He looked nice, but the boutique owner in Diana couldn’t help but think that the plain black suit and black tie was a bit… boring.
He probably came directly from work, she reminded herself.Don’t be judgmental.
“I’m so glad we found a time to make this happen,” Kendrick said after they’d perused the menus for a few moments. “It’s been really nice chatting with you.”
She smiled. “Yeah, you too. I can’t believe we never talked about it, but what got you started with online dating? I admit, I was a little nervous about doing the whole app thing. It feels like it’s for young people.”
“I’m young,” Kendrick said, so deadpan that it took Diana a moment to realize that he was kidding, not that he was genuinely offended.
“Oh my goodness,” she said, pressing a hand to her chest as he broke out into a smile. “You made me nervous with that one.”
“Sorry,” he said, chuckling. “Couldn’t resist.”
Their conversation flowed comfortably after that, the inherent awkwardness of meeting a new person tempered by the arrival of their food.
Diana was of the opinion that, if one happened to live in Coastal New England as she did, if you were tempted to get the seafood, you should do it. As a result, she’d opted for the pan-seared salmon with lemon dill sauce served over a bed of creamy polenta that was seasoned with some herbs she couldn’t quite identify but which she found unquestionably pleasant. For her side, she’d ordered a beet salad with crumbled goat cheese andcandied pecans. It was a marvelous blend of earthy, tangy, and sweet.
Kendrick, for his part, had selected the grilled lamb chops with mint pesto. This had come with two sides: roasted herbed fingerling potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts with a bacon and balsamic topping. Diana wasn’t normally a huge fan of lamb, but Kendrick’s meal looked like it was to die for. She made a mental note to try the meal next time she was at Captain’s Crest.
“So,” Diana said when they’d each eaten a few bites of their meal and had murmured appropriately about how delicious each element was. “I know you’re a runner and a lawyer, but what else is there to know about Kendrick Chandler?”
He dabbed his mouth politely with his napkin before answering.
“Well, being a lawyer isn’t like it is on TV,” he said, a note of sternness in his tone, as if she had asked him if he was living some kind of Hollywood life. She blinked, slightly taken aback by his defensiveness, but tried not to judge. “It’s a lot of work. I’m a junior partner now, and I’m hoping to be promoted to senior partner within a few years, and that means a lot of long hours at the office, I’m afraid.”
The way he said it felt almost like a warning, but Diana pushed the uncharitable thought aside.
“I can commiserate,” she said kindly. “Sometimes I feel like the boutique is taking up every hour it can. I try to set limits, to make sure I have time to decompress… but it is hard.”
Kendrick’s brow furrowed. “I thought you said you worked in a shop.” It wasn’t quite a question.
Diana felt her smile grow a little strained. “Well, I do, technically. But it’s a fashion boutique, one that I own. We’re actually quite successful. I feel fortunate to be able to say it. Small businesses always face challenges, no matter how hard the owners are working.”
If she expected him to lighten up, to apologize for inadvertently being so dismissive of her career, she was destined for disappointment. Kendrick only looked even more puzzled.
“I thought your profile said you were looking for a relationship with the aim of settling down,” he said. “How are you supposed to manage that if you spend all your time working in some little boutique?”
She didn’t know what stung more, his dismissive tone or his total shock over her having a careerandwanting a family. She knew, logically, that this wasn’t the 1960s. It wasn’t at all uncommon for a woman to want to continue working in her chosen field, no matter her marital status. Most families didn’t have a choice, ultimately, as they needed both incomes to get by. That might not be true for a high-powered lawyer, but most people didn’t have such high-profile, and therefore high-paying, jobs.
She took a deep breath, struggling not to snap back. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue, she reasoned. Maybe he was just a bit awkward about these things. She could try to give him just alittlemore benefit of the doubt.
“I’m managing it now, aren’t I?” she asked, gesturing between them with her fork. “We’re here, together. Surely that means the two aren’t so incompatible.”
Kendrick didn’t seem convinced. Instead, he looked rather resigned. He put down his own utensils so that he could look at her straight on.
“Maybe I’m a bit old-fashioned,” he began, and Diana’s heart started to sink at once. “And maybe it’s not the style to say such things anymore, although I do think more men think like I do, even these days, than women like you maybe realize.”
Part of her wanted to stand up and stalk out atwomen like youbut she could tell that Kendrick wasn’ttryingto be hurtful, so she extended him the same courtesy.
“If your shop is important to you, that’s wonderful,” he said. “But when I get married, and that is something I’m seeking, I’ll want my wife to stay home and take care of our kids. I make enough money. This is what all my hard work has beenfor. If that’s not something that appeals to you, I think we might just be better off as friends.”
As far as rejections went, it was a diplomatic one, to be certain. This did not, Diana noticed, lessen the sting very much.
“I think we’ll just call it friends, then,” she said, trying to hide the terse note in her voice. Privately, she thought that she and Kendrick wouldneverbe friends. Dianahadfriends, ones that would never refer to her boutique as her “little shop,” as if the business she had spent a decade building was nothing more than an adorable little hobby.
He looked disappointed. Did he really think she would completely throw over her entire life plan because he’d suggested that she should? On a first date no less?
“Of course,” he agreed readily. But he was far less engaged through the remainder of their meal, which passed with a great number of awkward silences breaking up the brief smatterings of conversation.
