Page 34 of Hello Darling

“I don’t know if anyone’s told you this,” says my dad, who is thankfully completely unaware of everything that passed between his daughter and this man before he walked in, “but you’re very charming.”

“Thank you, sir. I don’t know if anyone’s told you this, but you have fantastic eyebrows.”

“It has been said. Usually by my daughter.”

And then my dad asks him how he works his transverse abs, and then they discuss intermittent fasting, and then I finally manage to get my dad to go home and back to bed.

Evan turns to face me, feet planted on the floor.

“Don’t you have conference calls to get to?” I remind him.

He looks at me and smiles and doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t say something to make me feel dumb for being a spaz, doesn’t say anything lecherous about touching my boob. Doesn’t say one single thing that I’d expect from any other guy I’ve ever met.

And then he says something that I really don’t expect from him: “I like you.”

He continues to look me straight in the eyes and smile, until he’s sure that I’ve heard what he’s said, before turning and walking out the front door.

I have no idea what he’s really going to do for the rest of the day, but I know that mine will be spent slowly realizing that he probably means it, and that I like him too.