a coworker. She had experienced enough dates that had ended badly to know that taking that risk with someone she would have to go on working with just wasn’t a good idea. And even if she hadn’t had an ideological objection to dating a coworker, there wasn’t anyone at Green Destiny she was attracted to.
Well, great. This is going to be awkward.
But what choice did she have? It wasn’t as if standing up one of her coworkers was a good alternative. No, she would just have to go on the date to be polite. That way, she would be able to find a way to let him down easy.
At least, I hope I will.
It occurred to her to wonder whether Tomas and Gregory had set this up. As often as she tried to reinforce to them that her unmarried state wasn’t a tragedy, she hadn’t been able to conceal the fact that she would have liked to be lucky in love for once in her life. Maybe they had taken it upon themselves to set her up with someone else at the company.
If I find out they had a hand in this, I’m definitely going to have words with them.
“Miss?” a voice asked.
Rhea looked up. A taxi driver was staring at her.
“Did you still need a cab?” he asked her.
“Oh.” She felt silly for having allowed herself to become so distracted. “I do, yes. Forgive me.”
“Not at all,” he said. “Just let me know if you need me to pull over or something.”
“What?” Then she understood. “Oh, no, no—I’m not drunk.”
“Okay.”
He clearly didn’t believe her, and she supposed she couldn’t blame him. She had been standing there staring into space like a fool instead of getting into the cab she’d hailed. And she was leaving a big swanky party. Lots of the people leaving the party tonight had been drunk.
I don’t understand getting so drunk at a work party, she thought. I would never want to lose control like that around my coworkers.
But she knew that not everyone felt the same way she did about keeping their work life and their personal life separate. Some people did date coworkers. Kaylie had been seeing a guy in the Operations department for about six months, and the two of them seemed happy together.
Rhea leaned her head against the window of the cab as it sped off toward her apartment, thinking through everything that had happened that night.
She’d planned her first party as a partner. That had been a success, she thought. And she believed she had impressed Gregory and Tomas’ wives, which struck her as an important aspect of her new life. If everything went well, she supposed she would be socializing with the four of them more and more going forward.
I really should try to find a boyfriend. Or at least, someone who can stand in as my boyfriend on occasions like these. It’s exhausting having to be the fifth wheel all the time.
She did have a few guy friends, of course. But most of them were partnered up. It would be awkward to ask them to be her date to anything, even in a platonic sense.
The cab pulled to a stop in front of Rhea’s apartment, and she paid the driver, thanked him, and got out. She was hyperaware of the fact that she walked a perfectly straight line from the cab to her front door, as if she felt the need to prove to him that she hadn’t been drunk.
I need to stop worrying about what people think of me.
She unlocked her door, went inside, and stripped off the too-warm dress she had chosen for the evening.
The party had been fun, but as always, Rhea preferred to be at home. She went to the kitchen to make a batch of popcorn, ready to spend the rest of the night curled up on the sofa watching her favorite reality show. She had loved it ever since college.
Chapter 6
Rhea
Wednesday came all too quickly, and as Rhea’s cab carried her to her date, she couldn’t help wishing that her mystery suitor had left her some way to get in touch with him.
Because if he had, I would have declined his invitation, she thought rather sourly.
Then again, perhaps that was why he hadn’t given her any contact information. It felt a little manipulative, and it made her even less inclined than she had been to relax and enjoy the evening.
When this is over, I’m getting a bottle of wine just for myself.
The taxi