Choices of the Heart

A couple of weeks passed since Dakota had met Brian. When she had gone back to work the next day, she found herself swamped with a lot of work. She hadn’t heard anything from Brian since she met him, but she brushed it off to him being busy with his own line of work. She had hoped to hear from him, but maybe she was reading too far into things. Sighing, Dakota stood up from her desk and headed towards her bosses office.

She had been editing a new article and needed to give her boss an update on her progress for the day. Thankfully, Dakota was almost done with most of her work, so she would be able to go home soon. Her boss loved how she was able to work efficiently and effectively by being able to get multiple jobs done at once. Of course, Dakota worked fast for her job, but that didn’t mean she overlooked a lot of errors.

The way she did her job was that she scanned the articles and pages needing editing first and made the corrections that jumped out at her right away. Next, she would re-read each piece to make sure it made sense and corrected for more errors before giving it a final look over. She made sure that she was thorough in her line of work because she wanted things to not only make sense, but actually look professional as well. Dakota stopped just outside of her boss’s door and then gently knocked.

“Come in,” his voice called.

She slowly opened the door and stepped inside with a smile. “Mr. Woods, you wanted my report for my progress,” she said, staying by the door.

“Yes, yes of course, Miss Knight, please come closer,” he gestured towards the chairs in front of his desk.

Dakota walked forward and then sat down. She lifted the piece of paper she brought with her and then placed it on the desk. Mr. Woods took it and then glanced down. A smile formed on his lips as he read the report.

“Very good, Miss Knight, I’m so glad to have you on board here. This firm would be way behind if you hadn’t have taken the job,” he said.

She blushed. “Thank you. I only try to do my best,” she mumbled.

Mr. Woods chuckled. “Very well, since you’re way ahead in schedule, it’s safe to say that you may leave early today. Don’t think this will be made into a habit either,” he said.

“Of course not, sir. I wouldn’t dream of this being a habit,” she told him. She didn’t want to be given special treatment just because she managed to get most of her work done either on time or before deadlines.

Mr. Woods chuckled. “Good. Go on home and relax for the rest of the weekend.”

Dakota nodded and then stood up to head back to her office. Once there, she cleaned everything up and then packed up her briefcase. She made sure to pack some work to take home with her so that she could stay on top of her schedule of deadlines. It wasn’t long before she was heading down to the parking garage to get her car and head home.



Brian had spent the better of the last few weeks trying to get the nerve to call Dakota. Every time he dialed her number and heard it ring, he’d hang up before the line connected. He couldn’t explain the sudden nervousness he felt when it came to her, but it was there nestled deep in his stomach. Brian also was swamped with laying down new solos for the album he was currently working on with his band mates, but his mind always reverted back to his time with Dakota. He wanted to talk to his friends about her; however she wasn’t the one he was supposed to have met in the first place, so he wasn’t sure how they would react.

“Syn, you alright, man?” his best friend, Zacky Vengeance inquired as he sat down next to him.

“Yeah, just got a lot on my mind,” he answered.

“Like?”

“Well, the whole blind date thing not working out.”

“Ah, yeah, sorry about that man, we were just trying to help.”

“Thanks, but please don’t do it again. If I want to go out with someone I will do it on my own terms,” Brian stated.

“That’s cool. We all understand and not to mention, we all feel bad that she didn’t show up,” Zacky told him.

Brian nodded. “I’m going to head out and see my dad. I need to talk to him about something,” he said.

“Alright, we’ll see you later,” Zacky said.

Brian just nodded. He was already done with the solos he needed to lay down for the tracks they were working on so, he didn’t care that he was leaving early. He just wished that he could have the guts to call Dakota. He liked her because he didn’t take his crap and by the way she first talked to him when he had been staring at her, he knew that she didn’t take crap from anyone. She was strong willed and very hard headed. After he got into his car he started it and headed off to see his dad; knowing that he was sure to have some sort of advice for him about his current predicament.



Dakota walked into her home and set her keys down on the counter top after walking into the kitchen. Even though she had been able to go home early, she was still exhausted and wanted to relax. However, the thought of Brian not calling her kept eating at her mind. She couldn’t believe that he would say that he would call her and then not call; a part of her kept thinking that he truly wasn’t interested in her as he seemed to be when they met.

Dakota knew that she shouldn’t think like that, but after being stood up on a blind date she couldn’t help it. Of course, seeing as though she had no idea who her date really was it honestly shouldn’t matter to her, but it did. Dakota liked to impress people and in doing so she knew that she put other peoples’ needs before her own on a majority of the time. Sighing, Dakota looked at the clock above her stove. The red numbers said that it was almost four in the evening. She really wasn’t up for cooking, but she wasn’t sure if eating out was the best option either. Her eyes glanced to her briefcase and the work she knew was tucked inside waiting for her to tackle after she ate some food.

Dakota finally decided to forgo figuring out what she wanted to eat and took her laptop with her into the living room. She turned on the television and flipped it to a random channel, not really paying much attention to what was really on. Lifting the screen of her laptop up, Dakota pushed the power button to turn it on. She glanced at that the TV screen as she waited for her computer to boot up. Once it was ready she signed into her desktop and then pulled up an Internet browser; clicking on Google Dakota typed in the name Brian Haner. Her finger hovered over the enter button, but eventually she pressed the backspace button and closed the lid of her computer.

She wasn’t one to search for people online. To her, it felt wrong and like she was invading someone’s privacy or personal life. She didn’t want to be labeled as some crazy stalker either, so she felt good that she didn’t search for him online. Again, her gaze scanned the room as the TV continued to play in the background until they landed on her home phone and the phone book sitting next to it. Furrowing her eyebrows a little, Dakota wondered if maybe she could find his phone number there. Carefully placing her laptop on the couch she stood up and walked toward the phone and grabbed the phonebook as well as the phone.

Normally, Dakota would use her cell phone, but when she didn’t want her cell phone being blown up with calls from random people she used her landline. She knew using a phonebook these days was old school, but she didn’t really care because she wanted to talk to Brian again. He had really gotten under her skin and not many guys were ever really able to do that to her. It aggravated her a bit because it made her feel vulnerable.

Flipping open the phone book to the white pages, Dakota scanned for the H section. Once she found
it, she flipped towards it and then began to scan for Brian’s number by his last name. Surprisingly, it didn’t take her all that long to find the last name Haner, so she grabbed a piece of paper and lined it up with the number before writing it down. She then picked up the phone and made the call. It rang about four or five times before someone answered.

“Haner residence,” a voice answered.

“Hello, is Brian there,” Dakota asked.

“Yeah, that’s me. What can I do ya for?”

“It’s me, Dakota, remember?” she asked.

“Who?”

“Dakota. We met at a restaurant a couple of weeks ago and then walked along the beach afterwards,” Dakota explained, feeling a bit confused as to why he didn’t remember.

“Honey, I think you may have the wrong number,” he said.

“No, you’re Brian Haner right,” she said.

“Yes, but I don’t know anyone named Dakota and I’m a married man, so I wouldn’t be meeting anyone at a restaurant and then walking along the beach,” he replied.

Dakota hung up the phone without replying. She couldn’t believe that she fell for his stupid charm. She felt stupid for thinking that maybe they could actually have something. He seemed to be really sincere when she talked to him, but now she felt as if she allowed a total stranger to walk all over her heart.