Love At Last

FAILED DATE

After all said and done, I was finally successful in my quest of getting the gifts to Cayden’s date. I felt a sense of accomplishment knowing that hurdle had been crossed but then, something else couldn’t stop bugging me.

That morning, what Cayden had said to me the previous day kept replaying in my head and I kept shrugging it off, as I didn’t want to harbor doubts in my heart. Cayden may as well have been wrong. I tried my very best to treat Jarod the same as I used to but I noticed Jarod was a little out of it that morning.

Jarod had been trying to give me some space. ‘Could it all be my imagination?’ I thought.

“You don’t knead the dough like that, Jarod,” I said jovially and giggled, in a bid to start a conversation between us. The atmosphere felt weird, Jarod felt distant.

Jarod only let out a mild grin; he didn’t really say anything to me which had me a bit worried.

“Are you okay?” I asked with concern.

“I’m fine,” Jarod replied, still fixated on the task he had at hand.

It was obvious he was lying to me. Something was up, I could sense it. “You didn’t sleep properly last night?” I asked again with concern hoping he’d open up to his friend, me.

“No, it’s not that, I slept soundly.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

He inhaled and exhaled deeply and said, “It’s just that with the competition around the corner and everything, I can’t help but think of how we’d pull through,” he finally said something reasonable.

“It’s ok Jarod,” I spoke mildly. “When we get there, we would definitely scale through…,” I placed my hand on his shoulders to assure him, “as a team,” I finished my sentence.

I could totally relate to what he said and just patted him gently. I assured him that we’d scale through no matter what and that he shouldn’t let it bug him so much.

I also felt a bit guilty towards him but then I decided those feelings were not needed at the time as I had work to do – prepare for Cayden’s second date.

I tried my very best not to lag and kept up with Jarod’s pace. We both carried out our morning duties together like we always did. While working though, I kept thinking of various ways to turn Cayden’s date to a huge success despite the minor setbacks I had.

Around 7:15 pm, I was prepared for the date as a third wheel, as usual. All dressed, I headed to the venue – an amusement park which had other amazing functions. Following the theme of the date, I was glad I didn’t have to wear gowns or dress corporately, I had to put on more comfortable clothes and so I wore a pair of jean pants and a navy-blue V-neck shirt with a pair of sneakers. I agreed with Cayden to meet him at the venue, he didn’t have to come pick me up or wait for me.

Co-incidentally, we both got there the same time. Seeing that his date was nowhere to be seen at the time, we decided to hang out together while we wait for her.

Thirty minutes past the time and the girl still does not show up. We started feeling uneasy. It was at the time the girl called off the date abruptly. I told Cayden what the girl said and showed him her text. Of course, Cayden felt mad and insulted. I for one was disappointed in Anna’s attitude. If she wanted to call off the date, telling us beforehand would have made all the difference.

“So, what now?” Cayden tried hard to hold his annoyance and irritation in.

“We leave?” I replied.

Cayden stood up angrily and was about to leave the scene when someone who looked like a dispatch rider walked in on us. Apparently, he was given information on the reserved table at the ice cream parlor at in the amusement park.

“Mr. Cayden?” the dispatch rider called out.

“Yes?” Cayden replied, completely ticked off.

“I was asked to give you these,” he kept the package – which contained the gifts I had sent to Anna – on the table. “If you may, please sign here,” he held out a slate which had a paper on it and a pen towards Cayden.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Cayden turned around and glared at me briefly before storming out the scene. I settled things with the delivery guy and excused him.

I went outside and met Cayden standing close to his car. I tried to be nice and calm him down, but his outburst wasn’t quite what I expected.

“This is all your fault, Lily,” he barked at me.

“My fault?” I tried my hardest to remain civilized. “How exactly?” I asked mildly.

“You tell me! How in God’s name did that wench get the idea that she could stand me up and on top of that, return all the gifts you supposedly sent to her?” he scolded. “You were in charge of everything, Lily. What exactly went wrong? Why exactly did she choose to embarrass me in this manner?” he lashed out further.

“Will you calm down and let me speak?” I still tried to maintain decorum. “I honestly don’t know why she decided to do this. Everything was going…,” I got cut off abruptly.

“You know what? She needs to understand that she can’t mess with just any guy and go freewithout dealing with the repercussions,” he paused and continued, “I’ll pay you for this, Lily. You ought to do a clean job in representing me well if you’re going to keep posing as me,” he kept scolding and pointing at me repeatedly.

“Can you just cut it out already?” I was fed up. “I did my part and set the date. Why she decided to stand you up at the very last moment…,” I paused, “is totally not my fault,” I concluded my statement. “If you’re that good, why don’t you take the bull by the horn and get out there…,” I pointed nowhere in particular, just as a form of gesture, “and get yourself a girl!” I barked. “The whole world doesn’t revolve around you, you know? I have a life too.”

“This is strictly business, Lily. You’re not doing this for free. I’ll make sure you get your reward in full so do…your…work…properly!!!” he scolded, making gestures with both hands.

“You know what? I’m done with this,” Istormed out in anger, throwing the package to the floor.