his date more before would help, but it was all a lie. Now he didn’t know what they were going to talk about.
They’d chatted in that app all week and had covered every topic imaginable. It was great and the conversations were easy, but what did that leave to chat about in the dark tonight?
Evan ran a hand down his face. He needed to wrap up work and get ready to meet her. He wanted to meet her.
He also wanted to talk to Kayla, who had pretty much avoided him sine this weekend. In the middle of all these dates and the chats going great in the app with K, he’d also almost kissed Kayla. What was wrong with him?
If this date didn’t go well, he was going to see a therapist, right after he got back from a long vacation. He needed a break from his brain at this point.
“Evan?” His assistant poked her head in his office.
“Yes, Carla?” He forced his annoyance with himself down and tried to focus on her.
Carla was a short motherly woman who had applied for the position when Evan was just starting out. He liked her better than the other applicants at the time, and she had experience so he hired her. Now, she was an integral part of what he did.
He’d promoted her from secretary to assistant just to get her to take a pay raise. She didn’t need it, she had told him, but she had eventually conceded. She was pushing well into retirement years but with no kids or family around, he assumed she stayed so she could be needed, and he needed her.
“I was, umm, well, my work is done so I was looking at my phone.” She looked at the floor.
He knew she played on her phone sometimes and didn’t care as long as there was no work waiting and she never gave him a reason to complain. “And?”
“Well, there’s an article that came up, and I thought you should see it.”
Ah, that’s why she was telling on herself. “I know you look at your phone. You get your work done so I don’t mind as long as it doesn’t interfere, you know that.” He rose and went to the door where she hovered, just short of stepping into his office. “What’s the article?”
Carla turned her phone around, facing him.
BLIND DATE RESTAURANT LETS IN ALL KINDS
The bold black headline glared at him. He skimmed the article quickly, catching enough to know it wasn’t good news. “Send that to me, now.” He handed Carla her phone back.