The other lady (The meeting)
Two days passed and Araba had not texted Zack back. He had not texted either. She kept looking at her phone and anytime it beeped she anticipated it was him but it wasn’t. Had he forgotten about her so soon? She wondered. She dearly wanted to send him that message but she didn’t. She didn’t want to send a wrong signal to him. If he were serious about wanting to meet her again he would text or better still call her, she thought to herself.
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All too soon, the clock ticked 5pm and it was time to leave work. She packed her stuff, picked her bag and phone; suddenly, her phone beeped. She quickly rushed to check who it was. It was Zack. He hadn’t forgotten about her. He hadn’t forgotten about his proposal to meet up with her again.
“Hey, are you busy this evening? How about we grab some dinner at The Grill?” he enquired.
She quivered in excitement. But she had to hold it. She was too zealous to meet him and be sure that it was the guy in the picture who seemed to be smiling directly at her. Her heart started racing. She didn’t want to seem eager for a date with him. It was the only reason she didn’t text back when she said she would. She placed her bag back on the table, took her seat and texted back.
“What time?”
“Now, as in after work,” Zack retorted.
“Ok. I’ll meet you there. I’m just clearing my desk. I should leave in about 20 minutes,” she told him.
She heaved a sigh of relief. He hadn’t forgotten about her after all. He was also probably busy, she said to herself and she was glad he got back to her. It had been more than eight months since she last went on a date. She didn’t know what to expect, especially since she wasn’t even sure who she was chatting with.
She got to The Grill at a quarter to six. The diner was ten blocks away from her office. She had frequented there a number of times with a male colleague at work. They tried to date casually but the fact that they both shared an office space made it an uncomfortable idea. Three months into the relationship, she called it off. Moreover, she was quite older than him and she wondered what people would say about her at work.
She pulled into the parking lot and took her time to touch up her make up. She wanted to look good on their first date, well, technically. She put her shoes back on, adjusted her dress and brushed her hair. She looked at herself in the drivers mirror and thought to herself, “This has to be him, God. This has to be him.”
She finally got out of the car and took a seat, then took her phone out to text him that she had arrived. Just then her phone rang. It was Zack. He wanted to find out if she had taken a seat. He had actually arrived five minutes earlier than her and was seated five tables from where she sat. He had watched her enter the diner and take a seat and all he could do was smile to himself.
Araba responded in the affirmative. He got up and started walking to her table. Araba’s head was buried in her phone in an attempt to hide her coyness. He pulled a seat and sat directly in front of her. Araba raised her head not knowing who to expect; but she was right. It was that guy in the photograph who was smiling directly at her. He was tall, handsome, well built, and fairly light in complexion, had a clean shaved beard and wore a beautiful smile.
“Hi, I’m Zack.”
To be continued…