Until she started working at the call center, lunch wasn’t that big of a deal to Tinley. Some days she would actually forget to eat and not even notice, but now that she works in a pretty sucky job, she starts counting down the seconds until lunchtime as soon as she steps foot on the floor. That should probably tell her something about her current work situation, but she still sticks around. She and Dakota have different lunch times since they work different schedules, so typically she just holes up in the corner of the break room and scrolls through social media. She lifts up her sandwich to take a bite then is surprised to see there’s a text message from an unknown number waiting for her on her phone.

Is this one of those wrong number and a smoking hot guy on the other end scenarios? Because Tinley could definitely get on board with that. He’d be a Scottish Highlander with abs for days and adorably curly ginger locks, not to mention his alpha male tendencies mixed in with the biggest heart and eyes only for her. She internally swoons just imagining her knight wrapped in a tartan kilt. Okay, maybe she has been watching slightly too much Outlander, but she would throw her body through the stones a thousand times if it meant she could end up with a guy like James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser. She internally swoons just imagining it, but knowing her luck, it’s totally not, and the person on the other end would be very disappointed by her plain Jane, slightly overweight appearance, especially the extra pounds she’s carrying in her midsection thanks to the aforementioned cupcakes. She shoots off a text and the little piece of her heart still hoping for a fantasy dies a little.

This is the part where her mystery suitor never replies and she can go back to her regularly scheduled programming, also known as recipe hunting for the batch of cupcakes she’s making for Tara’s baby shower. It was bad enough when she was a bridezilla and needed everything just right, but Tinley figured for something as simple as a baby shower, she’d tone it down a notch. No such luck. She’s already made fifteen different kinds of cakes, and don’t even get her started on the different fillings and frostings she’s made. This shower is turning out to be way over the top, and this is baby number two, so it’s not even like this is Tara’s first time having a baby.

Tinley continues scrolling through Pinterest looking for ideas for flavor combinations. She creates all the recipes she actually bakes herself, but sometimes you need to go outside of your own brain to get ideas, and Pinterest is always good for that.

Holy shit. It’s one of the guys from the speed dating thing. This could go horribly badly or so deliciously well. She pushed any thoughts of him actually reaching out to her to the back of her mind and never expected to hear from him again, which gets her thinking: is this the guy she actually wants to be talking to right now? Odds are good that this is the fourth date she had from Dating in the Dark, but it’s possible that this could still be a wrong number. She decides to play coy with him and see what kind of reaction she gets.

She cracks up laughing as she reads through his message. It’s definitely the guy she wants to be hearing from, and even through texts, their chemistry is undeniable. Remembering where she’s at, she looks up and finds the break room atypically empty. It might look weird for her to be suddenly breaking out in laughter or smiling like an idiot while looking so intently at her phone. She thinks about her response for a moment and then shoots one off.

She quickly saves his number in her contacts so his messages don’t keep popping up as from “Unknown”. Part of her wants to ask him what his name is, but the other part of her is enjoying the mystery of not knowing, like it adds another layer of possibility to whatever this is that’s starting up between them.

She sighs heavily and puts her phone down on the table. She opens up her yogurt and contemplates her reply to him. She could be really honest and lay out all her cards, or she could chicken out again and make something up, but something inside her says to be honest. That’s the whole point of this experiment, right? There are no judgments or biases involved, so why not be completely open with him? The worst thing that could happen is he decides her specific brand of crazy is too much for him and they stop talking, and the best-case scenario is she’s finally honest with herself and her partner in a relationship and things only get better from here. She quickly types out a response and hits send before she has the chance to second-guess herself.

So? Is he serious right now? Tinley rolls her eyes at his lack of understanding. How can he not understand that what he said implied he wasn’t interested? They couldn’t see each other so she had no way of judging body language. The only thing she had going for her were the words coming out of his mouth and not once did he says that he wanted to see her again too.

A chuckle comes from the other side of the room and Tinley watches as Marek looks down at his phone. She hadn’t realized she wasn’t alone. It’s a good thing she opted for texting her mystery date back rather than talking to him on the phone. It’s always been one of her biggest pet peeves when people have long private conversations in a public setting. You don’t need to be telling everyone around you your business.

Her phone lights up with another message, and she can’t help but smile.

Oddly enough she gets a small bought of butterflies in her stomach at his response. She’s never liked the idea of a man calling her woman, but the whole alpha male vibe it gives off kind of turns her on. Who knew?

The time on the corner of her phone screen catches her eye. Has it been an hour already? She’s been so busy texting away and nibbling at her lunch, she didn’t realize how quickly the time was passing by, but it means they now have to end their conversation.

She can’t wipe the huge smile that covers her face as she locks her phone and throws away the trash from her lunch. There’s something about this guy, and she can’t wait to get to know him better. She wonders for a moment what he looks like. He has a sexy voice that tells her he has to be good-looking, but she just doesn’t know if she’s ready to see him face to face. What if when they do finally meet, he decides she doesn’t live up to whatever picture he has in his mind? That kind of rejection isn’t something she wants to go through right now.

“What has you so happy Tinley?”

She doesn’t turn around, just continues walking toward her desk. “Nothing at all Marek. Nothing at all.”