Chapter 1
Most people hate first dates.
The truth was, Maryellen Forsythe-Drew, or El to her friends, hated them too.But on this particular occasion, she had a gut feeling.
And that gut feeling was telling her that this date was going to be epic.
Sure, it wasn’t the first time the gut feeling had made an appearance, and had, ultimately, let her down.Like the time she’d been certain she’d be allowed more leeway with her campaigns on one of her charities when instead the head of project development had come on to her.
Filing for sexual harassment, and inadvertently getting the flexibility she’d wanted as a result, wasn’t how she figured gut feelings should work, but…
“Wow, way to blow your good mood, El,” she grumbled under her breath as she took a seat at the swanky restaurant where she’d arranged to meet with her blind date.
He wasn’t late.El was just insanely early.The need to get here, to get the ball rolling as it were, had been driving her since they’d made the damn arrangements on Thursday.
The anticipation of waiting for Saturday had practically killed her.But she’d already had arrangements with her parents on Friday night, and though she’d have loved to have skipped that particular session in torture, the misery from breaking that date wasn’t worth it.
Even for a date that had more potential than any other she’d had this year.
She blew out a breath as the server appeared.It was a woman, and praying for female solidarity instead of sisterly bitchiness, she asked, “Do I look flustered?”
The woman, a young blonde barely out of high school, blinked at her.“Ma’am?”
“I’m about to have a first date,” El explained, her stomach rumbling with more nerves.“I was just hoping I don’t look as bright pink as I feel.”
The server, Diana from her badge, smiled at her.“No, you don’t look pink.You look quite cute.”
El blinked.“Really?”
“Yeah.”Diana grinned.“I bat for your team, so you can trust me when I say that.”
El’s mouth dropped open.Feeling more flustered now, her hands rose and fell several times on her lap before they settled on digging into her upper thighs.“Oh my God, I’m so sorry.I didn’t mean to impose.”
Could she have messed that up more royally?
Diana snorted.“Don’t be silly.I only mentioned it so you’d know when I say cute, I mean it.I can tell, you’re very nervous though.”
“I am,” El confessed, and it felt weird to have a confessor who was at least ten years younger than her, but damn, she’d take anything she could get.“I met him on that new dating site, Pride in Love.My friends dared me to go on it and I thought it was just stupid, but then I met Ryan, and…” She blew out a long breath.“He’s like the whole package, you know?”
Diana’s smile was warm.“I’m glad.So why if he’s the ‘whole package’ are you nervous?You should be excited!”
“Because I’m a dork, and I don’t want to screw things up,” El admitted.“I’m already here forty minutes early…”
Diana blinked in surprise.“Wow!That’s definitely early.Can I get you something to drink or eat to settle your nerves?”
“I don’t normally drink,” El confessed again.“But on this occasion, I’ll have a white wine spritzer.Maybe that will calm me down.I really don’t want to mess this up.”
“Well, you look beautiful, and you’re nice and friendly, El.I don’t see why you should be any different when Ryan comes by.”
Something about Diana’s words before she bustled off had El sitting up straighter.The server was right.
Shewasa nice woman.Easy to talk to, friendly and caring.On the outside, she wasn’t bad to look at.Her friends said she was beautiful but El knew they were just being kind—if she dropped thirty pounds, she’d be beautiful.
As El’s mom often said, “You have such a pretty face, darling.”That wonderful compliment often came when El arrived at the family home, dressed formally as her mother required, and always feeling wanting in comparison to her stick thin sisters-in-law—a feeling her mother encouraged.
El shrugged off the thought because if she had her parents on her mind she’d never charm Ryan.
Even thinking about her family was enough to subdue her, and El knew that wasn’t the woman Ryan had come to know.
