Chapter 3
Cara
Caden. A friend of Graham, the pick-up guy who had lured me down from my balcony. Probably the same as Graham, though. They all were. They came to their work retreats at the beach, away from their girlfriends or their wives, and spent their time trying to show off how many women they could still pick up.
“Working at the beach on the weekend, huh?” I asked, not really caring about the answer.
“Graham insists on coming here to work, and I guess you can tell why. I don't mind sitting in the warm sun with a strong coffee while getting stuff done. Besides, it's Friday, so it's technically still a work day. For a few more hours at least,” he responded, looking at his watch. I followed his gaze down to the watch. Nothing too pretentious, but nice, and the stainless steel sure did look good on his tanned forearm. My gaze followed the veins up toward his bicep. Yep, he definitely worked out. He had that perfect look of taking care of himself, without overdoing it.
“Well, my knight in shining armor who hath saved me, I will let you get back to your work,” I teased. I was actually flirting, who was I kidding? Something sweet about this man made me loosen up and smile.
“Well, my lady, I do have to get some stuff done for this meeting, but I should be finished up well before the five p.m. workday ends for most. We actually have scheduled ‘off time’ for the remainder of the weekend once we wrap up the meeting. Maybe we’ll run in to each other again?” It was more of a question than a statement.
“Yeah, maybe. Enjoy your weekend if not,” I said, without much hope. Yes, he was nice looking, obviously had a successful career, and had self-proclaimed “saved” me from his friend. But, I was not ready to hang out with a stranger on my weekend of dwelling on what had just happened in my last relationship.
As he retreated back to his table at the far corner of the outside patio, I turned back to the bartender.
“Sweetie, these guys come in here all the time to work,” she said with a conspiratorial smile. “That first one you met, Graham, he’s the worst. Always trying to take someone to his room. I can’t believe it, but it always works. The one in the corner; he’s a looker. If I could have my choice, I’d much rather have that man on top of me. How about a drink on the house? I can charge it to Graham’s room.”
“Why not? You only live once, right? Make me something fruity.” I smiled and took my seat on the stool. Glancing around, seeing all of the families, listening to the kids squealing, I couldn’t help but remember how I used to think I was becoming one of those families. I didn’t need the marriage part because my parents had been divorced too many times for me to believe in marriage any longer, but I wanted the commitment and the kids. At 34, I worried that I was past my prime to have to start over at finding someone new and building something that would lead to that again. LJ was supposed to be the one. He had promised me.
I looked at my phone. There were still no messages. I stalked LJ and his friend’s Facebook pages to see that LJ had finally blocked me. Not that he used Facebook more than once a month. Still no indication of what had happened from his friend’s pages. I sent another, futile, message to him, “Please, I just need to know why you left. We never even had a fight. If you can just tell me, then I won’t bother you anymore.”
The bartender brought me my drink, and I turned off my phone, but not my ringer. Surely, he would get back to me this time. The first sip of the concoction she made warmed my insides immediately. How could something so strong taste so sweet? This was going to be a good day. I would just drink and soak up this warmth….and maybe stalk Facebook for a little while longer. I unlocked my phone with my fingerprint again, and began scrolling. Admiring other people’s loving couple “selfies” and looking for clues as to why I was no longer one of those couples. I continued to sip my drink and obsess about my previous life.
“Cara?” A voice behind me startled me by almost whispering.
I looked up from my phone browsing to see him again. My savior, what was his name?
“Hello, again! I see you’re done working,” I said, eyeing his backpack.
“They called off the meeting for now. I guess Graham must have found something better to do,” he rolled his eyes to indicate what he thought. “I thought that I would come say hello again before I went back to my room to figure out what I should do with my first non-working Friday afternoon in a long time.”
He paused, but looked like he wanted to say more, so I just stared at him, looking past my now empty glass and wondering if I was making this up.
I looked directly in to his eyes, closer now than they had been before and noticed that they were a blue more beautiful than the ocean, with little white circles that filled the irises. How had I not noticed them earlier? His hair was brown, just barely speckled with some early gray, though he couldn’t have been more than a year or two older than me. He had that distinguished look men get when a few gray hairs start to appear. And, the eyes. I kept getting drawn back to those beautiful eyes. There was something so kind and warm in them.
“Now that I am here saying hello, well, I’ll just ask. Would you like to go to dinner tonight? Not at the hotel, but somewhere nice just a ten-minute drive away. You probably have a boyfriend, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity…”
He was stumbling over his words, and in an effort to save him, I responded with, “A real date? Like, you drive me there and we get dressed up?”
“Yes, a real date. Does that mean you don’t have a boyfriend?” he asked, hopeful.
“I don’t anymore. I just got dumped,” I responded, too fast, and immediately blushed.
“Great! I mean, sorry. But not that sorry.” He grinned. “Do you want to meet in the lobby, or should I come to your door?”
“Lobby, please. I don’t give out my room number on a first date.” I smiled, feeling goofy.
“Your chariot will be awaiting you at 5:30, my lady,” he joked. Maybe I was too much of a romantic, but he really reminded me of a chivalrous knight. My insides tingled as he walked back into the hotel.
I pull a five-dollar bill from my purse and waved goodbye to the bartender, then grabbed my phone and purse and walked toward the street. Where in the hell was I going to find something to wear for tonight so quickly? All I knew was that I needed to find out where this was going. I didn’t even know if he was from the beach area, or anything else about him. I didn’t want to get my hopes up for a one-night fling. That was never my style, even for the sake of helping me forget why I had driven here in the first place.
I walked about two blocks down Atlantic Avenue, trying to see if a clothing store would appear with something appropriate to wear. A sign outside of the cheap tourist gift shop, Sunsations, had a sign that read, Sundresses for $14. I made a mental note and turned on to the next street, where another store, Meg’s, had sundresses that looked a bit dressier, but could be played off as casual. I decided that was the way to go. I mean, really, of course I wanted him to think I was pretty, but I also didn't know that this was anything more than a free dinner for me.
The dress on the mannequin at the front was on sale for $35. Perfect. Sleeveless to show off my arms, which were toned by the yoga I had been doing lately, but flowy to cover my less-than-perfect mid-section that I’d been working hard at expanding with the restaurant food that LJ and I had loved to binge eat.
Trying on the dress, it hung just right. Making a mental note to maybe begin working out more seriously again in case I really did need to find another partner, I bought the dress. I had always been fit, more of the athletic build than ever a “skinny girl,” but even now continued to get compliments on my shape. I knew I had let myself go a bit since not teaching classes or training clients as much, but I had gotten comfortable with LJ. I worked out enough, and was tall enough, to pull off the extra weight gain that had slowly been adding on.
What if Caden saw me in a bathing suit this weekend? What if he saw me outside of my dress in some other way? Shaking my head, I again told myself that this was just dinner with a nice stranger. It was going nowhere.