10. An Idiot
10
AN IDIOT
F our days later, Tori was changing after work and getting ready to meet Hyde for their second date.
If anyone told her a month ago she’d have such a great time full of mixed emotions with him, she might have given them a shove and told them to get out of her face while she laughed them out of the room.
But he’d opened up with her more than she had him, then they ended all the high drama part of the conversation and talked about things they liked to do that were fun.
He’d said he didn’t want to wait to see her again until the following weekend, so they’d set this date up for tonight after work.
Could either of them stop in and see the other in their offices?
Yep. But they weren’t.
She wasn’t going to get into the habit of that and she was glad he wasn’t either.
It was too soon and could get sticky on top of it.
One date didn’t mean they bothered the other at work.
Or even scheduled lunch dates where other people could see them.
To her, they were going to approach this just like she would any other guy she’d just met.
She finished getting changed, then grabbed her purse and went out the door to go to the pub they were meeting at.
She got there first and asked for a booth and then got a glass of wine.
When he was five minutes late, she wondered if he got held up in traffic.
Ten minutes later, she sent him a text to see if he had forgotten and put a smiley face with it. No reason to come off like a bitch, which was why she hated to text at times anyway.
After thirty minutes, her patience was up. She’d gone from concern, to worry, to frustration and then embarrassment that she’d been stood up.
It was totally what she’d expect from him. The old him and everything he’d told her and she wondered if he’d changed at all.
She paid her bill after getting the pitying look from the server, then drove home, changed into shorts and a T-shirt, and pulled out some ice cream to have for dinner.
In a weak moment, she composed a text and after she hit send, wished she could have taken it back.
Oh well, it was how she was feeling and it was best she found out now before she got even more involved with him.
Before she got sucked into those baby blue eyes of his and those soft lips that he’d laid on hers in the parking lot after their last date.
Yeah, she was an idiot.
When her phone went off with a text, she reached for it quickly to see if it was Hyde, but it was Raina asking how it went.
Not good.
The minute she hit send on those two words, her phone rang. She didn’t want to answer it but couldn’t avoid it either, knowing she just replied to Raina.
“Hi,” she said.
“What happened?”
“He stood me up,” she said. “And I’m eating ice cream out of the container.”
“Yikes,” Raina said. “On two counts. One for him standing you up and two for the ice cream. You never do that.”
“I know,” she said. “What is it about him that makes me act and do things I never do? I even sent him a nasty text about standing me up and being nothing more than an irresponsible player.”
“I don’t know about that,” Raina said. “Maybe he was in an accident or something. Did you think about that?”
“I thought of everything imaginable,” she said. “But I texted him earlier today. We talked about the date. I even worried he was in an accident too, but I checked reports when I got home and saw nothing other than some crash on the highway toward Raleigh before dinner. He wouldn’t be there. I mean anything else would be a small thing and he’d be able to reach out, I’d think.”
“I’d think so too,” Raina said. “I can check with Ryder. He’d know.”
“No,” she said. “I’m embarrassed enough as it is.”
“Don’t be,” Raina said. “I want to kick his butt for you. I can’t believe he did that.”
“Me neither. We had such a wonderful date on Saturday. I thought we could be good together. It’s early yet and I wouldn’t say I was looking at anything other than he was a nice guy. I don’t know if he cooks, but he met the other two things in my criteria.”
It took Raina a minute before she laughed. “Yeah, he has a job and a good family relationship. I don’t know what to say,” Raina said. “I feel horrible for you and I want to give him a piece of my mind tomorrow. It just makes little sense that he’d go out of his way to apologize to you and then want you to see this other side of him to do that.”
She didn’t want to tell Raina about what Hyde had confessed to her. And she didn’t want to think he was drinking or anything either.
She just didn’t know what to think.
“Now I know,” she said. “When I say I have horrible taste in men, I can proudly admit I still do.”
“I’m sorry,” Raina said.
“You’ve got nothing to apologize for. You didn’t push me to make a date with him. I walked into his office on my own when he said he’d like to explain. I could have just let it go and accepted his apology right there and we would have moved on.”
“Why didn’t you?” Raina asked.
“The same reason I can’t walk away from my mother,” she said. “It’s like this weakness. I see someone that has a problem and there I am trying to fix it. Or hear them out. Or maybe it’s those damn blue eyes of his that just lifted me off my feet and had me floating toward him as if I was high on lust.”
Raina was roaring with laughter. “Oh my God. I’ve never heard you talk like this before.”
“I know,” she said and shoveled more ice cream into her mouth. “What is wrong with me? Maybe I’m just horny. I could have used him for that and I bet he’d be fine with it.”
“Now you won’t know,” Raina said.
“No,” she said, throwing the spoon in the container. She was going to puke up sugar and acid if she ate anymore. “I’m not giving him another chance. It’s over.”
But the next morning when she was in her office, she’d gotten a text that Hyde’s sister was in that accident on the highway and he called into work because he’d been at the hospital all night and they were waiting to get her into surgery.
“Urggggggg!”
She picked her phone up and sent an apology text but knew it was probably too late.