She couldn’t tell how tall he was since he was in the car, but he had a nice enough face, in a soft kind of way. He had a hairline that was almost to the middle of his head and soft blue eyes. He definitely wasn’t Max, but then, who was?
Tara stopped that thought process. Max was interested only in her business skills. She was not going to let her infatuation with the man linger any longer, hence the blind date. Besides, Max needed to find his future queen she reminded herself. That fact definitely ruled her out of his future. That thought brought to mind the woman he was with and that he was probably having a wonderful time with the blond nemesis so she needed to concentrate and have a nice evening herself.
“What are we going to do tonight?” she asked, trying to get into the spirit of the evening.
He didn’t notice her apparent lack of interest. “I have tickets to the opera tonight. I love the opera. Do you?”
Tara hated the opera. “That sounds lovely,” she lied.
“Great. Let’s get going then,” he said and pulled the car into the stream of heavy evening traffic.
Tara was starving. When she’d originally spoken to him on the phone earlier in the week, he had mentioned taking her out to dinner. In fact, he had gone into great detail about a wonderful restaurant he wanted to take her to which he had just discovered. So Tara hadn’t eaten anything, assuming that they would be going out for dinner.
She watched as the lights of the city passed by and wondered if she should say something to him. Could he have forgotten the whole conversation? Or were they going to eat at the theatre? She had never been to this particular theatre so she wasn’t sure if there was a restaurant within the building as well. She certainly hoped so.
He parked the car and Tara followed him through the crowd heading for the entrance. Obviously, she was not going to get any dinner, she grimaced. Apparently, they would arrive just in time for the performance.
They were seated at the end of the row in the middle of the opera house and the seats, although not the best, were fine and they had an adequate view of the stage. She could see most of the opera and only parts were behind the curtain on this side.
What Jeffrey had failed to mention was that this was a Chinese opera. That meant very slow movements and dissonant tones. By the time intermission was called, Tara had a headache that was so intense, she thought she was going to be ill.
When he just made room for the other patrons to get out of their chairs, indicating that he wasn’t planning on going out to the lobby for intermission, Tara couldn’t hold her tongue anymore. “I’m sorry, Jeffrey but I need to get something. I’ll be back in a moment,” and she slipped out of the chair and into the wide open space of the lobby. She didn’t explain that she needed to find something to eat. It would be just her luck that he would follow her and bore her with some inane conversation. It was better that she just go and find something to eat as quickly as possible.
Tara stood in the line for concessions but was frustrated when they only had champagne and candy. Why in the world would they not have anything else? She bought some candy and ate it as quickly as possible, then found a water fountain to wash it down. Downing a glass of champagne with so little in her stomach would be a bad thing, she knew. After the water and candy, she felt moderately better, but really didn’t want to go back into the opera to see the second half. She considered the consequences to just hailing a cab and leaving the insensitive Jeffrey to enjoy the painful opera by himself. What could be the worst that could happen? Her friend might be a little upset but once Tara explained the evening, wouldn’t that wipe away any irritations?
Tara knew that leaving during the intermission would be unbelievably rude and that realization was the only thing that stopped her from turning to the right which led to the exit and freedom.
Tara sighed and walked back into the opera house, taking her seat at the last possible moment before the lights were dimmed and the opera started again. It was unfortunate that she’d been up since five o’clock that morning and she’d only had sugar for dinner. Because the long hours and stress of the day, the slow movements of the actors, plus the sugar low from her “dinner” crashed in on her at the same time. Within fifteen minutes after the intermission, her eyes drifted closed and she propped her head on her hand, hoping her date wouldn’t be offended at her rudeness but not really caring since consciousness had completely receded.
Fortunately, he didn’t even notice. The opera ended on a loud bang and Tara sat straight up in her seat, instantly awake and looking around, trying to figure out what had just happened. The lights were still dark but everyone was cheering loudly, obviously impressed with the actors and their efforts. Tara wondered if she’d missed something during the second half but wasn’t about to ask her date.
She turned to face him at that point and found that Jeffrey was clapping loudly, thrilled with the performance. “Wasn’t that amazing?” he asked, looking at her as if he’d just had an epiphany and she couldn’t help but have experienced it as well.
Tara couldn’t understand how the man had been so unconcerned for her that he didn’t even know she’d been asleep for the past hour. “It was definitely an experience,” she said diplomatically. Jeffrey didn’t notice her lack of enthusiasm, still so thrilled by the performance that his excitement was all but bubbling over. All she wanted to do was get home and crawl into her bed.
“How about a drink?” Jeffrey asked as they made their way out of the theatre. “I feel too energized to just stop now. I’m guessing you probably feel the same way? How could anyone not feel that way after this kind of a performance? Can you imagine the kind of patience those actors have to have in order to…” Jeffrey kept talking the whole way back to his car. He barely even waited for Tara to nod or smile appropriately before he moved on to talk about the next amazing aspect of the opera. By the time they reached his car, Tara had stopped responding, understanding that there was no need since the man was in his own world that consisted only of himself and his awe of the Chinese opera.
Over the top of the car, Jeffrey smiled across to her, the excitement obvious in his expression. “Let’s head over to a quiet bar I know of. We can relax and talk, get to know one another,” he said then ducked his head into the car as if he was taking her agreement for granted. As soon as they were seated inside the car, he put his hand on her thigh and smiled broadly. “Are you game?”