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Marisa
My day was going from dead to dread. Another body. And another mountain of paperwork.
My phone chimed with an incoming text message. I was thankful for the interruption. It meant I could avoid the paperwork for a few more minutes. It was from an unknown number with an out-of-state area code. I opened the message to read the text, and my skin broke out in goosebumps.
Hey Marisa. Tyler Sanderson here. Got your number from Catherine. Hope you don’t mind.
Me: Hey Tyler.
Me: She asked permission before she gave it to you. It’s all good. :)
Tyler: How’s your day going?
Me: Day’s good so far. How’s yours?
Tyler: Not too bad, thanks.
He was polite too. A “thanks” in a text from a man. I wasn’t used to that from the guys I’d dated recently.
Tyler: I know you have a busy schedule. If you have any free time this week,let me know. Dinner? Drinks?
Tyler Sanderson certainly didn’t beat around the bush. He was direct and straight to the point. I liked that.
Me: I’m free tomorrow night. Does that work?
Tyler: Tomorrow’s good. 8 o’clock?
Me: Sounds good.
Tyler: Roy’s?
Me: Looking forward to it.
Tyler: Great. It’ll be nice to have a friendly face as company for dinner.
Friendly?The word was too close to “friend.” Don’t read into it, Marisa. It’s just a friendly get-together with a friend of a friend. Right? Still, a slight twinge of disappointment worked its way into my system.
Tyler: You there?
Me: Yeah. Sorry. Partner was talking my head off about a case.
It was a lie. But I’d rather tell him a white lie than admit I was trying to figure out the meaning behind his “friendly face” comment. Catherine had said he was single and thought he’d be perfect for me. Regardless of the fact that I didn’t see what she saw, when I saw his name in the text, my stomach had done a complete summersault. I didn’t know what to think of that, and admittedly, I immediately squashed the reaction. But it wasn’t like me to get all flustered over a man. Any man.
Tyler: Gotcha. Same here, busy day. See you tomorrow. Roy’s @ 8.
I sent him a thumb’s up emoji.
He sent back a smiley face.
Then I texted Catherine and let her know Tyler had contacted me and we were going to meet up. She couldn’t wait to hear all about it.
The mountain of paperwork didn’t seem as dreadful anymore.
* * *
I checked my watch again. Ten minutes after eight. Tyler should be here by now. I blew out a deep breath, frustrated as hell that I was waiting. Waiting on a man. For a blind date.
Well, technically not blind, since I’d kind of met him almost two years ago, and we’d exchanged a couple of texts yesterday. And was this even a date? Maybe it was just dinner with a new friend.
