Page 26 of Sunset Serenade
It was quiet, almost eerily so. A sailboat meandered into view and he stared at it, the stark white hull slicing through the endless blue waves.
He watched, mesmerized, until the spell was broken by his phone ringing.
It was Lydia. “Hey. Is everything all right?”
“Everything is great,” she said. “Rose’s first review just rolled in.”
His heartbeat quickened. “Yeah?”
“The client said he would give Rose a hundred stars if he could. She was extremely personable, knowledgeable, and kind, and he said his match was perfect. He says he’s never felt a connection like this before, and he just wanted to send this review before deleting the app.”
“This was herfirstclient?” Craig hadn’t even known she was going to meet with anyone.
“Yeah! I sent it to her in an email and she responded right away. Seems like she’s really excited, too.”
He should feel happy, but all he felt was a fluttering panic. He had far less control of this entire matchmaker scheme than he needed to. Things could spiral. “This is great,” he lied. “Thanks, Lydia.”
He hung up and called Rose, who thankfully answered after two rings.
“Hello, you’ve got Rose.”
“Hey, it’s Craig. I heard you got a rave review from your first matchmaking client.”
“Yes! I can’t believe it.” She paused. “I mean, I hoped it would go well, but I didn’t expect it to gothiswell.”
“I can’t tell you how welcome this news is.” He cleared his throat. “Should we celebrate? Talk next steps? I’m on the island; we could grab dinner.”
As soon as he said it, he regretted it. Rose was a beautiful woman. What if she thought he was trying to hit on her by suggesting dinner like that?
But Rose didn’t miss a beat. “Yes! I would love to talk to you about what I’m thinking for the next clients.”
A weight lifted off his chest. “Great.”
“I’ve been dying to get pizza,” she added. “There’s this place in Deer Harbor overlooking the water that’s calling my name.”
“I love pizza. How about seven o’clock?”
“I’ll see you there!”
He put his phone back into his pocket and looked at the water. The sailboat had faded into a dot on the horizon, and another had floated into view.
Thankfully Rose hadn’t thought anything of him suggesting dinner, and in truth, it wasn’t an odd thing for him to do. He took other employees to dinner all the time. Sometimes they’d skip out of work early and hash out ideas over food and drinks.
Why did it feel different now?
He shifted his feet and turned away from the window. There was an obvious reason he wasn’t ready to admit to himself, so instead he told himself it was because Rose was so important for the company.
Yeah, that was all.
Craig got to the restaurant early and was seated at a table near the window overlooking the parking lot.
At least it wasn’t romantic.
Rose arrived right on time, waving as she approached.
“Thanks for coming.” He stood and was about to pull out her chair before stopping himself mid-action.
That seemed inappropriate, didn’t it? He shouldn’t try so hard. He was herboss,not her prince charming. She could pull out her own chair.
