“Dammit,” I muttered under my breath. I’d been staring at the same article all afternoon. I found myself reading the same sentence over and over again. My mind was elsewhere, but not because it was near 5:00pm on a Friday afternoon. It was because I’d not talked to Tiffany since our date Wednesday night.

We had walked by each other in the hallway yesterday morning, but we only exchanged a brief hello. She could not even make eye contact with me. It was weird. The kiss on Wednesday night had been passionate and sexy. She herself had even said it was fucking amazing. I thought we left on a good note, but her body language and voice yesterday had indicated otherwise.

I could not figure out what went wrong in such a short period of time. I asked Maurice, but he said Nikki couldn’t get anything out of Tiffany, either. It was as if our date and kiss on Wednesday night hadn’t happened. It was driving me crazy.

“Have a good weekend, boss,” Maurice appeared in my doorway. I looked up from my papers. It was already 5:00. I officially had made no progress all day.

“Do you want to grab a beer later?” I asked him. My work was piled on my desk, but I’d to escape. These Tiffany thoughts were preventing me from getting anything done.

Maurice shook his head.

“Sorry, man, hot date with Nikki.” Of course. According to Maurice, the two had been together every night this week. He made it seem so easy to have a relationship with a co-worker. I was starting to think that Tiffany and I weren’t ever going to reach their level.

“No worries,” I told him. “Have fun!”

He waved goodbye and left, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I wondered if Tiffany had left for the day. Maybe I could catch her and ask her to grab some drinks. I quickly decided not to. I didn’t want to come across as too desperate, even though I obviously was.

I stayed in my office for another twenty minutes, begging for mental clarity that never appeared. I needed to get these articles done, but my mind would not stop thinking about Tiffany. I was overanalyzing everything from our dinner, to our kiss, to the lack of communication afterwards. What went wrong?

Who knows, maybe nothing went wrong? Maybe she was just busy, too? Perhaps she was under pressure here at work and didn’t have time to chat? There were a thousand possibilities, but I needed to know what was going through her mind.

“Fuck it,” I said, turning off my lights and leaving my work behind. The work would be there when I came back on Monday. I walked by Tiffany’s office, but as I’d assumed, it was dark. She was gone for the weekend.

I got in my car and pondered what to do next. Austin was already at my mom’s house for the evening. According to my mom, she had a bunch of fun Christmas crafts to keep him busy for the night. My mother was a fantastic grandmother and a godsend in my life.

Since I knew Austin was in good hands and it was early, I decided to head to a bar down by the beach. My best friend, Allen Matteson, worked there part-time. By part-time, I meant only Friday nights which was the bar’s College Night. Although he was thirty, his age did not stop him from going after younger girls. He told me he actually preferred it. College girls never wanted commitment and neither did Allen.

His other job was being a lifeguard. He also took that job just for the scenery. By scenery, I didn’t mean the Atlantic Ocean. He paid more attention to the women on the beach than what was going on in the water. He was one of those guys who was never going to grow up. An eternal bachelor. Up until I met Tiffany, I thought maybe my life was headed that way too. However, there was something about her that drew me to her. She was different.

I walked inside the bar. As I predicted, it was rather quiet for an early Friday evening. Sure enough, Allen was behind the bar already, beer in hand.

“Cayden fucking Lewis!” He raised his beer bottle toward me. The few patrons in the bar turned to look at me. I felt embarrassed and suddenly extremely overdressed. I’d forgotten what a dump this place was. I should have gone home to change before coming here.

“Hey, buddy,” I said, pulling up a seat at the bar. It had been a while since I’d visited him at this bar. Work was getting the best of me lately.

“What’s going on, man?” Allen asked. He placed a cold beer in front of me. I nearly gulped it down all at once. Allen looked at me, his eyes wide with surprise.

“A girl,” I said. He shook his head.

“Cayden Lewis is stressing over a female? You need to start explaining,” he demanded, turning to grab another beer. I told him the entire story of Tiffany and me, which only took about five minutes. As I explained our short history, I started to realize that I sounded like a complete psychopath. I was majorly sweating a girl who, despite our kiss Wednesday night, seemed very uninterested in a relationship.

“We are in Miami, Cayden Lewis,” Allen said. I wasn’t sure why he used my full name, but it was something he had always done since we met two years ago.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Miami is no place for a relationship!” he exclaimed, handing me my second beer. “This city is hot, hot, hot! Women walk around in nearly nothing. They don’t want relationships. They want to be wine, dined, and fucked. And then they want to go out the next day and do it again with someone else. Monogamy has no place in the Magic City!”

I shook my head. I should have known better to expect Allen to understand where I was coming from. Even though he was my best friend, he acted like a twenty-year-old. He had no intentions of committing. He had once told me the word “commitment” made him break out in hives.

“You just need to fuck her brains out and get her out of your system,” he told me nonchalantly. I shook my head.

“It isn’t like that, Allen. She is different.”

He rolled his eyes.

“That’s a bunch of bullshit,” he said. “These girls are all the same.”

“Nah,” I said. “She really is different. I don’t want a one-night stand with this one. I want a relationship.”

Allen laughed and ignored the words coming out of my mouth.

“Did you join Tinder yet? The girls on there would go crazy for you, Cayden! Good looks, fast car, nice job. Join that shit right now and I guarantee you’ll have a hot chick in your bedroom tonight.”

I was tempted for half a minute. I could find a girl for a one-night stand, just to get Tiffany off my mind. Unfortunately for my dick, I wasn’t that type of guy.

“I’m not sure,” I told Allen, but he wasn’t listening. A gorgeous, young blonde had entered the bar. She approached us and sat down next to me.

“Good evening, gorgeous,” Allen said. “What can I get you?”

“I’ll have a pinot grigio,” she said.

Allen walked away to retrieve a glass for her. I checked her out from the corner of my eye. She was very attractive, yet completely different from Tiffany. Her phone buzzed and as she went to grab it, I noticed the sparkling diamond on her left ring finger. Taken.

“On the house,” Allen presented her with a full glass of wine.

“Thank you,” she said, not looking up from her phone screen. She was obviously not interested in him, but Allen didn’t care.

“What is a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?” he asked her. She looked up from her phone.

“Waiting for my fiancé,” she said. Normally, this would deter someone from hitting on a woman, but not Allen.

“Well, that is a damn shame,” Allen said. “Someone like you can’t be off the market already. You haven’t even had a night with me yet!”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed her wine glass from the bar top. Without a word, she left the bar area and headed for a table in the corner. Far away from Allen.

“Allen!” I exclaimed. “What is your deal?”

He shook his head.

“I was just speaking the truth, man! That chick needs to have a night with me before she commits to a lifetime of misery.”

“It isn’t just all about sex,” I told him. “You’re thirty. Don’t you want to settle down?”

Allen let out a hearty laugh.

“Nah, man,” he said. “Settling down is for pussies. I’m telling you, Cayden, don’t do it again, man. Stay single.”

I sighed. Obviously, coming here was a mistake. While Allen was my friend, we were on two different pages when it came to relationships. He would be no help with this Tiffany saga. I threw a twenty-dollar bill on the bar top.

“Leaving already?” Allen asked. I nodded. Coming here was a bad idea. I should have realized that Allen would have no advice for me.

I got in my car and texted my mom, letting her know that I would be over to pick up Austin shortly. After that, I dialed my sister’s number.

“Hello?” My sister, Sarah, picked up the phone.

“Hey, sis,” I greeted her.

“Hey, Cayden!” Her voice was enthusiastic, despite being a tired, working mom. I always went to her for advice, especially with raising Austin. She had two kids of her own. She never judged me and always gave great advice. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t consulted her on this earlier.

“I need your advice,” I told her, getting straight to the point. For the second time that I night, I explained my Tiffany situation to someone else. Again, I felt silly for being so involved after one date, but there was something about this girl that I could not shake.

“What do you think?” I asked, after I told her about the past few days.

“I’m not sure, Cayden,” she said. “It seems like she is interested in you but is probably just scared to get hurt. Your co-worker did say she had a bad past. Maybe she really got her heart broken and is just scared to move on. Has her past ever come up before?”

“No,” I replied. Maybe that was the missing piece. Maybe once I understood her past, we could move on together. I know it would be hard to convince her, but I’d no intentions of breaking her heart.

“If I were you, I would just ask her on another date,” Sarah said. “But take it slow, Cayden. If she really does exude this sadness, she probably has a troubled past. Plus, you two work together. She just started, so if something went south, she would be the one to lose her job, not you.”

I’d never considered that part before. My sister was right. If something went wrong between us, one of us might get fired or decide to quit. I wasn’t even sure if we were allowed to date under work protocol. It was probably something that I should look into.

“Just don’t rush anything,” Sarah continued. “That is the worst thing you can do in a situation like this.”

She was right. She was saying everything that I already knew. I just needed to hear the words from someone else. Someone who actually knew how relationships should work, unlike Allen.

“Thanks, sis,” I said, ending the phone call. I was glad that I’d made the decision to call her. I drove toward my mom’s house, thinking about what to do next. I would call Tiffany in the morning and ask her on a date for that evening.