“That’s a shame. Though I won’t judge; I’ve been busy as well.”
Their food came and Sam explained how to see everything and so on. The rest of the date passed with small-talk conversations and didn’t really touch on anything important.
As they finished their salads, her only hope was that she hadn’t disappointed Evan. With his last two dates being completely awful, she didn’t want this one to be so mediocre that he wouldn’t want to come again.
“It was great to meet you,” Evan said. She could hear the smile in his voice.
“You as well.” She swallowed the rising worry that he might ask to meet now.
There was a pause before Evan spoke again. “I’m sorry for this. I don’t think I’m ready to meet just yet. Nothing is wrong, I promise. I just have a lot going on.”
Kayla’s body went slack with relief. “No problem. Did you want to try this again, maybe?” she asked hopefully.
“I would love that. Maybe when things calm down at work, we can chat some more in the app?”
Kayla smiled. “I’d love that.”
They called Sam over, letting him know they were done, and he prepared to escort Kayla out first. “Thank you for tonight,” she told Evan as she stood.
“Thank you for being here.”
Evan’s sincere voice sent a shiver down her spine.
As she followed Sam, she took note of how heightened her senses really were. Without sight, she could feel everything and her hearing was crazy good too. Everyone spoke at a whisper, but it was like the person was right in your ear.
Sam led her through the curtain. “I’m going to pull the curtain back a bit and let your eyes adjust, and then you’ll be good to go.”
“Thank you, Sam.”
He did and she blinked a few times, letting the light back in slowly. Once adjusted, she walked into the dimly lit lobby that now felt a million times brighter than it ever had.
“Ma’am, you’re needed upstairs,” the hostess whispered.
Kayla nodded and took the stairs back up to her office. Evan would likely leave after this date since Kayla wasn’t there before so she should be fine, or so she told herself.
“What’s up?” Kayla asked as she made it upstairs.
“There’s something wrong with the scheduling app. I was hoping you could take a look.”
Kayla muttered a few swear words as she headed into her office and pulled up the back end of the app to determine the problem. Not seeing anything right away, she looked up to ask what the issue was and locked eyes with Evan.
“Never mind, I was able to fix it,” her assistant called before shutting the office door.
“Remind me to give her coal for Christmas,” Kayla said to the room, to Evan, to anyone.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” Evan said, staying by the door.
She blew out a breath. “No, I’ve been busy. What’s up?” She avoided his gaze, feeling it on her.
“Kayla,” his voice was husky as he said her name.
“What do you need, Evan? I need to head home.” She took random shit off her desk and shoved it in her bag to make herself busy.
Standing, she grabbed her now entirely too heavy bag and threw it over her shoulder, preparing to leave. He hadn’t replied, but she could feel him still watching her.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Leaving.”