-1-
Standing up from the table, Rebecca threw her napkin down on her plate and pushed her date’s wine glass over, knocking it into his lap. Startled, he jumped up and said, “What is your problem?” Rebecca shook her head smiling as she looked down.
“Tip for the future honey, order a real drink and not what your date’s having,” Rebecca said as she put her purse over her shoulder and walked out of the restaurant. Another pathetic excuse for a man, in a city of a half million people; you’d think I’d find the right one or at least a half-way decent one by now. Exiting the restaurant, she stopped along the sidewalk and phoned for a cab. As she hung up the phone she spotted a couple across the street. The man was holding his woman’s hand, and they speedily walked across the street towards the restaurant. I want that; I want something real.
Her phone buzzed, she glanced in her purse at the screen to see it was Jonathan, her dashing boss that has led her on for the last two years. Wonder what he needs. She answered the phone with a smile on her face.
“Jonathan dear, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Rebecca. I need you-” Interrupting his words. Rebecca pounced at the opportunity.
“You need me? Jonathan, dear... You’re taken. I’m sorry but I don’t help people cheat.”
“HA-HA, very funny Rebecca. I need you to come down here; I cannot find your article write up on the interview with Harold Macabre and it’s going live in…” He paused mid-sentence, for what Rebecca assumed, to check his watch, “40 minutes.”
Just then her cab driver arrived. “I’ll be there.” She ended the call before letting Jonathan respond. It was the latest technique she was trying to use to lure him away from Stacy, his girlfriend of over a year. Rebecca has caught Stacy making out with random guys around the office on more than one occasion, but didn’t feel it was her place to bring it up to Jonathan. Plus, she didn’t want to win him that way; she wanted him to want her for who she was.
Rebecca’s date, from that night, suddenly came walking out of the restaurant as she was approaching her cab. She made eye contact with him and politely flashed him a smile, while he returned a glare.
“She’ll be alone forever,” He murmured under his breath as he was walking down the sidewalk to his car. Rebecca heard it and shut the door of the cab, leaning in the passenger window she let the cab driver know she’d be back in a minute. Heels clanking against the sidewalk, she caught up to her date. He turned around and put his arms up shielding himself in fear.
“Ha… You are more pathetic than I thought. I don’t want you to go home thinking I was rude; I want you go home knowing I acted that way because I’m sick of men catering to every whim of the woman they are with. I’ve been there and done that.”
“You think I cater to who I’m with because of my drink order?” He said standing upright. “I just like wine, but that doesn’t matter because you think you know me after 20 minutes at a restaurant.”
“The wine was the nail in the coffin Jeffery. It started long before, you were agreeing with everything I said and you just magically liked everything I liked. Anyways, I got to go. Nice knowing you.”
Turning around, Rebecca marched away, back to her cab.
-2-
“Where’s Vivian? She should be taking care of all this…” Rebecca said as she dug through the file server on the computer. She had left very specific instructions for Vivian to take care of this exact task. Vivian was Rebecca’s assistant and also helped around the office. She was a sweet gal for a receptionist, but she was a bit of an airhead.
“I had her leave,” Jonathan said as he poured himself a glass of scotch. That’s a real drink. Rebecca found herself judging men constantly by what they were drinking. She was convinced that there was something to
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