Page 6 of Only His

Chapter 4

I was so wrong.

Dinner that night didn’t turn into anything remotely resembling a date. If anything, it was somehow evenmoreawkward than when I dropped in on him the first time. The conversation was stilted, and while he did appreciate the meal itself, he bolted at the first available opportunity. To say I was disappointed would have been an understatement.

Even though I knew he felt the tension as well, we spent more time together than ever. We hung out a lot on the weekends, but it never went the direction I wished it would. At best, he’d treat me like a friend—at worst, he’d call me ‘kid’ and ruffle my hair like I was still fourteen.

My patience wore down a little every day. David and I interacted a ton, but he seemed downright indifferent to any attempt I made to flirt with him. While he always seemed happy to see me, I had no reason to believe his excitement was from anything other than the odd friendship we had formed. I wasn’t in the position to pass up a friend, though the fact that he didn’t want more stung worse than I cared to admit.

As time passed by and summer started shifting into autumn, the faith I had in my plan faded and the feeling that I had made a mistake grew stronger. After yet another week of disappointment, I found myself agreeing to pick up extra shifts just to avoid seeing David.

Different shifts meant different coworkers, which was how I ended up meeting James.

He seemed like a nice enough guy. He always had a friendly smile for me and would stop to chat in the halls whenever he got a chance. After a particular meeting in the break room where I actually got a chance to reallylookat him, I realized that James was handsome. If I wasn’t so obsessed with David, I probably would have considered him sexy. Still, every time I looked into his pretty green eyes, I couldn’t stop myself from wishing they were the dark blues of the man I really wanted.

Despite how I felt, when James asked me to go out with him after a few weeks of our little run-ins, I accepted without giving it a second thought. David clearly wasn’t interested, so why not at leasttryto move on a little with a nice, handsome doctor? Though it did pain me a little that he was at least a decade older than me. David was bad enough as it was, but having a slight interest in another older man was starting to make me believe I had a type.

The night of the big date came around and my doorbell rang a few minutes earlier than expected. Smoothing down the fabric of my little black dress, I forced on a smile that hopefully would cover up the weird anxious feeling in my stomach that was growing larger by the second.

When I opened the door to reveal David, that uncomfortable anxiety felt like it exploded and shot all over my body in an instant. True, I was trying to move on from him, but I was also hoping he wouldn’t actually find out about my date until after I decided whether I even liked James in that way or not.

David took in my outfit with raised eyebrows—lingering on the short cut of my dress and my high heels—before he looked up at me with a frown.

“Going somewhere?”

His accusatory tone pissed me off. We hadn’t made any plans to do anything that evening, yet he still expected me to be available for him.

My eyes wandered down to the bag of takeout and the DVD he was carrying and my anger slowly started to melt. A huge part of me wanted to cancel the date just so we could spend more time together even though I knew it wouldn’t do me any good.

Damn him. Why couldn’t I just let go?

“I am. Rain check on the movie?”

David didn’t reply right away. We stayed locked in a silent stalemate for averylong moment. I watched with a confused frown as his jaw clenched and unclenched several times. It was an odd thing to witness.

“Where are you going?”

“Oh, um… Dinner, dancing. I’m not really sure where.”

“So it’s a date.”

“Yes.”

It wasn’t exactly a question, but I felt compelled to answer anyway. His reaction almost felt like getting the third-degree from my father about a boy who liked me, which just made me feel even worse about the situation I put myself in.

There was never going to be anything between us. The realization slammed into me like a truck.

And ithurt.

“Who is he?”

“A doctor at my hospital,” I muttered as I tried to mentally pull myself together. David frazzled my nerves like no one else. “His name is James.”

“First date?” he asked, tone clipped.

“Yes.”

“And you’re wearingthat?”

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