With love, your dearest hater

Chapter 11 (Past)

Holy shit I'm in love. He's still slightly bowing down to shake my hand given the height difference, he's at least 6ft tall. I'm considered of an average height for woman, but this guy makes me look tiny, if I were ever to be standing behind me, you would absolutely not be able to see me.

He smells like deep woody notes, as cedar or sandalwood. At the same rate it comes across as spicy, there's some clear freshness to it. It's bold and robust, yet refreshing. I'm intoxicated.

Looking from below he smirks slightly at me. His hands are huge and nearly cover mine completely, his touch is soft and warm. But I shake it firmly, pushing away the distraction. I don't wanna come off as unprofessional. As much as I really wanna stay in this transe.

"I'm Noelle, it's a pleasure meeting you too. Finally able to put a face to the name" - I say to him while sitting down and adjusting myself in my chair. I look briefly around to acknowledge how beautiful this view is. Central Park I mean.

"Or put a name to the face?" - he tries me. I have no idea what he means. We never even had a live conversation, let alone any other way he could have seen my face. I throw him a quick odd look but he waves it off, as in saying never mind. Something changed in the atmosphere. 

"Charlie sends his best regards, but unfortunately he won't be able to make it" - I tell him, looking at my phone to see if Charlie texted back anything else. When I look up, he's staring deeply at me, like he didn't look away since we both sat down. I don't know why, but I like it a lot. His attention makes me feel good. But no no. Again, this thought has to go, he's a client. I dismiss myself. As Annie would have said: "No, nono!".

"Charlie's not coming?" - he says in a rhetoric tone, clearly slightly bothered. I reaffirm, nodding negatively, forcing a half smile. To be honest, I think it was really unprofessional from him, this is his friend, it was  his meeting -"Well, not a problem then, we can start off. I'm the only from DG Partners coming" - he states firmly.

"I was actually gonna to ask you about that" - I take the opportunity - "The hostess said the reservation was for three people only, I thought Robert was gonna join us as well. Did he have any problems? We've been exchanging emails back and forth for a while now. Was hoping to get some feedback" - I look at him expecting an answer with genuine curiosity.

His expression is confused for some seconds and then it finally hits him, his strong features lift up to create a loud laugh, he throws his head back like he just figured out something incredible. He runs his fingers through his hair and turns right back to me. He fix his posture and put both elbows on top of the table leaning in. He puts both of his hands together, in front on his lips, makes a weird face and finally separate the palms, leaving them in the air.

"That's me. Last name's Robertson, it was actually a misfortune my IT team caused when creating the email" - Dave continues laughing at the situation, but he makes a hard stop when he notices how embarrassed that made me. Of course I was laughing, but shit, shit. That really doesn't vouch for my imagine, right? I feel pathetic, especially looking back at all the times I called him Robert. Every single email was addressed to Robert even since he wrote me on Friday night - "No no, don't feel bad. I get that a lot, all the time" - he reassures me.

Now I get even more puzzled, that's how a person who puts in a request at Friday night before a 4th of July looks like? What. Whatever, none of my business, I push the thought away.

With all of that out of the way, we start talking business. He has some questions about the last few e-mails we exchanged and I take the time to answer each one of them. To make myself clear and understood, this way I'll have a strong report by Charlie's desk tomorrow morning. I show him my presentation and he comes up with several interesting points that I'll make sure to incorporate going forward. Having a conversation with him is so stimulating, so different from Charlie. Charlie's a good boss, but it's not like he wants to go the extra mile. He's young, but lacks the energy, the fire to strive for more. He's a replicator, not a leader. Impressive how they are even friends, so different. Of course, Charlie is a little older, has more drama baggage, but still.

From what Charlie was saying, I thought Dave, or as I though "Robert" shit, was a whole lot older and stuck up. He comes across so rude through our emails exchange, such a pain in the ass. He was the reason I drank so much last Saturday, I was fed up of working on his late requests and needed some escapism. He's the reason why I sometimes hate my job and want to bail. We're been here for over an hour and that's not at all what I've seen. It's honestly mind blowing. At the thought I just wanna stare at him for a little longer.

He has really strong facial features and I have to make an effort not to stare too much. His jaw line is really well defined and his nose compliments is face on long on a straight line. He has a beard very poorly done, but I'd guess that's on purpose, it's part of the look and I'd say that's the only think is him that doesn't look extremely put together. Dave's hair is very thick and black, his hair parts on the side and is neatly set with a very light hair gel that can easily go unnoticed. He's wearing a light blue shirt and a navy pair of pants, with some dress shoes. Exactly the ones everyone's been using at the office.

He adjusts himself on his chair and crosses one leg on top of the other, the hem of his trousers come up a little bit to show his ankles. What? That cannot be it, enough surprises for one night. Nope, just no.