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I rummaged through my purse and pulled out my phone. Maybe Ty had tried to call or text.
Nope. Nothing.
I looked back at our texts to confirm that I had the correct time. Then I told myself to calm down. This didn’t have to be a bad sign. Some people ran late.
I opened the door for some fresh air. Just because he was running behind didn’t mean I had to stay in my stuffy car, so I slowly made my way to the gazebo.
As soon as I saw the setup, I smiled and slapped my hand to my mouth.
Ty had already been there. The perimeter of the gazebo was lined with candles. At the center, a large blanket was laid perfectly square on the wood floor. He had painstakingly thought of every detail, even cloth napkins folded like rosebuds.
I turned to see if he had arrived, but the parking lot was still empty.
Lowering myself onto the blanket, I took a closer look at the spread. A bottle of champagne was chilling in a silver bucket filled with ice. It was probably real silver too. A platter of chocolate-covered strawberries and an assortment of cheeses sat in the center of the blanket. Ty had spared no expense, ignored not a single detail. This was the whole nine yards of the promised picnic. Better than I could have imagined. Everything was perfect.
He had clearly gone above and beyond, maybe because he was used to above and beyond, or maybe he’d been trying to impress me. Not surprisingly. If it was about showing off and impressing me, it worked.
I waited a few minutes before I looked around again. As more time passed, my smile slowly faded. I checked my phone over and over again, but Ty hadn’t called or texted.
What the hell was going on? Fuck. If this was his way of letting me down easily, it sucked, and if he’d suddenly changed his mind, the least he could fucking do was make a call. Why the fuck would he take the time to set everything up and then just vanish without a trace and leave me hanging without any form of communication? Bastard.
I was completely baffled. And pissed as hell.
By the time thirty minutes turned into forty, and forty into fifty, I no longer had even the most remote sense of excitement for the date. Now I was just embarrassed and more than a little irate. The jerk hadn’t bothered to call or text, and he certainly hadn’t shown up. He’d just left me out in the cold—might have been a slight exaggeration—dark park with a basket full of food.
My anger won the day as I texted Ty.
Where are you? I’ve been waiting for almost an hour.
I wanted to say more, but I kept a tight rein on my emotions.
The streetlights had kicked on, and I watched people walking the nearby trails, pointing and whispering behind their hands as if I wasn’t a fucking wolf. I could hear every word they said.
One woman turned to her husband. “That’s the waitress who matched with Ty Keller. He must’ve stood her up. Poor thing. She never stood a chance.”
“Screw this.” I stood and attempted to unwrap my foot from the blanket’s edge. Snatching the champagne out of the ice bucket, I walked at full speed back to the safety of my car. I might as well get something out of this supposed date.
I glanced at my phone one last time as if Ty would magically decide to contact me. He probably never would at this point.
Instead of texting him again, I sent one to Sabrina.
Grab some orange juice and get your ass over to my place for some expensive mimosas.
Fifteen minutes later, Sabrina burst into my house carrying a gallon container of orange juice. “What the hell happened? Why aren’t you on your date?”
I was upside down with my back against the seat of the sofa, my head hanging off the edge, and my feet dangling over the backrest.
I lifted my head from the edge of the couch where it had been since I got home. The blood rushed back to its rightful position, and I squinted to see Sabrina through the floating dots in my eyes. “He never showed.”
“What?” She moved to the couch and plopped down next to me. “Did he call or text you?”
I sat upright and shook my head. “Nope. Not a single fucking peep. He had, however, set everything up. There were candles, chocolate strawberries, cheese, everything you could imagine. Except Ty. He was nowhere to be found.”
I grabbed the bottle of champagne from my coffee table, and Sabrina followed me to the kitchen.
“Let me get this straight. He set everything up, left, and never contacted you.” Sabrina stared at me with wide eyes. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“I agree, but he never replied to my text.” I poured the orange juice into champagne flutes and added a hefty amount of champagne. “Guess today wasn’t the day for me.”
