"I'm sorry?" she said, as she'd been so affected by seeing glasses laying on his desk she was sure she'd mistaken what he said.
"If you could get the R3 details for me?" he repeated kindly.
"Yes, yes......I'll start it straight away, I.......um......yes" and
with no valid reason to stay and look again, she hurried back to her
desk, and sat down utterly, totally, completely dumbstruck.
Maybe they weren't his. Maybe someone else had left them there. So now
what? Did she want that to be right or not? Did she want to find she'd
fallen for a man who wore glasses after all, or to be cured, once and
for all? And if that wasn't enough tearing her mind in half, did she
want to go back for another look, or not? She decided the best thing to
do was immerse herself in her work, get the R3 details for him, and
take it from there. She had never worked so fast in her entire life. A
draft report that anyone would expect to take a full day was ready in
an hour. She was determined to have it done before leaving, and she
actually stayed late, another first, just to have it done for him.
Quickly, she picked up the papers and headed for his office but both he
and the glasses were gone. She didn't leave the report however, she took
it back to her desk.
Next morning she was delayed in her desires to take it to him
immediately, by various annoying people asking her various annoying
questions about her........annoying job, but finally she made her way
to his office, and he was, of course, busy on the phone. She was going
to give in gracefully at that point and leave the papers on his desk,
but he gestured for her to sit down. Putting his hand over the phone he
whispered "I'll only be a minute, hang on".
She sat in suspense, and it sure seemed like more than a minute, but
eventually he hung up, then took the phone back off and laid it on the
desk, smiling. He was avoiding being interreupted by another call, she
thought, without the customary request to his secretary to hold back
his calls. This way it just looked like he was busy.
"Thanks, that was quick!" he said, picking up the report.
She scanned the desk for the glasses, but saw nothing. Her heart sank.
Well, at least she knew whether she was cured or not. Not.
He opened the report, laid it out on the desk, but instead of looking
at it he just laid his hands on it, and said "How about dinner?
Tonight? Somewhere quiet and cozy?"
Ayee. She didn't know what to do, but accepted eagerly anyway, just to
give herself time to think. He said that he'd meet her at the corner of
12th and George, and right there she had no good reason to go back to
his office before the date. And they'd fixed the ladies' room. Sheesh.
No more excuses to walk past either.
So, at precisely 8 as arranged, she waited under a street light in her
lowest cut sweater, wondering what the hell she was doing, and Tony was
right on time, looking far more relaxed out of a business suit. He
pecked her on the cheek , which made her head spin, and ushered her
into an intriguing Bistro named "Capricorn". This was rather more
up-market than she was used to. They collected drinks at the bar,
chatted easily, and then settled at a cute table by the window.
"Are we on show?" she asked, posing like a mannekin. He laughed.
"No, they play live music later, it gets a bit too loud to talk easily further in, is this ok?"
Oh yes, this was fine. She actually liked the idea of being seen by passers by, sitting with this hunk.
The waiter brought wine, and menus.
Without any comment, pause, or affectation, Tony calmly pulled a pair
of glasses out of his jacket pocket, put them on, and checked out the
menu.
Gina thought she was going to pass out.
She grabbed her drink and almost finished it one go. He laughed.
"Steady!" he said "You'll be on the floor".
The floor was beginning to pull at her anyway, regardless of
knocking back the better part of five ounces of red wine so fast, and
she feigned a cough and dived behind her menu. And then peeked back out
again.
He was looking at her, highly amused. Well, isn't THIS precious, thought Gina.
She took a deep breath, sat up straight and looked over the top of her menu again. He was still looking at her.
"What's wrong? Don't you like seafood?"
Don't I like seafood? DON'T I LIKE SEAFOOD? Well, do I? I can't
remember, she thought. She had no idea if she liked seafood or not at
that point, her brain had turned into a jellyfish and she was treading
water, trying not to drown.
"What.......do you recommend?" she asked at last, giving her an excuse
to look hard at him. As she did so she confirmed easily what she'd
suspected, quite obviously, as reading glasses, these were plus lenses.
She squirmed at her own mixed feelings. Better than nothing, huh?
"I haven't been here in ages, so I'm going to try the new stuff, but
you won't go far wrong with the shrimp, if you like hot food".
Hot wasn't a word she wanted bandied about at that point, and she took the last drips of her wine.
Not really knowing what to order, she went with his suggestion. And
then she looked at him again, wondering why she'd ever had a problem
with guys in plus glasses, and thought take them off, please...no,
don't...yes, do...no......yes......no......and just when she thought it
couldn't get any worse than this, he pushed them down his nose and
called the waiter over. Then he turned back to her and looked at her
over the top of them. She'd never seen anything so sexy in her entire
life.
After ordering, he took his glasses off, put them away, and the evening
continued. Gina was in an inner turmoil. If anyone had offered her a
penny for her thoughts at that point she'd have refused their money.
Her shrimp was fantastic, her date was a blast, and her life had just
done a backflip.
The live music was wonderful, jazz guitar, something she'd never been
familiar with but was instantly sold on. Tony seemed surprised she'd
not come across it before, and she said as little as possible beyond
how she liked it, not wanting to admit having had rather restricted
interests thus far. She was suddenly aware of a social gulf between
them, but hoped it wouldn't matter. As the evening wore on it was clear
that they had a chemistry, but it couldn't go on indefinitely, at least
he offered to walk her home.
She was so entranced by his company she was past caring what he thought
about her humble place of residence. He seemed fascinated by this older
part of the city anyway. Gina shivered. The perfect gentleman, Tony
took off his jacket and draped it across her shoulders. It smelled like
him, of course, but that wasn't the best part. She was aware of
something hard in the inside pocket, and with her arms covered he was
unaware that she reached up to feel his glasses. Carefully, through the
pocket lining, so as not to leave a mark, she felt the lenses and tried
to make out the thickness in relation to her own fingernail.
When they arrived at her building she thought about asking him in, but
decided not to be so forward. She really wanted to get this
relationship right, even though her head was still spinning with the
implications of it all. He gave her a gentle kiss, took his jacket
back, and waved goodbye, then called, laughing "This is no excuse
to be late into work!"
Oh my God, thought Gina.
Part Three
