Let It Be Me (Let It Be Me #1) (10 page)

“Hello.”

She heard someone clear his throat. “Kayla?”

“Yes?” she asked. She quickly pulled her phone away from her ear to check who it was but saw it was an unknown number.

“Hi, uh, this is Chad,” he said. “From the banh mi place.”

“Oh, hi.” Kayla almost forgot about him. It’s been over a week since he got her number. 

“I’ve been meaning to call you,” he said, answering her silent questions. “But work has been erratic.”

 “It happens,” Kayla responded automatically. But in all honesty, her first thought was it wasn’t a good sign when a guy was even too busy to date. But then again, she had no right to judge him. Work has often gotten on her way.

“I was hoping we could meet for drinks tomorrow night?”

Kayla thought for a second. She remembered Jenny’s point that she had nothing to lose. And maybe she needed a distraction from Alex.

“Okay,” she agreed.

“Fantastic,” Chad said. “Can we meet at Brew Kettle? I can also meet you at your office.” 

“We can meet at Brew Kettle,” Kayla said. Brew Kettle was a pub across the banh mi place. She’d rather meet there instead of him already finding out where she was working. She didn’t want to reveal too much about herself immediately.

“Would nine o’ clock be fine with you?”

“That’s fine,” Kayla said. She leaves the office that time anyway.

“Great, I’ll see you then, Kayla,” Chad said. “I’m glad you agreed.”

“See you,” Kayla automatically said, but truthfully she didn’t feel any excitement.

The call ended and Kayla felt more confused. She wasn’t sure if she did the right thing. When she first met Barry she was attracted to him so it wasn’t difficult agreeing to go out with him.

But then again, maybe her experience with Barry increased her expectations. She can’t be fooled anymore.

She stepped back out of her office and approached Jenny. 

“Can you come to my office?” she requested.

“Wow, the last time I heard that was when the principal called me for skipping class,” Jenny kidded.

Kayla laughed. That’s why she loved Jenny. She never failed to make her feel better.

Jenny followed Kayla to her office. “Should I be worried?” she asked as soon as Kayla shut the door behind her.

“Oh no, I just needed to talk,” Kayla admitted. “I got a call.”

“From whom?” 

“That Chad guy. Remember him?”

Jenny squealed, answering Kayla’s question. Kayla quickly looked out her glass partition and was relieved no one heard. “That’s great! Did he ask you out?” Jenny asked.

Kayla nodded. “He wants to meet tomorrow at Brew Kettle. I said okay.”

“Good for you,” Jenny said, proudly. “Do you need me to go with you?”

“I haven’t been on a date for years,” Kayla admitted, earning her a shocked look from Jenny. “But I think I can handle this.”

“It’ll be fine,” Jenny assured. “Worst case scenario, you get to order your favorite drink and not have to pay for it. You also get to bring yourself back to the dating scene. You don’t have to get it on the first try, but at least you get to practice!”

Kayla laughed, already feeling more confident of her decision, due to Jenny’s words of encouragement. “You’ve got a point there.” 

“We better talk about your outfit then!” Jenny announced.

Chapter 12

It was five minutes to nine when she found herself in front of Brew Kettle the following night. Jenny told her to be a few minutes late. But Kayla couldn’t help it; she has always been a stickler when it came to punctuality. 

Thankfully she was quite busy that day so she really didn’t have the chance to think much about the upcoming date. It was only during the ten minutes of walking to the pub that Kayla got nervous.

She got Jenny’s approval with her dress of choice. She wore a printed wrap-around dress and black pumps. She took extra time blow-drying her hair and applying her makeup. She didn’t particularly dress for Chad, but she just learned to enjoy dressing up especially with Jenny’s influence.

Tightening her grip on the handle of her bag, she walked in. As it was the middle of the week, the place wasn’t as filled, so it wasn’t difficult spotting Chad amongst the crowd. He was seated by the bar. Kayla actually forgot what he looked like until she saw him again then. All she remembered was that he was really tall. Even taller than Alex.

The thought of Alex made her scold herself. She wasn’t supposed to think of him that night. Or ever. 

Chad saw her as she approached him. He stood up quickly to meet her halfway, giving her a warm smile.

“Kayla, it’s good to see you,” he said. “Thanks for coming.”

“Thanks for inviting me,” Kayla said politely. Even with her heels she looked up. He was probably six feet three.

“I have a table reserved. Come on,” he said. She followed him as he led her to a booth by the back portion where it was less noisy.

There wasn’t a chair to pull, but he waited for her to sit before being seated himself. He handed her one of the bar lists that were laid out on the table.

“Have you had dinner? Are you hungry? The egg rolls here are pretty good,” he suggested. 

“I’ve had dinner, thanks,” she replied. She and Jenny ordered some sandwiches for dinner since they both had to work a bit late. “I’m actually still full. But feel free to order food if you’re hungry. I’ll have a drink.”

“Sure thing,” he said. “Let me know if you’ve picked what to drink so I can call the server.”

“I’ll have a vodka tonic,” Kayla said, after a few minutes of deliberating.

“Great,” he said, waving a waitress over. 

“We will have a vodka tonic and scotch on the rocks,” he told her.

As the waitress left, Chad turned back to Kayla. He smiled as he asked, “Had a good day?”

“Good. Eventful. Productive,” she enumerated. She was looking at Chad and he looked good. He had that intellectual, good-boy look in him that moms would love for their daughters. 

“The ideal workday,” he observed, smiling. “How’s Jenny? She is your officemate, right?”

Kayla nodded. She was surprised he remembered Jenny’s name too. “She’s good. Her little boy’s turning six this weekend.”

“Wow,” Chad said. “You’ve known each other long?”

“Almost five years,” Kayla responded.

Chad nodded. “May I – um -- ask what you guys do?” Kayla smiled, because he actually looked embarrassed to ask that question, like maybe he was second-guessing himself if it was okay to ask for his date’s profession.

“It’s not an issue,” Kayla assured, appreciating his respect for her privacy. “Jenny and I are architects.”

“Wow,” he said again. “That’s pretty amazing.”

“It could be amazing, if I say so myself,” Kayla said proudly. “We just sometimes forget that.”

He laughed.

“What do you do?” she asked, throwing back the question.

“I work in an accounting firm,” he said.

“Ah, I suck at accounting,” Kayla admitted.

He laughed and shrugged. “It’s in my blood. My dad’s an accountant too,” he responded.

“Are you working for your dad?” Kayla asked.

It took him a while to nod, like he was ashamed to admit it. “Now you’re going to think I’m one of those spoiled kids who didn’t have to work for anything.”

Kayla laughed. “I’m not judging. I know other people who work for their parents. They pressure themselves to prove that they are worth it and can follow on their parents’ footsteps.”

Chad’s timid smile showed her that she guessed right. 

The waitress arrived just then to bring them their drinks. Kayla took a sip of hers, then played around with the stirrer as her glass rested on the table.

 “How long have you been in New York?” he asked. 

“Grew up in the Bronx,” she responded. “Studied and worked in Manhattan for a little over fifteen years.”

“Wow,” he said again, and it was starting to irk Kayla. He had to work on his vocabulary. But she willed herself not to be too nitpicky. “We’ve been living in the same state all this time.”

“Yeah, well the state’s pretty populated,” Kayla responded.

“What projects are you working on now?” he inquired.

“A museum, a mansion, a housing development, and an office building,” she listed.

“Wow, you’re quite busy,” he observed. 

“I’m sure you handle more than one account at a time too,” Kayla said, trying to ignore the “wow” for the nth time.

“You have a point,” he said. “So what do you do when you’re not working?”

“Eat and sleep,” Kayla said lightheartedly, trying to pick up her mood.

“Ah, you’re one of those workaholics?” 

“So I’ve been told,” Kayla said smilingly, remembering Jenny’s and Alex’s comments. She learned to not be too sensitive about it and be good-humored about it. 

“Well this is New York,” Chad said. “It would be pretty tough not to be.” He raised his glass to clink his glass with hers.

“Do you have any other siblings working in your dad’s firm?” Kayla asked, after taking a sip.

“I have a younger sister, but she’s a doctor,” he said.

“Ah, so she didn’t follow your dad’s footsteps,” Kayla commented. “How about you? If you weren’t an accountant, what would you have been?”

“Wow, that’s a good question. I don’t think I’ve been asked that yet,” he said, mulling over it. He took a drink of his scotch. “I would still do something that has to do with numbers. Finance or engineering maybe.”

“Ah, a math geek,” Kayla teased. Kayla remembered Ryan and giggled.

“You must be pretty good with math too,” he said. “You had – what – Trigonometry? Geometry? Physics?”

“Oh don’t remind me, I almost failed Physics,” Kayla admitted. 

“Really? I would have thought you aced all your classes,” he said, good-naturedly.

“Nah,” Kayla said. “Physics was my weakness.”

He laughed.

“You’ve finished your drink,” Chad observed. “Do you want another one?”

Kayla deliberated. It was that point when one would gauge if the date was going well or not. Chad seemed like a nice enough guy. She can drink quickly if she needed an out.

“Alright,” she said, offering him a smile.

“Great,” he said, smiling back.

Chapter 13

“Well, how was it?” Jenny asked, entering her office, still with her bag. It was obvious Jenny made a beeline to her office as soon as she arrived.

“It was okay,” Kayla said, shrugging, as she briefly looked up at Jenny then went back to checking her email messages. 

“Uh-oh, ‘okay’ is never good,” Jenny said, walking in to put her bag on a chair. “So you won’t be seeing him again?”

“I don’t know,” Kayla said. When they parted ways outside the bar – Kayla declined when he offered to share a cab with her – he did say he was going to call her. “I’ll see what I feel if he does ask me out again.”

“Did he kiss you goodnight?”

“No!” Kayla exclaimed, looking up. “I don’t like kissing guys on the first date. Unless I’ve known them a long time.” But then she suddenly remembered Alex kissing her that night in the elevator. She’s barely known him then. 

“Kayla?”

She snapped out of her trance.

“Yeah?”

Jenny sat on one of the chairs. “So how was he? What does he do? What did you drink?”

“Anything else, Oprah?” Kayla kidded, then turned serious. “He’s nice. He’s an accountant. Works for his dad.”

“Oh, so he’s rich,” Jenny said, butting in.

“That doesn’t matter to me,” Kayla declared. “Had a vodka tonic then an amaretto sour.”

“Yum,” Jenny said. “So he passed the first drink test.” 

“I guess. But –“ Kayla started, but didn’t know how to continue, or if she should.

“What is it?” Jenny asked, leaning forward.

Kayla gathered her thoughts. “You might think I’m being too anal, but there’s something about him that’s off.” Seeing that Jenny was just looking at her expectantly, she continued. “He could be corny at times. And I lost count after he said ‘Wow’ like ten times.”

“Wo – oh,” Jenny said, stopping herself from grinning. “I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker. Unless when you have sex he’ll just keep on saying ‘Wow’.” 

“Jen!” Kayla exclaimed, laughing. She wasn’t a prude, but it didn’t even cross her mind that she would sleep with Chad. 

“Sorry I couldn’t help it!” Jenny said, giggling.

“Now I regret saying anything,” Kayla said, feigning a pout.

“Don’t mind me,” Jenny said. “We all have our pet peeves. I got annoyed with a guy I dated before because he was eating too loudly.”

“That would have annoyed me too,” Kayla said.

“Yeah well, I ended up dating him for a year,” Jenny said.

Kayla looked at her in shock. “Really? You endured it for that long? Wasn’t he noisy in bed?” Kayla couldn’t help adding that. She started laughing uncontrollably.

“Har har,” Jenny said. “But on a serious note, I hope he asks you out again.”

Kayla shrugged. She wasn’t really sure how she felt.

“Anyways I better get to work,” Jenny said, standing up.

“Right,” Kayla agreed. “My emails are piling up by the minute.” She noticed that five new email messages came in since the time Jenny entered her office.

As Kayla checked her messages, she started feeling the anxiety. One of the clients in one of the projects she was handling was being a pain. It was the house of billionaire Patrick Mackenzie in the Hamptons. The contractor was already in the midst of construction, and the billionaire’s wife Julia – through their secretary – was suddenly asking for a long list of revisions and didn’t want to pay the additional fees for changes in the design and construction. 

She started drafting her email. She carefully explained in her message the details in their contracts, and listed what the cost implications are for the changes the wife wanted. She felt her blood pressure start to rise as she tried her best to be cordial with her reasoning. She copied Bobby in the emails, since all contracts went through him. 

She was finishing up her email when she heard the knock on her door.

She must have had a furious look on her face, as Cindy looked apologetic and nervous as she came in. “Kayla, I’m so sorry for bothering you,” she said. “I just thought you would want to get these immediately.” It was only then – Kayla didn’t know why – that she noticed that Cindy was carrying a vase of probably a dozen white roses. Cindy placed it on the corner of Kayla’s desk and walking away.