Chapter 10 #2
Oh, someone is keeeeen. Thank you once again, Cassie, I’m looking forward to seeing you. Would you like to go somewhere near where you are for ease? Jerry x
He’d signed off as ‘Jerry’, and I took that as a sign that he was warming to me.
After texting him back the location of my neighbourhood (as my plan was to hurry home at 5.
30 p.m. and get ready in time for 7 p.m. – the privileges of living fifteen minutes away from work!) and getting dressed for work, I quickly tried to pair together an outfit for the evening, to keep me from rushing when I got home.
As it was to be an evening date, I really wanted to make an impression, so I decided to go for my killer dress: my burgundy, long-sleeved bodycon ribbed midi dress with a slightly plunged open back.
It wasn’t just any dress – it was the dress.
It sculpted my figure in ways I never thought possible, especially in the back, and let’s just say, it had a well-earned reputation.
I called it my ‘fuck ’em’ dress, and nine times out of ten, it lived up to its name.
I laid the dress and a pair of black high-heeled boots to the side for later, and hurried out the door to grab the bus for work.
My plan for this evening was to hopefully try to entice him to the point where he would want to potentially start seeing me more casually, outside of OuiMeet – a girl could only dream.
I arrived at work a few minutes before 9 a.m., awkwardly bumping into Jeff in the elevator going up to our floor.
My mind was so preoccupied with my upcoming meetup with Jericho that I had zero interest in making awkward small talk with Jeff right now.
He was wearing a navy-blue suit complete with a salmon shirt and blue tie; it was kinda giving ‘Tory MP’ but I let it slide.
I gave him a brief smile and uttered a quiet ‘Good morning’ before reaching for my phone in a bid to feign productivity, but he didn’t take the hint.
‘Hey! So did you enjoy the drinks last week? You left a bit early, I noticed.’
Damnit. Why did everything involving this man always feel so awkward? I looked up from my phone, trying to come up with an excuse on the spot.
‘Oh, no, I had a fab time! I had to leave early to feed my cat actually – silly reason, I know – but he only eats wet food and well, you know …?’ I tailed off, hoping he would get the hint.
‘Ah, I hear you. Not to worry!’ he replied, as we finally reached our floor. ‘It was really great getting to know the other members of the team. I didn’t realise how young everyone was – it feels like everyone’s in their twenties here!’
‘Ahh yeah, haha, we’re a young bunch in this department, I suppose,’ I muttered quietly as we walked in tandem to the department. ‘I hope you had a great time, though! We should probably hold events like that in the department more often, to be honest.’
I knew I was just saying it to make small talk, but I had no business suggesting it as an idea. It’s not that I didn’t have an OK time; it’s just that pub nights weren’t really my cup of tea.
‘Yeah, it would be good for workplace morale, I think – it’ll be nice to get to know everyone better.
Anyway, had a good weekend?’ Jeff responded; we were almost near the office now.
I used this as a chance to casually remind him of my marital status – just in case it had slipped his mind.
It was a harmless little lie, one he never needed to know wasn’t true.
‘Um, yeah, it was great actually! I was in the West End for most of it with my boyfriend, just hanging out and stuff.’ Smooth, Cassie. Real smooth.
‘Oh, lovely …’ Jeff said in an almost whisper.
Cue an awkward silence yet again as we finally made it to the office.
I opened the door to see Kofi already at his desk, headphones on.
We smiled at each other as I entered. ‘OK, well—’ continued Jeff, who seemed to be addressing me but looking at Kofi instead ‘—when you’re all settled in, can you please send me the new patient appointment doc for today, as well as their past medical records, if possible?
Oh, and I have a meeting at midday with one of the spinal surgeons – if you could book meeting room two, that would be amazing. ’
‘On it; no problem!’ I responded as I took my seat. In true ‘Cassie’ fashion, I’d already typed up the new patient list and had placed it on his desk along with the patient records on Friday before leaving for the day.
Kofi removed his headphones and swivelled over, his eyes meeting mine. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot, and exhaustion was written all over his face.
‘Well, that wasn’t awkward at all was it?’ he said, smirking.
‘Ugh, don’t even get me started, man. I’m going to try and not make it too awkward, though – he’s OK, really. Anyway, what’s going on with you? You got four cases of Samsonite luggage underneath each eye. You all right?’
Kofi laughed and patted his eyes lightly, stifling a huge yawn.
‘Yeah, I’m good. Didn’t go to sleep until three a.m. though.
I was, erm, I was on the phone.’ Kofi attempted to swivel his chair back before I was able to stop him and swivel him back to face me.
He looked up at me through his finger-smeared glasses, then quickly looked away bashfully. I knew exactly what he’d been up to.
‘Speaking with Sade, huh? Oh boy, you guys have it bad, don’t you?!’ I teased. Their interactions with each other brought me so much joy.
‘Oh, shut up man!’ Kofi retorted, trying desperately to hide a smile. ‘You don’t know what you’re on about, it’s not like that at all.’ He returned to his desk and I returned to mine; silence followed us for the next couple of minutes until I couldn’t resist:
‘I bet you were in bed grinning your teeth and kicking your feet in the air like a schoolgirl the whole night, huh?’
‘Maybe,’ came Kofi’s response. He told me that he was planning to take Sade to one of the local bars near his house that evening, which led to me giving him the rundown over how I expected him to behave.
‘Now, as I said earlier,’ I began as I typed up a GP referral, ‘this isn’t a dating app situation where you can just ghost her or treat her weird and dip. You’re accountable to me if this goes tits up, you hear me?’
‘I hear you,’ replied Kofi; I could almost hear the smile in his voice.
‘And if you guys are going to make whoopie tonight—’
‘Wait – make what? What the heck does that mean?’ replied Kofi, laughing.
‘Make whoopie! Having sex! Wait, don’t the kids say that any more?
Ugh – we’re really losing recipes this generation, aren’t we?
ANYWAY, if you guys must feel the need to do-the-do, just remember to use protection, and be aware that, as my best friend, Sade will at some point give me a play-by-play of the events that go down, so keep that in mind when you’re romancing, innit? ’
Kofi stood up and stared at me, incredulous.
‘You guys are actually sick, you know that?’ he said eventually, kissing his teeth. ‘Women! Anyway, I’m going to grab a coffee, want one?’
‘I could murder a flat white if you’re offering!’ I said in response.
The rest of the day went by without much interruption, with only Jeff and a couple of the other doctors swinging by the office a few times with things for us to do.
That afternoon, Kofi had to attend an outpatient clinic with one of the spinal surgeons, leaving me in the office alone to ponder tonight’s date with Jericho.
I opened up the OuiMeet app (I restricted myself to checking the app just once or twice a day – I didn’t want to get too obsessed with him) to see his response to my earlier message:
Oh, you’re pretty central, aren’t you? Lucky you!
OK in terms of options we can do the following: Flor de Samba if you’re into Brazilian food, Vagabond Bar in Battersea Power Station if you like your wines, The Alchemist Bar if you want to be a bit experimental with your drinks, Cinnamon Kitchen in the Power Station for Indian food, or … a Wetherspoons. :)
Jericho was like my own little Time Out city guide when it came to this whole dating thing and I absolutely loved it, although he really thought he ate with the little Wetherspoons mention at the end.
I enjoyed his humour, and the more I reread his messages, the more I could feel myself growing feelings for him.
Damnit. He was doing all the right things, and I was eating it up.
I settled on drinks, hoping it might get him to open up to me a little more. Was that manipulative? Only time would tell. I replied back, smiling:
I love how organised you are; you must be an Earth sign, am I right?
Thank you for sending through this list; I’m not the biggest fan of Indian food, so I quite like the idea of The Alchemist, to be honest. What do you think?
It would be cool to try out some quirky cocktails with you.
Also, Wetherspoons? You’re a comedian. By the way, I’m totally bringing my Nintendo with me – you think I’m kidding? I need this shit solved immediately.
Satisfied with my response and excited about the evening, I worked through the rest of my workload with methodical precision, making sure my consultants had follow-up appointments with their inpatients, scheduling meetings for various doctors and tackling a few difficult orthopaedic patients on the phone.
I left Kofi in the office for lunch as I headed to the cafeteria to grab a bite to eat.
I’d taken my headphones with me, so as not to be disturbed; I really wanted to get into the zone for tonight, which meant turning on a nineties R&B playlist and letting Boyz II Men take me away.