Ethan could not hold his laughter. “Truthfully man, a bit of both. I was in the store, the dress was there, it was pretty, and then I started to imagine the worst. I cannot even make my mind work like hers to fathom what the next shirt she would wear would say!”
There was still no smile on Holden’s face. “You have no idea,” he told Ethan.
His body language, relaxed now, softened the space between them. His countenance wasn’t so gruff nor was he in a defensive stance. “My bike was down and I had to get to a job interview. Janie took me,” he said.
The expression on his face had Ethan ready to laugh before the words fell from his lips. “She wore a fuchsia tee shirt that read: Deez R Ma’ Lady Nutz! The back was worse than the front and the front had arrows pointed at the tips.”
Ethan was choking back the laughter, “What did the back say?”
Holden’s mouth twisted as he spoke, “The back read: Mine are bigger than yours!”
That did it for Ethan; he laughed so hard his stomach hurt. What made it even funnier was the look on Holden’s face when he delivered the next few gems. “The thing that pisses me off more than anything was that she was right. I know I got the job because of her and that damned shirt. Even after I was hired, dudes I didn’t even know were asking me to meet my sister!”
The laughter stopped when Meg did a wolf whistle as Janie walked down the steps. Ethan and Holden both stood still watching her descend the narrow stairwell. Holden was filled with emotion because this part of being a woman had never happened for Janie. There were no prom dates or romantic dinners out. She worked. She maintained the gaps in the financial hole in the family. She never got to be a girl or get dressed up for fancy dates. There were no nice men in her life.
The way she moved in the fabric said more than her words ever could. In the dress, it was evident that Janie felt pretty.
Holden offered Ethan a handshake that was readily accepted. “You saw something that she needed more than any of us could have known,” Holden said.
Ethan’s stare was on Janie as he responded to Holden, “I think I needed this more than both us could have known as well.”
Legs which felt like lead carried Ethan to meet her at the base of the stairs. “You look amazing.”
“Thank you, Ethan. It is a lovely dress and the shoes are the perfect size,” she told him.
He extended his arm, saying, “We don’t want to overshoot our reservation time.”
“Reservations? You mean we are not going to the all you can eat buffet?” She asked with a smile.
“It may be our last good meal for a while, partner,” he said. “Let’s make the best of it.”
Ethan told Holden and Meg, “I won’t keep her out too late.”
They watched their big sister walk away. Neither of them had ever seen her like this. Meg commented first, “Was she wearing makeup, Holden?”
“And lip color...”
“Did I see polish on her toenails?”
“Looks like she shaved those hairy monkey legs, too,” Holden said.
The bookstore was quiet. “Do you think Mom and Dad would approve of him as their son-in-law?”
Holden did not miss a beat, “Who cares? Janie was happier tonight than I have ever seen her in my life. To me, that is all that matters.”
Meg stared out the window as Ethan opened the car door for her sister. “Holden, do you think he is a good guy...I mean, he is not going to be some user that is going to take her money and put us out of business?”
Each word was carefully chosen when he spoke, “I do believe that man is all about business. If it works for the business that is what he is going to handle first. Emotions don’t seem to be the fuel which drives him. I stood toe to toe intentionally challenging him. That man is results oriented. He did exactly what was needed to yield him the optimal results.”
“So he is trying to seduce her...” Meg asked.
“No, Meg. I think she has already seduced him. She has him displaying emotions he may not have realized he owned,” Holden said.
Emotions were riding high for Jimmy Earl as he watched the love of his life in fancy new clothes climb into the fancy car with the fancy black man. This will never do. That bastard is taking my girl out on a date.
Jimmy Earl knew he had to start making some plans before it was too late. In a little while Janie would be in love and sharing her body with that man. Once that happened, he knew he would never have a chance with her.
Chapter 12. The Rising Action...
Dinner was a welcome break from what Ethan was normally accustomed to dealing with over a meal—Kate pressuring him for marriage. Ethan had not really dated as much as he would have liked. He had a few past girlfriends and outside of Kate, all of the relationships had ended amicably. The ladies understood that the bookstore was his vision, but Bartleby’s was also his life.
When his grandmother passed, she left both him and Tallulah a nice chunk of change for college. He used half of it for his undergraduate work. A portion he used to buy inventory and to pay the first year’s rent on the store. It was a very hard year. So hard, in fact, he looked forward to those Sunday dinners with his parents to make sure he had one good meal during the week. The rest of the time, his diet consisted of cheap noodles mixed with cans of vegetable soup. The irony was he ate better in college than he did as a small business owner.
In his heart, he knew that merging these two businesses was probably going to put him back in that same spot. If the apartments above the Roxy were useable, he may have to sell his place and live there as well to save money. All of these things he wanted to discuss with Janie, but her head was in the clouds. She looked so lovely and the last thing he wanted to do was ruin this night out for her with discussions of business.
“You look so beautiful, Janie,” he told her.
“Thank you for this...the dress, dinner...you know I don’t date. That store is my life and every penny I have is put into making it work,” she said.
“Same here,” he smiled at her.
The restaurant he chose was a four star steak house with tablecloths, cloth napkins, and a piano player. He truly enjoyed the live jazz singer but had stopped coming there to dine because Kate complained that the singer was off-key. The one thing he always wanted to do was dance while the jazz diva sang and tonight, he hoped to get that chance.
“Janie, will you do me the honor of this dance?” he asked before rising from the table. In case she said no, he didn’t want to look like a fool.
“I can’t dance, Ethan, and I don’t know how,” she said.
He rose from the table and extended his hand. “Lean on me and I will guide you.”
Her blue eyes looked up from her plate and she asked, “In all things...?”
“In all things, Janie Cimoc,” he told her.
In his arms, she melted like a pat of butter on hot corn. His right hand pressed gently into her back, guiding her movements as his left hand held hers. Their bodies swayed to the music as the jazz singer belted out lyrics, slightly off-key and too pitchy in some spots, but not once did Janie complain. One hand rested on his chest while the other was placed in his as her heart raced.
He understood this evening was something special to her and he did not want to disappoint. Ethan kept the conversation light as they shared information as a means of getting to know each other. He watched her portion out her steak, eating half of the meat and veggies and boxing up the other half to take home. Frugal or broke? The financial portions of the merger would require close scrutiny going forward; this he knew. He also knew something else; he wanted to kiss her.
Badly.
After dinner, they left the restaurant, walking past a homeless man who asked for some change. Janie slowed her step, “I don’t have any money, but I can put something in your belly to get you through the night.”
The dirty old man grinned at her with missing teeth as she handed him her carryout box.
“God bless you,” the ol
d man said to Janie.
She in turn looked at Ethan, “He already has.”
Ethan was uncertain if his shoes had gotten tighter or his chest, but he felt bigger and taller, as if he had grown six inches in that very instant cradling a new understanding that Janie was a gift to him. How it would all work out, he was uncertain, but he drove her home pondering the possibilities.
“Where am I taking you, Janie?”
“Back to the shop,” she said.
“To pick up your car?”
“No, I live there,” she told him.
“You live in your bookstore?”
She tapped at his hand, “No, silly head; I live above it. I am hoping to have a similar arrangement at the Roxy.”
“By the time all of the repairs are done and everything is moved in, I may be living up there with you,” he told her.
When they pulled into the shop parking lot, everything was dark around the store front. Not safe. Ethan didn’t like it. “I will see you inside and make sure everything is okay.”
He stood watch, his back facing hers as she unlocked the main door. Inside the shadowy store, he could barely see in front of his fingers. “This is unacceptable Janie; what if someone was lying in wait for you?”
“Oh, stop being paranoid,” she spoke as she clicked on the stairwell lights. “You want to come up?”
Ethan looked around the store a bit more. Checking behind the counter, under the tables, just to make certain no one was hiding inside. “No, I am going to head home; we have a busy day tomorrow.”
In the soft light of the dim stairwell, never had a woman looked so radiant. Ethan was drawn to her. I’m going to kiss her. His arm slipped around her waist as he gently pulled her in close. His breath caressed her neck as he leaned in to inhale the scent of strawberries and peaches that clung to the strands of her hair. “You smell good enough to eat,” he whispered.
“You are moving pretty fast, Part‘Nuh,” she said as she leaned into the maleness of him craving his touch, wanting him to kiss her. If he did, in Janie’s head, it would be the perfect ending to a perfect evening.
Ethan was never one to intentionally disappoint a lady. His thumb stroked across her chin, gently encouraging her to open her mouth as he lowered his head, allowing his tongue to dart in between her lips, sweet like, but noninvasive. Janie moaned as she rose to her tiptoes to give him a full on kiss. Her mouth, hungry like a baby bird, continuously opened, swallowing, craving more. Greedy hands stroked his back as her nails razed across the cotton fabric of his shirt, sliding down his sides while collecting the fabric in a crumpled bunch in her hands. Her breasts pressed against his chest, wanting to be closer to him, urging him to get closer to her. Janie’s hands left his sides and moved to the front of his pants, feeling, searching, looking for the knowledge to size up the man, touching him until she made contact with her target.
He jumped back. “That is my cue to leave,” he told her.
“You don’t have to...I mean, that is a nice dangling participle,” she grinned at him in the low light.
Nature was drawing Ethan to her, but this was not right for the start of their partnership nor the right time for such intimacies. Too much was at stake and it could ruin their business before it even started.
“Good night, Janie,” he said.
“You sure you don’t want to bring that dangler upstairs to adjust my syntax?” She was laughing.
“I am adding a period to end this night and heading home,” he said. “Call me tomorrow so we can make arrangements on the taxes on the Roxy.”
“Okay,” she said. Her face implied something else needed to be said.
“What is it, Janie?”
“Nothing...it was just a really nice evening. I truly enjoyed myself,” she said.
He moved closer to her, “The best part was kissing you goodnight.”
“Yeah, you need to leave now with your smooth talk and silver tongue.”
It was a carnal gaze that curled her toes in her brand new sandals. His brown eyes made her body a solemn promise. “You have no idea, Janie.”
“Now you have me craving an infusion of your stalker virus,” she said as she pushed him towards the door.
“Let’s take this a step at a time, okay? That’s all I ask,” he told her.
There was more she wanted to say, but common sense stepped in and took over. “Janie is okay with that as well. Goodnight.”
It wasn’t fair. Ethan Strom was supposed to be her husband. It had taken six months of careful planning to get into his life and a whole year of nurturing him and prepping him to be her mate. Now, she sat on the outskirts watching like an unwanted interloper spying on a life that he was building with some blonde floozy. Kate was possibly one of the unhappiest people on the planet, and it was all Janie’s fault. Eighteen months of careful, meticulous planning, all stolen by her.
Kate had seen Ethan in her library one spring morning as he perused the new arrivals section. Through the aid of some common friends, she found out more about the man and his bookstore. The number of single, attractive black men in Venture was small, and a man like Ethan was even more of a catch. He was an old school kind of guy who did not have a string of women that he’d been with in the small town, unlike most of the others who approached her. Those guys had dated every loose pair of panties in the quaint little borough, but not Ethan Strom.
On a quiet Thursday afternoon, she wandered into Bartleby’s for a cup of coffee. Unobtrusively from the back of the room, she observed him interacting with his patrons. Nubile flesh in shorts and low cut blouses paraded themselves in front of him and she watched his eyes as he spoke with each woman. His eyes never strayed to their breasts or to watch tight little asses walk away. Curiosity led her into the book club discussion as he set the room up for the ladies, encouraging a hearty discussion, but warning the ladies about bad language. His smile was warm and Kate made up her mind that he was going to belong to her.
A few well-placed phone calls later, she had scored an introduction. Once she met him officially in person, she manage to score a date. A date to a mediocre steakhouse with a crappy jazz singer who nearly made her ears bleed. The conversation was good, the food not so much, but the company was divine. Kate called the next week to take Ethan on a date and he willingly accepted. It only took four more dates for her to get him into bed. From there, it was a regular Saturday night thing, dinner out and conversation with the evening ending with some good loving. But he never allowed her to stay the night and he never stayed the night at her place. She always assumed that it was because he was the Pastor’s son, but maybe she didn’t know him as well as she thought she had. Something else that bothered her more than she cared to admit, in the course of a year, his mother had never hugged her as she had observed Hester do with Janie. Hester had kept her at arm’s length, with careful word choices, but never had she been to the Pastor’s home or broken bread at their table.
A year and a half of my life.
Eighteen months of loving a man and planning to share a life with him; stolen. A beautiful life taken from her by an air headed, stupid tee shirt wearing, blonde trollop!
Ethan is mine.
She can’t have him.
I won’t let her.
Chapter 13. Laying Out the Setting...
By all accounts, the Roxy was in good condition. The termites had not moved in to create a walking all you can eat feast, there was no water damage, and the wood floors were intact. The real test revolved around getting two different types of bookstores into the space. The first thought that came to Ethan was to put the comics on the second floor, but if it were his business, he would want to be in the middle of daily floor traffic. He also wanted to see Janie all day, every day.
Get a grip on yourself, man.
She was an amazing woman. Today, she was wearing a blue tee shirt that read: You can touch mine, if I can kick yours. Armed with the power statement of a tee, Janie walked into the Mayor’s office and began a
hard core negotiation.
“These taxes are too high for that building,” she told him.
“I am giving you a good deal; you pay half now and do the rest in payments,” he told her.
“Or we can let that building stand there as a blight and do nothing. The traffic we would have brought to that area as well as your sister’s store will be gone,” she said.
“And what about your businesses?” the mayor wanted to know. “I made you the offer to save your businesses.”
Janie was not budging, “You made us an offer on two buildings you knew we wouldn’t take and the third was to help save your family’s business, Mr. Mayor. We will take the Roxy, but for three grand and not the $4500.”
“And what if I say no?” Mayor Galley asked.
For a woman who stood at five feet five inches, she stood tall in his presence, “Then I will finally get to go to college and Ethan will head to grad school.”
The Mayor leaned his chunky body back in his chair, which squeaked in protest every time he moved. Thick, sausage-like fingers interlaced together, connecting two fat arms over a bloated paunch as beady green eyes stared her down. Janie still did not budge.
“You drive a hard bargain there, Janie Cimoc,” Mayor Galley posed. He looked at Ethan, who said nothing. In truth, Ethan had been willing to pay the $4500; he loved the space and it was worth it to be rent free and own the building outright.
The Mayor looked at Ethan, “You feel the same way she does, son?”
“She is a tough business partner, and her offer is fair...all things considered,” he said. Does he expect me to want to pay more than I have to for the building?
The chair squeaked as the mayor’s rotund body swiveled back and forth in the seat. “Fine, but don’t come back asking for any more favors.”
Three thousand dollars later alongside a signature and the collection of a deed, and Ethan Strom and Janie Cimoc were the proud owners of the Roxy.
In the car, Ethan glanced over at her. “You could have told me you were planning to negotiate so I wouldn’t have stood there like some cuckolded fool looking like I was letting my woman do the heavy lifting,” he told her.
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