“Yeah.” She smiled. “I don’t know you well enough to invite you to my house or visit yours. So a restaurant is really our only dinner option.”
His eyes fell to the floor. “I’m sorry. I just—I can’t. Not tonight.”
“Tomorrow? Or maybe this weekend?”
His answer was barely audible. “I don’t think so.”
She understood. She really did. Maybe after meeting her face-to-face, his spark of interest had gone cold. Or maybe he was uncomfortable with public exposure because of his injury. But in either case, she’d stood someone up for the first time in her life because of him. Her stomach was growling. And she’d stayed at work an extra hour for a man who was giving out decidedly mixed signals.
He was happy to disrupt her dinner with another man, but didn’t want to have dinner with her himself? Fine. Good. Tomorrow, she’d reconcile those two facts in her head and regard them with her usual equanimity. But for now, her patience had reached its limit.
“Okay. No problem,” she said. “Then let’s tell Angie we’re ready to go. I’m hungry.”
As they locked up the building and walked out to the parking lot, she could tell Miles wanted to say something. But whatever it was, the words didn’t emerge from his mouth, even when Angie climbed in her car and gave them some privacy. And Mary couldn’t exactly force him to speak his mind.
“Good night.” She’d never learned how to hold on to anger or irritation for long. So when they reached his car, she couldn’t resist. She offered him a friendly hug, relieved once more that he stood in front of her strong and healthy. “Nice to meet in person at long last.”
But because her annoyance had only faded, not disappeared entirely—not yet—she pulled away quickly. And also vowed to herself that she’d let him take the initiative in any future physical contact.
“Yeah.” His mouth was tight, his lips downturned as they parted. “I’m glad we finally met.”
When he drove off, she walked over to Angie’s car. “Thank you for waiting for me. I appreciate it.”
“Is everything all right?” Her boss’s green eyes were searching. Concerned.
“Yes.” Mary offered a halfhearted smile. “But let’s talk about it tomorrow. It’s getting late, and I need to eat something.”
Angie’s forehead creased. “Why don’t you come over for dinner?”
As much as Mary loved Angie and Grant, she didn’t want to chat. “I think I need a quiet night at home. But thank you.” In an attempt to distract her friend, she added, “Tomorrow morning, let’s talk about a program idea I have. I’d like to do more to assist job-hunting patrons.”
With obvious reluctance, her boss nodded. “Okay. See you then.”
The two women said their good-byes and went their separate ways, Angie to her loving boyfriend and Mary to her silent home.
Well, not entirely silent. The television kept her company as she ate her Cobb salad and wrote out her proposal for the new library program. She had a long chat with her mother about which plants in her parents’ garden required weeding and fertilizer, and when she could come over to do the work. And in two other brief phone calls, she and her brothers agreed on good dates for her to babysit their kids.
The flurry of plans and conversations was almost enough to push aside her troubled thoughts. Almost. Her uncertainty about Miles and her niggling dissatisfaction at work refused to leave her brain entirely, no matter how firmly she tried to banish them.
Forgetting about Miles was a lost cause, she finally decided. Especially given the new voice mail on her phone, which she discovered right after taking a hot shower late that night.
At some point while Mary had been talking to him in the library, Angie had apparently called. For what reason, Mary had no idea.
The message itself only confused her further.
“Hey, honey. Just a tip from me to you,” Angie said, her voice so low Mary had to turn up the volume on her cell. “Press Miles about his life in California. Trust me.”
Mary played that recording a few times as she sat in front of her computer and watched her inbox, searching for a message from Miles that never came.
Press Miles about his life in California. Press Miles about his life in California.
Her bright computer screen hurting her eyes in the dark, she waited. Waited and wondered.
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