by Anita Claire
Texting back: It’s a short hike, but the road is dusty.
I’m thinking about last night and Zach, it was fun hanging out with those guys, and gelato was steamy. While in the pool I look over at lane eight and see Zach, Austin, and Kevin are all swimming. Near the end of the workout, Amanda waves from a few lanes down. At the end of workout, my goal is to watch the lane eight guys get out of the pool as I kick another length. God, Zach’s beautiful.
In the locker room, Amanda moves her bag near me. “Are you going to join us for brunch this morning?”
“Am I invited?”
Tilting her head and looking exasperated, she says, “Yes.” Amanda stares at me for a moment; I can tell she wants to talk about things you can’t talk about in front of guys. I’m not sure I’m ready to hear what she has to say about her relationship with Kevin, and I’m definitely not ready to discuss Zach with her. Hesitantly, Amanda starts. “It’s nice having another female around. Kevin is tight with his friends. We don’t really do anything as a couple.”
“So you and Kevin are…”
She takes a deep breath. “I have no idea what we are this week. Kevin doesn’t like labels.” She has a hopeful, but sullen look when confiding this.
“So how long have you two been … whatever?”
With an exasperated breath, she says, “like a year.”
Just what I thought, another woman who wants more than the guy is ready to give. It makes me wonder, do these guys get more involved in their relationship at some point, or eventually does one of them move on to a new relationship. Is it that they’re just not into the women they’re with, or are they just not ready for a real relationship? Zach seems interested; I hope he isn’t like Kevin. An undefined relationship won’t work for me. This summer, having Stephan being so cool towards me was all I needed to know about being in a dysfunctional relationship. I couldn’t imagine being in a situation like that for an entire year.
We head out of the locker room together. The guys are sitting on the wall waiting for us. Smiling, I get direct eye contact from Zach. This will be my life if I date Zach, is it what I want?
We have a heated discussion deciding which restaurant to eat breakfast at, finally deciding to head over to Crapevine again. Breakfast is fun; the conversation is lively. After breakfast, as I start heading back, Zach nudges me with his elbow, flashes a cute smile that shows off his dimple. “Let me walk you home.”
It feels comfortable walking with him. When we get to my place he says, “Do you have big plans for the rest of the weekend?
“Well not big plans, but plans for the afternoon and a soccer game tomorrow morning.” I don’t want to be too available and I want him to know I have a life. “How about you?”
“Yeah, I’ve some things to do.” He pauses like he wants to say something else but then says, “I’ll give you a call.”
I give him a shy flirty smile, and say, “good.” If another guy wasn’t picking me up in about an hour, I’d have started freaking out—wondering if that was a line or if he’s really going to give me a call. With Nate coming over soon, all I’m thinking is that I need to prepare for the next guy.
Chapter 41
Standing in the front hall, I’m thinking if we’re going for a hike and wine tasting, we should have something to eat. Realizing there isn’t anything fresh in my house, I walk over to the local market to pick up a fresh baguette, some artisanal cheese, and easy to eat fruit. Back home, I find my thermal bag and toss in a cutting board, napkins, wet wipes, and a knife. At least I’ve now made an effort at putting together a picnic. Changing into black running pants and a purple long sleeve running shirt, I lather up with sunscreen and apply my typical mascara and eyeliner. I’m about to sit down on the couch to read when I get a message: Just picked up my car. What’s your address?
Texting him back my address, I pray Cassie doesn’t show up. I’m not emotionally ready to have her flirt with my date.
Of course, I’m in an intense spot in my book when the doorbell rings. Not playing Cassie’s let them wait at the door game, I yell, “I’m coming.” Closing down my Kindle app, I head for the door. Taking a deep breath, I psych myself up. Opening the door to Nate and his intense blue eyes makes me smile brightly. “Hey.”
He looks at me for a couple of heart beats and in his deep voice says, “Hey.”
I clear my throat as a way to control my body from buzzing with excitement. “Come on in, I’m just about ready.” Ushering him in, I’m glad to see that he’s as handsome as I remember—dressed in dark gray cargo pants, sneakers, and what looks like is an Under Armor T- shirt below a light fleece jacket. As he checks out my place, it’s obvious he’s surprised by how nice it is.
With a tip of my head and a smile, I say, “The condo, the furniture, and the decorating is all Cassie, I’m just renting a room.” I point to the bag of food. “I just got us a light snack; you need something in your stomach before you drink wine after a hike.” While putting on my hiking sneakers, I ask, “Do you have a water bottle or do you need to borrow one?”
He looks down at me, “I got a water bottle.”
Standing up quickly, I grab my phone and purse. “Do you want to drive or do you want me to drive?”
“You know where we’re going, right?”
Giving him one of my direct looks, I say, “Yes, I hope so.” Lightening up my delivery, I continue with “It’s not too far from here,” then I point, “It’s just at the top of the mountain.”
“I’ll drive.” He offers as he picks up the bag with food.
After locking up, I follow him to a rented mid-sized car. He opens the passenger door, then places the food in the back seat as he heads to the driver’s side.
The next five minutes are spent steering him out of downtown to the road that runs perpendicular to the road we’re heading to. “At the end of this road, we will turn left on Foothill, then another five miles, and we’ll turn right on Montebello. I’ll point out where to turn when we get closer.” He seems to be relaxed letting me navigate. Staring at his strong, profile, I start a conversation other than navigation by asking, “So how was your flight?”
“Uneventful.” he clears his throat. “So, do you do this often? Hike and wine taste.”
“Surprisingly not that often, it’s a great way to spend the day, but living here I’m just too caught up in daily life.”
He smiles. “Well it’s about twenty degrees warmer here than where I live.”
“I’m sure in another month it’s going to be a lot more than twenty degrees warmer.”
He smirks. “That’s why I’m taking this opportunity.”
“So, what exactly are you doing out here?”
“I just finished my residency in orthopedics. This opportunity to do a two-year fellowship in sports medicine came up. I thought my fellowship would be a good opportunity to try out California.”
“So after, what, ten years of med school and residency you want to learn more?”
He chuckles. “Well, it’s not that bad. I did a six-year undergraduate medical school degree, then five years of residency.”
Quickly doing the math, this must make him twenty-nine. “My dad has a PhD, and I know he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. After six years between undergraduate and graduate school, I just wanted to get out of school and work.”
“Well that’s the same for me, I did six years, and I’ve been working. I just have to wait two more years before I can start making the big bucks to pay back my student loans.” He pauses, clears his throat again. “Really I would rather work slave hours with little pay for two more years in the area that interests me, than spend the next forty wishing I could work in another area.”
Thinking about what he said, I agree. “I get that, I want to spend the majority of my time at work doing something interesting.” We pass Stevens Creek reservoir. “We're getting close to the street we want to take. It’s up there on the right. I should warn you, it’s all up hill and all hair pin turns. The road is n
arrow, and there’re a lot of cyclists.”
“Wait, your taking me on a steep, narrow, twisting road with cyclist to go wine tasting?”
Chuckling, I confess, “Yeah, kind of an oxymoron.” Our eyes quickly meet.
He looks back to the road “I don’t think that’s the correct expression.”
“Well, what would you call it?”
He concentrates for a few moments, then shrugs his shoulders. “Ironic?”
“Ironic? Yeah, I guess that would work or maybe juxtaposed.” After a moment of silence, I say, “Just keep going till you get to the top, it’s four and half miles, and the road ends at a gate; that’s where we park.”
We don’t say too much the rest of the way up. Looking out the window between the trees, I can see Silicon Valley below us. “We're lucky the fog burned off, it’s going to be a great view when we get to the top.” I tell him.
At the top, we park. Grabbing my water bottle, I point to the gate. “It’s only a mile or two walk to the view. When I’ve hiked here in the morning, I’ve seen mule deer, coyotes, and bobcats. Fortunately, I haven’t run into any rattle snakes or mountain lions.”
He gives me a surprised look as he takes off his jacket and reaches for his water bottle. He has nicely toned arms. Surprisingly there’s a bit of a tattoo showing out of the bottom of his right sleeve.
We start walking silently together. My mind wanders as I wonder what his tattoo looks like.
“So, engineering, I take it you’re not driving a train.” He says with a teasing smirk.
Giving him a light elbow to the waist and a smile, I respond, “Yeah, not that type of engineer.” I think for a couple of seconds before I continue. Cassie’s voice is in my mind telling me not to be too geeky, but I want to be with someone who likes the real me. “Originally, I wanted to be a math major, but my dad convinced me to go into engineering and computer science. I like using math and programming to solve puzzles.”
“So what puzzles are you solving these days?”
“Well, I’m the new kid, so I get to do all the stuff the other guys don’t want to do, right now it’s mostly testing what they’re working on…. But…we have a problem at work. I talked to my dad about it.”
“The PhD engineer?”
“Yeah, he has three decades of experience on my team’s senior guys. My dad thinks they’re looking in the wrong place. When I brought up this hypothesis at work, I got shut down.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
“Well, I’ve already started doing it. Based on what my dad recommended I’m writing some code to help pin point where the problems might be.”
“So….”
“So, I guess my fantasy is to find the source of the problem that the senior guys can’t find. I just don’t know if that will help my career or hurt it.”
His eyebrows are knit when he looks at me, like he’s appraising me. “Yeah, politics are the hardest part of work to navigate.”
“Do you have a lot of politics where you work?”
He barks out a laugh. “You get two people in a room, you’ve got politics. I’ve been working in a hospital that has thousands of employees, lots of egos, and life and death decisions.”
“Yeah, dumb question. But being a doctor, doesn’t that put you at the top of the political heap?”
“I’ve been a resident, which puts me at the bottom of the heap.”
“So medicine and sports medicine in particular?” I question.
“”Yeah, I always knew I wanted to go into medicine. Both of my parents are doctors. It always seemed like the natural choice.
He takes a break to think, I’m curious about him, so I want him to continue. “And…..”
“And, Orthopedics, I like that it’s physical, I’m really just a carpenter.” He winks at me. Really, I’ve always liked sports. I’ve had plenty of sports injuries; all my friends have had sports injuries. I get athletes; frankly, I’d rather be dealing with patients that are using their body and working out. I don’t want to spend my day with people that are old and dying, or ones that don’t take care of themselves.”
By this time, we’ve reached the top. We walk over to the look out. “How familiar are you with the bay area?”
“Well, I’ve been here a few times; been to San Francisco, Napa, Monterey.”
“Tell me if I’m pointing out the obvious. It’s so clear; you can see San Francisco and the Bay bridge.” I point to the distance. “That’s Mt Diablo.” I move my hand clockwise, “and over there is Mt Hamilton.” I say, continuing to turn clockwise. “Below us, you can see Stanford’s Hoover Tower, and on the bay, you can see Moffat field.”
At some point, I realize he’s looking at me, not the urban area below us.
With my head tipped to the side and a smile on my face, I respond to his look. “What?”
With a slow smile, he replies, “Just looking at you.”
My chest constricts. Now I need to remind myself to breath. Emotions swirl through me leaving me feeling, shy, conflicted, turned on and hoping he likes what he sees.
As I slowly cut eye contact, I can’t seem to get the shy smile off my face. To give myself something to control, I tacitly bring my water bottle towards my mouth and take a sip. With a secret smile, I try to normalize the mood by being a good hostess. “Drink up; because it’s so dry you don’t sweat that much here. People from back east never realize how dehydrated they’re getting.” Making a show of it, I gulp down a bunch more water.
He’s still looking at me, from the corner of his eye as he drinks down all the water in his bottle.
“There’s a spigot with potable water.” I say and point. “Let’s fill up before we head back to go wine tasting.”
We chat about nothing in particular as we retrace our steps over the path we just took. Being with Nate is nice, even comfortable. When we arrive back to where we parked, he opens the passenger door. Then drives the quarter mile down the hill to the winery, pulling into their parking lot.
“I recommend we put something in our stomachs before wine tasting.” I advise, as we get out.
He grabs the bag I packed from the back. “You lead the way.”
On a small hill in front of the tasting room is a grove of trees dotted with picnic tables. We choose a place to sit right by the sign that says: Beware of Rattle Snakes. Nate places the bag on the table as I pull out the bread, cheese, and fruit. Over the next forty-five minutes, we enjoy the warm November sun as we eat and laugh.
After finishing the food Nate heads back to the car to put the bag with cutting board and knife away. As we meet back near the door of the winery, I control my nerves by acting as a tour guide and telling him the history of this winery. “Ridge was one of the original California wineries back in the 1970s that won in a wine tasting competition against a bunch of French labels. They’re really known for their Zinfandels.”
Nate opens the tasting room door with one hand, then places his other hand on my lower back, and guides me into the room. Through my shirt, I can feel his warm hand, it sends a shiver through my body. We saunter up to the bar and are informed that the tasting room has two different series of wines available. Nate tips his head, looks at me, and says, “Do you want to take one series while I’ll take the other, that way we’ll get to try twelve different wines.”
The first flight is poured, and I try my wine. When I reach for Nate’s glass, I touch his hand; it’s like a spark on my flesh. Wondering if he feels it too, I look in his eyes and know he does. There’s a low burning energy running between the two of us as we spend the next hour sharing our wine and listening to the pourer explain which vineyard was used for which bottle. We talk about the wines. I feel us getting flirtier as the time progresses. He brushes his arm against my arm. We keep on looking a little too long into each other’s eyes. At the end of the tasting, Nate buys a couple bottles of the wine we both liked best.
“My potential boss has invited me and a few of the other docs over to h
is house tonight for dinner. I figure this would be a good hostess gift.” He explains as we head to the cashier.
I nod and smile in agreement.
We head back to the car; he puts his hand against my lower back as he guides me out the door. It takes a minute before I trust my voice to ask, “You up for driving?”
He gives me a half smile as he says, “Yeah, I don’t think one glass of wine over the course of an hour puts me over the limit.” He guides me over to the passenger door, and opens it. I like his manners. He makes me feel like an adult, he makes me feel special.
When we get back to my house, he reaches in the back and pulls out my thermal bag and one of the bottles of wine. He looks at me. “Don’t forget your purse.”
Smiling, I say, “Oh, thanks.” Reaching under the car seat for it, I’m thankful that he reminded me. Looking at him, I say, “But I wouldn’t have gotten too far without my keys.”
As he walks me to my door, he hands me the bag and a bottle of wine saying. “I really enjoyed our day. Can I give you this bottle with the hope we can share it in the near future?”
Smiling I lean against the door. “Sure, today was a nice.” Opening the door, I feel him watch me. He turns to leave. Watching him walk away, he looks up before getting in the car. Giving him a small wave, I enter my place.
Closing my front door, I lean against the other side. With a big grin, I say to myself shit, two nice guys. Who will I choose?
Chapter 42
Plopping myself down on our living room couch, I try to organize my discombobulated emotions.
I Text Kelly: R u up for a recon of my love life?
About five minutes later Kelly texts back. Meet me at The Counter on University Ave, I need a burger—thirty minutes.
After a quick shower, I change into my usual skinny jeans, boots, and a long sleeve girly T then head out to Palo Alto. Even though it’s still early on a Saturday, finding a spot is tight as I drive to the top of the parking garage. As I’m entering the The Counter, I look around, unable to find Kelly I grab a table. While waiting for her, I read on my Droid.
