Page 18 of Love Legacy

Naomi

“ M aeve! I need your help!” I call out from my bedroom.

I was supposed to be going on a second date with Elijah tonight, but if I can’t figure out what to wear, I’m never going to make it out of the house.

I have been standing in front of my closet for the last thirty minutes or so, and the reject pile is close to having more clothes than my closet.

I might be overthinking this date, but he’s cute, and he’s planning to take me to a nice restaurant a little bit away from campus. Much less casual than our first date.

Maeve pokes her head into the room. “You’re still not dressed yet? Isn’t he going to be here in…fifteen minutes?” she asks, checking her watch.

I nod, turning toward her and gesturing to the growing pile of clothing on my bed. “And now you see my dilemma. I can’t figure out what to wear. This place is nice. Like really nice. And it’s chilly tonight. I can’t just wear a sundress and call it a day.”

Entering the room, Maeve signals for me to move from the closet before she starts rifling through my closet. “Do you have nice pants?”

I shake my head. “Not that I can think of. I only have that pair of floral pants that I wore for my pinning and then the leather pants Alex convinced me to buy for the drag show. I don’t know if leather pants are appropriate for fine dining.”

She hums, trying to come up with an idea. “Do you have dark tights?”

“Yes? I have pantyhose, sheer black tights, and a pair of opaque black tights.”

Maeve reaches into my closet, pulling out a black satin wrap skirt of mine and a pale pink, off-the-shoulder sweater. “Wear these. French tuck the sweater into the waistband of your skirt and you can borrow my black leather booties,” she says, handing me the outfit.

“Maeve, you’re absolutely a lifesaver. Thank you!” I say, hugging her tight.

She waves me off. “Yeah, yeah. Go get dressed. Eli will be here any minute for you. I’ll have the boots for you in the front hallway,” she says, leaving my room.

I change into the outfit, taking my hair out of its bun, and fluffing my curls up.

I touch up my lip gloss before grabbing my small black purse and leaving my bedroom.

I head into the living room to see Maeve chatting with Elijah. She must’ve buzzed him in because I forgot my phone in the kitchen. I grab the device off the counter, tucking it into my purse, before taking the shoes from Maeve. “Hi, Elijah, sorry I was having a bit of a wardrobe emergency.”

He gives me one of his signature grins. “It’s okay, Naomi. It was well worth the wait, you look amazing.” He holds out an arm to stabilize me as I put the booties on.

“Thank you. For the compliment and for the assistance with these boots.” I stand, finally taking Elijah in.

This man is so handsome . Elijah was dressed in dark jeans, a white button-down with the top couple buttons undone, a black suit jacket and dark grey boat shoes.

His blond hair was styled, slicked, back on the sides, loose and wavy on top.

He looks just like an Abercrombie model in the best way possible.

He smirks, catching me checking him out. “Like what you see?”

I push his shoulder, blushing and rolling my eyes. “Come on, we need to go. Don’t want to miss our dinner reservation.”

He takes my hand, leading me out the door. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that…”

After driving to the nearest small city, thirty minutes from campus, we pull up in front of a darkened building.

“Did we miss our reservation? This restaurant looks closed.” I check the time to make sure we weren’t too late.

We were twenty minutes over, but the restaurant doesn’t close until nine PM, and it wasn’t even eight PM yet.

Elijah just smiles. “You still haven’t figured it out yet?

Come on, Naomi.” He gets out of the car, coming around to open my door.

He takes my hand, walking me to the front door of the closed restaurant.

Elijah pulls a set of keys out of his pocket, using them to unlock the front door and holding it open for me. “After you.”

“How did you? Why do you? Huh?” I sputter out, confused.

“Just go inside, Naomi,” he says, slightly exasperated.

He follows me into the restaurant. It was dark, one table in the middle of the restaurant set for two, tea candles lit to provide ambiance and some gentle light.

The only other light in the restaurant coming from the door to the kitchen.

There was a bouquet of roses sitting on of the restaurant chairs.

“The restaurant was closed for a private event earlier today, but I got the chef to come in to make dinner for us. My dad may or may not own the place,” he says, walking over to the table pulling out my chair and picking up the bouquet. “These are for you.”

I take the roses, sniffing them. “These flowers are beautiful. Thank you.” I sit at the table, Elijah going to sit across from me. He drapes his suit jacket over the back of his chair, grabbing the bottle of wine from the bucket next to us. “Wine?”

“Yes, please.”

He grabs two glasses, pouring the white wine for both of us, sliding a glass across the table to me. “So your dad owns this place?”

“And a few other buildings and businesses downtown. And the athletic center on campus,” he says simply, taking a sip from his glass.

“Wait, your last name is Holton? Elijah Holton, as in the Holton family trust that’s behind Telecor? We’ve talked about some of your family’s business dealings in my Strategic Management class.”

He nods. “Yep, that’s my family.”

“So is this your idea of a simple first date then? A private dinner at your dad’s restaurant?” I poke fun at Elijah.

“Just the women I’m interested in taking things further with.”

“I mean, it’s only a first date. I think it’s a bit soon to ask me to be your girlfriend.”

He cocks his head, studying me curiously. “Is that what you think this is? Me asking you to be my girlfriend?”

I nod. “What else would it be?”

He chuckles. “I’m not looking for anything serious, Naomi. Maybe some casual sex, go on a few dates here and there. No-strings-attached fun.”

I nearly spit out the wine I was sipping. “That’s a good one.”

“It wasn’t a joke.”

“You think that just because you did all this, I’m going to sleep with you?”

He shrugs. “That’s usually how this works. I wine and dine the woman I’m seeing, sleep with her, spoil her for a little bit, and then we go our separate ways when I’m ready to move on.”

I thought Elijah was a nice guy, sweet even. But deep down, he’s a disgusting pig. “You’re disgusting. I had no intention of sleeping with you, regardless of how this night went, and I certainly won’t be doing it now.”

“Come on, Naomi, don’t be like that. I’m not trying to find my wife, it’s just dating. I have no interest in continuing anything beyond school.”

“If you had listened to anything I said during our first date, you should’ve known I’d never say yes, Elijah.”

“Well, you’re a fool if you think a man would do all this without the promise of sex afterward.”

“Then maybe I shouldn’t be dating men!” I say, my voice raised as I grab my purse.

“And there it is. I knew there was something going on between you and that dyke Sage,” he says, looking at me with disgust, never once rising from his seat at the table.

I gasp, surprised by his cruelty and blatant homophobia. Clearly, I had him all wrong. “You know what, Elijah? Fuck you. You can rot in hell.”

He raises an eyebrow, at least a little surprised at my profane outburst. “And you can find your own way back to campus.”

I flip him off, feeling emboldened, and storm out of the restaurant. I walk for a couple blocks, still fuming before coming across a twenty-four-hour McDonald’s. I duck into the fast food place, taking a seat to text my roommates.

Naomi

SOS. I need a ride back to campus.

Alex

***

Maeve

What happened? Are you okay?

Turns out Elijah is a giant douche-canoe.

Alex

Oh shit.

Maeve

Must be really bad if Naomi’s calling him a douche.

Alex

Drop us a pin with your location. We’re on our way.

“Wait, wait. So let me get this straight. He thought that reserving a whole restaurant would be enough to get in your pants? Does he even know you?”

“Apparently not,” I say, stuffing fries in my mouth.

When Alex and Maeve showed up to my rescue, we decided to stay and order some McDonald’s so I could recap the night for them.

“Elijah said I was stupid if I thought that a man would do this for me without sex. So I said, maybe I shouldn’t be dating men.

Then he accused me of hooking up with Sage.

Said some nasty things about her sexuality too. ”

“So that’s when you left?”

I nod. “To be specific, I said, ‘fuck you, you can rot in hell.’ Then I flipped him off and stormed out.”

Maeve and Alex both stare at me in shock with their jaws dropped. “You cursed him out?” Maeve asks.

Alex holds her hand up for a high-five. “Hell yeah, Naomi, you tell him.”

I slap my hand against hers with a smile. “You guys are rubbing off on me.”

“Apparently so. Especially if you’re actually considering dating a woman. Or was that something you just said in the moment?” Maeve asks.

I shrug. “I think I just said it in the moment. But I definitely have feelings for Sage. I’ve accepted that much. I can’t deny there’s something there, but I also don’t know if I’m ready to act on those emotions, either. I’m still so stuck in my head over the idea of dating a woman,” I say.

“It’s about time you admitted it!” Alex says excitedly. “Now you need to go on a date with her. Just to get out of your head once and for all.”

I think about it for a little while. “Maybe. I can’t think about going on another date right now though. I’m still reeling from this disaster of a date with Elijah.”

Maeve gives me a sympathetic smile. “Well, just some food for thought. And in the meantime, I propose a toast to you, Naomi. Boys are icky, and you put Elijah in his place. Good for you.” She holds up her cup, Alex and I laughing and tapping our cups against hers.

I’m grateful for my roommates. They turned this disaster of a night into a good one and were ready to come to my rescue. I couldn’t ask for more.