Chapter 2 — April

I didn’t know what to do but to follow him. His shoes were soaked, and he left wet patches on the floor as he walked out the door. I swiftly followed with my dress in my hands, holding up the front, and my zip half open at the back. I had to get out of there as soon as possible, with or without him. Our blind date had turned into a nightmare. Hayley wouldn’t hire me to babysit again, which meant not only had I lost my home, but one of my three jobs, too. This couldn’t get any worse.

Could it?

Shoot, I didn’t want to know the answer to my own question.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered as we got outside.

He was hailing a taxi and not even looking in my direction. I knew at this point he just wanted me to go away. I should have left from the moment the taxi pulled up in front of the restaurant, but instead, I stood behind him and wanted to explain myself. I hoped by telling him what had happened, he would be sympathetic and maybe not hate me as much as he probably did at the moment.

“It’s just I went into the bathroom and thought I would freshen up, but then I think I was trying to do too many things at the same time. I didn’t understand the toilet, it was all fancy and complicated and I was late already, so I just did what any other person would do. I just pushed all the buttons. Obviously, it didn’t go to plan, and somehow I managed to break the sink’s faucet. What happened to just pulling the lever and water coming out? Why do these things have to be so complicated?”

“Get in!” he said as he opened the taxi door and motioned for me to enter.

I wanted him to say something, anything, but he wasn’t making it easy for me. Not by a long shot.

“You better not drip all over my seats,” the driver warned as we both sat down in the taxi.

“Or what?” Luke challenged. His tone put the fear of God into me. Judging by the speechless taxi driver, I wasn’t the only one.

I was a little surprised. Maybe I’d been watching or reading one too many millionaire/billionaire/trillionaire romantic novels, but I expected Luke to have a driver at his beck and call. I didn’t think he would do things like jump into a taxi. That was something us ordinary folks would do, not someone like him.

“So, are we going to sit here all night or are you going to tell him where to go?”

Luke wanted to take me home.

Home.

A luxury to me right now. I had no place to go. I opened my mouth to tell him I was homeless, but before I even got a chance, he blurted out his address and told the driver to make it quick.

Maybe he knew or suspected something was wrong. Then again, maybe he was fed up with me and decided he would jump out of the taxi and leave me as soon as we got to his place.

He wouldn’t, would he?

I wouldn’t blame him. After all, I was a blind date and everything about tonight had gone wrong. We were headed to the other side of town, and for the first time this evening, I was back in a seat and resting like I’d done at the salon. I couldn’t think anymore. My phone had fallen inside the toilet in the midst of the madness when I decided to look up how to flush the damn thing. If only I knew it would be the least of my worries. Then my phone fell straight in and blocked the toilet, and then water squirted on my face. After trying to get my phone out, I rushed to the sink to try and wash my hands, my skin crawling at the idea of toilet water being on my skin. That’s when I broke the damn sink. At least I had enough water and soap to wash the smell of my unwashed body away… or so I hoped. It seemed I broke the sensors as I went from one sink to the next, water rushing out of them uncontrollably.

I wasn’t the clumsiest or the type of person who easily panicked in a situation, but tonight, everything went to a whole new level. One I didn’t want to repeat ever again in my lifetime. The crazy part was I didn’t even feel sorry for myself, which was stupid because I had lost everything tonight.