Page 98 of Up All Night

“So I thought we could eat lunch at a restaurant in Half Moon Bay called Evangeline,” he said. “Have you ever been there?”

I shook my head. “No, I haven’t.”

“I think you’ll like it.” He glanced over at me before looking back at the road. “It’s a cute little restaurant with outdoor seating, a more quaint feel than the city.”

“Sounds perfect,” I smiled.

“I thought that part of our day could be planned, like where we’re going for lunch, but then afterwards we could just figure out what we want to do. A mix of planned and unplanned.” He sounded so excited to tell me this that I couldn’t help the chuckle that snuck out of me.

“So you planned to not plan?” I teased.

He laughed. “I guess I did.”

The fact that he had put so much thought into our date, wanting to mix our styles, had me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

“And here I thought I was being spontaneous and wild,” he chuckled.

This made me laugh, too. “So wild,” I agreed in mock seriousness.

Gosh, I loved this man.

Wait, no.

Notlovelove, but like loved that he was so thoughtful and made me laugh.

I definitely wasn’t in love with him, that would be crazy.

“It’s about a half-hour drive from here,” he said, successfully stopping my thoughts from going any farther in the love department. “Do you want to show me some more songs I’ve missed out on?”

I perked up at his idea. “You better believe I do,” I said excitedly.

His smile stretched out across his face, looking at me like he thought I was amusingly cute.

Had I ever had a guy look at me like that before? Surely I would have remembered a look like that. More butterflies filled my stomach as I searched for a song to play.

When he and I were together, it was hard to remember my worries or anything else but how happy I was to be with him.

A few minutes into the drive, his phone rang. The number showed up on the screen on his dash and he let out a sigh.

“Sorry, I need to take this.” He grabbed his earpiece from the center console and put it in his ear before answering the call. “Hey, Jerry.”

I sat quietly and watched as the scenery passed by in a blur. The call lasted about ten minutes, full of work jargon I didn’t understand.

West pulled out his earpiece and set it down. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled, wanting him to know I was fine with him answering the phone. “I know how important work is for you.”

“I know, but I want to focus on you today.” He reached over and took my hand in his.

The remainder of the drive we held hands as we listened to music, but his phone kept buzzing against the console, either with texts or emails. He didn’t move to grab his phone since he was driving, but I could tell as he kept glancing down each time it buzzed that he was anxious to see what was going on.

We arrived at Evangeline, a cute restaurant in a red barn, with black metal chairs and tables outside. It was definitely quaint, just like West had said.

Once the car was parked, West grabbed his phone. “Sorry, I need to check these, see what’s going on.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “I’m just going to walk around a bit. Do what you need to do.”

His shoulders relaxed in what I assumed was relief at my answer. “Thank you.”

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