“Hey,” he said as he entered. “You look great.” Leaning in, he kissed her cheek. “Where do you want to go?”
Before she could answer, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
“I’m hungry, so dinner would be great,” she said.
The buzzing started again. He groaned. “Sorry. Let me check this.”
While he swiped at the screen, she packed her purse. When she turned back, his face was still staring at the phone. His eyebrows were drawn and his lips tugged into a frown. “Fuck.”
“Everything okay?”
He glanced up. “It’s work. The mayor wants a new draft of something I did for him.”
“And he’s calling you now?” She glanced at the clock. Seven in the evening.
He sighed.
“You have to go, don’t you?”
He nodded. “You could come with me.”
“That doesn’t make much sense.”
“I can probably get this done within a half hour. Then we can grab something downtown.”
He was trying. She’d give him that. “It’s okay. We’ll try for another day.”
“No. I told you we’d go out tonight. I don’t want to put it off again. A half hour, I promise.”
She smiled. He seemed so sure of himself. And she hadn’t been downtown in a while, other than driving through to get to Navy Pier for the party. “Okay.”
If nothing else, they could talk on the ride there. Plus, she’d get to see where he worked. She wanted to see the other side of Kevin O’Malley. The side that worked at city hall and networked with politicians.
“You’re an awesome girlfriend, you know that?”
Her heart jumped at him calling her his girlfriend. Silly thing. “I am quite the catch.”
“You are.”
Where she had been flippant, he spoke seriously. As she locked up, her neighbor Mrs. Thomas walked down the hall.
“Hi, Mrs. Thomas.”
“Hello, Kathy. My, you’re looking pretty tonight. And who is this?” she asked, looking at Kevin.
“Kevin O’Malley, ma’am. I’m officially off the market because Kathy is my girlfriend.”
Mrs. Thomas laughed. “Good to know.”
Kathy took Kevin’s hand. “Are you going to keep doing that?”
“What?”
“Announcing that we’re together and you’re off the market.”
“Yep.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
He led them to his car. “You seem to be under some illusion that I’m fighting women off day in and day out. If I have to make constant announcements to let you and everyone else know that I’m with you, I can live with that.”
She sat down in the car and waited for him to get in. “It’s over the top and you know it.”
“It might be. But I expect you to tell a man who’s hitting on you that you’re not interested because you’re taken. I’m willing to do the same.”
Listening to him created more questions in her head. “Did you think I was sleeping with other guys before?”
He pulled out into traffic to head to downtown and said, “Hmm?”
“When we were dating, did you think I was sleeping with other people?”
He was quiet for a minute. “I didn’t think much about it. If I’d considered it, it would’ve made me crazy, but I also knew that I had no claim on you because I hadn’t offered monogamy. I thought we were casual.”
She didn’t know what answer she’d been expecting or hoping for, but that one didn’t sit right with her. Irritation danced along her neck and she turned her head to try to get rid of it. She was supposed to be moving past all that and she didn’t even know why his answer bothered her. He was being honest, which was what she’d asked for.
Kevin reached across the seat and grabbed her hand. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t entirely true either.
They drove in silence, listening to the radio. When they reached downtown, Kevin pulled into an underground parking lot. As they walked together, he put his arm around her shoulders.
“I’m sorry our night got screwed up again.”
“It’s okay. You’ll finish your work and then we’ll eat.”
They rode the elevator up, and Kathy was intrigued to see where he worked. The space had some cubicle-like areas divided, but there were more open spaces with tables together. Overall, she couldn’t imagine more than ten people working here at a time though. Office doors were closed along one wall.
No one else appeared to be around. Kevin grabbed a chair and wheeled it behind him to one of the cubicles. “You can sit here.”
He took his own seat in front of his computer and booted it up. Kathy sat and crossed her legs. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through Facebook. Kevin started to mumble at his screen. When his office line rang, she stood to give him privacy.
“Yes, Mayor Park,” he said.
Kathy waved at him and wandered into a conference room, which offered a beautiful scene of the city. Twenty minutes later, Kevin was still talking and typing and her stomach growled, announcing how empty it was. Since they came in his car, she couldn’t just leave. That would be a crappy thing to do anyway.
Then she had a brilliant idea. Kevin had delivered breakfast to her this morning, so she’d have dinner brought to them. Hopping back on her phone, she placed an order for Chinese food and then went downstairs to meet the delivery guy. On her way down, she hoped she wouldn’t need any special pass to get back up.
In the lobby, a security guard stood by the door and one manned a desk. She approached the desk. “Hi. I’m upstairs working with Kevin O’Malley. I just ordered dinner to be delivered.”
The guard eyed her up and down and she fought the cringe. She knew she looked like she was on a date.
She took a deep breath. “Should I stay down here to wait for the delivery, or can you send him up?”
“We can send him up.”
“Do I need an ID or anything to get back up in the elevator?”
“The bank on the left will get you where you need to be.”
“Thank you.”
She took the elevator back
