let it go. His hands were soft, softer than mine. Like calf leather or a newborn puppy. “I wonder if you might be free tonight. You’re new to the area, right? There’s a decent steak restaurant around the corner from here.”
My eyes must have turned into softballs. I hadn’t seen that coming at all. “Oh, uh. I actually promised a friend I’d do something with her.”
He grunted. “I see. Well, maybe some other time.” He stood and straightened his slacks. In the entire office, he was the only person dressed professionally. Besides me. I could have worn jeans and a concert T like everyone else here, but all my T-shirts were a dead giveaway for my band preferences, and while I wasn’t ashamed of them, given the circumstances, I didn’t think I should broadcast my feelings. I could only imagine the previous conversation with Gabriel if I’d worn a Walking Disaster T-shirt circa 2017.
“Sure. Maybe.” I hoped I’d simply misjudged him. He might be stiff and lacking in humor and boorish, but perhaps underneath all that—
“Won’t you ease my worried mind?” he sang.
Nope. Underneath all that, he was an oaf. I plastered a fake smile on my face. “Yup. That’s the one.”
“Oh, I guess you must get tired of that.”
Captain Obvious. “A little.”
“I apologize, then. The song’s been stuck in my head since you introduced yourself.”
“Understood.” I hoped I didn’t sound mad. I just wanted to part ways without him thinking I was a huge bitch. I’d worked with and dated guys like him, and it was always a tightrope walk between being nice enough to keep them from treating you like a she-devil and being mean enough to discourage their attentions. As cute as he was, his demeanor made my gut clench.
Gabe’s eyes slowly trailed off me, and he walked toward the hall. “It was nice to meet you.”
Back at my desk, I spent the rest of the morning trying to write up how the developers might implement my proposed design. I only took a short break to grab a sandwich at a shop and surfed the forum while I ate, cracking up at some in-fighting over something as obscure as the interpretation of a homophone in a song lyric. Then I went through the latest month’s Rock Paper articles to set up staggered automated tweets to promote them. That took longer than I would have liked, proving that they needed to create a better system for controlling their social media.
Once I’d set up the last tweet, I stretched until my back cracked, then reached for my phone to text Jo.
I suddenly remembered Shane’s text with the same wide-eyed oh no as if I’d forgotten my purse in the middle of Grand Central. I’d intended to wait thirty minutes or an hour to appear sane, not an entire day. I hadn’t wanted to give him the impression I didn’t care. Damn.
My fingers flew. It was great to meet you, too. I hope I see you again soon.
I wondered if he’d be at Jo’s again. The night before had probably been an anomaly.
When my phone remained silent, I texted Jo to let her know I was heading back and that I’d be fine taking the subway.
She texted back: Wait for the town car!
Standing near Times Square, waiting to be picked up by my own personal driver—okay not my own, but still—felt like a million bucks. I had so many things to share and nobody to share them with.
Except Ash. She knew where I’d taken a job. Surely, I could at least tell her about meeting Gabe. That wouldn’t be unexpected, I rationalized.
I typed: You’ll never believe who I met!
Smiling stupidly, I stared at my phone, waiting for her to write back and ask, composing the response in my head. Should I blurt it out or make her guess? How would I answer if she correctly guessed Micah Sinclair?
The town car arrived before any response from Ash, so I pushed my phone back in my pocket and climbed in the back seat, disappointed twice. Once in myself for having given in to the temptation to over-share. And again, for my confession falling on temporarily deaf ears.
Talking Disaster Forum
Topic: Walking Disaster - Music - Albums - Horizon: New Dawn - Page 14
Walker wrote:
Next stanza:
Every hour, a new day’s begun
Next rotation. another generation
And with the rising dawn
We welcome a brand-new sun
Gropeland wrote:
Thanks for transcribing the lyrics, Walker, but I’m going to tweak a line. I suspect that instead of: We welcome