Page 8 of Becoming His Muse
Elion sat on the couch, enjoying the sounds of the music while he ate his late lunch. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t wonder what his upcoming date would be like.
Olani locked up her office building and went to her car. She’d stayed late putting in the information of a last-minute walk-in. She had planned to stay late and do a clean sweep of employees who hadn’t checked in as needing employment within the last sixty days. One of her staff took the woman’s application when she walked in, but Olani volunteered to input the information so it wouldn’t have to wait until Monday.
Slipping behind the wheel, Olani pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards her house. Her usual Friday night plans consisted of a bubble bath, ordering takeout, and finding an old movie that she hadn’t seen before to watch.
She pulled into her driveway, grabbed her bag, and got out. One of her neighbors’ kids was outside playing. The little girl yelled hello to her and waved excitedly. Olani smiled, waving back at the little girl.
Once inside, she placed her bag down and took her shoes off. Picking them up, she went into her bedroom and placed them inside her closet. Olani entered her en suite. She started the water in the bathtub and added some essential oils and bubble bath.
She pulled her phone from her suit jacket pocket and placed it on the dock on her sink. She started soft music and began to undress, putting her suit in her dry-clean hamper and her undergarments in the other.
When the bathtub was filled, she turned the water off and stepped in. She always enjoyed a long soak after a week of work. Not that her job was overly taxing because she didn’t deal with disgruntled employers or employees. She tended to drop them, never willing to put her staff in an uncomfortable situation if she could help it.
The soak was always her way of letting go of whatever the week had put her through, whether it was stressful or not.Starting her weekend off relaxed always worked out well for her. Olani always felt that they went smoothly.
After enjoying her bath, she dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of lounge shorts after moisturizing. With her phone in hand, she went to her kitchen. She had a bottle of white wine that she’d placed in the refrigerator before she’d left for work. She wasn’t a fan of warm or room-temperature wine.
Olani poured herself a glass before going into her living room. She’d gotten a few email notifications on her phone while she was at work about replies to the survey she’d sent out.
After placing her glass of wine down, Olani grabbed her laptop, tucking her feet underneath her. Before checking the responses, she decided to order takeout. She opted for sushi from one of her favorite places.
Pulling up the website, she looked at the responses to her survey. She’d sent them out to seven men she’d run background checks on, which seemed a bit interesting. Of the seven, four of them accepted her survey. Four out of seven were good odds.
Olani had decided when she sent her survey that she would not include a photo of herself. She hadn’t requested one of the men who filled out the survey, and other than running background checks, which wouldn’t yield photo evidence of them unless they were criminals, she hadn’t searched for the men on any social media sites.
She’d already decided the first date would be the standard dinner date. She wanted a public place where there would be people, but where they could also talk and get to know each other a bit more. That was what the first date was for. From there, both parties could decide whether they wanted a second date.
Olani decided to make a form to send to see what type of restaurant they would prefer and on which day. She knew that she wouldn’t be up for four dates in one week. So, for one,she offered the upcoming Tuesday or Friday. For another, she offered the upcoming Wednesday or Saturday. For the other two, she did the same, except for the following week.
She was sure to add a space for them to place restaurants they would like to go to. She would pick from their recommendations and then send over how they would identify each other once they were there.
Olani’s doorbell rang, and she placed her laptop aside. She grabbed her wallet from her bag to tip her delivery driver. Once she had her food, she settled back on her couch, turned the television on, and flipped through until she found a movie.
She was halfway through the movie when her phone buzzed. She looked at it and found that it was an email notification for the site.
Turning her laptop towards her on the couch, she checked it and found that one of the men, Samuel, had sent in his response. She checked his restaurant recommendations and found that he listed two restaurants and chose this coming Tuesday.
Olani went back to watching her movie, deciding that she would send him the date information tomorrow afternoon once she had everything planned. She had plans in the morning to go to a spin class with Xola and then brunch afterwards.
After finishing her sushi, she took the container to the kitchen and threw it into the trash before pouring herself another glass of wine. She found another movie to watch and tucked her feet under herself. She felt relaxed after her bath, great food, and second glass of wine.
5
Olani was seated at the table, waiting on her third date. The two last week had been a waste of time for lack of a better term. The first one hadn’t gotten past introductions before telling her he hadn’t known she was a woman of color and only preferred to date his “own kind.” She hadn’t been upset about that and respected his choice. However, she had wondered how many women of non-color he’d heard of with the name Olani.
Her second date had been a little too into her. So much so that their appetizer hadn’t even arrived yet when he invited her to skip dinner and join him in his car for a little fun. Olani stared at him for a moment because the man didn’t even have the decency to invite her back to a place with a bed to fool around. Not that ithad been what she was looking for, but damn, he could have had some respect.
It proved to her that reading about a person from the information they’d given could end up the same way as traditional dating. She’d known that from the start, and while she hadn’t been expecting all the dates she went on during this process to be spectacular, especially since it would be them getting to know each other on this first one. She had hoped they were looking for the same thing she was due to the type of survey they’d filled out.
“Good evening.”
Olani looked up to find a man, who she assumed was her third date, had been led to the table. She couldn’t help but take him in. He was taller than she was. Olani would place him over six feet. His dark brown hair was pushed back out of his face, and pool blue eyes stared down at her. His face housed a full beard and goatee, which were nicely manicured. He wore a pair of dark gray slacks and a black button-down shirt. She could make out slight markings on the left side of his neck and assumed it was a tattoo. This man was fine, and Olani realized she’d been staring.
“Good evening. Elion, correct?” she questioned as she stood to shake his hand.
“I am. You must be, Olani,” he responded, bringing the hand he held to his lips and placing a chaste kiss on it.
She found herself nodding, impressed that he’d pronounced her name correctly. Most people tended to butcher it the first time, pronouncing the Lani as Laynie instead of Lonnie. When she went to reclaim her seat, he stood behind it, pushing it in for her before going around the table and taking his own. He was a gentleman, it seemed. However, her last date had started that way as well. So, she would reserve her brownie points until later in the evening.
