Page 29 of Fierce-Hyde

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 knowwhatto 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.”

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