“Welcome, sir, this way,” the waiter said, and we followed him.
As the waiter led us to our table, I was again lost in my thoughts. I wondered what Erika would think about my lifestyle. I was a person who would rather grab a slice from Scar’s and preferred a simple slice of pizza to all this. Maybe that was because I was tired of all the people who acted like taking me to dinner would impress me enough to invest in them.
When the first set of appetizers arrived, I could see Erika was a little uncomfortable. She didn’t seem like the kind of person that wanted all this attention. “Hey, do you want to get out of here?” It was her birthday, and I didn’t want her to feel that way.
“No, no, this is great.” I could tell she was being cordial. But I wanted her to be honest, honest about everything. I wanted her to tell me that she was just pretending that she was comfortable. I wanted her to tell me how she used Brian.
“Let’s go.” I stood up, signaling to the waiter that we would be taking our leave. “Everything was great. Please tell the chef I can’t stay. Something important came up.” I helped Erika get up and walked her straight to the car. “We’d love to have you back, Mr. Roland.”
I am sure they would, but I had better plans for the night.
“I can’t deal with this pompous stuff, either. I told my assistant to make a reservation, not get the whole god damn place.” I smiled at her, and I could see her bold brown eyes brighten up, just as they did before we walked into the restaurant.
“Oh, thank God. I felt so out of place, Conner, I mean, the gesture was beautiful. I’m just not used to that; I don’t think anyone is.” Her smile had just made a return. Her eyes were almost shining. She was filled with joy and it made me happy for some reason.
This girl was getting into my head. I couldn’t imagine what I was going to do if I ended up falling for her. And, the worst part of that was what I was going to tell Brian.
At that point, I kind of realized she wasn’t as much of a gold digger as Brian led me to believe. Nonetheless, she hurt Brian, and for that I knew I’d have to continue my plan. I’d get the revenge as I had made Brain a promise I’d handle it, and regardless of anything, I didn’t break my commitments.
“Take me home, Conner.” I was planning on taking her to my place, making dinner for her to win her over. This was an unexpected turn. But, I couldn’t force her, so all I could say was, “Alright.”
I was not going to take her anywhere if she didn’t want to go.
Chapter 10
Erika
Thank God! I was losing my mind trying to decide what fork to eat with. I felt like I didn’t belong there at all.
Who reserves an entire restaurant for a date?
I was so happy to hear that his assistant did all this and not him as he told me, but wouldn’t his assistant do what he would like? But, I didn’t want to pursue that thought anymore and decided rather to enjoy the night with Conner.
“Don’t worry. The night isn’t over,” I blurted as we waited for his car.
Oh god! That made me sound so desperate. I hoped he didn’t think that I was taking him back home just to sleep with him. I buried my head in my hands, and I could hear Conner laughing.
“What’s so funny?” I was so embarrassed, and I couldn’t stop blushing.
“You know that makes it sound like we’re going back to your place to have sex, right?” I couldn’t believe what I just heard. I didn’t expect him to be this direct and it made me shiver. I could feel my cheeks burning.
I didn’t know why I had that expectation. He’d been direct since the moment I met him. He had ordered me to come with him for dinner on the very first meeting. He had complimented me in front of everyone in the restaurant.
“Oh, shut up! That’s not what I meant,” I again blurted out, and I didn’t think Conner had ever been told to shut up.
Why? Why can’t I shut my mouth for some time?
“We’ll see,” he said, staring deep into my eyes, and I could tell he was serious.
Did he just tell me he has a plan to fuck me?
As we waited outside the restaurant, the valet got the car and I slipped in the passenger seat.
We both sat in silence. Butterflies were fluttering in my stomach. He was having that effect on me, and I didn’t want him to know that. I kept looking outside the window while enjoying the romantic music he played.
What if he really wanted to fuck me?
I was already turned on, thinking how being close to Conner would feel like. But, I was not the kind of person that slept with someone on the first date. I didn’t even know him, and he was just my new billionaire boss.
What if every day he finds someone new to sleep with and the next day he forgets even the name of that woman?
The train of my thoughts stopped when he stopped the car. We were finally outside my apartment. I stepped out of the car immediately.
“Hold on for a second, I’ll be right back.” I didn’t think he ever had to wait for someone either. I ran up, unlocked my door, grabbed my purse that I forgot on the couch and immediately went back down. I didn’t even realize that my bun was too loose and now I had hair all over my face.
“I’m sorry, could you park the car? I’d prefer to walk.” It was a beautiful night, so I wanted to walk. I had planned to walk around in the streets and grab some drinks. “Follow me, sir,” I playfully let out, thinking he must be used to being called sir rather than Conner. He didn’t look too amused, though; I could tell he was confused at this point.
“Where are we going, Erika?” I didn’t know where, so I just made up something instantly.
“Well, I wanted to walk and I thought we’d walk until we got tired, then get some drinks. What do you think?” He let out a sigh of relief, as if he realized that I was low maintenance
“Sounds perfect, but I’m famished.” I realized that we hadn’t eaten dinner.
“Pizza?” I asked and he simply nodded and smiled at me.
We walked for another ten minutes, and I noticed we had been silent most of the time since we met, but it felt like I had known him for a long time. It was really a strange feeling.
Ten minutes later, we were standing in front of D’Fara’s Pizzeria, and I could tell Conner’s gaze had finally moved off me onto something he wanted much more in that moment.
“Wait a second.” I went inside, bought pizza, and came out holding pizza boxes in my hands. “Here you go, I hope you will like the pizza.” I smiled at him.
“Thanks, Erika!” We sat on the stoop outside and ate. It felt like we were out on a normal date, like normal people.
I was slowly getting comfortable with him. He told me how he got his start in work, and how he managed to navigate his way up the corporate ladder, until he was able to finance his own firm. He sounded proud of himself. He should be, as he had managed to do something which very few people in the world could have done at this young age.
After we finished, we began to walk again. I was walking a couple steps ahead of him. I sensed his sight was locked on to my hips, and I made it a point to nonchalantly bend over to pick up a flyer from the floor. It read ‘yoga classes every Wednesday.’