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“Oh, right. I’ve always called it the emergency room. Department makes much more sense. I would’ve never guessed you’re a nurse from when we met the other day.”
“No? What would you have guessed I do for a living?”
Rhys smirked and Maisie’s desire for him grew. She clenched her legs together again to curb the feelings building inside. She wanted him but absolutely refused to sleep with anyone on the first date. Maisie was far from impulsive. She believed in the three-date rule and never wavered from it. But then, Rhys leaned forward, and she inhaled his scent. He smelled woody and like whiskey, and all man. Whatever cologne he was wearing screamed sex, and she wanted to toss her rules out the window and forget them for the night.
“I thought you were a teacher when I saw you,” he said as he played with her fingers.
“Why?”
“You looked frazzled.”
Only because of you.
“The emergency room frazzles the best of us.”
“What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen while working?”
“Oh, wow,” Maisie said as she exhaled. “The craziest things are usually sex related. The fetishes can be dangerous.”
Rhys shuddered. Maisie was about to ask him what vision went through his mind, but their server appeared at the table looking . . . frayed.
“Sorry for the delay. Do you know what you want to drink?”
Rhys told him they’d take a bottle of their finest without taking his eyes off Maisie. She wanted to change their order because a bottle of their anything was going to cost her half a week’s pay but doing so would embarrass her. She’d pick up some additional shifts to make up for it.
They perused the menu and when the server returned with their wine and asked what they wanted, they both blurted out “the lobster”. Maisie and Rhys laughed and handed their menus to the server.
After the server filled their wine glasses and left, Maisie and Rhys picked their glasses up and made a toast. “To missed encounters,” Rhys said. He winked and took a drink of the wine while Maisie fell helplessly into a daydream.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Oh, yes.” She shook her head and took a sip. “Shit, this is good.”
“It’s their best.”
“I have to admit, this is my first time here. Actually, that’s not true. I’ve been here for lunch, just not dinner.”
“How come you chose this place?” he asked her.
“I didn’t,” Maisie said embarrassingly. “My roommate is to blame for all of this. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have been at the store that night. She’s also the one who encouraged me to put the ad in the paper, and she booked our table.”
Rhys chuckled. “Is she paying as well?”
Maisie’s cheeks flushed. She felt the burn and instantly moved her hand to cover her face.
“Hey.” Rhys reached across the table and tugged on her wrist, pulling her hand from her face. “I’m sorry. I meant it as a joke.”
Maisie shook her head. “It wasn’t that. It was me realizing how foolish all of this is. I almost didn’t show up, but then I thought about how you’d feel if you turned up and I wasn’t here.”
Rhys squeezed her hand. “I’ll be honest. All week, I went back and forth on whether that was me or not. Truthfully, had I not heard my coworkers reading the article, I would’ve never known about it. I rarely read that part of the paper. To think I would’ve missed meeting you kind of tears me up inside. I, for one, am glad you took the ad out.”
“Me, too,” she said quietly. She inhaled and steadied herself. “What do you do for work?”
He stared at her, dumbfoundedly. Maisie looked behind her and wondered if he had an ex here or something. Rhys shook his head and said, “Print advertising. I take a lot of pictures of my dog, the ocean, the boats, and the mansions.”
“Like the photos used for Brenton Island Monthly?”
“Exactly like those.”
