“Oh, well … sure!” I gave him my most winning smile and then handed over my money to the check out girl.
“Good luck with your dust bunnies,” she said as she handed me my bagel, and then I moved on down the counter to wait for my beverage.
I was about to tuck the stack of business cards in my pocket when an idea popped into my head. Why wrestle with my own dust bunnies if I didn’t have to?
“Excuse me?” I said as Adonis walked around the counter to join me and wait for his beverage. “Any chance you have an opening in your cleaning schedule today?”
He gave a little laugh and smiled at me. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Seriously, my foot is fine.”
“Oh, no,” I assured him, “I’m not asking because I feel guilty … I mean, I do feel kind of guilty about that, but honestly, I could use a cleaning service. I’ve been putting off cleaning my apartment for … well, too long.”
“Double iced venti caramel macchiato, extra whip.”
I turned to the barista and thanked her as I grabbed my drink. I took a quick sip and immediately felt more like myself. Sweet nectar!
“Ah,” Adonis said with a smirk, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it meant.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Something funny?” I asked.
“No, no, I just … I have a theory about people and the drinks they order. You can learn a lot about a person at Starbucks.”
“Is that so?” I cocked my head coquettishly, ready to turn on the charm now that I’d had some caffeine. “And what does my drink say about me?”
“Grande five-pump classic iced coffee.”
Adonis reached past me to grab his drink and then made his way to the condiment bar on the other side of the counter. “Uh, I don’t know,” he replied with a shrug, and I got the distinct feeling he was trying to avoid answering me.
That really got to me, and I was suddenly determined to find out what his harebrained theory said about me. “Hey, no fair,” I said, completely aware that it was a childish thing to say. “You can’t say something like that and leave a person hanging. Come on, I’m a big girl. I can take it. What does my drink say about me?”
“It’s stupid,” Adonis admitted as he tugged on the collar of his shirt. “Really, it’s just a silly game I play. It doesn’t mean anything … Now, let’s talk about your apartment.”
Fine. I would allow him to change the subject now, but I was determined to find out later. “It’s a small studio about ten blocks from here, with a full bathroom and kitchen.”
“All right, how’s $40 sound? I can have Karen there at two o’clock.”
Despite my current lack of employment, I had a good amount stashed away for a rainy day. I was quite sure this constituted—quite literally—as a rainy day. “Sounds great, actually.” I quickly jotted down my name, address and phone number on a napkin and handed it over. “Well, thanks!”
“No, thank you.” He smiled at me again and reached out his hand for me to shake. “I’m Adam, by the way.”
I took his hand and tried to remain calm in spite of the shock waves that skittered up my arm and down my spine. “Stacy.”
“Nice meeting you, Stacy.”
*
At one thirty that afternoon I began a mad dash to clean up my apartment. There was no way Karen would be able to dust and mop with all my crap lying around. I started throwing clothes in the hamper, books on the bookshelves and all my other random stuff into drawers or closets or under my bed. I was really starting to outgrow this apartment.
At the last minute, I decided I would do my laundry while Karen was cleaning the apartment so I wouldn’t get in the way. That decision meant that I needed to strip off what I was wearing and put on my “laundry outfit.” I pulled out the oldest, rattiest stuff in my closet. I wouldn’t be caught dead in the torn navy sweatpants from ten years ago at any other time than laundry time.
By two o’clock, the place was sufficiently tidy and I was outfitted in ugliness. Like clockwork, Karen knocked on the door just as the clock turned from 1:59 to 2:00. I bounded across the apartment with a shouted, “Coming!” and flung open the door.
Then immediately slammed it shut again. Oh, my God!
“Stacy? Is everything okay?” It was Adam. Why was it Adam? Why?
“Uh, yeah. Sorry!” I shouted through the door, knowing there was panic in my voice. “Um, can you wait there for just a sec?”
“No problem.”
I made a mad dash for my closet and started rummaging for anything decent looking that wasn’t in the wash. Argh! Why didn’t I do laundry more often? I had nothing to wear!
Okay, calm down, Stacy. You don’t look that bad, and besides, a guy like Adam is probably already attached.
Having convinced myself that he was engaged to a supermodel and wouldn’t have an interest in me even if I paraded around in designer underwear, I finally went back to the door.
“Sorry about that,” I said as I stepped aside to allow him into the hallway.
“No problem.”
I nonchalantly tried to bring up the topic of Karen. “So, what happened to Karen?” Smooth.
“Oh, turns out she had a last minute call back for some summer stock show in Ohio.”
“An actress?”
“Yep, I hire all actors. Kind of an homage to my former life as an actor. But I decided I’d rather eat than be on the stage.”
I laughed, wondering how anyone could have ever turned him down for a role on the stage. If he were in a play, I’d be in the front row every night just for the opportunity to stare at him.
“Well, I better get started,” he said, picking up his bucket of supplies.
“Oh, right, I …” I was about to tell him that I was going to get out of his hair to go do my laundry, but something stopped me. I didn’t want to go now. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to watch the hottest guy I’d ever met clean my apartment. This was basically female porn. “Can I get you anything?”
“I’m all right for now, thanks.” He flashed me a smile that turned my insides to mush and then peered around me into the main part of the apartment. “Shall I start in there?”
I turned around (as if I didn’t know what part of the apartment he was talking about) and immediately felt the heat rush to my cheeks. My living room also doubled as my bedroom, so naturally, my full-sized bed was the focal point of the space. And I couldn’t help but imagine Adam throwing me to the bed and—
Oh, goodness. If I didn’t stop this, I’d end up saying or doing something inappropriate.
“Sure!” I finally said, though probably a little louder than I needed to. “I’ll just…hang out in the kitchen.”
As Adam set to work, I slipped into the kitchen and wondered what the heck I was going to do for the next hour while he cleaned the apartment. I couldn’t very well go out and sit on the bed while he cleaned around me. That would just be awkward.
Cupcakes! That’s what I would do. I loved to bake, so I always had cake mix and frosting on hand in case the urge struck me. I pulled out the yellow mix, eggs, oil, non-stick cooking spray and one of my specialty cupcake pans (these would be in the shape of flowers), along with all the necessary mixing accoutrements, and set to work. Within ten minutes, the cupcakes were baking in the oven. Now what was I supposed to do? Darn my efficiency in the kitchen!
“So, what do you do?” Adam’s voice came from the living/bedroom. I was a bit surprised, but figured conversation would be far preferable to watching my cupcakes bake for the next half hour.
I peeked around the corner and saw that he had already made the bed. It was kind of weird and just a little arousing. And then a lot arousing when he suggested I sit on the bed. This was the best date I’d had in a long time and it wasn’t even a date. Good grief, I had a crush on my maid.
“Nothing at the moment,” I finally answered as I plopped onto the bed. “I’m … between jobs, I guess you could say.”
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“Well, what did you do?”
“I was a retail manager. Unfortunately, one of my employees was stealing from the petty cash and since it was on my watch, they let me go as well. Hasn’t been ideal as far as finding a new job goes. Full disclosure and all that …”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Adam said with genuine sympathy. “If it makes you feel any better, I was fired from my last job as well. Which is why I started this company.”
I gave him a cheeky smile. “Can I ask why you were fired?”
He gave a sheepish one back to me. “It’s really embarrassing.”
“That’s okay. I promise I’ll try not to laugh.”
“How kind of you.” We both laughed, and then he launched into his story. “I actually worked for a cleaning service, but as one of the cleaners, not the owner, obviously. I had a big job on a Saturday morning, but Friday night was my best friend’s bachelor party.” He paused and shook his head. “I still get nauseous just thinking about that night.”
“Yikes.”
“Yikes is right. Anyway, I never went to bed, so I went straight from a diner on the Lower East Side right to the job, and then …”
“And then?”
“And then I fell asleep. In the master bedroom. Of my client.”
I winced. “Yikes!” It bore repeating.
“But that’s not the worst of it.”
“I can’t imagine anything worse at this point.”
“Well, let’s just say I’d had one too many Kamikazes … and they ended up all over my client’s designer comforter.”
I gasped and threw my hand over my mouth. “You didn’t!”
“I did. My client found me about two hours later. Not a very pleasant way to wake up, I’ll tell you that much.”
“Well, you can take a nap on my bed any day, just try not to throw up on it.”
My heart sputtered to a stop as silence fell over the room. Crap! What was wrong with me? Had I really just offered him my bed? My cheeks were on fire.
“I’m sorry,” I said, flustered. “I didn’t mean … I mean, I was just …”
Adam laughed and went back to emptying the wastebasket under my desk. “Don’t apologize. That’s very sweet of you. Cleaning house can be exhausting.”
I stared at him, trying to figure out if he was teasing me or if he really planned to take a nap on my bed. I couldn’t help but hope it was the latter.
He looked up from his work and laughed again—clearly, he was laughing at my open-mouthed expression of shock. “Don’t worry, I’m only kidding. I won’t make that mistake again.”
Bummer. “Ha, ha … yeah, me too … kidding, I mean.” Wow. Our prehistoric ancestors could have put my speaking skills to shame.
The oven timer went off, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief for having been literally saved by the bell. “Um, I made some cupcakes. Would you like one?”
“I’m rarely one to pass up free food, especially when it’s sweets. I’d love one, thanks.”
I ran to the kitchen and pulled the cupcakes out to cool. It would be a few minutes until I could frost them, so I decided to clean the dishes in the sink while I waited.
“You know you’re paying me to do that, right?” Adam stared at me from the doorway.
“Oh, right.” I laughed nervously and turned off the water. “Just a habit, I guess. I’m not used to having a maid.”
“You know, you’re not at all what I would have thought based on your Starbuck’s drink.”
“Are you ever going to tell me what my drink meant?”
“Well, my theory is that the longer the list of specifications, the more high-maintenance. You had a pretty long list, you know?”
“Well, I did think I’d be cleaning my apartment today, otherwise I would have left out the extra shot.”
“Clearly, my theory isn’t very sound.”
“So, does that mean you don’t think I’m high-maintenance?”
Adam smiled and that was all the answer I needed.
“Listen,” he said, changing the subject, “I was wondering—and I know we just met and all, so don’t feel like you have to say yes—but I have tickets to a play tonight and no one to go with. Any chance you’d be interested?”
Did bears crap in the woods? “Oh, well, sure. I was going to do my laundry, but I suppose I could put it off until tomorrow.” Of course, I’d have to dig something to wear out of the laundry bag and wrinkle-release the heck out of it.
“Great! And maybe we could grab drinks afterward, if you wanted.”
“Yeah, that would be—” the greatest thing ever! “Nice,” I finished, thankful I hadn’t actually expressed what I was really thinking.
At seven o’clock that night, I left my dust bunny-free apartment and headed to midtown. The show was Off-Broadway and had some obscure title that I couldn’t recall just then, but that I would know once I saw it. By seven forty-five, I was walking through the front doors of the theater, soaked from the incessant rain. Adam was there already, looking even more like a Greek god now that he wasn’t wearing rubber gloves and an apron. Instead, he was dressed in a long-sleeved white linen shirt with a pair of loose-fitting khakis. His dark hair and tanned skin bore a striking contrast to his light colored clothing.
I picked my chin up off the floor as I approached and managed to sound somewhat calm when I said, “Hey there.” He must’ve been here a while already because his clothes and hair were perfectly dry. I probably looked like a drowned rat.
“Hey there yourself,” he replied with a smile. And then he leaned in to kiss my cheek.
My heart fluttered violently at both the proximity of his face to mine and the fresh, delectable scent of him. I wondered briefly at how I, with my Plain Jane looks and budget wardrobe, was so lucky to be on a date with a guy like Adam. Really, he could have had any girl; it didn’t make a whole lot of sense. However, I wasn’t going to question it.
“Thanks again for inviting me. I can’t remember the last time I saw a play.”
“Thanks for joining me.” There was a pause and a brief glimpse of shyness from him before he said, “I’m really glad you said yes.”
“Really?” I replied, unable to keep the shock out of my voice. “I mean, you hardly know me.”
“No, but I’d like to know you, if that’s okay?” His self-conscious smile made my heart skip a beat. Killer looks and boyish charm were a lethal combination.
I smiled back in an effort to reassure him that I shared his desire. I would have said something more, but the five-minute warning lights flashed.
“Shall we?” I latched on to Adam’s arm and let him lead me into the theater. We found our seats with the help of an usher and then settled in for the show. Much to my surprise—and delight—we were seeing the equivalent of a romantic comedy. The pretend romance happening on the stage must have sparked a little romance in Adam, because when we returned from intermission, he didn’t hesitate to take my hand. His was warm and large, and just a little calloused. I have no idea what happened in the second half of the show; I was far too busy dreaming about my future with Adam.
After dinner, we made our way to a little pub that Adam apparently frequented. It was off the beaten path, so it was delightfully void of tourists. We nestled into a cozy booth at the back and ordered drinks before we embarked on conversation.
We talked for a while about the show. He had a lot of insight, being an actor himself, and I loved to hear the opinion of someone who knew the business. When we exhausted that topic, Adam shifted in his seat and began to toy with my fingers, which sat casually on the table.
“I have a confession to make,” he said, and my heart sank.
Great. This was it. This was the moment he was going to tell me that he already had a girlfriend. Oh, God! Please let it just be a girlfriend! What if he had a wife? And kids? It would be just like me to fall for a guy that was completely unavailable. It had happened several times before, much to my disappointment.
�
�I never called Karen.”
It took me a moment to process what he had said and to get over my glee at the fact he hadn’t said anything about a wife or girlfriend. “I’m sorry?” I said, prompting him to repeat himself.
“Karen. I never called her.” He gave me that sheepish, boyish grin again. “I wanted to get to know you, so I decided I would take the job myself.” When I didn’t say anything right away, he said, “Oh, man. I’ve totally freaked you out, haven’t I?”
That was all it took to break my silence. I burst out laughing. “Are you kidding me?” His brows shot up in confusion. “I was terrified you were going to tell me you had a wife and kids and a big house in Connecticut. I’m actually relieved—and quite flattered—that you wanted to meet me so badly that you cleaned my apartment yourself. You know, you could have just asked me out when we met at Starbucks this morning.”
He laughed heartily and leaned back against the booth. “Well, that’s good to know. Would you mind if I asked you out now?”
I gave him a skeptical look. “You do realize we’re already out, right?”
“I mean,” he said, leaning in and lowering his voice, “can I see you again?”
“Ah … right.” I kept him in suspense for a moment before I finally said, “You can absolutely see me again.”
We didn’t know it then, but we would be seeing one another every day for the rest of our lives. And I would never have to clean dust bunnies out of the corners ever again.
THE END
****~
End to a Tradition
Jane Charles
We were in the home stretch of what I referred to as “couple’s holidays”, and I was nothing but relieved. It starts with Halloween. Yes, Halloween, with all of the cutesy couple costumes. Then Thanksgiving, especially if one does not have a family to feast with, and onto Christmas, then New Years. Everyone needs someone to kiss at midnight and no matter how much you may deny it, we all suffer a bit of a panic if we don’t have someone to lock lips with at that crucial second in history. The holiday frenzy ends at midnight on Valentine’s Day and this year, as always, I could not wait for it to be over.
Love Everlasting Page 4
