Oh, thank goodness,Harmony thought. But the small joy she found in his suggestion was cut short when he finished hissentence.
"The painting class starts in fifteen minutes, and it's a ten-minute drive from here." Dominick’s fingers nervously played with the band of his watchagain.
"You mean you want to finishthedate?"
A corner of Dominick's mouth lifted into a forced smile. "Of course. Maybe a change of atmosphere will give us a startfresh."
Harmony pondered his words. She didn't want to be here with him. She wanted the date she was supposed to have. But at the same time, she hated being the one to ruin his night. It was obvious he'd put a lot of hope into the evening—an evening that would be a one-timeoccurrence.
It was a situation with no goodoutcome.
She took a small breath, put on a bright smile, and spoke. "Okay, but we're drivingseparately."
She would need some time to regroup before trying to salvage the datefromhell.
"How was the paintingclass?"
"It was fun...untilitwasn't."
4
Dominick followedHarmony out to her car. If she didn't want to ride together, that was fine. She didn't know him, and he understood women had reservations about riding with guys they'd just met, especially when the guy wasn’t the one she was expecting to show up ontheirdate.
But Dominick wanted the opportunity to win her over. Just because their date started off on the wrong foot didn't mean he was ready to give up. She might not be overly friendly, but the small glimpses he'd had of her talking to Morgan at the coffee shop were enough to make him believe she was a goodperson.
Dominick could only hope the mix up was with Harmony's date packet, not his own, and that they were paired together for areason.
Harmony watched nervously as Dominick followed her into the parking lot. The sun had already set, and the light from the streetlamps cast shadows off all the objects beneath them. As they approached her car, Harmony hit the unlock button on her keyring and turned to face him. "I was serious when I said I wanted to take separatevehicles."
"I know," Dominick answered leaning over to grab the handle on the car door. He opened it wide for her to get in. "I just wanted todothis."
Her dark brows lowered. "You wanted to walk me to my car to openthedoor?"
He shrugged and smiled, hoping he looked more confident than he felt. "It's a date, right? Driving in separate vehicles doesn't excusechivalry."
"Chivalry." The word was soft coming from hermouth.
Dominick didn't say anything else, but shrugged, as she slid into her seat. Once he was sure her feet and hands were safely tucked inside, he closed the door gently. Unfortunately, it didn't close all the way. He leaned down to see what happened. On the other side of the window, Harmony smiledsheepishly.
"It gets stuck," she yelled through theglass.
Dominick grabbed the handle to open the door again. It was only a car door, but he was determined to make something work during the date. So determined, in fact, he didn't notice Harmony also reaching for the insidehandle.
She pushed as he pulled. The door jerked out, and the top corner hit him in the face, knocking Dominick off-balance into the car parked beside hers. His glasses were knocked off-kilter on his face, and he quickly adjusted them as he found hisfooting.
Great, Dominick thought. He was looking more incompetent by the minute. His fingers touched where he'd been struck by the door frame, and thankfully came away free of blood. He assumed they wouldn’t—the door hadn't hit him that hard. It was just enough to be embarrassing. He fought hard to fight the blush that threatened to color his cheeks. That would be the icing on the cake. Not only was he having a difficult time closing the car door, but he'd be blushing like alittlekid.
"Oh, my goodness. Are you okay?" Harmony planted one foot on the pavement as she made a move to get out ofhercar.
Dominick put his hand up, stopping her. Forcing a smile, once again, he told her he was fine. Harmony reluctantly got back into her seat and looked up at him withwideeyes.
"I'm so sorry." She paused. "Do you still want to go to the paintingplace?"
Did she seriously think one bump from a car door was enough to deter him? Dominick's shoulders straightened as he fought to maintain hisdignity.
"Just a flesh wound," he said feeling an awful lot like the blackknight.
"Monty Python. Funny." She knew the movie he'dreferenced?
