by Claire Adams
"Morning." He winked, and I smiled, trying to play nice as best I could.
"Morning," I mumbled and walked in as I breathed in deeply. The smell of old books was one of my favorites. That and a good strong cup of coffee was my idea of heaven. I couldn't help but wonder what Easton's favorite scents were. Our twenty-question game was cut off far too early, but it was my fault. I hoped to have the chance to reconcile that.
Taking the stairs to the third floor, I found an open cubbyhole desk with a computer that was working a few minutes later. Setting my stuff on the desk beside the computer, I turned and scanned my surroundings. It was quiet, and the place seemed empty.
"Perfect." I sat down and shook the mouse as I tried to think through what I wanted to search exactly. I'd looked up various websites on being a food critic, as well as degrees held by the world-renowned critics until I was blue in the face.
"Hmmm..." I tapped my hand on the desk as my thoughts shifted back to Easton. "That's it. Maybe I could apply at his company, and even if he never called, we could run into each other down the road when I was healed and he was...taken?"
I grumbled and typed in his name, not at all surprised when the first full page on Google was all about him and his critiques. The picture they had for his profile was stunning, his beautiful green eyes accenting the deliciously tanned coloring of his skin. Reaching out, I brushed my fingers over the screen and let out a shaky sigh.
"I miss you," I whispered, feeling like a creeper and not caring at all. I did miss him – horribly.
Getting a hold of myself, I worked through the pages to find the name of his company and dug down until I landed on their website. They were all over the world, and Easton was quite high up for his division. He was lead resort reviewer. He had a zillion accolades and awards next to his name; the last one was more intimidating than the one before it.
"No wonder his career's so important. Must make him feel like a million bucks to be so popular." I clicked a few more times to find his boss and the rest of the executive committee. The food critic Easton kept mentioning was on several pages too, but something about him didn't sit right with me.
"You doing okay, miss?" A thin older woman stopped beside me and glanced down at the computer screen. "Oh Wilmington and Branch. I love their reviews. We usually travel based on their ratings."
"Really?" I turned my attention to her. "I just met one of their reviewers over break. Seems like a hard job having to travel all the time, but I'm hoping to one day be a food critic for them, or for myself."
"Oh really? That sounds like fun, unless you had to try something you didn't like. That would be painful." She stuck out her tongue and grimaced.
I chuckled and nodded. "I thought about that too, but I'm pretty open to trying anything once."
"That's a good attitude for that line of work." She pointed to the top of the screen. "Check their open positions. If you can get in with them, you'll be set. They're on the top five companies for reviewers, writers and critics. Good, solid company."
"Very cool. Thanks." I smiled at her and clicked on the jobs length, finding open applications for all positions. I took my time and filled out an application for food critic, only pausing to type up a critique of La Mage's famous steakhouse to attach as part of my submission. I wasn't sure what the protocol was on submitting the review to the papers too, but I figured waiting a little while wouldn't hurt anything.
I clicked back to the bio on Easton and pressed my face to my hands, leaning toward the screen to get a better look at him.
"God, you're beautiful. Why would you even bother with a silly girl like me?"
My phone buzzed, and I almost jumped out of my skin. I glanced down to see his name on my caller I.D., and my heart almost stopped as I fumbled with the phone and tried to still my racing pulse.
"This is Vivian."
"Hey, Viv. It's Easton. I just wanted to hear your voice. You made it home safely, I assume?" His tone was neutral, but the sweet timbre that belonged only to him left me closing my eyes to savor it fully.
"Yeah. Sorry I didn't text. We had a seven-hour delay and changed gates several times last night. By the time we made it home, I was out of it. I just woke up an hour ago." I let out a short laugh, trying hard to keep things light between us.
"No worries. I took a red-eye last night and got in about two this morning. I didn't think you'd appreciate a call then."
"I was still up then, but I hear you." I took a quick breath. "I'm really sorry about not saying goodbye.”
"No need to apologize, but how about you make it up to me?"
"Okay. What did you have in mind?" I sat back in the small plastic chair and let my eyes move back up to the screen so I could look at his picture as we spoke.
"I'm heading out for Los Angeles at lunch tomorrow, but my night's just come open. I'd love to have dinner together and at least put some closure on our week, if that's what you were trying to do by slipping out in the night." He chuckled, but the sound fell flat.
I'd hurt him. I could hear it in his voice. It wasn't something I'd ever want to do to anyone, least of all him. Foreign emotions welled up in my stomach and pushed their way up into the cavity of my chest, threatening to choke me.
"Okay. Just tell me what time and where. I'll be there." I forced back tears as the possibility of a future with him in it danced around my thoughts.
"Let's see...it's two now, and I want a long night with you. Nothing more than dinner and a conversation, just in case you're worried." The sweetness in his voice left me wanting to apologize again.
"I'm not worried at all." I pressed my fingers to my lips and held back the need to confess a million things to the handsome man on the other end of the phone. I didn't know him well enough to offer up my heart, my bed, my tomorrows, but I wanted to. Maybe dinner would open the door a little wider and help me see if it was truly light that was working to peek through from the other side.
"Good. Let's meet at six on the dot." He coughed softly. "My favorite restaurant is Jaspers. Could we meet there, or I can pick you up, if you like?"
"We can meet there. I've not been there in years. My dad used to love to go for his birthday." I smiled as memories assaulted me. "Do they still have their passion fruit crème brûlée?"
"Absolutely. They'd be insane to remove it from the menu." He chuckled, and my smile widened at the sound of it.
"Good. It's a nice place if I remember correctly, so a dress would work?" I got up from the terminal and clicked a few buttons, closing everything out. I wanted to get home and make sure my hair, makeup and clothes were perfectly on point for seeing him.
"Yeah, a dress would work well. I'll see you then. Bye, Viv." He hung up, and I let the phone slide down the side of my face as my heart fluttered wildly in my chest.
I packed up quickly and jogged down the stairs toward the ground level. I collected a few dirty looks, but I didn't care. My entire body was buzzing with anticipation of seeing Easton in New York. I figured that he had lots of great promises to give while we were on vacation, but that it would be highly unlikely that we'd see each other once we got home.
I called Casey and didn't wait for her to get out much more than hello.
"He called. He got in last night, or really this morning around two. He didn't think I was up, but he just called." I was breathless and overly excited.
"Viv. Hold up. Who called and where are you? You sound like you're in the middle of a wind tunnel."
"Sorry. I'm in front of the library. Easton called. He wants to have dinner tonight." I ran my fingers through my hair as the wind picked up and tugged strands of it from the braid I'd forced it into.
"Oh nice! I knew you guys weren't done just because vacation was over." She laughed joyfully. "Are you going to stay with him tonight?"
"No. I'm not ready for that." I jogged to the car, trying to avoid the groups of students that stood around talking or skateboarding down various ramps.
"Not ready for that? You guys
fucked at the hotel, right?" Casey always was one to shoot straight regardless of the shock factor.
"Made love. We didn't fuck." I growled into the phone. "You're so vulgar sometimes."
"You love it. Making love is good." She huffed. "Why wouldn't you spend the night with him? A great dinner, bottle of wine, good conversation, and then sex. Hello."
"Sex complicates things, Case. Shit." I got in the car and wrapped my arms around myself. "It's freezing here."
"Yeah, a late winter cold-front just blew in yesterday from what my mom said. Stop changing the subject. Sex doesn't complicate things, it softens them. He deserves a chance. He's not Jackson, and you're not the same girl that fell in love with a thirteen-year-old boy who lived down the street. Things change, Viv. People change."
"I applied for a job at his company. I probably shouldn't have, and I don't believe in fate, but just in case it is real, I didn't want to chance it." I started the car and flipped the heater on high.
"That's a great idea, but I'm not thinking you're going to need to help fate out at all. The guy just called you after you not only left him alone in a hot tub the night before, but didn't even have the balls to say goodbye."
"How is it that you always make me feel so much better?" I let all the sarcasm I could muster sink into my voice as I turned and backed the car out of my parking spot.
"We've been friends since you could walk. I'm not telling you what you want to hear. I love you too much for that shit."
"And what do I want to hear?" Frustration pumped through me. Why did I call her again? She was always the voice of reason to a fault.
"You want to hear that the two of you will cordially part ways and remain friends until you're healed and he's settled into a schedule that doesn't have him flying all over the world."
"How do you do that? It's annoying." I stopped at the stoplight in front of me and crossed my free arm over my chest while I waited for the green light.
"I know you, remember?"
"Why can't that be the future, though? That sounds so much better than all the other options that have played through my head."
"Because it doesn't work like that. Someone is going to steal his heart or yours if you don't leave your fear behind you and try this out with him. It's stacking up to be something incredible, Viv. Stop pushing him away. Give this a chance."
"I can't." I shook my head and gripped the steering wheel as I hit the gas. "I don't know how to."
"It's natural to think that you don't, but you do. Go with the flow, and make decisions with him based on the fact that he loves you and wants to be a part of your future."
"What if he doesn't though?" I realized how stupid I sounded, but we were too far into the conversation to stop now. "Then what?"
"Then we move on, but you're not even giving him a proper chance. Let your guard down. Promise me that you'll try tonight."
I nodded and let out a sigh of resignation. "I'll try, but that's all I've got right now."
"That's good enough."
Chapter 24
Easton
Just hearing her voice left me wanting to find her wherever she was. Warmth infused me as I dropped the phone on the couch next to me, and I let out a long groan, closing my eyes and thanking the stars that she answered and agreed to see me.
I needed to work on a good handful of write-ups for work but having something take most of my afternoon was going to work out well. Keeping my mind on task and off of Vivian was going to be the trying part.
I worked diligently and wrapped up my portfolio of write-ups for Miami by four-thirty. After packaging everything up nicely, I got in the shower and cleaned up quickly. I wanted to get to the restaurant a little early with flowers so I could make sure the dinner went exactly as I had planned in in my head the night before.
She deserved so much more than I felt like I had to offer, but I was going to pull out the stops and see if it didn't push her a little more in my corner. I'd take as long as she wanted me to, but I needed another night in her arms soon. She brought me to life in ways that I couldn't remember feeling for a long time. Everything was a little brighter, my mood much better, my disposition much more giving.
I dressed in black pants and a dark green button-down, hoping the outfit would scream class and yet comfort. I tugged on a heavy black jacket and decided to forgo the tie. The owner of the restaurant was a friend of mine from college, his father having given him the place when they decided that traveling was something he and his wife would rather be doing.
A driver picked me up forty-five minutes before six, and I was itching to get there and get everything set up. I wanted a driver in case we had a few too many drinks. We'd have a quick, responsible way to get back to my place.
"I need to stop by the flower shop on tenth and Johnson." I leaned forward and looked up to catch the driver's eye in the rear-view mirror.
"Not a problem, Sir." The guy tipped his hat to me and pulled out of the circle drive in front of my building.
After grabbing a dozen white and red roses, I got back in to the Lincoln and forced myself to relax. This wasn't a first date, nor was it a blind date. I knew Vivian as much as she'd let me know her. I was quite positive that she was the girl of my dreams though. That was the reason I couldn't stop my leg from bouncing, my heart from fluttering incessantly in my chest.
"Here we are, Sir. I'll be waiting in the valet parking lot. Just text when you're ready and I'll drive right up for you." The driver turned and smiled at me. "That okay?"
"That's perfect. Thank you." I got out of the car and walked into the restaurant as Jared turned and clapped his hands together.
"Easton Parks. You old dog." He laughed and reached out to shake my free hand.
"Jared. How are you, my friend?" I smiled and gave him a quick hug.
"I'm excellent. Now, you're here on a date, right? No critiquing my shit tonight?" He reached for the flowers. "Let me have these. Lucky girl..."
"It's a bit more complicated than that, but it's a date slash job interview. I want to get this girl a job with my company, but I need to see her in action. It's a date because I want her in my life."
"For the long haul?" Jared glanced over his shoulder. "You know your momma would be thrilled."
"I think so, but we just met a week ago. I need to get to know her a little better, but everything I've seen so far leads me to believe that she's the one." I chuckled. "Yeah, my mom's actually being reserved with this girl for some reason. She's been pushing at me so long, that having me actually find someone would leave her with nothing to bitch at me about. Then what would she do?"
"Start in on your brothers. You're just first in line. You know that." Jared smiled. "Come on back. Let me show you the room."
I stopped by the open door at the back of the restaurant and smiled. "This is perfect. Are you letting me use this private room tonight?"
"It's all yours, buddy." Jared glanced at a server who was working on the table. "Put these in a few vases and make the room look romantic. Low lights and such."
"Thanks, man." I let out a long breath. "I'm nervous."
"You? No fucking way." He turned and walked toward me, brushing down the front of my jacket. "There's nothing to be worried about. You're Easton Parks. There wasn't a girl at NYU that wouldn't have dropped her panties for you. I'm more concerned for the girl."
I laughed and pushed at him. "Get the fuck outta here. She's a tall, beautiful redhead. Her name is Vivian."
"I like her already." Jared patted my chest once more and walked to the door. "The menus are on the table. Just order whatever you want. It's on the house."
"No. I got this." I reached for him, but he turned, leaving me to grasp air.
"You're one of my good friends from college, East. It's not happening. Enjoy and good luck with the girl. I hope she's worth a good guy like you." He closed the door behind him as I picked up a menu and scanned it.
"It's me that needs to be worth her time and effort." I started to
run my fingers through my hair and stopped. I'd put a little bit of gel in it and didn't want it jacked up before she got there.
Twenty minutes later, a knock sounded on the door behind me, and I moved to open in.
"Hi," I spoke softly as my eyes moved down her delicious figure. Her cream-colored dress looked like a summer day on her. "Beautiful."
"Thanks. This is incredible." She pressed her hand to my chest and looked up at me. "What are you up to?"
I laughed and bent down, kissing her cheek once before moving back. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
I moved back and her breath caught in her chest. "Easton."
"It's okay. Just a dinner and a bit of fun. I love overdoing things, but I didn't get a chance to in Miami. Let me have my fun, and you just relax and enjoy the evening. I ordered us a four-course meal to share. That okay?" I took her coat as she slid it off her shoulders. The dress hugged her breasts tightly and fanned out, but had no sleeves or straps. I yearned to press my lips to her shoulders and taste her skin again.
Soon. Chill the fuck out.
"Okay. I can do that." She sat her purse down on an empty chair near the door and walked to the table, leaning over and smelling the roses. "I don't remember this restaurant doing all of this."
"They don't." I pulled back a chair and nodded toward it. "Sit down and let's eat. We can play our twenty questions game and perhaps get through more than two questions."
She chuckled as she sat down. "Yeah, maybe we could start on something other than marriage and kids."
I moved around to take my seat, but paused to pull my jacket off. I loved the way she watched me, as if she were in a slight trance. If I were a third party observer, I'd have figured her to be as taken with me as I was with her. I could only hope my assessment was true.
"Okay, here's the other thing I want to do." I pulled my napkin into my lap, leaning forward to engage the beautiful girl a little more. "Let's have you critique each dish and then either I can write it up, or you can. I'd love to see how well your tastes align with my own reviews of Jaspers. I owe the owner another round of reviews on the place in a few weeks, and I refuse to send Kevin here."
