Restless

Chapter 17

Kyle tried to gauge Sahara's reaction as she perused the man standing next to him. He had brought him over to test her.

"Kyle," she ventured, still eyeing his friend curiously, "What's going on?"

"Hey, Sahara. Is this a bad time?"

She glanced over her shoulder and Kyle wondered if she had someone in the apartment with her. He tuned his ears in to listen for any sounds coming from her bedroom or anywhere, but he didn't hear anything. Not even a television. "Well, actually I was trying to get some work done..."

"This won't take too long. I wanted to introduce you to my friend Walter Mathis. He works with me at the firm and I've been telling him all about you. We were heading back to the office from a meeting across town and I thought we'd take a chance and see if you were home so I could introduce you two."

"Oh," Sahara said. He could tell she really wanted to get back to whatever she had been doing, but she didn't want to be impolite. He always liked that about her. She smiled sweetly and stuck out her hand. "How are you, Walter?"

"Very well, Sahara. It's nice to finally meet you. Kyle has been telling me a lot about you over the past couple of days."

"Is that right?" Sahara said, glancing at Kyle. She wondered why Kyle was talking her up so much to people, but she would save that question for when she and Kyle were alone.

"Oh yes. And now that I finally see you, I see why he couldn't keep your name out of his mouth."

Sahara blushed. Kyle noticed and was surprised that she was still so modest after all these years. "I'm flattered, Walter, thank you."

"I just think you two would get along great," Kyle chimed in. "Why don't you two go out sometime? I have a couple of tickets to that new play that's coming to town that I can give you. Wanda didn't want to go and I don't want them to go to waste."

Sahara looked at Kyle with slightly narrowed eyes. She didn't want to get an attitude in front of Walter, but she was angry with Kyle for putting her on the spot like this. She knew nothing about this man outside of his name, and Kyle expected her to go out with him just like that? With tickets to a play that the cousin he had cheated on her with and was now engaged to didn't want? He really, really had a lot of nerve.

They were both looking at her waiting for an answer. Even if she was interested, Sahara simply didn't have time to get involved with a fourth man. She looked at Walter, who was okay-looking but didn't spark any real interest in her, and gave a polite smile. "Walter, you seem like such a nice man and I enjoyed meeting you, but I just have a lot on my plate right now. Please don't take it personally."

Walter smiled what looked like a relieved smile and held up his hands. "Hey, no problem at all. It was nice meeting you, as well." He looked at Kyle and tapped him on the arm. "I'll be in the car, man."

He headed off down the driveway. Sahara gathered that he probably didn't really want to go out with her any more than she wanted to go out with him, but Kyle had probably badgered the poor man so much that he just came over out of duress.

Sahara waited until Walter was safely in the car and out of earshot before she lit into Kyle. "What is the big idea of you bringing some strange man over here out of the blue and expecting me to go out with him just on your recommendation? Have you lost your mind??"

Kyle was slightly taken aback by Sahara's anger. "What's the problem? He's a good guy; I just thought the two of you would hit it off. That's all."

Sahara put a hand on her hip. "What would make you think that I need your help with finding a date, Kyle?"

Kyle had to bite his tongue. He almost made a comment about her apparently very active social life that probably would have gotten him slapped. "This is really not that big of a deal, Sahara. I was just...I don't know. Trying to do something nice."