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AS I STRODE OUT OF the coffee shop, I had one eye on my watch—but I should have been looking where I was going. Because I walked straight into the one woman that I hadn’t been able to get out of my head since the interview last week, as though I had conjured her through sheer force of will.
“Jesse!” Sarah exclaimed as she hugged her bag to her chest and beamed up at me. The cool morning air had flushed her cheeks a little pink, and she looked even prettier than I remembered her.
“Well, hey,” I greeted her. I didn’t want to give away the fact that I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since I walked out of the interview, but I was sure that someone as perceptive as her would be able to see straight through me.
“We have to stop meeting like this,” she joked. “Though at least this time I’m not late for work.”
“At least,” I echoed. I was struggling to think of what to say to her. Shit, when did I ever have this problem? What was wrong with me? I did my best to pull myself together. I needed to act right if I was going to impress her. I didn’t want her to think that I was just some bumbling fool tripping over my words when I was around her.
“So, did you see the article?” she asked.
I nodded. “I sure did.”
“And you’re still talking to me right now, so I guess that you liked it?” Her curly blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail. It suited her—brought out the sharpness in her cheekbones, the delicate curve of her lips. I noticed that there was a freckle just underneath her jaw, and I felt the sudden urge to press my lips against it, just to figure out how she would react.
“Yeah, I guess I did,” I replied. “You did a good job. Made me look a lot better than I deserve.”
“I figured that it was the least I could do after how much I pushed you in that interview,” she remarked. “I’m sorry about that, by the way. Guess I just got a little overzealous, given that it was my first big article and all...”
“I guess I can forgive it this time,” I replied, and she smiled at me. She had a seriously pretty smile, the kind that lit up her entire face and made it impossible not to smile back at her. I wondered, briefly, what she was doing at this end of town—the Kingston Press was pretty far from here, and she had to be due in to work soon. But that was none of my business. Maybe she was meeting a friend, or maybe she had just stopped into the local hipster coffee place for something to drink.
“I’m glad to hear it,” she laughed. “So what are you up to today? Not giving any interviews to rival papers, I hope?”
“Why, you jealous?” I teased her lightly. Was I flirting? I was totally flirting. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t want to stop. I could practically hear my brother in my ear, telling me to turn it off, that getting too close to someone was just asking for trouble, but I ignored it. It had been a long time since I had let myself just enjoy the attentions of someone like this, and I didn’t want to stop now that I had started.
“I might be,” she replied. “Or I might be worried that my strongarm interview was too much for you.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised at what I can handle,” I replied, and she cocked an eyebrow at me.
“That sounds like a challenge...”
“Maybe it is,” I replied with a shrug. I knew that I should have been wrapping this up politely and heading across town, but I was enjoying her attention way too much to even think about that. I had to find some other reason to keep her here with me talking because I didn’t want to see her walk away. Not before I knew that I had a chance to see her again.
“So that’s your first article with the Press, right?” I asked her, and she nodded.
“First one with my name really on it, yeah,” she agreed. “First one that my best friend got a copy of so that she could show it off to people.”
I chuckled.
“Sounds like a good friend.”
“She’s the best,” she gushed happily, and I knew that she would have been pleased to just keep talking about how much she liked this friend of hers. I was running out of time, and we were getting further and further from the point at hand.
“So your first article,” I remarked. It had been long enough since I had asked someone out that I had almost forgotten how to do it. But the fact that she wasn’t making her excuses to run along right now surely had to count for something, right? If she had been sweet-talking me like before, that would have been one thing, but she had no reason to be sticking around after she had already gotten her interview.
“Yeah...” she murmured back, twirling a loose strand of hair around her finger. I knew that she was waiting for me to come out and ask what was on my mind, but I didn’t know quite how to do it. Okay, I had waited long enough—and I had done far scarier things than just asking a cute woman out on a date. I could do this. No, more to the point, I was going to do this.
“How about I take you out this Friday to celebrate?” I suggested, and I saw the flush to her cheeks deepen a little. She grinned widely, so widely I was surprised that her face could contain it.
“Like a date?”
This was my last chance to back out and pretend that it was just something professional—but I didn’t want to do that right now. I wanted to take her out on a date, and I wanted to show her just how much more to me there was than what she had seen in the interview.
“Like a date,” I replied firmly. “You up for it?”
“Yeah, I think I am,” she replied. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the way her cheeks darkened, saw the smile spread up her face. She was seriously cute, and I couldn’t wait to get her all to myself when the time came. I had no idea how I was going to manage going on a date with a girl who made me feel like this, but I was willing to find out, that was for sure.
“Sounds good to me,” I remarked, and I checked my watch again. I could have stayed a little longer, but I didn’t want to say or do something that would have her re-thinking the date that she had just agreed to with me.
“I should get going,” I offered her. “But I’ll see you soon, all right?”
“I guess you should take my number,” she reminded me, and I slapped my hand to my forehead and nodded.
“Yeah, I think I should,” I agreed, and she fumbled in her purse for a moment before she handed me over a card.
“You have business cards now?” I asked, impressed.
“My mom had a batch printed out for me when I graduated,” she replied, shaking her head with amusement. “I think this is the first time that I’ve actually given one to anyone.”
“Well, I’m honored,” I replied. “Thank you.”
“I guess I’ll see you soon,” she remarked, and with one last lingering look, she brushed past me and headed off down the street, leaving me holding her card and feeling like I had just won the damn lottery.
Had this girl really just said yes to a date? It felt too good to be true. Surely there had to be some sort of mistake, right? But no, we were going to see each other this weekend, and I was going to spend the whole rest of the week counting down the minutes till I got to hang out with her again.
As I headed down to the office, questions started to pop up in my mind. About just how good an idea this was. There was a reason, after all, that I had held off on asking anyone out since I’d arrived here. Not through the lack of interest, since there had been plenty of that, but because I knew that letting someone get close to me might not end well.
But maybe it was time to let go of all of that. To let go of the fear that I had been allowing to rule my life for way, way too long now. Yeah, sure, I liked the idea of keeping myself to myself, but there came a point where I needed to actually enjoy the life that I had made. If I kept brushing off every woman who came near me, people were going to get suspicious—and I imagined that being seen as mysterious in a town like this wouldn’t end too well.
I could tell myself as much as I wanted that asking Sarah out was a good thing for my image, something to make sure that nobody would get suspicious about how much I had been hiding. But I had asked her out because I wanted a chance to get to know her better—because I liked the way she talked to me, and I wanted to find out more about her. I knew that she had to be holding on to some secrets, too, and maybe it was time that I worried about someone else’s for a change.
I made it into the office with a big-ass smile on my face, and I knew that everyone would notice it, but I didn’t care. Let them. I wanted them to ask me what it was about, because I had a date on Friday, and I was going to spend the whole rest of this week looking forward to it.
And I was going to keep it quiet from my brother for the time being because I knew that he would freak out if he discovered that I was spending time with someone. He was always the one of us who kept his head down and tried to stay focused on his work—I knew that he could have had his own harem of women if he wanted, but he seemed more cautious than I was when it came to this stuff.
But the two of us couldn’t live our lives as a pair of fugitives, on the run from what I had done in the past. I had better things to do than try to cloak my history for the rest of my life. I wasn’t going to come out and spill everything on this first date. I didn’t have to tell her anything that I didn’t want to.
But I got the feeling that a girl like that could have basically gotten anything she wanted out of me if she had tried hard enough. And I wouldn’t have a problem with that. As long as her interrogation techniques were a little more fun than they had been the first time around. I figured that the two of us would make it a night to remember.
