“It’s Allie,” she corrected.
“Allie,” he amended.
“It’s fine.Is it your work that keeps contacting you?”She wasn’t trying to be nosy, but she was curious about what was holding so much of his attention.
“Yeah, there are a few issues I’m trying to work on.”
“What do you do?”
“Government work.”
Well, that was rather evasive.“What kind of government work?”She picked up her water glass and took a sip.
“I can’t talk about it,” he stated, looking uncomfortable.
Can’t or won’t?She supposed she could take her pick.
She opened her mouth to ask another question when his phone went off again.Seriously?She tried willing him with her mind to ignore the phone and instead focus on her.To not ruin the rest of their date.
“I’m so sorry, Annie.”He answered his phone and slid out of the booth again.
“It’s Allie,” she said to no one since Carson was already gone again.
The waiter arrived at their table with their food.“Do you mind boxing this up for me?”
The waiter looked startled for a moment but quickly schooled his features.“Of course, madam.I’ll return with it in just a moment.”
Allie didn’t care what the waiter thought of her for leaving with her food.For her, this date was over.She would not sit here another moment having the person across from her glued to his phone and not even bothering to look at her for most of their date.
There was only so much she could take.If these weren’t red flags, she didn’t knowwhat was.She was definitely going to give Sandy an earful when she called her on her way home.
The waiter returned a moment later with a brown paper bag with handles on the top and their restaurant name on the side.
“Thank you.”She smiled in what she hoped was a friendly way and not a scowl.It wasn’t the waiter’s fault that her date was a jackass.
She debated forking him with thebill, but thought it might be rude.She could hardly call this a date.Not even a meeting.She didn’t know what to call it.Allie pulled out her wallet, set down some money that should cover her portion, and walked out.
She saw Carson standing outside the door talking heatedly with someone on his phone, but he spoke low enough she couldn’t hear what was being said until she heard him mention the word ‘date.’
“I’ll be there soon.Let me wrap up this stupid date Sandy set me up on.”
Stupid date?That’s what she was?Wrap up?As if it had been a hardship for him to go out with her.And how would he know if it was stupid or not?He would have had to give her more than ten seconds of his time to find out.
Allie thought about calling him out on the street corner, but he wasn’t worth it.She stormed past him; he didn’t even notice her as she walked by.She pulled out her phone and called Sandy on her way to the parking garage.
“Hey, I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon.Everything okay?”Sandy asked, sounding concerned.
“No.”Her throat tightened, and Allie could feel the heat of tears threatening to spill, but she refused to give in to them.Especially in public.
“What happened?”
“It was horrible, Sandy.First, he was late, then he was glued to his phone the whole time.He barely said more than a handful of words to me.He walked off twice to take phone calls, so I just left.Then I heard him say to the person on the phone that it was a stupid date.”
“What?”Sandy practically shouted.“Oh, Al, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, Sandy.”It was her fault for setting them up, but it wasn’t Sandy’s fault the guy was a douche.
“I feel like it is.I’m the one who set it up.I thought you guys would get along great.”
