Page 50 of Reputation
Confused, she responded, “Yes, this is she.”
“Hi, Eavie.Um…this is Austin.Elizabeth gave me your number.”He cleared his throat.“She said you would be interested in possibly getting dinner with me sometime?”he stammered, letting the question hang between them.
Eavie’s confusion cleared at the mention of his name.“Oh, yes, of course,” she said.
She had agreed she would say yes if he called, but now that he had, she wasn’t sure she wanted to.But Joyce’s words echoed in her head.The worst that could happen was the date was a dud.
Squaring her shoulders to no one but herself, she answered, “Yes, I’d be happy to meet you for dinner.”She could hear his smile on the other end of the phone.
“Great, are you available on Thursday?”
“Oh, actually, I’m about to head out on a work trip tomorrow, and I won’t be back until the twenty-fifth,” she said, consulting her calendar.“But how about Thursday, the twenty-eighth?”
“Yeah, that works for me,” he said.“I’ll make a reservation and let you know where when you get back?”
“That’s perfect,” she agreed.
“Great, I look forward to meeting you then.”
“Me too,” she replied before hanging up.
As her thumb hit the end button, she stared at the screen for a moment.Had she really just agreed to a blind date?And why wasn’t she happy about it?
“You too, what?”asked Mandy, appearing in the doorway of Eavie’s office.
“Oh, nothing,” she said, smiling at her.“Just someone calling to set up a date.”
Mandy’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.“You have a date?”she asked, her hands clapping in excitement.“Tell me all about him.”She walked over to her desk, perching her hip on the corner.
“I don’t actually know anything about him,” she answered, carefully placing her phone face down.For some reason, it felt like a chunk of ice in her hand.“It’s a blind date.”
“Really?”Mandy asked, surprised.
Eavie laughed.“Before you judge, he’s a setup from one of my closest friends.I do trust her enough to try.”
“Fair enough,” said Mandy, holding her hands up in surrender.“Well, when is it?”
“A couple weeks from now, the twenty-eighth.”
“That’s over two weeks away,” she said, the judgment back in her tone.
“I’m not free until then,” Eavie said.“Sam asked me to go on the road trip with them.”
A humorous smile crept over Mandy’s mouth.“Ah, so I guess the task of going on the long road trips has officially passed to you.”
Eavie shot her a look.“It does feel a bit like it’s a hazing ritual, or at least, the professional version of that,” she said, shaking her head.
“Oh, it is, and now that crown has passed to you,” she said, lifting an invisible crown off her head before pretending to place it on Eavie’s.
“It can’t be that bad.”She eyed Mandy with concern now.“Right?”
It was commonplace for one of the assistants to accompany the team on road trips longer than five days.The west coast jaunt was one of the longest and only done once a season.Since Eavie’s predecessor had passed the task onto Mandy, it seemed Mandy was now passing it on to her.
Mandy gave her an evil smile.“All expenses paid travel to some warm locations and box seats to every game?That’s pretty sweet.”She paused, her nose wrinkling as if she smelled something bad.“The long days and feeling like you’re never off?That part can get old fast,” she said, shrugging one shoulder.
Eavie hummed, considering Mandy’s comments.“Well,” she said, putting a smile on.“I think I’ll just focus on the warm weather, and hopefully, it’ll rejuvenate me from the long days.”
Laughing, Mandy said, “Well, at least you have yourself convinced.”When Eavie glared at her, she added, “The west coast is nice.Don’t you have a few days off in Vegas and LA?You should be able to get away and do some sightseeing.And you’ll have Molly for company.”
