“Everett, hi, I'm here,” I said loudly. “Are you ready to go? I don't know if you noticed, but it's already 7:50.”
Still, there was no response.
“Everett?” I called out as I began to walk from room-to-room.
Silence.
Eventually I had been through the whole house, and there was no sign that anyone was home. A creeping feeling of disappointment and despair was now beginning to trickle down my spine, and I was really feeling pretty terrible about this. Now there was only one last thing to do, and that was to check if his truck was still in the garage. Maybe it had been him I had heard at around 7:15.
I walked briskly with purpose and more than a little anger in my stride, and as soon as I got to the garage, I threw the door open.
Disappointment and anger hit me like a ton of bricks as I saw that the truck was gone.
“I don't believe it,” I grumbled to myself. “I don't believe it! He stood me up! The jerk stood me up! Not even a word of warning! He just up and took off!”
I stormed back across the road to my house, wrapped up in a storm of negative emotions. I'd been so stupid, so naive to think that this guy was different. Of course, he had been too good to be true – guys like the type I had hoped he was simply didn't exist in this world, and I had been a fool to believe that they could.
I had gone to all this effort, taken all this time to make myself look pretty, and had allowed myself to get all excited about this – and now it wasn't even going to happen.
I was about to sit down and sulk about it – because really, what else could I do now that my evening was ruined – when I remembered Angie. She had wanted to go out and party with me – so what better time than now, when I was all dressed up? I'd show that jerk Everett that I could have a great time in spite of his standing me up. Well, as long as Angie wasn't busy, of course. I prayed that she wasn't, because I didn't think I could handle being stuck in my house now.
I found her number and called her up. She picked up right away.
“Hi, Angie, it's Vivienne.”
“Vivienne? Uh, sorry, I don't remember a Vivienne...”
“Alicia. Remember, I bumped into you at the bar the other night? I told you, I've changed my name to Vivienne.”
“Oh, right! Sorry, guess I had a brain fart, totally forgot about that. How are you? What are you up to on this awesome Friday evening?”
“Not much, Angie, not much. Actually, I've just been stood up.”
“Oh no! You poor thing. That's just the worst. What sort of jerk would stand a girl like you up?”
“I don't know, Angie, I really don't know. I'm all dressed up, and now I have nowhere to go as the saying goes.”
“Well, hey, why don't you come out with me? I was thinking of heading out to a cocktail bar and having a few drinks. You wanna go with me? Have a drink or two, see where the night takes us... and forget about the idiot who just stood you up?”
I smiled.
“Yeah... that would be great, Angie, that would be really great. I need to get out of the house. I can't just sit here like this, all dressed up and made up, and think about how miserable I am that this guy did this to me.”
“No, you certainly can't. Well, can you give me say an hour to get ready? I also need to get my makeup on and do my hair and all that. Then I'll come by your place in a taxi and pick you up. How does that sound?”
“That sounds just great. Perfect, actually!”
I gave her my address and made plans to meet in around an hour, and when I cut off the call, I was smiling.
“There you go, Everett James,” I said. “I don't need you to have a good time on a Friday night. And I hope you know I don't give second chances, so you better know that you blew it tonight with me; you blew it tonight...”
Chapter Eight
Everett
A blast of frustration and anger shot through me as I realized I'd left my phone at home. This was great – this was just great. Two minutes before our date, and I had no way of telling Vivienne that I would be late.
Still, if things went well here, I could catch this Mr. Mask scumbag, throw him in the back of my truck in cuffs – I had a pair in there – and be back in half an hour. With enough apologizing, perhaps Vivienne would forgive me for being half an hour late.