sleep with her, find someone else.” He pivoted once more and left the room.
Sebastian fell back against the cushions of the chair. He wasn’t sure what he wanted, but he couldn’t leave her alone, even if it was the smart thing to do for both of them.
Chapter Six
After coming home from the hospital, Sarah sat around the house for a week, per the doctor’s orders. She wasn’t used to this level of inactivity. Since the season had begun she’d hardly had time to breathe.
Thankfully, Marcy called every day, which kept Sarah from actually climbing the walls. She also unpacked a bunch of boxes she hadn’t had a chance to get to yet, but still found herself going crazy with boredom.
Sarah considered Rob’s and Marcy’s advice and decided to do what she could to get over her growing attraction to Sebastian. After going through and discarding a bunch of different methods to meet people, she settled on speed dating. It was all she had time for anyway since she was going back to work soon. Plus she wouldn’t be meeting strangers in a bar; something she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to do. She went online and found a session scheduled in two days’ time and signed up for it before she could chicken out.
Marcy was enthusiastic about the idea, but Sarah couldn’t shake her nerves as she rearranged the folds of her red, raw silk dress for the millionth time then strode into the restaurant, trying not to totter too much in her heels. Wearing all those track suits meant getting dressed up again was even more uncomfortable, and being so nervous didn’t help.
Sarah would meet with eight different men for eight minutes each. At the end of the hour, she would turn in a list of any of the guys she’d liked. If that man handed in her code number as well, they would both receive each other’s contact information.
She got a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and had a quick peek at the others before the event started. There was a mix of people, from college-aged to quite older, in attendance. When the bell rang, she sat at the nearest table.
Her date was older than her by about ten years and wearing a button-down shirt with a cardigan sweater over it. He should be hanging out at the park and throwing bread to the ducks as he reminisces about the good old days. He was friendly enough, but as it became obvious he was fascinated by her job but not her, she had to temper her annoyance. Mercifully, the buzzer sounded, and she moved to the next table.
The next guy was closer to her age and an accountant. As he talked about his interests, Sarah had to fight to pay attention. She hated stereotyping, but this guy was the textbook definition of a nerdy accountant. He had an ink stain at the bottom of his chest pocket and his hair was a rumpled mess.
If he’d known he was coming to something like this, he could’ve at least run a comb through his hair .
It was difficult to keep a straight face when he said his hobbies were stamp collecting, working on old cars, and raising poodles. Sarah could just see a life filled with walking fluffy dogs covered in grease to which several valuable postage stamps had affixed. Eight minutes had never seemed so long.
Sarah was beginning to get discouraged about speed dating when the buzzer sounded again. She was out of her chair like she’d been shot from a cannon.
She sat at the next table and gazed with a wary eye at her partner. He had a friendly face with wide-set brown eyes, a strong nose, and wavy brown hair. He wore a sweater with a dress shirt underneath.
An improvement over the previous men.
“Hi, I’m Dan.” He stuck out his hand. “This is pretty crazy, huh?”
Sarah nodded, relieved, and shook his hand. “Yeah, it is.”
“Sooo,” he glanced at her name tag, “Sarah.” Her face burned. She’d never given him her name. “What do you do for a living?”
“I work for the Storm.” She didn’t feel like elaborating until she knew he
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