2

    Nate Jacobin was impatient at the steering, the traffic and the careless pedestrians annoyed him. It had been more than a busy day at the office. He had tried to finish all his work on time and make it to his date but that was impossible. Drafting a business proposal for one of the biggest construction company’s required expertise which his workers lacked.

    He sighed for the umpteenth time that day as he looked for a place to park his car.

Upset that there was no parking space at the front of the restaurant, he decided to drive all the way to the side. 

The rain began to drizzle, Nate sighed. He couldn’t imagine how mad his date was.

He let out a sigh of relief as he finally found a place to park. 

   He let out a grumble as he watched a frail looking woman stand helplessly, right where he wanted to park his car. He honked angrily but the woman didn’t budge.

   “Can my day go any worse?” He grumbled as he stepped out of his car and approached the woman.

   “Excuse me ma’am, I want to park right in this spot” he said, barely masking his irritation.

   Ruby’s tired eyes shot up to the direction of the voice. She was so wrapped up in her emotions she hadn’t heard him horn.

     “Nate?” She asked, confused.

  Her heart began to race as she realized who it was. No, he looked very different from the pictures she saw on the dating site.

    “Are you Ruby?” He asked

She looked exactly how she was in the pictures he saw but he had to ask for confirmation.

     “Ye-yes”she stuttered 

    “Oh my God, I’m so sorry” he apologized.

His poor date had probably given up on him coming and was about to leave. “I apologize for everything, I was caught up in work and totally forgot to send a text”

     “Here you go”he said, offering her a small smile as he placed his jacket over her shoulders.

   Ruby nodded as wiped the trickle of rain off her chin. She could have sworn her heart had stopped beating for some seconds. 

 She had become tongue tied. She stood under a little shade as she watched him park his Ferrari. She blinked her eyes in disbelief, there was no way she was about to go on a date with Nate Jacobin.

  The cold air stung her cheeks painfully, making them brick red. 

  “I apologise, I had a hectic day at work” he said as he walked to her.

   Nate sighed again, when it came to women, he was the absolute worst. Somehow, he always managed to annoy the hell out of them.

   “Let’s just go in, I’ll order some coffee to get you warm and we can talk” he offered

    “Sure” Ruby muttered as her face fell to the ground.

She dragged her feet lazily as she kept reminding herself that going on a date with Nate was a bad idea.

   On the dating site, his username was Jacobin which was his surname. Like other people on the site, he only posted pictures of his body and not his face.

    Nate stared at her suspiciously, he had expected her to land a slap across his face and call him all sorts of names but she was calm, too calm for him. He wished he could get a reaction out of her or at least know what she was thinking.

    “Err-r” he began. “I’m Nate Jacobin and I work at a construction company”

 He twisted his finger underneath the table nervously. One thing about Nate Jacobin was that he was never nervous. Unlike other women he went on dates with, they were interested in hearing about all the places he had travelled to but the woman right in front of him didn’t seem pleased. 

  

   “Ruby Donovan, I run a cafe with my parents” she replied dryly 

   There was nothing impressive about her life, she didn’t grow up wealthy and she was content with just that.

   Nate nodded as he thought of what to talk about next. He oozed so much charm any day but it didn’t seem to work on Ruby. 

    “So, what were you looking for on a dating site?” 

Ruby asked as she stirred her hot chocolate. She was indeed curious, Nate had access to super hot models.

   “My friend just launched the site and he wanted me to help him test it” Nate answered.

   Ruby nodded, he was only doing her a favor by taking her on a date. Her shoulders dropped, a part of her hoped he came because he was interested in her.

    “So, what were you looking for on the site?”

  She sighed as she took a sip of her drink. She didn’t want his pity. 

     “Nothing really” she mumbled and hoped he wasn’t going to ask anymore questions.

Ruby studied him as he poured wine into his glass. Everything about him exuded class, it had always been that way since she knew him.

    “Honestly, I want to apologize again for keeping you waiting,” he said as he raised the glass to his lips.

   Ruby nodded, she could picture Esme yelling at her for being such a boring date.

The fact that he didn’t recognize her and he came only because he was doing a friend a favor upset her so much.

Her nails dug into her palm, once again she was a pitiful poor woman.

     

    “Aren’t you one of those rich and selfish billionaires who go about, thinking they can treat people however they please,” she started. “You came here only because you’re doing a friend a favor, do you care how that makes me feel?”

   Ruby bit her tongue, she regretted the instant the words left her mouth but the chances of her crossing paths with him again were very low so she didn’t mind.

   “Do I look like one of those girls you can play with?”

She had had enough of being trampled upon. Yes, she wasn’t as pretty as the girls that he dated but she wasn’t going to let him disregard her, the same way he did a few years ago.

    Nate stared in utter confusion.He felt his body go tense as she rambled on. He understood if she was still upset he kept her waiting but there seemed to be more to it.

He contemplated walking to his car and driving off, leaving her there to continue in her madness but a part of him wanted to know where she was headed.

   It would be disastrous for him if a reporter should take a picture of the woman yelling at him. He frowned as he thought of the snide captions the reporter would use.

   The only reason he found himself on a dating site was because he had promised Adam, his friend who had just launched the site that he was going to help him test the site. 

   He had forgotten everything about it until one evening, he got a notification that he had a match. Adam was thrilled and spent hours convincing Nate to go on a date with the strange woman.

   

  “Why the hell did you ask me on a date?”she frowned with hands poised on her hips

She was thankful he didn’t get to see her cry. She was exhausted from wallowing in self pity.

She thought of herself as a ticking bomb, she had succeeded in hiding all that she felt at first but she couldn’t keep it in anymore.

   She had to admit within herself that she wasn’t mad at him for keeping her waiting, she was mad because he didn’t recognize her, not that she had expected him to anyway. 

  

   “I didn’t come here out of pity for you, I’m only doing a friend a favor”

He was tired of the woman’s nagging, he was upset she has already judged him without getting to know him.

   A little part of Ruby had hoped whoever she was going on a date with came because he actually wanted to go on a date with her. She had hoped he found her attractive enough and he wasn’t doing her any favors.

 She felt the tears come to her eyes again, she felt stupid for thinking she had a chance with him. She drew in a sharp breath as she tried to calm herself, her sadness was replaced with anger.

The anger she had kept locked in for years came to her wave by wave.

 “You’re a self conceited monster!” She spat and dumped her hot chocolate on him.

  With that, she spun on her heels, leaving a startled Nate behind.