Same Time Next Week (Ch 14)
Same Time Next Week (Ch 14)
Shelby desperately clung to the new life she had created in an attempt to escape the suffocating grip of her past. This move, away from everything familiar, was a last-ditch effort to find some semblance of peace and happiness. Deep down, she wondered if it was all a futile attempt to run from her own demons.
Leaving her routine and familiar lifestyle behind pushed her to step out of her comfort zone and do things she thought a twenty-something year old woman should do: go on dates, have fun, focus on making it in the world with her own hard work and life skills. She wasn't hanging on the arm of a man twenty years her senior as his trophy girlfriend, ignoring the judgmental stares from the wives of his friends and colleagues. The days may have be mundane and repetitive, and the nights more low-key, but at least they were hers alone instead of dedicated to whatever event Lucas had planned for them - whether it was a symphony or ballet performance or an executive retreat in the Keys. The golf tournaments were the worst.
And, instead of wandering a mausoleum of a house, watching the staff clean and cook and do the same damn thing they did the day before in the same way, at the same time, Shelby was humming to music on the radio, organizing books in the bookcase in her study and digging around in the dirt behind the house.
The chime of her cell phone rang out over the music blaring through the speakers on the patio. She checked her watch and her stomach lurched. Shelby found her phone on the table next to the very chair she'd sat in a few nights before, wondering when her life would fall into place.
What a difference a day made.
"Hi," she chirped, hoping she sounded breezy and casual and not overly eager.
"Hey. Uh... can I speak to Shelby?" His voice was muffled by background noise. He sounded like he was in his car.
"Oh, I'm hurt. You didn't recognize my voice."
"Actually, I did," he answered. He sounded amused. "I was being polite."
"Oh. Well, hi."
"Hi, there." He laughed, which made her laugh and then there was that awful, awkward silence and pregnant pause. "So…how are you?"
"I'm good. How was your uhm...workday? Is that what you call it when you don't work till noon and get off early?"
"It was fine, thanks. I actually didn’t work today. I took care of a few things. Ran some errands. And uh…I thought I would give you a call and see what was up."
Putting it out there, in 3...2...
"I'm excited about maybe meeting up with you. Hoping maybe turns into definitely."
She almost heard him smile across the line. "It definitely can. We could run into each other at Antigua tonight. Do you know where that is? Downtown?"
"I'll find it. What time should I run into you down there?"
"8 o'clock? I'll try to grab a table in the back."
"It's a date. I'll look for you."
"Sounds great. I'll uh... look for you, too."
More awkward silences full of smiles–on both ends it seemed–and then the call ended. Shelby could finally take a full breath. And try not to freak out.
Something in the tone of his voice caught her attention…a flirty, sexy, expectation, like he was already sure how the evening would pan out. She laughed to herself, plotting, not sure at all if she would fulfill his expectation or leave him wanting more.