“Hi” Kit replied with a blush, her gaze running over his lips; remembering the feel of them on hers. “J.J. this is Jasmine” she added, tilting her head at her friend and trying to concentrate on the task at hand. “The wisest, funniest and pinkest friend I’ll ever have”
Tearing his eyes from Kit’s and taking a seat next to her, he said, “Good to meet you Jasmine”
Jasmine held out her hand, “Nice to meet you too, … Fido”
J.J. groaned and shook her hand, “I suppose you’re “the” girlfriend who knows everything, about everything?”
“Yep” Jasmine replied with a grin. “I know all about you Jeffrey Jones. The good, the bad and the ugly”
“Hopefully I’m more good than the other two options” he looked at Kit and added, “Although being bad can sometimes be a good thing, don’t you agree?”
Kit blushed once again.
“You didn’t tell me he was so cute Kit” Jasmine smiled at her friend. “Makes me want to go get stuck in an elevator myself”
J.J. flashed Kit a meaningful look, “I, for one, can highly recommend it. It can work out pretty great when you get stuck with the right person”
Jasmine sent him a thoughtful look. “Hmm. There’s one thing I was wondering about though, J.J.” she cut in.
“Oh, what’s that?”
“Just wondering why you let someone like Kit get out of that elevator and just walk away. If you weren’t Charles’ nephew, you wouldn’t have seen her again”
“Well, that’s not entirely true” Jeff bashfully admitted.
“How so?” Jasmine asked before Kit had the chance to voice the same question.
J.J. turned to Kit. “I got your phone number and address from the personnel department and I called you; twice in fact” Kit opened her mouth in astonishment and he continued, “You’d already left for Brandon Bay, I guess, because there was no answer. You really need to get voicemail, by the way.”
Kit finally found her voice, “You called me?”
“Yeah, I tried” he said somewhat reluctantly, “And then, lo and behold, there you were at Uncle Charles’ Gallery. Guess luck was on my side” He turned to Jasmine, “Does that answer your question?”
“Yep” Jas grinned. “I’m satisfied. Now if there’s anything you want to know about our girl here, just ask”
“Jas!” Kit said worriedly, glancing back and forth between their two faces like a tennis match. Maybe having the two of them meet wasn’t such a good idea; they could easily have her tied in knots in no time at all.
“You’d tell me?” J.J. asked Jasmine, ignoring Kit’s apprehensive looks.
“Sure” Jasmine replied seriously. “But then I’d have to kill you”
J.J. laughed and grabbed Kit’s hand, “I think I like your friend Kit Kat.”
After ordering and devouring a breakfast of coffee, bacon, eggs and English muffins and having a great time of it, Jasmine announced she was sick of being the third wheel and that she would take her leave. She had to go open up the shop soon, anyway. J.J. quickly slid into the seat Jasmine had just vacated and ordered two more coffees. Alone at last.
As Jasmine smiled and gave Kit the thumbs up through the window on her way to the parking lot, Kit let out a relieved breath. It seemed that J.J. had passed muster.
Kit turned and looked back at J.J. to find him contemplating her with an odd expression. “What?” she asked sharply.
“You’re an unlikely pair” he said with a smile.
“Some might say the same of us” she retorted, itching for any sort of revelation on his part. Of course she didn’t expect a declaration of undying love or any such nonsense, but it would be nice to know that last night had had the same effect on him, as on her.
Although J.J. admitted he’d tried to track her down after the elevator, his reputation was such that it could have just been the thrill of the chase on his part. The thought of possibly being the newest topic of conversation at the office water cooler Monday morning was too horrible to contemplate.
Jeff leaned forward and spoke softly, “Yeah. We are a pretty odd match”
Fighting hard to keep the swirling emotions from showing on her face, Kit was sure her inner doubts were about to be realised.
“Opposites attract and all that sort of thing” she said hopefully.
“Yeah” he said simply, looking away from her, out the window.
Following his eyes out the window, she wondered just what the hell was so fascinating out there.
“I have to leave after lunch” he announced with his eyes still not meeting hers.
“Oh?” Kit said with a sigh of dread. She didn’t like the sound of this at all. Had he been waiting for Jasmine to leave to let her down gently?
He looked back at her with concern. “Kit?” J.J. said, taking her hand.
“Yeah?” she said absently, not wanting to hear it, if it was indeed bad news.
“You know I live and work in the city, and coming here is not something I can do every time I feel like it” he said evenly.
“I understand” she replied, keeping up a brave face. When he looked unconvinced she kept on, “Really I do J.J. Long distance doesn’t work, I get it”
“I don’t think you do” he frowned. Kit swallowed and J.J. ran his hand through his hair. She had quickly picked up that he did that when upset or frustrated. “Kit Kat. The thing is; that I have to leave, but I don’t want to.”
“You don’t?”
He got up from the table and pulled her into his arms; the patrons of the coffee shop looking on with interest. “I want to make one thing clear to you, and I don’t care who knows it” he added indicating their audience. “We’re picking this right up where we leave off today when I come back, or when you come to see me in town; like I hope you will… soon”
Biting her lip, Kit cautiously fished again, “So you’re saying? …”
Their waitress took that moment to arrive with their coffee so they both sat down, noticing that their audience had lost interest and had gone back to their bacon and eggs. J.J. took a deep breath. “I’m saying I want to see where this goes. I think we’re an unlikely pair, but we could be really good together. And I’d like to explore that possibility” He rubbed his shoulder, as if in pain and whispered, “Just not in a parked car if we can help it. I’m too old to neck in cars.”
Kit smiled at that. All was right with the world. Jeffrey Jones, if she wasn’t mistaken, wanted to go steady. “I thought it was pretty sexy making out in the Lexus” she quietly said.
J.J. held up his hand, “Oh, don’t get me wrong; you fair drove me crazy last night; but you’ve got to admit, it was a tight fit”
Kit shuddered, thinking of all the ways she and J.J. could fit. She grinned innocently back at him, “And you don’t like a tight fit?”
Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, J.J. replied sexily, “Scratch that. If you want a tight fit, I’m the man for the job.”
Leaning forward, Kit whispered in his face, “Promises, promises”
J.J. gulped loudly, “And you said you were no good at flirting”
Giggling, Kit answered, “Apparently, only with you J.J.”
“Good” he replied mock seriously, “because I don’t want to come back here and find Jeremy or Barnaby or anyone else has had a piece of my Kit Kat”
“Am I your Kit Kat?” she asked with bated breath.
“All mine” he stated soberly. “And you have no idea how much I’d love to have a break, and have a Kit Kat right this second” J.J. suggestively mimicked the chocolate bar slogan with obvious longing.
“Oh give me a break!” Kit said with a chuckle.
CHAPTER 21 - Knee jerk reaction
Kit had always hated surprises. They had a way of blowing right up in her face, like an overfilled balloon. It was with this thought in her head that she decided to go to the city for the day and surprise J.J. at his office. GAG, she told herself, getting in the car and on the highway, before she could change her mind
.
Making an unannounced visit at McIntyre and Jones was probably not the wisest idea she’d ever had, but she missed J.J. like crazy after only three days apart. She needed a Jeffrey Jones fix immediately; he was now the official replacement for Ben and Jerry as her pick-me-up of choice. Just as delicious, but completely calorie-free.
Breezing out of the elevator on the upper management floor, Kit realised how out of sync with the business world she had become after two short months. Wearing a flirty floral number that sang of summer in the country, the difference between her and the women hurrying through the office in power suits was night and day. And to think she used to be one of them! She was garnering looks, left, right and center. But instead of feeling like a pariah, she revelled in her individuality and femininity. Jasmine would be proud!
Sidling up to the reception desk, she gave the haughty woman sitting there her brightest smile.
“Is J.J., I mean, Mr. Jones in?”
The woman looked down her hawk-like nose at her. “Mr. Jones is out to lunch”
“Well then, when will he be back?”
“I have no idea. Do you have an appointment?”
Kit lost some of her confidence. “Well, no”
“Then I’m afraid it’s impossible, he has meetings all day”
Kit opened her mouth to speak again, but the wretched woman had already mentally dismissed her, and was no longer interested in taking it any further.
Shrugging, Kit resolved to go see Charles at the Gallery in the meantime; maybe she could give J.J. a call from the Gallery; Charles was sure to have his cell number. She’d stupidly not gotten it from him before he left Brandon Bay, but she vowed to make sure she had it before they parted again. Calling him would spoil the surprise, but better to spoil it than miss getting her fix all together.
Pressing the down button, Kit couldn’t help but think about the last time she was in McIntyre and Jones’ elevator. She smiled to herself as she waited for it to arrive, wishing that a certain fella wearing a blue suit would join her as he did once before.
“Were you looking for J.J.?”
Kit turned to her left and was confronted by a handsome young man in a grey pin striped Zegna. “I couldn’t help but overhear you asking to see him” he added.
“I was; but I didn’t have much luck” she replied, pointing to the reception desk and the wicked troll who guarded the upper offices.
The elevator chimed and they both got in. Kit pushed M for mezzanine and she noticed the suit pressing the P for the underground parking.
“Don’t mind Wendy. She’s been with the company for years. The power’s somewhat gone to her head”
“Wendy the witch” Kit muttered under her breath.
Her companion laughed at that. “Wendy the witch; that’s a good one! Could be she rides a broomstick home, instead of a cable car!”
Kit smiled. “You wouldn’t happen to know where J.J.’s having lunch today, would you?”
“Sorry. I’d tell you if I did.”
“Darn” Kit frowned.
“But I do have a two-thirty meeting with him in his office today, so he’ll have to come back by then.”
“Thanks” Kit beamed. “Thanks a lot, um …,”
“Paul. Paul Jacobs”
Kit held out her hand, “Kit Davidson.”
Paul shook her hand and looked at her appreciatively. “Seeing’s J.J. is busy for lunch, how about joining me in a bite?”
“No thanks Paul, but thank you anyway” she replied as the elevator finished its journey and she prepared to step out.
“It was nice meeting you Kit. Maybe I’ll see you upstairs later” Paul said to her, waving as the elevator door closed and he continued on his way.
******
“Kit, how are you my dear?”
“I’m great Charles”
“My, don’t you look pretty” he said with a grin.
Kit twirled for him and took a bow. “Thank you kind sir”
“How’s the painting coming along?”
“Great” she replied enthusiastically. “I’ve worked out a schedule that, if I stick to it, will allow me enough time to get them done for the show.”
“Good. Good” Charles answered. “I hung your very first in my office, would you like to see it?”
“I would indeed”
Charles made his way up the staircase to the office of the Gallery and Kit followed close behind. She couldn’t wait to see where he’d displayed her first masterpiece. For sure it wasn’t replacing Vanilla Ice on his wall.
“In you go” he said opening the door to his office for her.
The moment Kit stepped into the room, she saw her artwork. It was on the wall behind his desk. He’d had it framed in beautiful mahogany and lit from above. Her depiction of the sea, when displayed properly was truly stunning.
Kit swiped at the tears forming in her eyes. “It looks so …,” she couldn’t go on.
“I know, my dear” Charles said in understanding. “You’re very talented. And thanks to Jeff, a lot of people are going to find that out.
Sniffing loudly, Kit wasn’t sure she heard right. “Thanks to who?”
“J.J.” Charles continued. “He didn’t tell you he had a hand in it?”
Her stomach fell suddenly through the floor. “A hand in what?”
“You being part of the Art Show, of course”
Kit sniffed again and shook her head slowly. “No, I didn’t know”
“When the artist I’d originally booked for the show bowed out, he convinced me to give you a shot.”
“He didn’t say a word” she said with thought. “And when exactly did all of this happen?” Kit asked suspiciously.
“Just after the first time I met you; when you came for the show in August” he replied smiling, unaware that he’d released a cat amongst the pigeons. “I tried to find other artists to replace the one I was missing, but I must say, J.J. was right; the solution to my problem was right under my nose. You, my dear”
Kit rifled through her memories of the party. The parsley; the cheese; his finger trailing down her back; it was all coming back now.
She’d told J.J. that she had started painting again and that Charles had bought one of her paintings. At the time, Charles had not committed to show anything she’d done; he’d just asked to see more.
Kit swallowed down the hurt that had formed a lump in her throat. Taking one last look at her painting hanging on the wall, she excused herself and made it outside just before her wall of composure fell.
“Damn you Jeffrey Jones” she mumbled. Here she’d thought she had real talent only to find out that he’d convinced his Uncle to show her work; that it had nothing to do with merit.
Kit angrily walked the streets until it was almost two-thirty, she then high-tailed it back to McIntyre and Jones; her fury escalating rather than declining in the interim.
Wendy the witch greeted her arrival with an evil cackle that Kit ignored as she swanned right past her and through the door marked Jeffrey Jones, Partner.
As she burst through the door, J.J. looked up from his desk with a look of surprise, then pleasure, then worry. Wendy the witch was on her tail, but he quickly banished her from his office with a nod. As the range of emotions flitted across his face, Kit failed to notice that Paul was sitting opposite him, and she let J.J. have it with both cylinders.
“Why did you do it?” she accused. “How could you do it J.J.?”
Paul stood up. “Maybe I should leave you and Kit alone”
Jeff looked at both her and Paul. “How do you know Kit?” he asked with a glare.
“We met in the elevator” Paul said simply.
J.J. looked at Kit warily. “There’s a lot of that going around lately”
“I’ll come back” Paul said, hastily leaving the office with a small smile in Kit’s direction.
“Now what exactly are you ranting and raving about?” he questioned, indicating that she should sit in the chair
Paul just vacated.
“I’d prefer to stand thank you. What I have to say won’t take long” If he wanted to hear ranting and raving, well she’d give him one doozy of an earful.
Jeff was now looking at her with a mix of apprehension and fear. “What is it Kit Kat? What’s happened?”
“Why did you convince your Uncle to show my work?” she asked icily.
Jeff looked at her in bewilderment. “Why do you say that?”
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