She saw Jessica playing on her phone when she walked into the living room. Just as she was about to open up her mouth to bring up the Philip debate again she decided against it. Alyssa could already tell her friend was getting annoyed, so she thought it best to just let it go. She sat next to Jessica and pulled out her own phone but realized there wasn’t really anything she wanted to check. She sighed.
“I have to go,” Jessica said suddenly as she stood up and snatched her bag from the coffee table. Alyssa peered at her.
“Okay,” she said sounding and looking confused. It was strange that Jessica had just suddenly decided to leave, but Alyssa wasn’t going to question her about it.
She watched as Jessica walked out the door and then leaned her head back against the couch.
“Philip,” she mumbled. She thought that if she was debating it so much maybe a part of her was at least curious to have dinner with him. After all, it wasn’t every day she had a social call with an extremely wealthy and well-known man. She was curious to know how he carried himself and to see how he was treated by others.
She was certain few people went about life the way he did, but it wasn’t something she had every witnessed on a personal level. She wondered if they would talk enough over dinner for her to get to know the side of Philip that was never portrayed by newspaper and magazine interviews. He wasn’t exactly a celebrity, but his name was quite well known.
She unlocked her cell phone and stared at her screen before opening up her contacts. There was his number, stored but not labeled. She tapped on it and pressed the phone to her ear to hear the ringing until his deep voice came on the other end.
“Hello?” Alyssa curled her fingers inward as she felt her heart race. Calling him was a lot more nerve wracking than she would have imagined.
“Philip,” she said in an unsteady voice, “This is Alyssa. Alyssa McConnell, we met at-”
“The gala. Yes, of course I remember. I did ask you out to dinner so one would hope I would recall who you are.”
Alyssa felt like she had been slapped in the face. He was so forward. She hadn’t expected him to bluntly state his proposition, if he brought it up at all. The way he said things came so easily that it threw her off. She had never spoken to anybody who spoke with such ease, no matter the subject.
“Right,” she muttered with an awkward chuckle.
“What can I do for you, Alyssa?”
She heard background noise that sounded as if he were standing outside or walking down a busy street. Something inside her resisted the urge to tell him, but she had made the call and so it was time to decided. She didn’t want to chicken out no matter how fast her pulse was at that moment. She was just glad to already be sitting down.
“I was calling you to, uh, well,” she paused and took a deep breath. She felt so silly sputtering and stalling. “I would like to accept your dinner invitation.”
Philip chuckled and Alyssa felt her cheeks grow hot in embarrassment. Thank god she was on the phone. It had been hard enough for her to actually call him and accept without having him laugh at her.
“You make it sound so formal, Alyssa. This isn’t a business dinner, you know.”
She calmed down a bit and realized she had indeed made it sound like a business formal event when, in reality, he had essentially asked her out on a date. At least she had assumed it was a date. She felt panic well up inside her once again so she started to rush the conversation.
She forced a chuckle and responded, “Right. We can schedule it later, then?”
“Why later if I have you on the phone right now?”
Alyssa clamped her mouth shut and puffed out her cheeks. He had a point. She just wanted to hastily get off the phone since she was being nonsensical.
“Right,” she said, but didn’t say anything more, not even giving an indication of when would be a good night to get together for dinner.
“Are you available Wednesday evening?”
She could tell he was carefully prodding her in the right direction. It was as if he could sense how much trouble she was having just speaking to him and was finding a way to steer the conversation without being pushy. Gentle guidance in conversation was practically an art form and she catalogued it in her mind as something she liked about him. That was a good start. Then she thought about the actual question he had asked.
“Yes,” she said slowly.
“Are you sure?” he asked quickly.
Even from a one syllable word he noticed how unsure she felt. Most people didn’t pay that much attention, even if an entire speech was prepared. Alyssa wondered if he was always so perceptive or if it was just part of his game he played with woman.
Because her suspicion had not died down and she knew it wouldn’t even after having dinner with him. She would be wondering for a while why he liked her enough to actually ask her out to dinner. She started to feel the panic well up again, only this time she managed to fight it off a little.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Great,” he shot back. She could picture him smiling on the other end of the phone. She remembered the way his smile looked when they met at the gala and she was thankful, yet again, that she was already sitting, she was sure her knees would have felt quite wobbly if she hadn’t been.
They agreed on deciding a time and place closer to Wednesday and he bid her a good night before ending the call. Alyssa sat on her catch staring at her phone in the palm of her hand until the screen faded to black after a few minutes had passed. She had really just accepted a date with Philip Walton, a well-known billionaire belonging to the socioeconomic elite. That was when the panic hit her even harder than before. She hurriedly called Jessica only to have her call forwarded to voicemail.
“No dammit!” she whined before calling her again. It wasn’t until the third call that Jessica actually answered.
“Is everything okay?” she asked. Alyssa could tell her friend had stepped out of wherever she was to take the call. She started to feel guilty about interrupting her when it wasn’t really a pressing or time sensitive matter.
“Um,” Alyssa responded before letting out a long breath. “Yes, sorry. I shouldn’t have interrupted you like that.”
“Well, you did, so now you tell me why you were calling like crazy,” Jessica told her bluntly. Alyssa knew her friend well enough to know she was probably a bit annoyed. “Did he ask you on a date?”
“Yea.”
Jessica sighed. “This is really why you’re calling me?” She was definitely annoyed and Alyssa couldn’t blame her.
“I accepted,” she said in a hurry so her friend wouldn’t think she was still debating back and forth like she had been earlier. She wanted Jessica to know she was now confused on what exactly she had agreed to. She wanted the panic that had bubbled up inside her to go away.
“You did?” Jessica sounded genuinely shocked.
“Yes,” Alyssa replied. “But now I don't know if he asked me out on a date or just, I don't know, dinner.”
Jessica laughed. It was a bit mocking, but it didn’t bother Alyssa. In fact, that was something she would have expected from her. “Of course he’s asking you on a date, woman. There's no doubt in my mind about that.”
Alyssa wanted to ask how and why she was so sure. She wanted Jessica to explain the logic to her and even give her evidence based off something Philip might have said or done, but she knew it was unreasonable.
She had already taken away enough of Jessica’s time and had gotten her answer. She needed to let it go. Not everything needed to be answered, at least not right away.
“Okay,” she responded before ending the call with a sigh. She knew she shouldn’t need the constant reassurance from her friend, but the whole thing sent her emotions whirling inside her. She was nervous, excited, and scared; all bundled up into one giant emotion.
Whatever was to happen, she knew it would be interesting.
Chapter Four
Alyssa walked into her bedroom and went s
traight for her closet. As she looked through her clothes she knew it was pointless. She wouldn’t find anything in there that she thought was good enough to go on a date with a billionaire.
She found herself wishing they had already decided on a place so she could look it up and figure out what sort of outfit she needed to wear. As she closed her closet door and sat down at the edge of her bed she wondered briefly if she was placing too much emphasis on what to wear. He had met her at the gala and might have assumed she was wealthy. Then again, she wondered if he would be the type to judge her for not being wealthy and owning the kind of clothing she wore at the gala.
There was really nothing in her closet she wanted to or felt comfortable wearing for her first date with a man like him. She slumped down on her bed and pouted as she wished she could invite Jessica over. But she was also aware it would have been selfish and imprudent to call her friend, yet again. Then on top of that, to ask her to dump whatever she was doing to run to her aid would be more than annoying to her friend.
Maybe she was getting ahead of herself or placing too much emphasis on the clothing. Maybe it didn’t need to matter all that much.
Alyssa flopped back on the bed and stared at her ceiling. It was as plain and as white as ever. Just like before. There was no perfect answer written across it.
This was something she needed to figure it on her own. After all, the key was for her to treat this date like she would any other. But every time she thought about who she was going on a date with, she found it impossible. It seemed unfathomable that she would be meeting with the Philip Walton, so how was she supposed to treat it like any other date? If she was nervous before any date how could she not be in a near panic for this one? Now that Jessica had indeed confirmed it was a date she was going on, Alyssa felt her stomach knot into a jumbled mess whenever she thought too much on the implications of that word. Date.
It Monday afternoon when Alyssa felt her phone vibrate on her desk, but she was too busy to look at who was calling, much less was she able to actually answer the call. It wasn’t until she was packing up and getting ready to leave the office that she saw a new voice message from none other than Philip.
Her stomach squeezed and she felt the panic shoot straight up her throat. As Wednesday night approached she got more and more anxious. And now that he was calling her it all suddenly felt a bit too real despite how incredibly surreal it all was.
Alyssa lifted her phone to her ear, her hand trembling slightly. She shut her eyes and took a few deep breaths. She hated that she got that nervous about the date even just by thinking about it. She hated the effect this all had on her since it wasn’t in her nature to behave that way.
“He’s not above me just because he has money,” she had told Jessica in the morning before leaving to work. She couldn’t stand the fact that she was behaving as if Philip were above her because of his status. Alyssa was a woman with a lot of self-worth and self-confidence, but something about Philip shook all that up and rocked her at her core.
Alyssa listened to the voice mail. He was charming and friendly. Speaking came easily to him and he got straight to the point without coming off as being too blunt or rushed. She wondered how he managed all that and even showed it through something like a voice message. It made her a bit anxious to think she would be the awkward one at the table when they had dinner on Wednesday night.
Since he had asked her to call him back and she very much wanted to know where they would be going in order to prepare for it, she called him back right away.
“Sorry I missed your call,” she blurted out as soon as he answered the phone. “I had a busy day at work.”
“Not a problem, Alyssa.”
He emphasized her name as if to point out to her she had failed to announce who she was before babbling her excuse. She felt like a helpless case of a woman with Philip and it only made the anger she felt about that bubble up to the surface. But she was prudent enough not to take it out on him. After all, it wasn’t his fault she was crumbling in his presence or even just the thought of his presence.
“Right,” she told him feeling the shame crawl over her body. If she was like this over the phone she didn’t want to think of how she would behave with him on their date. “How are you?”
“Great,” he said and she could sense the words ‘now that I’m talking to you’ hanging off his lips, but he didn’t say them.
She could imagine him smiling and she felt her knees wobble a little more. Holding on to the back of her desk chair she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She needed to have better self-control. She wanted to stop wondering why she could already picture his face as they spoke on the phone or ‘sense’ something he wanted to say.
“How was your day? I hope not bad despite how busy it was.”
“Not at all,” she responded as coolly as possible. She wanted to practice speaking to him now on the phone as preparation for their date. She cringed. “Why do I have to practice talking to him?” she wondered. It was all rather unrefined.
“Was there a specific reason you called, Philip? You didn’t say in your message.”
“Oh, yes,” he responded.
His tone had changed slightly and she suddenly fell into a panic. Had she been a bit too harsh? Did she make him feel like she was cutting him off or didn’t have much interest in speaking to him? She didn’t want him to think she was rude. She hadn’t meant to sound like she was pressed for time or ready to get the conversation out of the way. She was only curious about the reason for his call.
“I know this lovely place with a great view of the city. Are you particular about where you eat or what kind of food?”
“No,” Alyssa told him honestly. She was open about to all kinds of food and had a wide variety of tastes. But not knowing meant she couldn’t look the place up online for a better idea of how to dress. She would have to go into it blind and she definitely didn’t want to do that.
“Excellent,” he answered with clear excitement in his voice. “I can have a driver by to pick you up at 7:15p, will that work for you?”
Alyssa’s mouth went dry. Her tongue felt like sandpaper and she couldn’t say anything for a brief moment. A driver? It wasn’t as if it would be her first time being picked up and taken by a driver, but it was a rather odd feeling with it being from her date.
She was unsure if she should readily agree or decline it. Either way could be perceived as rude. Her mind was a mess of thoughts and she couldn’t sort them out. She wanted to take the driver so she decided to go for it since he offered. She needed to stop worrying so much about how she came off.
“Um,” she said, “Sure.”
“If not, I can set up-”
“Oh,” she interrupted him. She cleared her throat being all too aware she had cut him off mid-sentence. “Oh, it’s not that. I just wasn’t expecting you to send a driver.”
“I see,” he said. “Well, it would be no problem at all. I’d be glad to send him and he knows exactly the location of the restaurant.”
“Right,” she said slowly. “7:15pm will be a great time”.
She wanted to sound enthusiastic without going over the top, but ended up a bit flat. The call ended and she shakily slid down to sit on her desk chair. She held onto the edge of her desk and looked at the wall across from her.
Now it was real.
The time and place had been sent. He was even sending a driver to pick her up. And she still had no idea what to wear.
“Jessica,” she muttered as she grabbed her phone off the surface of her desk and quickly typed out a text message.
“Take me shopping,” she muttered.
Chapter Five
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, h
er 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.
Hard Love: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance Page 11