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“Where do you want to…” Her voice trails.
I lead her to the bar and we grab two stools near the bartender. It’s not the guy from last night but another man, this one younger. I look at Harper and she’s still smiling at me. I won’t lie, it is a little bitmuchhow much she smiled.
“What can I get you?” the bartender asks, placing two napkins in front of us.
“A vodka soda please.” Harper smiles.
“And you?” He turns to me.
“Just a beer on tap, please.” I’m one for hard alcohol, unless I am at a work event and I need it. I prefer a nice beer at the end of a work day.
“So,” I start, “do you like being an illustrator?”
Harper’s eyes light up. “I love it! It’s such a fulfilling job and so fun too. Sure there’s the risk of carpal tunnel at a young age, but I’m very careful with my hands and take great care of them. I want to be able to do my job until I can’t anymore.”
“That’s a lot of dedication.” I admire that about her.
“How do you like being the boss? What do you do exactly? I know Mr. Lefts is technically our boss, but we all know Lucy and you run the place.”
“It’s nice. I like having the freedom to mostly do what I want. I pick the books for romance and psychological thrillers that we publish for the year. I create contracts and advise those who didn’t make it this time around. It’s a bit stressful but I like what I do,” I explain.
“Do you and Lucy get along? She always seems so kind.”
“She’s honestly my best friend, she helps keep me sane.” I laugh.
“Here you go.” The bartender hands us our drinks, and I hand him a credit card.
“Thank you.” Harper smiles and sips her drink.
There’s an awkward silence that passes between us as we both drink our drinks. We both smile at each other but there’s not much to say now that we’ve talked about work. That is the one thing we seem to know about each other. But this is a date, of course we need to get to know each other.
“So, what do you like to do for fun?” I ask.
“Draw mostly, I’m hoping one day I can have my own art show with my pieces,” she says proudly.
“That’s amazing, from what I’ve seen already you’re very talented.”
“Thank you.” She pauses. “So what made you ask me out tonight?”
“Oh.” I wasn’t expecting that. “I was just thinking about you and thought we might have a nice time,” I lie. It was one hundred percent about Isabella but I can’t explain that to her.
“I see.” She pauses again. “So you’re no longer worried about Mr. Lefts?”
“If anything, he suggested it.” Wait, that came out wrong.
“What?” Her eyes narrow.
“He made a comment about my single status at the last party and I thought I might change that, with you. If we hit it off of course,” I add.
“Oh, I see.” She is deep in thought but I can’t tell about what.
“Is something wrong?”
“Look, Dylan, you seem great but I’m honestly looking for something more serious. You’re beautiful but you seem to be in a different place than I am. And that’s fine but I don’t want to waste anyone’s time.” Harper takes a final sip of her drink and then holds out her hand.
“Friends?”
“Oh, uh, sure,” I say, scrunching my eyebrows together.Have I just been dumped before the date is even over?
