Why?

Chapter 3

My phone vibrated. A few moments later it vibrated again. Like it had every 10 minutes for the last 40 minutes. I was busy working on typing up some of my other, smaller projects but whoever this moron texting me was, was making it extremely hard for me to concentrate. Finally I caved and checked my phone, because it did seem like some sort or emergency. To my surprise it was an unknown number that I hadn't yet put into my phone. I began to read the messages hoping they would give me a better idea of who it was.

"Alise, hey. So I was thinking ... I had reservations with a friend tonight at this place in town, but they've just gone and canceled on me. Care to join me instead?"

That gave me no indication of who was texting me. I scrolled down to the next one.

"Sorry you must be be busy at work, and sorry that message was so long, and sorry for sending another text and sorry for saying sorry again and sorry this message is also long I just need to know if you wanna come tonight :)"

Still no idea who this person was, I moved on to the next text.

"Ok i'm sorry I'm texting again but you still haven't replied, it's Harry by the way."

Oh dear lord help me. This guy doesn't quit does he?

"I think Alise gave me a fake number so whoever this is i'm sorry for bothering you, bye."

And then the next...

"No this has to be Alise, I called your phone and it rang. Are you ignoring me? Please reply :) xx"

And the last one...

"Hey Alise, Harry here again, just asking one more time incase the other messages didn't go through, want to meet up for dinner tonight? Please get back to me asap so I can know if I have to make other plans :)"

This guy was so desperate! And what was with all the smiley faces?

"Are you asking me out on a date?" I type and smirk as I send it.

Almost immediately after its sent my phone starts ringing.

"Yes Harry?" I purr coyly into the phone.  If I was going to have to go along with this charade I may as well have some fun with it and pretend to flirt with this guy.

"I send you all those messages and you ignore me for a whole hour and that's all you reply to me!? I have been fretting trying to organize someone to replace my friend. This booking took my people over a month to plan and it's not everyday even someone in my situation gets to eat at a place like this..." He finishes his rambling and tries to regain a steady breathing pattern.

"Calm down!" I say quickly, not wanting to deal with him being all worked up. "I'll come just give me the details. What do I wear, like how fancy is it? And I don't finish work until 5 but they might keep me a bit longer, I need to have a word with my -" the words editor almost escape my lips when I suddenly remember how urgent it was that I not tell Harry my actual job. "-my uh.. manager before I leave, so I'll probably be home around quarter to 6."

"Perfect I'll get you at 6:30 sharp, we can't be late. I'm looking forward to it." I'm not sure how but i'm certain I can feel him smiling through the phone. "Oh, and wear something sexy." He adds before hanging up on me and this time I know for sure he's smirking.

___

As soon as I got home I quickly got changed, I was in a hurry because I got home later than I thought I would and I was meant to be ready to go on this ridiculous date with Harry in 10 minutes. I fixed my make-up and tried finding shoes to match my fanciest evening dress I owned, finally having a reason to wear it, when I heard someone knocking on the door.

"Fuck" I muttered before pulling the rollers out of my hair and fixing it before quickly opening the door to see Harry standing there, looking far too handsome for my own good.

"Hey!" he says far too enthusiastically holding out flowers. How clichéd could he get. "These are for you"

"Hi. Oh, thank you!" I say sounding far more pleased then I feel. "I'll just get my bag and put these in water and we can go, is that ok?" I don't wait for a response and quickly walk back into my apartment, throwing the flowers in the sink and snatching up my bag on the way out.

When I get back to the door he is awkwardly standing there, smiling when he sees me.

"You ready?" he asks and I nod, plastering on a fake smile trying to prepare for the night ahead. As I walk out the door he puts his hand on the small of my back and my whole body tenses. I feel him lean in close, "I'm glad you got the 'sexy' memo," He whispers into my ear and his breath tingles down my neck. I couldn't tell if his touch made me uncomfortable or I was just uncomfortable that I liked being so close to him but I removed his hand from my back nonetheless and got into the car.

---

We'd been at this stupid restaurant for an hour already and hadn't even gotten to the main course.

The restaurant was a lot fancier than I thought it would be and I could not even believe he'd brought me to this place. The outside decoration of the building alone looked like it cost more than I made in a year. We had to be taken to the back entrance so that no one spotted us and once we'd gotten inside I felt even more out of place.