by C. J. Lake
Jamie sighed, taking the pad back, “You know, if you’re trying to be a douche, a lawyer impression is a good way to start.”
“Enough of this shit, seriously,” Pellican demanded. “Sky’s gone. There’s no point sitting around, drawing her picture and fucking crying into your pizza.”
Defensively, Jamie held up his hand. “I have never cried into pizza—let’s get that clear.” Then he walked to the door, snatching his keys off the hook.
“So we’re going!” Pellican celebrated.
“No, I forgot I have to get my laundry out of the dryer,” Jamie explained. “Come on.”
Even in the stairwell, Pellican continued his campaign. “O’Mally’s. Hot women. No pressure. What could be better?”
“No pressure?” Jamie echoed doubtfully. “You’ve got to be kidding. You only get eight minutes to try to impress someone. That’s pressure.”
“Oh, good news, they shortened it. It’s only four minutes per date now.”
“Four minutes?” Jamie said incredulously.
Nonplussed, Pellican nodded. “Yeah, you know, to cut out all the blather.”
“Great,” Jamie muttered sarcastically. They had just reached the landing of the second floor when Jamie stopped suddenly, unable to take one more step. “You know what? I can’t do this anymore.”
“What?”
“I’m calling Sky and I’m begging her to take me back.”
“What?!” Pellican yelped, horrified.
Patting his pockets, Jamie said, “Shit, my phone’s upstairs.”
“Thank God,” Pellican said with obvious relief. Jamie turned on the stairs to go back up to his apartment, when Pellican stopped him. “No, wait—Bardo, I can’t let you do that. I’m looking out for you, man! She lives in another country! You’re delusional right now.”
“I’m not.”
“You are,” Pellican insisted. “Look, sometimes chicks just aren’t worth it—take it from me.”
“What do you mean ‘take it from you’?”
“You know. Janine,” Pellican said.
“Actually, I don’t know,” Jamie corrected him. “You never told me what happened with you and Janine.”
His eyes cast off to the side for a moment, Pellican shrugged. “She cut me loose,” he said. His bluntness about it surprised Jamie, because Pellican was usually pretty cocky and full of bluster. Now he shook his head, clearly still affected by Janine. “Just like that. No explanation, nothing. I thought there was really something there, but…fuck it. Fuck her,” he finished, sounding determined.
Forgetting his own problems for a moment, Jamie realized now why Pellican wanted to check out O’Mally’s; he really needed to meet a new girl in order to forget about the old one. “All right, let’s go,” Jamie agreed.
“Yes! You won’t regret this.”
“How do you know?” Jamie remarked as they bypassed the laundry room altogether, continuing downstairs to the lobby.
“Because, how bad could it be?” Pellican argued. “It’s four minutes of your life.”
“Yeah—over and over and over,” Jamie said glibly.
“Look, do you want to be a smartass or do you want to get laid?”
“Um, preferably both,” Jamie replied. Although he was only going to O’Mally’s for Pellican’s sake, he supposed there was always the miniscule chance he could also meet a girl while he was there. Really, Sky was gone anyway so why the hell not?
~
O’Mally’s was an old-fashioned Irish bar obviously in the midst of an identity crisis. Juxtaposed against the battered, rustic charm was loud, thumping music that was heavy on bass. “When did they put in a dance floor?” Jamie asked, noticing the strobe lights in one corner.
Somewhere between the lobby of his building and the entrance to O’Mally’s, Jamie had developed a bad feeling about this. He couldn’t imagine being seriously interested in another girl yet, and now he would have to come up with four minutes of conversation for fifteen different girls when all he’d wanted to do tonight was watch the game and fall asleep.
Then again, it was only four minutes for each date. He could manage some small talk nonsense and get through this for Pellican’s sake.
Once he and Pellican registered and got number cards, they were assigned to chairs. The large center of O’Mally’s had been cordoned off for speed dating and tables were arranged in rows. Apparently for the first round, the girls were the ones who would move around, and the guys would stay in their assigned seat. “This is different than I remember,” Jamie commented, recalling the one time, years ago, that he’d gone to a speed dating event.
Then the timer started. The first few girls Jamie met seemed nice enough and he phoned it in pretty well, asking them about themselves, their favorite vacation spot, their jobs, anything to fill the 240 seconds. It was basically like a one-side interview, but with alcohol. He was really starting to get the hang of it when the bell sounded again and partners changed—and a very pretty blond sat across from him. She said: “Hi, I’m April. Now, instead of talking about me, I’d like you to tell me about your last relationship.”
Damn, she’d caught him off-guard with that. She hadn’t even let him try to steer the conversation into dull, safe waters. “Oh…” Jamie said, blowing out a breath as though trying to collect his thoughts. “Um…sure, okay.” April blinked at him, waiting, and he could tell this was her shtick; she delivered this line at the start of every speed-date. It was either her favorite ice-breaker, or it was a way to prevent herself from doing all the talking and being a dull conversationalist.
Either way, Jamie figured it didn’t hurt to comply. “Well, her name was Sky,” he said. “Not was—I mean, her name is Sky. She’s just not my girlfriend anymore. But I have nothing but great things to say about her. She’s seriously the most beautiful, fun girl I’ve ever met. I loved being with her,” he said with a thoughtful sigh. “Sometimes I’d look at her face and I’d just think, God, what is this amazing girl doing with me, you know?
“Maybe I should move to Canada. Yes…” he said, nodding, as the idea took shape in his mind. “Why not? It would solve everything! I’ll just become a Canadian—how bad could it be, right? Granted, I’ve never really liked hockey much, but hey, they have other things to do, don’t they? At least Sky would be there. See, that’s the hell of it,” he said with a dark, humorless laugh. “I broke up with her—but I still love her.” The bell sounded, which halted Jamie’s rambling. “Oh…I…I guess that was four minutes,” he said with a laugh.
“Um, yeah,” April said flatly, “it was.” As she slid off her bar stool she muttered, “Well, that sucked.”
“Hey…sorry…” Jamie called futilely and then sighed again, but his chest felt strangely hollow.
He was startled when he heard a voice behind him say, “I still love you, too.”
When he whipped around, his heart nearly stopped. “Sky…?” he said, shocked and almost afraid to believe this was real. Had he become delusional, like Pellican said? “What…I…” He rose from his chair and reached for her to make sure she was real, setting his hands on her upper arms, and she looked up at him with the sweetest, most earnest expression.
Goddamn, he could not believe it! She was really standing there, smiling at him.
Excitedly, he asked, “When did you get back? How long are you here for? Why didn’t you call me? How did you know I would be here? Or—are you here for speed dating? Shit, you must hate me.”
Blinking rapidly, Sky seemed to absorb his questions, before tackling them one by one. “I got back tonight. I wanted to surprise you. Definitely not here for speed dating. Elle was in the laundry room and overheard you talking to Pellican in the stairwell. And I don’t hate you, far from it. Did I miss anything?”
With a growing smile, Jamie said, “Yes. How long are you here for?”
“I’m back,” Sky told him, tilting her head and grinning at him. “For good.”
“What…I…this is…”
“Jamie, can you hug me already?” she said, sounding mildly exasperated.
“Yes, yes, of course,” he murmured, pulling her into a tight bear-hug, so tight that she let out a little laugh.
“That’s better,” she eked out, gripping him, too, “I sense even more muscle power in your arms.”
“I’ve been weightlifting my sadness away,” he said dryly, and Sky laughed.
“Hmm, not a sentence I have often heard at the gym.”
Laughing, Jamie kissed her neck, then her jaw, her cheek, her lips. “I’m so happy you’re here—oh, but wait.” He pulled back, just realizing he hadn’t even asked her what had happened. “How come you left? Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s good, really. I just…I finally let go of it,” she said with a sigh of relief. There was something final in her tone, as she went on: “The dream. The ski life. You know what I realized? The only thing I wanted to do was to ski—to be out there. Working for Luc made me see that I won’t really be happy watching others doing what I wanted to do. I know a lot of people who retire from sports are satisfied teaching lessons or coaching or working in equipment management or whatever, but it’s just not for me,” Sky said. “For me, if I stay in Luc’s world, I’ll always feel like I’m settling for second best of what could have been. I don’t want that for my life.”
Searching her face, Jamie asked, “So what then? What do you want?”
“Promise you won’t laugh,” Sky said, and bit her lip a little shyly.
“Why would I laugh?”
She sucked in a breath before telling him, “I was thinking of becoming a vet. In fact, I already applied to two veterinary schools near Boston.”
“Oh, my God, Sky, really?” he said, surprised. “That’s awesome! Why would I ever laugh at that?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe because it seems kind of random. But I’ve actually done a lot of thinking about this. See, I’ve always believed that people are good at more than one thing. So, why was I only fixating on skiing? Surely that’s not the only thing I could love.”
“Of course not.”
“I’m good with animals, and you know I’m crazy about dogs, so…” Shrugging, she said, “I thought maybe I could be good at that, too.”
“You’ll be amazing,” Jamie promised and hugged her again. “Wow, a vet. That’s kind of sexy.”
Her voice was deadpan. “Okay—random.”
“Life is random,” Jamie asserted. Then he qualified, “But with some fated moments thrown in—like when you stole my parking spot.”
“You gave it to me!” she yelped.
“Either way, we were meant to meet.” He paused for a moment, acutely aware of the pounding of his heart and the racing of his pulse. Sky was here. Do not blow this. “Hey…there’s something I think I was pretty good at. Being your boyfriend.” Pulling back, he looked imploringly into her eyes. “I promise, Sky, if you give me another chance to show you how great I can be at that, I will never screw it up again.”
Her face broke into the warmest, prettiest smile, as she clutched the front of his shirt and tugged him closer. “You’re right. There was nothing random about this. You were meant to steal my heart away—and to make me happy again.”
~ End ~
About the Author
C.J. Lake is a storyteller who is passionate about art, surfing, and skiing/snowboarding. Residing near the coast of Massachusetts, C.J. is currently working on a new book. Readers can get in touch via email ([email protected]) or follow C.J. on Twitter @brightbluesurf.
Please note: All the books in C.J. Lake's Attraction Series are standalone novels with no cliffhangers:
CONSTRUCTING US (Book 1)
A HOT WINTER (Book 2)
SKY HIGH (Book 3)
**Also just released: The Allnighter (My New Stepbrother, Part 1). This is a continuing story. Part 2, coming this summer!
