Love is Better in the Dark

CHAPTER 3

The next morning, Ava walked into Eleanor’s office with the biggest smile she’d worn in a week. The golden light was streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows again, turning everything in the room into something close to magic. Eleanor was already at her desk, fingers flying across her keyboard, but she looked up when Ava entered.

“You’re smiling,” Eleanor observed. “That’s either very good or you’ve finally had a mental breakdown.”

“I found him,” Ava announced, collapsing dramatically onto the emerald sofa. “I found your mystery man.”

Eleanor’s fingers stopped moving. She closed her laptop slowly and gave Ava her full attention. “You did?”

“I did. And Eli, he’s perfect. Or at least he seems perfect. It’s hard to tell from a twenty-minute conversation in a Mexican restaurant while he thought I was insane, but my gut says he’s the one.”

“Your gut,” Eleanor repeated flatly.

“My very reliable gut.” Ava sat up straighter. “He’s kind—genuinely kind, like patient-with-crazy-strangers kind. He’s funny. He’s tall and gorgeous, though you won’t see that part, which is a shame but also the whole point. And he agreed to meet you tonight.”

“Tonight?” Eleanor’s voice went up an octave. “Ava, I need time to prepare—”

“For what? It’s a conversation in the dark. There’s nothing to prepare.” Ava pulled out her phone and checked the time. “Ten p.m. I’ll text you the address. Wear something comfortable. And Eli?”

“What?”

“Don’t overthink this. Just… be yourself. Just Eleanor. Not Eleanor Black.”

Eleanor nodded slowly, but her hands were trembling slightly as she reached for her coffee. “What’s his name?”

Ava grinned. “That’s the thing. I don’t know. I didn’t ask. And you won’t either. Not tonight. Maybe not ever. That’s the whole point, remember?”

After Ava left to finalize the location details, Eleanor sat alone in her office, staring at the city below. Somewhere out there was a man who’d agreed to meet a woman whose name he didn’t know, whose face he wouldn’t see.

And tonight, in the darkness, they would meet.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Eleanor tried to focus on her work—quarterly reports needed reviewing, a merger required her approval, her executive team needed direction on the new product launch. But her mind kept drifting to the evening ahead. What would she say? How would she act? What if the whole thing was a disaster?

By three in the afternoon, she’d accomplished almost nothing. She sat staring at the same spreadsheet she’d been looking at for an hour, the numbers blurring together into meaningless patterns. Her phone buzzed with a text from Ava: “The location is set. Private listening room at Harmony Records on Fifth. Side door will be unlocked. Room is at the end of the hall upstairs. Complete darkness. He’ll be there at 10.”

Eleanor read the message three times, her heart rate picking up with each pass. This was really happening. Tonight. In less than seven hours, she’d be sitting in the dark with a complete stranger, trying to have a meaningful conversation while revealing nothing about herself.

It was insane.

It was terrifying.

It was exactly what she needed.

At five o’clock, Eleanor gave up on work entirely. She packed her laptop into her bag, told her assistant she was leaving early, and headed home. She needed time to prepare, even if Ava insisted there was nothing to prepare for.

At home, Eleanor stood in front of her closet for twenty minutes, paralyzed by indecision. What did one wear to an invisible date? She pulled out outfit after outfit, rejecting each one. Too formal. Too casual. Too try-hard. Not try-hard enough.

Finally, she settled on dark jeans and a soft cashmere sweater in deep burgundy. Comfortable, like Ava had suggested, but still expensive enough that she felt like herself. The cashmere was a comfort—a reminder that even in the darkness, she was still Eleanor Black, even if he’d never know it.

She left her hair down, which she almost never did. Usually she wore it up in a sleek bun or ponytail, professional and out of the way. But tonight, with no one to see her, she let it fall loose around her shoulders. It felt strange. Vulnerable. Like she was already shedding parts of her armor before even arriving.

Eleanor applied minimal makeup—a touch of mascara, a swipe of lip balm. No one would see it anyway, but the ritual of getting ready calmed her nerves slightly. Or at least gave her something to do with her shaking hands.

By nine o’clock, she was ready. By nine-fifteen, she was pacing her apartment. By nine-thirty, she couldn’t stand the waiting anymore and called for a car.

The drive downtown felt endless. Eleanor watched the city slide past her window—restaurants full of people having normal dates where they could actually see each other, bars where friends gathered under bright lights, couples walking hand-in-hand down the sidewalk. All of it felt impossibly far away from what she was about to do.

The car pulled up in front of Harmony Records at nine fifty. Eleanor thanked the driver and stepped out onto the sidewalk, her heart hammering so hard she thought she might pass out.

The record store was dark, closed for the night. But as Ava had promised, the side door was unlocked. Eleanor slipped inside, finding herself in a narrow hallway that smelled of old vinyl and dust. A single dim bulb lit the staircase ahead of her.

She climbed the stairs slowly, each step feeling like a small commitment to this insane plan. At the top, she found herself in another hallway, this one even dimmer. At the very end, a door stood slightly ajar.

The listening room.

Eleanor checked her phone. Nine fifty-five. He was probably already inside. Waiting in the darkness. Wondering if she’d actually show up.

She took a deep breath, steadied her trembling hands, and walked toward the door.

This was it. No turning back now.

Eleanor pushed the door open and stepped inside.