Chapter 163: Come On In
If there was one thing that Emily Molson was teaching Derek without her even realizing that the lesson was taking place. It was that patience was not a trait that he came across naturally. He was struggling, honest to goodness struggling.
All that he had to do was wait what would no doubt be just a few more minutes. An hour at the most, for her to arrive, and he was not sure if he was going to make it. They had decided that she would show up around eight, and that was where Derek was having a problem. They had said around eight, and not been specific on the time. Around eight could mean a few minutes until eight o’clock. Or it could mean half-past eight, or if she were pushing it, she would make it some time till nine o’clock. It would still fall within the range of around eight, and Derek’s mind was having a field day with him.
As far as his mind was concerned, the around eight would somehow turn into 10 o’clock at night, and he had no idea how to deal with that. He had not even eaten, not even bothering to open the fridge and see if he could get something to keep himself going. Instead, he was alternating between staring at the door and staring at his phone.
He had at least put his work shoes and briefcase away, but he was still in his work attire. The only thing that was missing from his suit was the coat, and he had rolled up his shirt sleeves. He looked for all the world like a calm person, simply enjoying the hours after work. But Derek was anything but calm.
He was panicking, and as he looked down at his phone, he tapped the device against his open palm, seriously considering either texting Emily or calling her.
He pressed the screen and the moment that it lit up, he went to the messaging icon and began to type. How far are you? Are you still coming? Is there too much traffic? Are the directions that I gave you okay? Are you able to follow them easily enough? If you are lost, just tell me. I will come to pick you up.
It was a rapid fire message that barely made any sense, too many random thoughts thrown together. Staring at it, Derek decided to just delete it, instead of enduring the embarrassment of trying to explain to Emily why he had fired off such a weird thing in the first place.
Message deleted, Derek went back to tapping the phone again. Tap, tap, tap, tap, he went. This time when he turned it back on, he forced himself to put it away.
At first he placed it on the table in front of him, but the temptation was still there, the phone trying to entice him to pick it up and do something stupid. He’d heard of drunk texting before, but clearly desperate texting could be just as embarrassing as texting while inebriated.
He could not allow himself access to his phone. And so, picking it up, Derek put the device on the couch and covered it with a cushion.
Out of sight, out of mind, he promised himself.