Ileana was pointedly Not Thinking about the letter that still sat next to her laptop. She’d pretend that she didn’t agonize over wondering who she managed to piss off, especially if they were friends with Cole. If anything, she was going to change things up and prove whoever sent that letter that they were wrong about her. Ileana had thrown away a perfectly good dress that she thought of wistfully, but the memories attached were not ones she wanted to keep. It was going to be a good start this time for her first date with Cole.
Dates were a funny thing for her, something she had a chance to have many of that ran straight into dead ends. The little, easy dates with town boys before they were gone in a fleeting image in a rearview mirror, but this time, she was going to make this different or apparently die trying. Ileana tossed the letter away finally into the trash bin, turning back to her closet to grab her old leather jacket and threw it over a kitschy, flower print dress.
She left her twelfth floor apartment, slinging her bag over her shoulder and made it down the stairs. Pausing for a moment and taking a deep breath, Ileana ran her fingers through her hair as if she could settle it in proper place. She expected Cole to be early, but she didn’t expect Cole early with a black eye to be the first thing she saw as she exited the building. Her smile turned into a quick look of worry and rushed up to him without thinking, “Jesus Christ, Cole. What happened to your face?” And reached up to gently touch right beneath the bruise. “You look like you got your ass kicked.”