Chapter 81: Not a Date
** Eli **
The trousers were still damp when Eli put them back on, but he didn’t mind. He even liked it, for the scent and the warmth of Harper’s touch lingering on the fabric. When he called the concierge on Sunday to pick it up for cleaning, he was even a bit disappointed that he couldn’t keep it the way it was.
Yep, he got it bad.
The realization was beyond clear when he reluctantly put on a different set of suits in the evening, for the other "not a date" with Vanessa Jones.
The temptation to call Justin and cancel the reservation again was too strong. Eli clutched his phone tight and forced down the thought multiple times. Backing out at the last minute would be a bad idea — a deal was a deal, and he knew how much worse things would get when his father found out about his change of mind. Unpalatable as it was, he had chosen to do this, and he had to follow through.
Should he be thankful that Harper hadn’t probed too much at dinner last night when their conversation touched upon his dating life? If she had asked whether these dates were still an ongoing process, he would’ve told her the truth. But he dreaded that conversation. For some reason he couldn’t quite put it to words, he didn’t want her to think that he was going on these dates with any real interest, even though he knew she was unlikely to care either way ... Because whatever this thing was between the two of them, they had made it ample clear that it wasn’t dating, so why would she concern herself with it even if he was truly seeing someone else?
No matter, though. Eli shook his head in an effort to clear it. Just a few hours, and then he’d be free. It wasn’t a terribly bad deal after all.
He combed his hair and stared at the obnoxiously sleek style in the mirror. He had chosen quite a look today — black suits with no accessories, black shoes in the most old-fashioned style that he typically saved for conservative meetings, slicked-back hair with a bit too much gel that probably put an extra ten years on his apparent age. Honestly, he looked ridiculous, but the request was for him to take this date seriously, so he took the message to heart. No one could argue that such a funeral-fitting look wasn’t "serious".
He left his apartment feeling slightly better about the prospect of the evening.
~ ~
Some couple of hours later, Eli was sipping his wine while half-heartedly listening to his dinner companion chattering about ... something that he was losing track of.
He resisted the urge to pick up his phone and check the time, finding it harder and harder to keep a smile on his face. Admittedly, his father had been right — Vanessa Jones did seem to be a sensible person. She was courteous, outgoing, and probably even pleasant to talk to if he gave her a chance. But whenever he actually tried to follow her conversations—