Christian

Shit. I knew that was coming. She made me do it with Victoria, or should I say Digits did. I thought maybe I was off the hook when she didn’t make me do it while Cheyenne was standing there. I glared at her from across the table, but I knew how important this was to her. Even though she never directly told me about what she was doing, I knew everything from what she as Digits told me via text.

“Fine. I will apologize to her,” I spoke as I got up from my seat and walked over to where Cheyenne was sitting and waiting for someone to join her. “Excuse me, Cheyenne. May I have a word with you?”

“We’re done speaking, Christian.” Her brow arched at me.

“This will only take a minute. I want to apologize to you. I’m sorry for ignoring your text messages and not calling you after our date. It was rude and disrespectful and I had no idea that it would upset you. You didn’t deserve that.”

“You’re right. I didn’t deserve it, but since you were man enough to apologize, I accept.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.”

“Now move along. My date will be here shortly,” she spoke as she sipped her drink.

Walking back to the table, I took my seat and stared at Eloise, who was sitting there with a grin on her face.

“Thank you.” She held up her glass to me.

“No. Thank you.” I smiled as I clinked my glass against hers.

After we finished dinner and talked some more about the Chanel shoot, I paid the bill and we left the restaurant.

“I think that was a very productive business dinner.” I smiled.

“I think so too.”

“You are actually on my way home. How about sharing a cab?”

“Sure.” The corners of her mouth curved upwards.

I hailed us a cab and climbed in next to her. Since our dinner consisted mostly of business talk, I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask her about her blog, even though I already knew a little about it.

“When we were at the singles mixer, you mentioned something about your blog and about relationship advice. What exactly did you mean by that?” I asked.

“It’s really no big deal.” She waved her hand in front of her face.

“I’d still like to hear about it.”

I could see the hesitation in her eyes as she stared at me for a moment.

“I’m doing a piece on #Delete. It’s for women who are in the early stages of a relationship.”

“And what does that mean?” I asked.

“I want to empower women to know their self-worth and standards when dating a guy. So, if a guy behaves badly, it’s in their best interest to delete them from their phone and life before they get too involved.”

“And what qualifies as a man behaving badly?” I narrowed my eye at her.

“Ghosting would be number one.” Her brow arched. “Low investment, lying, benching, breadcrumbing. The point is if a guy is really interested in a woman, he would do whatever it takes to get to know her. Texting in a timely manner, calling when he says he will, never flaking on a date. That would be considered high investment. If a guy is just stringing the girl along and has no intentions of wanting a relationship with her, then it’s time for him to go.”

“I see. And how does a girl know if the guy is just stringing her along.”

“They never commit to dates. They send text messages sporadically when they’re bored or lonely with the hopes that the woman is still waiting around, and when they get that reply, their ego gets boosted for a while and they’re satisfied. Then they’ll disappear again for a while and suddenly poof, send another text message. The problem is women become attached too quickly. They dive in with both feet and ignore the red flags that pop up.”

“Is that something you’ve done or do?”

“I’ve done it many times in my life. And no, it’s something I don’t anymore. I’m happy being single and I believe that’s what women need to learn first. I’d spent too many years trying to find the perfect man like my dad because I wanted the kind of relationship he and my mom have. I guess you could say I was obsessed. And because of that, I held onto guys who weren’t good for me for far too long. I ignored the red flags and/or the signs. I gave these guys way too much power over me and now I want to help women who are in the same situation take their power back. No more staring at their phone waiting for a guy who said he’d call or text and doesn’t. No more giving him multiple chances when he cancels a date more than once. No more putting their life on hold because of what a guy says but never follows through. Actions speak more truth than words do and women need to understand that.”

“So why the singles mixer?” I asked.

“Just trying to get inside the heads of men and find out the reasons behind why they do what they do.”

The cab pulled up to her apartment building and she climbed out.

“Thank you for dinner,” she spoke.

“You’re welcome. You have some great ideas and I’m excited about this shoot. I’ll be by at five a.m.” I winked.

“I’ll be ready and waiting. Have a good night, Mr. Blake.”

“You too, Miss Moore.”

She shut the door and walked inside the building. There was so much more to her than I’d imagined and I knew I had my work cut out for me if I wanted to win her over. I wanted to text Digits to see what she had to say about the evening. However, I decided to wait at least an hour before messaging her.