“But, Katy,” Evan interrupts, sounding a little sad. I shouldn’t be satisfied that he doesn’t want me to leave but I can’t help myself. “I thought we were going to have lunch later on?”
“We were?” I shake my head, vaguely recalling a conversation about food but I didn’t think that it was anything set in stone. “I don’t think I can. I think we both need to take a break from this today and come back to it with fresh eyes in the morning, after a good night of sleep.”
I’m torn. Part of me wants to stand my ground just to show Ally that I can’t be intimidated by her. I don’t want to play her game but I also don’t want her to win. On the other hand, the much more rational side of me just wants to get the hell away from this weird and confusing situation. I don’t want to be near Evan while he’s making me feel all odd inside, and I also don’t want to see Ally looking at me like I couldn’t ever compete with her even if I wanted to. I already know that, I don’t need reminding. No one would ever look at a drab old me over her. I’m irrelevant, but I don’t need to be reminded. I need to just go, I need to get out of here while I still have a tiny bit of dignity.
“Oh, right, I see. So, we could just do lunch another day then?”
This isn’t something that I need to have a working lunch for, I’m not a client that he’s trying to win over and I haven’t even really done anything that he needs to thank me for either. It seems he just really wants to take me for lunch. It’s been so long since anyone’s wanted to feed me that I can’t help feeling intrigued. I want to know more about Evan Debroils, I want to know more about what he’s like out of this office… if he ever leaves. He seems to be a workaholic, just like me.
“Fine,” I reply while swinging my handbag over my shoulder. “Let’s do lunch tomorrow then.”
Evan’s face lights up, he looks like a child who’s just woken up on Christmas morning to lots of presents. The sight of him makes my heart race at a million miles an hour in my chest. It causes a warmth to explode from my heart and to trickle through all of my veins. My mouth runs dry and for a moment it’s as if I can’t get enough air in my lungs to breathe properly.
I cannot like him, I think determinedly to myself. I need to stop this now. It’s silly, I’m like a hormonal school girl. I’m an adult now, I need to act as such.
“See you tomorrow then,” he tells me with a smile. “I look forward to it. Meeting in the morning, then lunch. I’ll take you somewhere nice since you’ve worked so hard for me.”
“Great.” Oh God, he’s making my heart hurt. I want him too much. “See you then.”
“Yeah,” Ally joins in through gritted teeth, reminding me that she’s here. “See you tomorrow, it’s been really great to have you here.”
She hates me, but that doesn’t mean I have to act like her. “See you then, Ally, thank you. That’s very find of you to say.”
She is another reason why I can’t ever like Evan, not that I really need a reason. She likes him, they have or are probably sleeping together which I’ve noticed every single day that I’ve been here. It’s messy, much too messy and full of drama for me.
It’s much better for me to keep my distance as much as I can until all of this is over. Work is fine, lunch is okay if maybe pushing it a bit, but that’s all. If I keep this simple and I push all my emotions down, then I might just survive this unscathed.
Hopefully!
Chapter Nine – Evan
Oh my God, what is wrong with me? I think with a smirk as I take my seat opposite Katy in the cozy little Italian restaurant I’ve chosen for lunch. This isn’t a date, it’s just a normal business meal.
I know that, I’m not an idiot. Just because I’m paying for this out of my own money rather than the business expenses doesn’t make it any less of a work thing, so I don’t understand why I feel so giddy inside. Last night I could barely sleep, I just kept thinking about what it would be like to be alone with Katy in a much more relaxed atmosphere. I lay awake in my bed all night long planning what I would say to ensure that we don’t have an awkward silence. Then all morning I’ve spent wired, like an excitable bunny. Even Katy has noticed it, it’s embarrassing. It’s as if I’m on my first date ever! It’s crazy. I can’t work out why I’m being such a freak.
Once my butt hits the chair, I cough to try and cover up the rapid breaths falling out of my mouth. I also want to cover u
p the noise my heart is making as it rattles against my rib cage, trying to burst free from my chest. I wish I could be as cool as I normally am, this suck!
“This is a nice place,” Katy tells me with a thin smile. “Do you come here a lot?”
I can see what she’s asking, she wants to probe if I bring a lot of women here. I can see why she’d think that because it has got much more of a romantic date like feel to it than what I really planned for. There are candles in the middle of each table, which are lit despite the fact that it’s mid-afternoon, the tables are small which means we’re sitting quite close to each other, and the high backs to the chair give quite a private, intimate feel. I suppose this is the sort of place that I’d bring a date. Not that I ever date. Even in the old days when I used to fool around a lot I didn’t really date.
“No, I came here once with a business colleague,” I tell her honestly. “But I think we sat at a much bigger table, this feels a bit too close, doesn’t it?” I figure I should just address it so she doesn’t feel awkward. “Do you want me to ask if we can move?”
“Oh no, it’s fine. I’m too hungry to start moving tables,” Katy laughs as she picks up a menu. “It’s been so long since I’ve eaten something that didn’t come out of a take away carton that I’m just too excited for words. I think I can hear my stomach growling.”
As her eyes devour the menu it seems like it’s the best thing that she’s ever seen, I examine her closely. It’s nice to be able to look at her without her eyes glaring back at me like she’s trying to work out what I’m thinking. She’s so inquisitive all the time, like she needs to know everything in my brain. I don’t know if it’s the lawyer in her, or if she’s simply a control freak like me. I feel the same way, I suppose. I want to know everything that’s going on inside her mind, but I’m so busy being closed off myself that I can’t read her. I can’t let her into my life for obvious reasons, but I wonder why she’s so shut off. She’s got such high walls, it’s crazy. I wish I could break them down.
She’s so beautiful when she doesn’t think anyone’s looking at her. When her walls are down and her face is relaxed, she’s truly the most stunning woman that I’ve ever seen. I just want to cup her face in my hands and kiss her hard. Even when she has her usual style of scraped back hair and no make-up on, she’s still gorgeous, but today she’s allowed her freshly washed hair to spill down her back and it looks like she might actually have a little bit of make-up highlighting her eyes. I don’t know if she’s done that because of lunch, or because of me, but it excites me.
“I think I might have a calzone,” Katy finally looks at me with a grin. “They look really good here. What did you have the last time you came?”
“Oh, a pizza from what I remember. Or maybe it was pasta. I can’t remember. It was good though, everything here is good from what I’ve heard.”
At that moment, the waiter comes over and interrupts me from getting into a full blown weird rant about why everything tastes so nice. I’m acting so odd, like this is the first time that I’ve ever spoken to a woman in my entire life. I don’t know what’s happened to the cool, calm, and collected version of me that I am usually. Who am I now? What is going on? Katy has turned me into a school boy with a crush, like a nerd who’s trying to talk to a cheerleader.
It must be because she isn’t falling at my feet, that’s all I can think of. She hasn’t yet flashed flirty eyes at me, and she hasn’t draped over me. I’m not used to it and it has me hooked. I guess that leaves me with two pressing choices, either I keep things in the professional manner that they should be and I behave like an adult. After all, I need Katy, she’s doing the most important work for me that anyone has ever done, I don’t want to do anything that could stop her continuing on my case or I really will lose everything… or I could flirt harder. I could make her admit her feelings for me to herself and I could try and get her walls to come crashing down around her.