5. Willow Delmont
Chapter five
Willow Delmont
“How rude would it be to cancel right now?” I ask Bianca as she curls my hair.
Normally, I’d consider curling my hair at my desk highly unprofessional, but today…okay it’s still unprofessional, but it’s also necessary. I have a date thirty minutes after I get off work, and it takes twenty minutes to get there. That only leaves me ten minutes to have a full-blown existential crisis in the car, which is the bare minimum for me.
“Very. Especially considering this is a friend of Cody’s,” she says from behind me.
When I had a mini freak out earlier about the number of hashtags on a recent post, Bianca deduced that I was stressed out about other things. One of which was getting ready in time. So she offered to help with my hair. I would have curled it earlier this morning, but I didn’t know about this date until lunch. Apparently, my date, Leo, is a brain surgeon. That makes him a very busy man who can only give so much time to dating. Cody talks with Leo at the gym they both frequent and mentioned my name when Leo said he was looking to get back into the dating scene. He said we should get together tonight, so here I am, panicking.
I’m not sure how to feel about the fact that I’m being squeezed in between surgeries. But maybe since he’s a doctor he’s too busy to be a sports fan. A girl can dream. While I’d love to date someone who shares my love for the Lions, most of those guys tend to use me to get close to said team. So it’s better to date someone who is indifferent.
“Why are you so nervous?” Bianca asks while wrapping another section of hair around the curler. Just a few more, then she should be done. After that, I’ll touch up my makeup, change into the dress I rushed to my apartment on my lunch break to get, and then head to the expensive steak house he suggested we meet at.
“Because this is a blind date. It’s different than an app. All I know is that he has brown hair and goes to the gym daily. I have no idea what to expect.”
“That’s the fun of it!” Bianca spritzes the newly formed curl with hair spray. “It’s a mystery, but instead of murder you’re finding out who a cute guy is.”
“You’re assuming he’s cute,” I say as I tug on the sleeve of my Lions athletic jacket.
“What’s the worst that can happen?”
I have a repeat of my last date. My stomach swoops thinking of my interaction with Jason at the bar. His compliment was likely faux flattery, but it still affected me. And the one from yesterday too…I hate it when he does that. It’s disconcerting. There’s always some girlish part of me that flutters to life, wondering if he means what he says. But I know he doesn’t. He said similar things the first time we met, and he doesn’t even remember that night. He’s just flirting to pass the time.
“He turns out to be a jerk or a serial killer,” I answer.
She huffs out a laugh. “Going straight for the big issues, huh? Look.” She turns me around in my office chair. Her brown eyes are locked on mine, though partially hidden behind her blonde bangs. “You are gorgeous, smart, and you have your life together.”
I snort. “I’ll agree to disagree on that last part.”
“No disagreeing.” She points the curling iron at me. I lean back, worried she might singe me with it. “You will walk into that restaurant like you own the place, and he’ll fall so in love with you that he’ll forget all about having to go to his next surgery.”
“That doesn’t seem like a good thing. I don’t want to deny someone brain surgery.”
She gives me a flat look.
“Okay, okay.” I laugh. “I won’t cancel. But I can’t get rid of my nerves entirely. My last few dates have been horrendous.”
“That doesn’t mean this one will be. Now.” She pauses to spray my hair down, then fluffs it with her fingers. “Go change into your dress and knock him dead.”
“Thanks, Bianca,” I say with a smile. She pulls me up into a hug.
“You’ve done a lot for me. Curls and a pep talk are the least I can do.”
My smile grows. It warms my heart to know that she feels that way. I try to give my interns everything they need to succeed. That’s what the person who taught me did, and I was able to snag this job with the Lions at just twenty-three years old. Now I manage a group of three interns and handle all the social media for the team.
Her words give me the confidence to believe that maybe tonight will go well after all. I wouldn’t say I have my life together, but I’ve certainly come a long way since high school and even college. One date isn’t going to make me run and hide.
I’d very much like to hide right now. Somewhere this very strange man could never find me. I’ve been on some awful dates in my life, but never have I ever been so utterly scared during one.
“See how precise you have to be?” Leo says, using his knife to gesture to the crime scene he’s made of his steak dinner.
Everything was going great when I first arrived. Leo showered me with compliments, asked about my job, and showed no interest in sports but still appreciated what I do. Then I made the mistake of asking what it was like to be a brain surgeon. He proceeded to demonstrate his latest surgery using his steak as a model. I haven’t been able to eat since he started.
“Wow, that’s something,” I choke out. It’s a good thing I haven’t eaten much because my meal might be about to make a reappearance.
“The human brain is fascinating. This steak doesn’t do it justice, you know?” He chortles as if he didn’t just scar me for life. “Do you want to see one of the video demonstrations again?”
“No!” I shout, drawing the attention of other patrons in the quiet restaurant. “I mean, no, thank you. I think I understand the gist of it.”
He takes a bite of his chopped-up steak and bile rises in my throat as I think about him calling it a tumor.
“You’ll have to come by the hospital one day. You can sit up in the operating theater and watch me work.” He grins like he just suggested a romantic walk in the park.
“Maybe,” I squeak out, then pick up my water glass.
“I bet you have a gorgeous brain,” he says reverently.
I start to choke a little on my drink but manage to recover before I cause any alarm. The last thing I need is him touching me. I’m racking my brain for how to respond to that when my phone buzzes in my purse. I glance at it and frown when I see my grandmother’s name on the screen. She knows I’m on a date. I called her at lunch to let her know, and she cheered as if she’d just seen the Lions win the Super Bowl.
“I’m sorry, I need to get this. It could be an emergency,” I tell Leo. He nods in understanding. I walk off toward the restrooms, happy for the excuse to get away from him. I’d already given the bathroom excuse once while he was describing what tools he used during surgery.
“Do you have some kind of sixth sense about bad dates? Your call just saved me,” I say when I answer.
“Miss Delmont?” a voice I don’t recognize asks.
“Yes, who is this?”
“My name is Carolynn. I’m a nurse here at St. Vincent’s. I’m calling because your grandmother had a rough fall, and she said you were her nearest family member.”
My chest tightens as fear grabs hold of me.
“A rough fall? Is she okay? How bad was it?” My words come out like a raging river, tumbling over one another.
“She’s hurt her hip pretty badly. Other than that and a few bruises, she’s stable. She wanted to call you herself, but I insisted she get some rest.”
“Okay, I’ll be there soon. If she wakes up in the next few minutes, please let her know I’m on my way.” My phone shakes as my hands begin to tremble.
“I will. Just head to the nurse’s desk on the fifth floor and tell them who you are. They’ll take you to her.”
“Thank you.”
I hang up the phone and rush back to the booth where Leo is waiting.
“I’m so sorry, but I need to go,” I tell him as I grab my purse off the booth seat. “My grandmother fell and is in the hospital.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Would you like me to drive you there?” He stands in anticipation of my response.
I shake my head. “No, but thank you for the offer. I can pay–”
He cuts me off. “Don’t worry about it. Just go see your grandmother.”
“Thank you,” I say, giving him the first genuine smile since he started detailing his surgery techniques.
He’s a nice guy, but I don’t think I have a strong enough stomach to date him.
I rush out the door as fast as I can without stumbling in my heels. Once I’m in my car, I have to take deep breaths to keep from crying.
“Crying is useless right now,” I coach myself. “You need to focus on driving. You can cry later.”
I maintain my deep breathing exercises the entire drive to the hospital and manage to only shed a few tears before I arrive.