Kevin waited and waited. And waited some more.
He had a bunch of emails and stuff that he had to get done. Had to return a call to his mother. Needed to approve a project budget for work. He threw himself into one task after the other.
It helped to occupy his mind. But it wasn't nearly enough to keep his mind off of the Christmas-day level of joy he was expecting in a few hours. He ran out and got some candles and flowers. The hours ticked by. He showered, he shaved. He poured himself a drink and checked his phone.
Nothing.
He couldn't text her - at least he knew that much. He couldn't make his lust for her any clearer so anything that he sent her now could only be seen as desperate.
He listened to a podcast. The time was 6:55 pm.
He watched some Netflix. It was 7:32.
By 7:45 he was in the shower, his phone's ringer volume and vibration maxed out on the counter. He'd poke his head out every few seconds, thinking that he'd heard something.
But by 8:15 the only messages on his phone were work related and an email from his mom that he was in absolutely no mood to open.
By the time 8:45 rolled by, he had had enough of playing it cool. He was disappointed, sure, but more than that, he was questioning whether the feelings had actually been mutual. She didn't even call to say she was running late. That didn't make any sense to him - that after the last few hours he was just an afterthought.
It was 10:00 when he finally said to hell with it and caved. He told himself that it was out of concern but Kevin knew that he was just any old dog begging for his dinner. He had no shame and if making the first move got the ball rolling, he didn't much care that he was reduced to grovelling for the woman.
[Ur late]
[Everything okay?]
Nothing. Not 5 minutes later, not 10. Not 30 minutes later...
And no response when he finally decided to call her. Straight to voicemail. He threw in the towel and went to bed.
[Turning in. Hope you're okay]
You just read her wrong
, he thought to himself as he tried to get comfortable. He closed his eyes and saw her smiling face from the phone; her eyes happy and bright. He could ignore the way his dick ached again.
But his heart hurt in his chest and he knew it would be a rough night.
***
The spectacular shitty mood that he was in when he woke up to still no message from her infected him. His morning shower sucked. The burnt breakfast sucked. The ride to work sucked. The morning conference call with the team leads was a total clusterfuck.
Then he bombed the 10 am meeting with the new vendors hard. Watching them walking out of the conference room, he did a little quick math in his head and figured that the damage control would cost him probably in the 5 digit range.
Everyone in the office was giving him a wide berth. His Slack had 4 requests from some of his guys to push their afternoon meetings to another date - word had gotten out that he was not in the mood for saying 'Yes' today. If they wanted his sign-off, they were keen to roll their dice on another date.
He shouldn't even have come into work today, he thought to himself, as he waited on hold to order some lunch. He should have just stayed in bed and licked his wounds.
"Boss," came his assistant Terri's voice at his door.
"Not now, Terr," he said shutting her down. "I'm on lunch...if these fuckers would ever take my order..."
"It's just...I have a Brooke here - she says she had a meeting that fell through...I didn't see anything on the calendar..."
His head snapped up, he slammed the phone down just as a voice on the other end began to say hello. Terri's head was just peaking through the crack in the door.
But just beyond it, he could see the golden curls, and then Brooke's face struggling to look past his assistant. The glimpse of a sheepish smile. Her mouthing the words "I'm sorry."
"Uh...uh...yeah, Terri...sorry, I...didn't...I penciled her in...show her in...umm, close that behind you," he said in a rush, stumbling over the words like a moron, bumping into his desk as he stood.
Terri turned to Brooke then moved aside, ushering her in and closing the door.
She looked...Jesus, she looked phenomenal. A high-necked navy blue trenchcoat, collar popped, with white piping around the pockets. Green stockings. A small red purse over her shoulder the exact same color red as her heels with the little ankle strap.
She looked like a pinup version of a busty Mary Poppins.
She was biting her lip and her hand raised the moment the door closed. In it was a ziplock bag full of rice and her cellphone.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't know any other way to reach you. I left a message on your LinkedIn. It was all I could think of."
The one place that he hadn't checked.
His head fell to his chest. Exhaustion to be sure - but also fucking relief.
"What happened?" he said motioning her to the couch. He leaned back on the edge of his desk.
"Was at the airport. Fell in the toilet. Not my finest hour," she said, crossing her legs. The blue, green and red of the ensemble had no doubt turned every head in the office as she walked in. For his part, Kevin was astonished at how quickly his brain had moved on from wanting an explanation to wanting her to be naked under the trenchcoat.