Love Takes Time (Christian Romance)

by Kaci Hart

  He looked around and then pointed to her bag as he started walking.

  “That’s your bag right? I remember it from the other day.”

  She let out a slightly confused affirmation. He’s a pretty aware guy to have noticed and remembered the bag she had worn in all of the turmoil the other day. Her phone was sticking out of the small pocket in the side where she always kept it. She watched as he grabbed the phone and began to tap the screen. His phone beeped.

  I really should put a password on that.

  “There.” He said, before handing her phone to her. “I have your number and you have mine. Now I just need to do this. Smile.”

  Before Chelsea knew it, he had taken her picture and created a profile for her on his phone.

  “Ooooh no. I look like garbage right now. You cannot keep that picture. It must be deleted immediately.”

  “No can do. Besides, I think you look more attractive right now than you can imagine. I want this image of you to be the one I see every single time you call me, which I hope happens a lot in the future. Besides, I want something to remember you by between now and dinner.”

  “Right. Well if I’m really as pretty as you say, then you wouldn’t forget so easily. That means you don’t need it.” She retorted, playfully swatting his arm and noticing how well built he was. She hoped her surprise did not show.

  “True. I doubt I would forget your face in a million years. I definitely won’t lose it in a few hours. Let’s just say I was being selfish then.”

  “Selfish….Ok.”

  For a moment they both stood in silence, smiling at each other until one of her students shouted to her for direction. She acknowledged the child with a wave.

  “Well, I do need to get back to my students now. I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Great. Call me when you’re ready. I’ll be on the other side of town before our date so I’ll send a car to pick you up. One of our drivers will be calling to get directions from you, and before you say that it isn’t necessary, it is. I’d prefer to be there to pick you up myself but I’m not going to take a chance making you wait now since I worked a yes out of you. I’ve been looking forward to this night for far too long to leave you to some random taxi driver. I can’t wait to see you tonight Chelsea.”

  Ryder winked at her, did an about turn and left her to her students. If she wasn’t mistaken, he had a huge smile plastered all over his face.

  ***

  Ryder had just gotten to the restaurant and was speaking to the maître d’. He was thankful at least that he called ahead and had the table reserved. All she had to do was give them his name and they would escort her to his VIP section.

  “Ah, Mr. Chatham. Your guest is waiting for you now sir.”

  Darn it. She’s already here.

  “Thanks David.”

  Ryder was upset with himself for running late; unfortunately, work could get that way sometimes. It was about fifteen minutes after seven p.m. when he rushed into the back room of the restaurant and saw her. She was sitting at his regular table looking around while twisting her hair carelessly.

  He took a minute to study her from afar before approaching. She was stunning in a black cocktail dress that was beautiful on her. If this was her not having anything to wear, then he couldn’t wait to see her when she was really made up. He was convinced then that she was more perfect that night than she had been on the few occasions when he had seen her before.

  Her skin was smooth and flawless, conveying both youth and the work required to take good care of one’s appearance. Her face finally fell upon him and the corners of her lips turned up in a demure smile when their eyes met. He strode over and she stood, embracing him in a light hug.

  “I’m so sorry I am late. Did you have to wait for a long time?”

  “Nope. Actually I just got here a little bit ago. Literally I just sat down. If you’d gotten here five minutes earlier, you would have been waiting on me instead.”

  “That’s a relief.”

  She smiled at him and he thought she looked as excited as a kid in an amusement park.

  “Ryder, this place is nice on a ridiculous level. I didn’t know how nice it is until I got inside. Then there’s the service. All I did was gave them your name and their eyes lit up. Next thing I know, they are treating me like I could do no wrong while they brought me around here. Who would have imagined that a restaurant this nice would still have a special section? You must have some kind of reputation around here.”

  “Well I do come here enough. This is where we bring the clients that are really full of it. I want to say thank you for waiting around for me even for that short time. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t. Probably would have cried myself to sleep. That’s a sad sight I tell you.”

  He heard her soft laughter as he stepped behind her to help her with her chair.

  “You expect me to believe that a self-assured guy like you would be sitting at home on some fancy, expensive couch boohooing? No way buddy. Plus even if I did want to leave, then I’d have to find a new date for the wedding so I’d be stuck anyway if I wasn’t already looking forward to tonight, which I am. Maybe even more than you.”

  “Oh I highly doubt that being a possibility but I’m glad to hear you wouldn’t have left. I haven’t cried since the first time I saw Mufasa die in The Lion King. No that’s a lie. I did try making a chicken dish a few weeks back. “

  “It was that bad?”

  “No. I’m a very good cook thank you. It was the onions. They take me there every time. By the way, don’t worry about the wedding. A promise is a promise so even if tonight’s date is not the undeniable success that I know it’s going to be I stand by my promise one hundred percent. Plus, going to the wedding with you simply guarantees me at least a second date so either way I come out a winner.”

  “Good. Now I won’t spend the rest of the night worrying. I’ve already told my best friend about you so you have to be there now or else I just look like the lonely desperate girl that lies.”

  “I wouldn’t want that at all. By the way, before I say anything else, I would be remiss if I didn’t stop and tell you just how amazing you look tonight. I mean really perfect.”

  He liked when she blushed. Even more, he loved when she tried to hide the smile that he’d worked out of her. She was doing that right then. Little did she know it but she was setting herself up for a major cheek workout every time she tried not to smile because it made him want to make her do so even more.

  “Thank you Ryder. I figured if I was going to come to one of the most expensive restaurants in New York City that I at least needed to get a little dressed up.”

  “Well, if this is a little dressed up, I don’t know if these eyes are ready for what I’d see if you were to really try.”

  “Oh stop it! It’s not like you don’t see pretty women everyday as a world jaunting stock broker. And look at you. I don’t know if this is lost on you, but you don’t look too bad yourself Ryder.”

  “Wait. Rewind for a second. Now I’m a ‘world jaunting stock broker’? I don’t mind that at all but the part about the pretty women, who let that slip? It was supposed to be an industry secret. Now they will probably kick me out of the old boys’ club and my Friday nights will be perennially free from dates. Unless I can figure a way to get a pretty young lady to help me out with that. Any ideas?”

  “I’ll work on it.”

  ***

  Ryder had momentarily left the table to go to the men’s room. It was funny because part of her didn’t want him to leave, even for two minutes. Chelsea was enjoying her tête-à-tête with him. It had been ages since she even remembered what it was like to have a man show real interest in anything with her outside of her body. Her usual were the guys who tried to hit on her because she was a waitress and they thought she would be easy or the ones who asked her if she could move like that all the time or just on the dance floor.

  None of those men held her attention long. Ryder
was a different kind of guy from the start though. He was a gentleman in every definition of the word yet he didn’t let his respect make him boring. Even better, she could tell that he was probably as attracted to her as she was to him, but he didn’t let that physicality dominate. She liked that he was in control of himself, and intelligent enough to know how to treat a lady. It was going better than she expected.

  He finally returned after a few minutes though it seemed like much longer to her.

  “Thank goodness you came back. For a second there I thought you’d left me.”

  “Not a chance. I plan on taking every possible second with you that I can tonight and hopefully in the future. But before I can work all that out, I imagine we need to eat tonight. In my absence, have you ordered anything yet?”

  “No but I am famished. I warn you, I don’t eat like a dancer.”

  “Good. I wouldn’t want you to starve for my sake. I’m going to go ahead and call the waiter over so we can get started.”

  She glanced in his direction and their eyes locked.

  “I want to be able to enjoy as much of our time together as possible this evening.”

  He certainly had a way with words. Every statement that he made flattered her in one way or another. She didn’t know what kind of poet she had bumped into on the street but she could definitely get used to it. Not to mention the fact that he was apparently the richest person she had ever met in real life, let alone gone on a date with. Each time they met before, and even on their current date, he wore something expensive looking. Not too flashy. The simple things like that night’s gold and black cufflinks or matching watch that periodically showed when he gestured with his arms.

  “Alright then. But before you call him over, I have a confession. I have no earthly idea what to get because they never even brought me a menu.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry about that. I come here pretty regularly and I guess they must have assumed that since you were with me, you knew how this place works.”

  With that, he pressed a button on the wall beside them and a hidden panel slid open, revealing what Chelsea assumed were several full sized tablets. Ryder grabbed two and handed one to her.

  “These function both as menus as well as recreation if needed. You can even leave a message for the chef. I can vouch that he reads each and every one of them. He loves the feedback. If you click the restaurant logo at the top, it will bring up all the dishes that are available tonight. And then, if you want to see what one looks like, click its name and you can see the dish as well as recommended wine pairings and the like. They just started this about a year ago. Chef Henri says he wants to incorporate technology into his restaurant without making it distracting or affecting the ambiance. I think it’s a pretty smart idea. You get to see sizzling real motion video of a dish you might choose.”

  Chelsea was in shock. She’d expected it to be the most high-class restaurant that she had ever been in and no doubt it was. What she didn’t expect was how high tech it was. She scrolled through the perfectly organized menu, stopping to look at several images of piping hot dishes that had caught her eye.

  “Oh my goodness. Everything looks delicious. What do you recommend?”

  “Well let’s see. Do you have any foods you hate, love, always wanted to try?”

  “Um. Nothing I hate...well except squid or calamari. Whatever you want to call it, don’t call it to the table for me. I absolutely love potatoes and I’m not really big on steak but willing to try almost anything.”

  “Ever try duck before?”

  “Does duck sauce have any actual duck in it? I always wondered as a child.”

  They both laughed at her little joke. Maybe she’d been working with kids so much that she’d adopted their sense of humor.

  “I’m going to say no it doesn’t. Since you say you like to try new things . . . how about one of my favorite dishes here. The Muscovy duck with orange marmalade and Cipollini onion puree along with the twice baked potato?”

  “Sounds fantastic. Now can you please repeat all that, but in my kind of English this time?”

  “May I?”

  He reached across the table and she handed the tablet to him. He scrolled through the menu, bringing up the course for her to review.

  “This is everything and I promise that you will love it.”

  She looked at the sizzling food and she could swear that her belly growled in approval of his recommendation.

  “I am going to trust you on that one Ryder because this look delicious.”

  Ryder quickly called the waiter over and began relaying their orders to him. Five minutes later he returned with the special house salad and once she tasted it Chelsea knew why she had never been there before.

  “How is this just a salad? This tastes awesome. I mean really. And this is only the side salad?! If the rest of the food is as good as this, I might have to break my budget just to come back in the future. Is that mint that I am tasting? I would have never put that on a salad but it really makes everything work.”

  “You sound like a Food Network judge.”

  “Well like I said, I enjoy a nice meal.”

  With that, he picked up his fork and she watched him get into his salad as well. They continued making small talk into the evening, and throughout their dinner.

  “I wouldn’t have pegged you as a Guns and Roses or Red Hot Chili Peppers kind of guy.”

  “And what exactly did you think of me?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe Beethoven, Mozart or some Italian guy whose name I don’t know. You just seem so...”

  “Stuck up?”

  “No! That’s not what I was trying to say. You just seem so cool and above it all. Sophisticated. I’m just saying that when I look at you I would never guess that you have Welcome to the Jungle or Under the Bridge in your rotation. I actually thought I was the only person in my generation that would even know those songs.”

  “Okay, you are already pretty enough. You can stop trying to impress me by knowing my favorites, even the old ones. And about them not being in my rotation, if you don’t believe me, I will start singing either one right now.”

  She laughed at him, covering her mouth in the process.

  “Oh no, don’t worry about it. I believe you.”

  “Good. And for your information miss doubting my musical tastes, I own every album from both of them. I even learned how to play the electric guitar when I was younger. My older brother played the drums. At one point, I actually thought I was going to become a musician. Thank God my dad talked me out of it. More like yelled me into submission. I have a confession to make though. You were partially right. I actually do like every one of those guys you mentioned. Beethoven, Mozart. You didn’t mention my favorite though. Vivaldi.”

  “Ah. I have heard of him before. Maybe you could share some of your favorites with me. I always wanted to learn more about classical music but I never got into it beyond the mandatory classes at school.”

  “I tell you what. If you keep dating me, I’ll have you in love with classical music.”

  “Be careful what you ask for Ryder. I am the type of girl that will hold you to it.”

  “I don’t mind that at all. I wouldn’t have it any other way. What about your musical inclination? Obviously you like a little nineties rock too. What else? I would guess that you are into jazz. Maybe opera?”

  At that, they both chuckled.

  “I’m going to consider the opera a joke and say that you are either a great judge of character or just a good guesser, but jazz is my favorite. I do love the nineties rock like you as well but my favorite is still a nice band just playing. No singing, or anything else to overshadow the essence of the music. Especially as a dancer. It’s all about the beat, you know. “

  “I get that. You know, pure jazz is like a cousin of classical music in a lot of senses so I guess the stock broker and the dancer seem to have a thing or two in common after all. I’m hoping we have time to find out how much more. I’ve
got a pretty good idea. I know this really great live music club. They do it all. Jazz. Big Band. Swing. Anything you want to hear, they can play you as well as in house originals. Maybe we can go there for our next date.”

  He watched her, his unasked question evident. She looked away from him and down at her almost empty plate. She definitely was going to say yes but she didn’t want to look too eager doing so.

  “So you are already planning our next da--”

  She was startled when she heard the shrill voice. She didn’t know when the uninvited guest turned up at the table. She had been just that into Ryder that everything else was just there. At first she thought it was just another waiter until she saw the woman looking at Ryder with a smile that said so much more. Apparently he hadn’t noticed her yet but that changed the instant her nasal voice shouted his name much louder than was necessary.