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“Thank you,” I say. “Now what did you want to ask me?”
“Oh, yeah,” he says. “I wanted to ask you to come for a drink with me.”
I start to open my mouth to tell Tyler I don’t think that would be a good idea, despite my body screaming at me to say yes. My answer must show on my face because Tyler hurries on before I get further than the word I.
“Come on Summer. One drink. No funny business. It’s not a date, it’s a celebratory drink between colleagues,” he says.
“I don’t know,” I say.
It’s less of a no than it was and Tyler smiles.
“If you’d worked on this project with Jack and he asked you for a celebratory drink when you smashed it, would you assume he was coming on to you?” Tyler says.
“What? No of course not,” I say, shocked he would even ask.
His grin becomes a laugh.
“So do me the same courtesy then,” he says.
I realize I have backed myself into a corner now. The only way I can continue to refuse a drink with Tyler is to send the message that I don’t believe he can go for a drink with a colleague without being some sort of creep.
“One drink,” I say, standing up.
We leave the building and I automatically head for the bar across the street, but Tyler shakes his head and turns left. I shrug and follow him thinking he must need something from his car first, but he passes the parking lot and keeps walking.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“There’s a nice little bar around the corner. I thought we could go there,” he says.
“Ok,” I say, dragging the word out a bit.
“Is something wrong?” he asks.
“Well, no, I just assumed we’d be going to Jazz like we always do,” I say.
“We can if you want to but ask yourself this. Do you really want to spend more time than you have to with everyone from the office?” he says. I frown and he laughs. “I don’t mean any offense to them. They are all great people, but whenever we are all together like that, all we do is talk about work. And I don’t know about you, but I am more than ready to forget about work for the weekend.”
“Fair point,” I say.
We reach the bar Tyler is taking me to. It looks a lot more upscale than Jazz and I look down at my white blouse and black pencil skirt. Am I dressed ok for a place like this on a Friday night? I tell myself to stop overthinking everything. It’s still only afternoon really and probably half the people in here will have come from an office somewhere nearby and will be dressed in a similar manner.
Tyler pulls the door open and gestures for me to go inside. I do and I’m pleasantly surprised when I step inside. The bar is reasonably busy but not crowded and the people are all dressed in office wear or casual clothes like jeans and shirts, and I don’t feel so underdressed anymore.
It looks like a nice place though, the tables spread out enough to give people a bit of privacy. The seats are all plush leather couches and low coffee tables, and the floor is a beautiful oak. I could definitely get used to coming here instead of Jazz.
I follow Tyler towards the bar, and he waves towards an empty table.
“Why don’t you go grab us that table and I’ll get the drinks. What would you like?” he asks.
“A glass of Prosecco please,” I say.
He nods and keeps going and I go and sit down. Tyler soon joins me, and he raises his glass.
“To you,” he says.
I lift mine and clink it.
“And to you,” I say.
