Through the window

Somethings Missing

I maybe, just possibly, am out of my mind for agreeing to this dinner. I honestly don’t really know why I did. He could have absolutely faked every moment in the office today. Yet, here I am. I glance down at my phone and a text from Jacob reads “I’ll be there at 8, wear something sexy ;)”. I roll my eyes. I feel bad for him, and how he claimed to have felt, but he is still such a woman enchanting asshole. I can’t bring myself to wear a dress honestly, it just kinda doesn’t feel right. I pull out a nice dark pair of high waisted jeans and slip them on. Standing in my bra staring at my closet I stare at a range of blouses, finally deciding to pull out a black lace blouse. I guess let’s get this over with, I’m not sure I really even wanted to go out with Jacob tonight, but I feel like an actual date is more healthy than what I’ve been doing. I glance at the window thinking about my Mystery man, a wave of feelings come over me and I wonder if I should give him up completely. I don’t even know who he is. Or if he will ever let me know who he is. A knock at the door pulls me out of my thoughts and I sigh grabbing my purse and head to the door. “Damn Tara, you look fantastic!” Jacob exclaims. “Ha, thanks Jacob” this already feels weird. He definitely isn’t giving the same vibe he was at the office. “Shall we?” He motions to his car and pulls the door open for me. I climb in and we head to where ever it is he is taking me. We arrive at a restaurant I’ve never even heard of, on a side of the city I’ve never been to. “What is this place? I can’t even tell what the serve here.” He laughs at me and I still sit confused. “This is my private restaurant Tara. I own this place, but I let my employees run it how they see fit, all I can guarantee Is, the food is good, and we will get the best treatment.” He giggles at me. We go in and get seated. We are in a red leather booth with twinkling string lights around us, I’ll admit, it looks nice in here. A little blonde waitress approaches us, she refuses to look in my direction, probably pissed it’s not her sitting in my place. Jacob orders us a champagne and told her to bring out the chef special of the day. “So, what do you think so far?” He says gently tapping my hand. “Well, it’s a very beautiful place. I’m not so sure the waitress likes me though” he smiles “yeah, Ash can be a little, protective. But don’t worry about her. I’m going to run in the back and check how my staff is doing, feel free to have a look around if you want.” I nod at him and he gets up and disappears into the kitchen. I decide to stay seated, I feel out of place here. Jacob has been nice and tolerable but something still feels off. There’s a sudden flash of light and I glance around trying to find its source. “What the hell was that?” I mutter to myself but I can’t see anything out of the ordinary. People sitting and eating, talking and laughing, but the lights are fine, no cars are passing, weird. Jacob finally returns and Ash is following behind him with two plates of spaghetti. Ah. How original. “Sorry I took so long, I wanted to make sure my Chef was taken care of, and I briefly checked on Ash” he smiles at her and she starts blushing. She’s wearing a different apron. What in the world is going on in this place? Ash places our food and scurries back to the kitchen. “It’s alright Jacob, I was just taking in my surroundings, you have some beautiful paintings in here.” There’s another flash. “Did- did you see that’s? That’s the second time I’ve seen a flash but I can’t figure out where it’s coming from?” He seems less interested in me, he seems bored already, but we literally just actually really sat down together. “Ah it’s probably nothing, let’s eat and maybe we could head back to my place after” he half smirks. “I- Um. I forgot to feed my cat so I probably shouldn’t be out too late honestly.” He laughs and we begin to eat. We try to talk between eating and sipping, but we are complete opposites. Music, movies, favorite foods, we have almost nothing in common. I notice another waitress keeps eyeing me from the bar, but I don’t mention her to Jacob. She’s probably just frustrated with my presence as Ash was, and honestly, they can have him. This is so weird and I really don’t think Jacob even wants to be here. He isn’t as soft and ‘caring’ as he was just hours ago. I think I’m about ready to go home honestly. He looks up at me and I try to fake a smile, and he actually smiles back “Well Tara. How was it?” “It was delicious, thank you Jacob, I almost feel like I need a nap” I giggle at him hoping he got the hint that I wanted to leave. “I’m going to run to the bathroom and freshen up and then we can head out” I nod in agreement and watch him fade into the hallway. As soon as he’s out of sight, the waitress from the bar walks over and hands me a note and before I can say anything, she briskly walks to the kitchen. “Just thought you should know, when Jacob went to the back, he made a phone call and then f***ed Ash in the stock room.” Amazing. What a gentleman. Asks me out then sleeps with the waitress. His chances of taking me home went from slim to absolutely none. I start grabbing my purse and check my phone. A message from Sky. “Go ahead and take off until Wednesday. This is taking longer than expected.” Cool, I guess that gives me plenty of time to figure out how me and Mystery man will play out. Especially since I definitely won’t be going out with Jacob again. He comes back to the table in a much better mood and grabs my hand “to my place?” He winks at me. “Actually, I think I’m ready to go home. Tonight was, nice, but I really should get some things done before I go to sleep and prepare for the coming week. Sky keeps me busy ya know” honestly I lied, but he doesn’t need to know that. He rolls his eyes and takes me home not saying a whole lot.