Page 2 of Lisa's Unexpected Valentine's Day

“I can’t believe that took so long,” she muttered to herself as she slid into the driver’s seat. There was still plenty of time. Their reservation wasn’t for a couple of hours yet, but she had wanted to relax and prepare. Her long soak was now going to be a little shorter.

Her stomach was growling angrily as she pulled out of the parking lot. After missing lunch, she didn’t think she was going to make it until they went out. And if her Daddy heard her stomach, she’d probably get a lecture about skipping meals.

He was protective like that and as annoying as it could be, it was one of the things she loved about him. However, being told off on Valentine’s Day wasn’t her idea of romantic, so with reluctance she pulled into a drive-thru for a cheeseburger to eat on the way home.

Another few minutes ticked away as she waited for her small order. It seemed much longer, and her eyes kept skipping to the clock as she sighed. If she hadn’t been locked into a line, she would have been tempted to just pull out and give up on eating, but there was a car ahead and a car behind her preventing that.

By the time she finally was on her way home, the chances of any bath at all was in doubt. “Maybe if there aren’t any more delays, I can still take a short one,” she said hopefully, as she fumbled in the bag with one hand.

There was a car accident interrupting traffic just before her turn off. She’d been so busy trying to drive and eat that she’dpassed the only alternative route before she noticed the line of stopped cars ahead.

The police were carefully guiding the lines of cars around the tow trucks. They kept stopping traffic in one direction, so the other side could go and then switching every few cars. It took another fifteen minutes out of her day. While she was waiting her turn to go, the phone rang. It was Rick.

She wasn’t technically supposed to answer the phone while driving, but she wasn’t actually moving. “Hi Daddy! Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine, sugarbear. I’m just running late today. Some new evidence was introduced at the last minute, and it required a meeting in chambers while I considered if it could be entered.”

“Ugh. Sounds like a pain. Wait…you’re not going to miss our date, are you?” Her stomach clenched at the thought of all her plans crashing. Disappointment threatened to overwhelm her.

But he only laughed. “No, Maya. I’m not cancelling on you. I just think it will be easier if I go straight to the restaurant when I get done here. We can meet there, so you don’t have to wait for me to drive all the way home and get you.”

She let out a long sigh as relief swept through her. “Oh… yeah, that makes sense. I’m running late myself and haven’t even gotten home yet.”

“Maya Aditi Charles, you had better not be on the phone while driving.” There was a snap to his voice that made parts of her clench.

“No, Daddy! I’m stopped in traffic while they clear an accident. Otherwise I would have pulled over to answer.” As if she was dumb enough to risk a ticketwhileshe was on the phone with her judge Daddy.

There was a pause. “As long as you’re being careful.” His tone relaxed. “Alright, so I’ll plan to meet you at Rudy’s for our reservation time then. You don’t mind driving yourself?”

Well, she did usually prefer it when he drove on their dates. That way she could have a couple of glasses of wine if she felt like it, but it wasn’t a big deal. “Nope, that’s fine. I’ll see you there.”

“Looking forward to it,” he assured her as he hung up.

The timing was perfect, and the car in front of her had just started to move. She dropped the phone and put the car into drive, creeping along behind them. Luck was shining on her, finally, and she just made it to the corner for her turn, before they flagged the car behind her to stop.

From there it was smooth sailing down the residential streets. There wouldn’t be time for a bath, but at least she could have a nice hot shower before she got ready. The hot water was going to feel so good after all the stress.

Except that when she pulled up at their house, there was a car parked in the driveway. She knew who it belonged to. What she didn’t know was why it was there.

CHAPTER 2

The last few months had been rough on Lisa. She wasn’t prone to talking about her problems, so none of her friends really knew what was going on. It was better that way, as far as she was concerned. Only hiding things was getting harder to do as each day passed.

Early in the first week of November, she’d lost her job. It wasn’t anything she’d done wrong—at least as far as she was concerned. Business was down and the owner had decided to trim the staff. Her job as receptionist and bookkeeper was deemed unessential.

Her duties would be broken up and spread around to the other employees, making their jobs harder, but saving him a lot of money. He was an ass anyway, and she didn’t think it was a coincidence that her job had been the first cut.

Not when he’d asked her out no less than four times, and she’d said no every time. She’d been nice about it. “Sorry, I like to keep business and my personal life separate. It saves on the drama,” she’d explained repeatedly.

The clincher was that as soon as he’d given her the bad news, he’d followed it up with a pointed remark about how her personal life would no longer be connected to the business,leaving her free to accept a date. It had taken a lot of effort not to spit in his face before she turned and stalked out the door.

She wasn’t broken up about losing the job. It wasn’t exactly her dream position, and it had never paid that well anyway. She lived from paycheck to paycheck with very little left over.

The only reason she hadn’t quit was because it was difficult to go to interviews with her schedule. And even though they’d apparently be managing fine without her, somehow every time she’d needed to take a few hours off for an appointment, it became a big deal. The guilt trips over not ‘being a team player’ got to her.

Rather than face that, she’d just put off searching for a new job. Obviously she regretted it now, but she’d left feeling hopeful that she’d find something better. Since she had no savings to keep her going, she got down to applying for jobs immediately.

Only it turned out that it was a terrible time of year to get hired. Businesses didn’t want to be bothered to train new people right before the holidays. Most of her applications got no response, and those that did never went past the phone interview stage.

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