Hard Love: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance (12 page)

It was finally Wednesday
night. Alyssa was ready by 6:45pm and she spent the next 25 minutes anxiously
alternating between sitting restlessly on her couch, pacing back and forth, or
walking up to her door and then back again.

She constantly checked her phone
as if it would make time go faster. Finally, five minutes early, her doorbell
rang.

 
“Just a moment,” she called out before darting
into her bedroom to look over her reflection one last time.

She had her hair up in a
partial ponytail so that locks of her shiny, blond hair still flowed over her
shoulders. Her bangs were swept off to the side framing her pretty face with
light makeup, save for subtly smoky eyeliner and light red lips. Her hair
flowed beautifully onto the slightly shimmery champagne colored dress that
clung sensually to her breasts and wrapped around her slender frame, ending
just above the knee to give a teasing peak of her toned thighs. She swiped the
gold and black studded clutch from the table next to the front door and opened
it.

“Good evening,” she greeted
the driver with a smile.

“Good evening, Miss
McConnell,” he replied.

He stood off to the side so
she could walk out ahead of him. She walked at a slower pace being careful to
master her graceful yet confidently sexy walk in her tall pumps that shimmered
as the lights of the hallway hit them. She felt classy and attractive without
being too over the top. Whether they went somewhere more casual or a bit more
on the elegant side, she looked lovely and that was all thanks to Jessica.

Her friend also succeeded in
calming Alyssa down, at least a little bit. Although she was definitely more
nervous than usual when heading to a first date she felt a little
more calm
than she had before. If she was going to go out
with Philip, even if it only ended up being the one time, she wanted to be
herself.

 
There was no point in creating a persona to
mask who she truly was. Like Jessica had pointed out, there was absolutely
nothing wrong with who Alyssa was so there was nothing to hide anyway.

The driver pulled open the
back door on the passenger’s side and Alyssa slid in, buckling her seat belt as
he walked around front. He put up the privacy partition. She heard smooth jazz
pumping from the speakers as he drove her toward downtown.

It wasn’t long before they
arrived at the city’s main civic center, in the middle of which stood a tall
building full of government offices. Alyssa felt confused when the driver
pulled around to the front of it and stopped the car. He opened the door and she
stepped out. Just as she was about to ask if he was sure he’d gone to the
correct place she saw Philip step out from the main lobby of the building.

He was wearing a slate grey
suit with a black shirt and tie. His hair was swept back, just as it was at the
gala, and his smile made her knees feel wobbly. He walked straight up to her,
smile still in place, “Good evening, Alyssa.” He turned and stood right beside
her as he offered his arm.

Cautiously, she placed her
hand on it and tried to steady herself. She took slow, deep breaths and
remembered the words Jessica had used to help calm her down. They stared
walking toward the doors of the building and Alyssa slowed down while turning
to look at him.

 
“Why are we going into an office building?”

He chuckled. “I know, it does
seem a bit odd, doesn’t it? But I promise you the restaurant at the top floor
has delicious food and spectacular views.”

As they continued to walk
toward the elevators Alyssa didn’t want to mention she never even knew there
was a restaurant in the building. She wondered if that was common knowledge or
if it was the sort of place that was only frequented by people of Philip’s
status.

The elevator took them
straight up to the top floor and opened up to a small welcome room where a man
stood at a podium, a closed book in front of him next to a pen. He peered up at
them and his expression immediately turned to one that was over the top. He was
practically fawning over Philip. Then Alyssa realized she had done something
similar up until Jessica calmed her down a bit. Was it just a reaction he
brought out in people or was it because of his name?

“Good evening, Mr. Walton. It
is always a pleasure to see you,” the man said in a greasy voice that was
begging for approval.

He turned to Alyssa and she
noticed a slight shift in his expression. He had judgment written all over his
face. She could tell he was only going to be extremely cordial with her to look
good in front of Philip.

“Good evening, Miss.” He
turned back to Philip and smiled before opening the book and checking for the
reservation. “Excellent, I shall alert the host you have arrived to escort you
to the table.” He smiled again and bowed his head before disappearing behind a
door right next to the podium.

Alyssa held back a chuckle at
the thought the man was basically a fancy bouncer. She wondered what it was
like to stand there all day and be overly polite to the people who visited the
restaurant. The man returned with a young woman trailing behind him. She was
quite stunning and she looked at Philip as if they knew each other, which made
Alyssa feel a little uncomfortable.

 
It wasn’t that she was jealous or already
getting possessive of him, it was just awkward. She saw the way the young woman
looked at Philip and she couldn’t help but wonder if anything had ever happened
between them. She couldn’t blame the young woman for having an interest in a
man like him and she couldn’t blame Philip for finding the her attractive.

With her large and perfectly
round breasts, tanned skin, sparkling blue eyes and flowing natural red hair
she was a complete knockout. Alyssa tried to look at Philip’s eyes to see if he
looked at her in any way other than friendliness, but she couldn’t without
being obvious.

“Mr. Walton,” the young woman
said in a sultry voice. It was the type of voice you could tell naturally
sounded that way, even if she wasn’t trying to be sexy. She smiled at him, two
little dimples forming near the corners of her full lips, as she walked up to
them.

She got a bit closer to
Philip than Alyssa would have expected. Alyssa shifted her weight uncomfortably
to her other leg, standing further away from them. Philip turned to look at
Alyssa and she could have sworn she detected amusement in his eyes.

“Cassandra,” he said as he
returned her smile and then took a step sideways to stand closer to Alyssa.
“This is Alyssa, my date for the night.”

Cassandra turned to look at
Alyssa and smiled. It looked genuine, but Alyssa was too busy making up
scenarios in which the young woman secretly hated her to fully realize it. She
returned a tight-lipped smile and automatically stuck her hand out for a shake.
Cassandra rather awkwardly took it and shook her hand before turning around and
leading them to the best table in the place.

It was a table for two,
slightly removed from the rest of the room and offered a stunning panoramic
view of the city. As the sun had already set the lights were on, casting a
glittery visage over everything. Cassandra excused herself, but not before
gently pressing her hand to the table right near Philip. Alyssa caught it. It
was the professional equivalent of her pressing her hand to his arm. She gulped
and looked out the window some more as she tried to push away her negative
thoughts and feelings.

“You don’t much like
Cassandra, do you?” Philip asked bluntly. His eyes locked onto her face as he
studied her reaction.

Alyssa turned to look at him
with wide eyes. She didn’t think many people would have gone straight for
asking such a direct question and confronting her about it. Only it didn’t
sound like a scathing accusation by any measure. He just sounded curious. It
was clear he had simply made an observation and was now asking her about it.

“I can’t say I dislike her,”
Alyssa answered truthfully while trying to avoid the fact that she felt
awkward. She was usually very laid-back and confident. But there was something
about
Philip
that set off reactions
in her she didn’t know what to make of. She was quickly growing tired of it.
Even with Jessica having calmed her down before she left, new worries kept
arising and her mind. And the more she focused on needing to calm down, the more
she nervous she got.

Philip looked at her for a
few moments as if he were trying to sum up her answer and catch something else
through her facial expression. Just then, the waiter came and introduced
himself. Philip ordered a bottle of wine. Alyssa couldn’t believe its cost when
she saw the name on the wine list. When it arrived she sipped it politely and
enjoyed the flavor, but still was at a loss. Yet again, she started to feel out
of place. It seemed to be a recurring theme in her life as of late. She let out
a deep sigh as she stared out the window.

“Everything alright?” Philip
asked as he closed his menu and set it down on the table.

Alyssa looked over the edge
of her menu with a raised eyebrow and then softened her expression. She nodded
before perusing the menu. As she glossed over the chicken selection she
wondered what Philip must have been thinking of her. In an effort not to panic,
she focused her attention entirely on the steak selection and ended up deciding
what to have. After she ordered her dinner she turned to see Philip looking at
her with the expression of someone who was just pleasantly surprised.

 
“What's that look for?”

“You ordered a steak dinner,”
he responded flatly. Alyssa stared at him, unsure why that was important. As it
slowly started to dawn on her he said, “It's quite delicious, what you
ordered.”

“And unexpected because I'm a
woman?”

“Well, considering the
reputation of most women eating only a quarter salad on a first date,” he
responded bluntly.

He spoke as if it were
obvious, but there was something else to his words and tone of voice. None of
what he was saying was coming from a negative place. He looked pleasantly
surprised, not affronted. He didn’t seem to believe that was how women
should
order, but was rather glad to be
out with a woman who didn’t fall into that stereotype. Alyssa reached for the
bottle of wine as her head started to spin a bit. Drinking more wine probably
wouldn’t help, but she wanted more anyway.

Swiftly, he took the bottle
from her and poured wine into her glass. He looked at her with a sly smile
before pouring more into his own glass and setting the bottle back down. As
they waited for their salad to be brought out, he told her a bit of trivia on
the restaurant. Although he ended the speech claiming it was something a lot of
people found boring, she told him she had found it quite interesting.

It wasn’t until their salads
had been brought out that he finally asked, “Why did you accept the date?”

He was staring straight at
her with his bright blue eyes. Alyssa felt herself freeze. He had a penetrating
stare that made her unsure of what to do or say. It threw her off each time he
was so forward. Even though his forwardness was something she was starting to
like about him she was still taken by surprise. It wasn’t exactly the sort of
thing one got used to right away.

It was especially interesting
coming from him since he was so naturally charming and of such elevated status
that one would have expected him to be a bit more reserved. Perhaps it was this
type of charm that had given him such appeal with others. He had a sort of
direct attitude, something Alyssa was sure had helped him through life.

“I don’t know,” she said in a
hollow voice. No sooner had the words left her mouth than she felt incredibly
stupid.

“You don’t know why you
agreed to have dinner with me?”

Hearing him repeat it made
her feel even stupider and it took every ounce of self-control not to set her
fork down in favor of burying her face in her hands. She had never experienced
the feeling of wanting the Earth to swallow her whole as much as she was
feeling it at that moment.

In the interest of being
honest and forward like him, she gave him a short explanation about how
uncertain she had been, but then decided for it because she was intrigued by
him and, like her friend said, she really didn’t have anything to lose.