Chapter 7

I would love to hang out with you again. If you don't mind. You can pick the place and time.

His words echoed in my mind and I couldn't describe how I felt about it. My gut was telling me it was okay to go for it, yet my heart and mind were completely against the matter. I was so torn. It has only been three days and I have yet to tell him anything.

All morning I would sit and stare at his name, wanting to tell him something, but I didn't know what. I closed my phone for the tenth time, focusing back on the mass email that needed to be sent to all departments today.

"Manuela? Can you come here please?" Mr. Jones called through the speaker. I finished the email and added the appropriate attachments before heading to his office.

"There's been a family emergency that I have to attend. Will you please reschedule all of my meetings this week for when we get back from Washington. I won't be in the office at all, so feel free to take the rest of the week off." Whatever it was he looked ragged.

"Before you say anything, I know you like to have some solid foundation. So it's entirely up to you if you still want to come in and man the phones. I'll pay you double for the week, and if anything of extreme importance comes up don't hesitate to call."

I wasn't sure how to take any of this. "Yes sir. Thank you." I walked back to my desk, mind reeling. I've never had more than a few days off that wasn't planned. Now I have an entire week of freedom. I felt my chest grow tight at the loss of knowing what my day brought.

I quickly snatched up my phone blindly pressing numbers until I heard the faint ringing. I put it to my ear frantically searching for my small book of affirmations.

"Hello?" I didn't take the time to register the male voice on the other end. I just assumed it was Lenny.

"I think I'm about to have a panic attack. My boss just threw me a curveball and I don't know what to do? What am I supposed to do for the rest of my week with no work? Do I still come in? Sit here and organize files? Do I stay at home? I need help!" I ranted.

"First what you need to do is breathe. I can hear your heart pounding over the phone." The voice was enough to halt my momentary panic attack. This wasn't Lenny. I pulled the phone away and stared at the screen and realized I had called Vincent instead.

"Breathe in, breathe out." He said slowly, calming me down even more. I took a moment and did as he instructed. Finding my heart had stopped beating erratically. "Now. Tell me exactly what's wrong, and what curveball did your boss throw your way?"

"First thank you for that. But I didn't mean to call you, I thought I was calling my friend Lenny. I'm sure you're busy at work right now. I don't want to be a bother--"

"1... 2... 3... Breath and let one thought come at a time. And so you know, you weren't interrupting anything. I switched shifts with Liz today so I have to go in during the dinner rush. Talk to me, what's going on?"

"Well, I'm used to having a routine, a set schedule. I have my days planned out after work. But there was an emergency with my boss and he gave me the rest of the week off, and I'm not prepared for this at all." I confessed. "I don't have any idea what I should do with my day and I'm freaking out. Getting sent home early is one thing, but to not come in at all? I'm lost."

He let out a slight chuckle at my words. "Tell you what, let me be your source of entertainment for the week. Like I said before you can choose the time and place for everything. I do have a condition though. Friday you have to loosen the reins and let me pick what we do. I promise you'll enjoy it."

He seemed so sure of himself. So calm. It was hard to say no to him. What the heck was I about to get myself into?

"Lesson number one in having fun. Don't think, just do." With that, he hung up before I could really think about what he said.

I had a strong urge to text and cancel the whole thing, but I took his advice. Don't think just do. For the next hour, I sat and made sure I had all of the emails rerouted to my home computer after sending out a notice to those who he had meetings with. I also set the automated voice message for the phone. I also searched through my list of things to do trying to see what I would get into for the day.

Nothing seemed to capture my interest, so I decided I would just go home and pack for the inevitable doom of going back home. I packed up everything and placed the 'Gone For The Day' sign on the desk. The ride on the elevator I had to take deep breaths to stop my heart from racing so much. I kept Vincent's words in my head, it was keeping me grounded and sane. Maybe this week wouldn't be so bad.

As the elevator made it to the ground floor, the doors opened and revealed Rogger on the other side, arms full of different takeout bags.

"Hey Rogger." I greeted, holding the door for him to step in as I stepped out.

"Hey Manuela. I'm still waiting for that answer!" He yelled as the doors began to close. I stood there a moment confused. What answer? Then I remembered I had agreed to try and go out with him. Yet it didn't make me as excited as the thought of hanging with Vincent did. I turned away from the elevator and decided to take advantage of the warm day and explore more of downtown.

I walked along the sidewalk taking in the many different shops passing by the ones I had already visited before. After a few minutes of roaming around, I came across this small antique shop nestled behind a coffee shop and a pizza parlor. It was filled with small trinkets and old fashioned items. I walked around taking my time in looking at everything. It was hard not to stop and admire the work in these items.

"Hi welcome to Sunny's let me know if I can get you anything." The store clerk called out once she was done with a customer. I gave her a small wave and kept walking to the back.

Lined against the wall were a variety of hats. One, in particular, caught my attention. It was a wool colored soviet fedora hat. My father always loved collecting fedoras. I never understood his obsession, but that didn't mean I never helped build it. Every year since his passing I would search for one he hasn't had yet. He had always talked about wanting to find a soviet like fedora, and here it was shining bright like a beacon in the night.

I quickly snatched it off the wall with a huge smile on my face. As I continued to browse my phone chimed with a text message. I dug it out of my purse and found it was a message from Vincent. I'm pretty sure my heart dropped to my stomach. Then another message from him came through. Opening the message I wasn't sure what to expect.

'So all of these questions are going to sound stalkerish. But I promise I'm not trying to stalk you! Just want you to have a fun week.' It ended with a smiley face emoticon.

'What's your favorite color? What do you actually like to do? Are you a fan of poetry? Classical music? Dancing? Do you even know how to dance?'

I felt the smile forming before it even appeared. He was really making an effort and somehow that made me feel a lot better about hanging out with him. Malcolm never tried to make things fun. He knew how much I hated surprises yet he did them anyway, not even a small hint to ease my mind. Then whenever I did find out what we were doing, it was always something he enjoyed doing more than I did.

Most of our dates had always been about his enjoyment rather than both of ours. Vincent seems to really be taking into consideration what I liked to make things enjoyable for us both. With these questions, I could get a sense of what he had in store for the week. I tapped out a quick reply answering all of his questions.

'Thank you for trying to make this less scary for me. I appreciate it. My favorite color is orange, I'm a very simple person, so the smaller things in life I enjoy. I do love poetry, visiting a poetry night was actually on my list of things to do. I'm okay with classical. I do like to dance although I'm not very good at it.'

I put my phone back and continued to browse the store. I ended up finding small trinkets that I wanted to get for my mother. Making my way back to the front and placed everything on the counter. Then I noticed a small table with various journals displayed. One, in particular, caught my attention. It was rainbow colored with the words 'It's Okay To Take A Break Sometimes' written on the front. It even had a little lock and key to go with it. It reminded me of the diary I had when I was a little girl. I added that to my order feeling great about this store.

I went outside and began to make my way back to get my car. I pulled my phone from my purse to see if he responded but found nothing. I didn't want to get too disappointed and told myself he was still planning. Then my phone rang. Looking at the screen his name flashed into view.

I took a deep breath trying to calm my racing heart.

"Hi." I answered.

"Hey there. So I was going to text all this to you, but it was a lot and I only have about twenty minutes before I have to go back to work."

"Oh, you could have waited until you were off. I would have been okay." I lied.

"Lies." I stared at the phone in disbelief. How did he know?

"Anywho to get into what I wanted to say. I've watched how guarded you are for the last few months. Again I am not a stalker." He laughed. "I see the battles you're fighting with yourself every time you come into the diner. I'm a very observant person. From our small conversation earlier I picked up on how much surprises frighten you. You didn't say it out loud but that's what I felt. Hopefully, I can get you into the idea of loving surprises again."

"I truly do appreciate you going through all this trouble. My last relationship he only wanted to do things he enjoyed. Never took into consideration the things I liked or wanted to do. Every surprise was something that catered to his happiness." I confessed.

"He's an ass that's for sure. How about this? Once I finish mapping out the rest of the week I'll send you the full itinerary. Or are you comfortable enough to let it be a surprise?"

I really thought about it. He was doing something for me and not himself. "As much as I don't like it. I think I'll be okay with everything staying a surprise."