“For who? You? Because it is not the best thing for this community. Not one bit.”
She folded her arms across her chest as I exhaled. A part of me wanted to tell her that I didn’t owe her an explanation for what I wanted to do with my business, but another side of me appreciated her boldness. The way she approached me, not worried about who I was or the stature that I carried with me. None of that mattered to her. She was passionate about what she believed and regardless of what could happen, she was going to tell me how she felt. That was something that drew me to her even more than her beauty.
“In the long run, Ms. Harper, you will see it. Once this area is filled with businesses and money is pumped into this community, you will see what happens. It will be like a renaissance here in north Dallas.”
“A renaissance?” she said as she huffed. “Whatever you say, Mr. Hilton. Listen, I have some things to do, you know? A job to look for. People to worry about. You have a nice day.” She turned around and headed back towards the stairs as my eyes glued to her behind.
“Oh, Ms. Harper,” I said, causing her to turn back around. “Thank you for my phone. I owe you.”
She walked up the steps as she spoke, “no, you don’t owe me a thing.”
Chapter 4
HARPER
Half of my things were packed in boxes when Monday strolled around. Travis’s final day was on last Friday, and until everything was official, I was the community director. It was very bittersweet for me, though. Packing up my things just so I could move a few offices down for a couple more weeks. It was all pointless, but when I thought of the people we helped here, I felt as though I owed it to them.
There was a quick knock on my door. Gloria didn’t give time for me to answer before she barged in with a giddy smile on her face. “Guess, guess, guess what!?”
I exhaled as I unloaded picture frames out of the box on my desk. “Why are you coming in here with all of that energy? The kids aren’t even coming today.” She snatched the picture frame out of my hand and tossed it into my box, nearly cracking the glass. “Gloria!” I snapped, “what is wrong with you?!”
“Oh, hush! Zip, zip, zip it up! Guess who is downstairs requesting to speak to you?”
“Who?”
She folded her arms over her chest, “I said guess, girl!”
“Gloria, if you don’t tell me who it is, the only guess I will make is how many times I am going to punch you in the face!” I balled my fist and tried to look tough. I had held the facial expression for four seconds before I folded into laughter. “Girl, what is it?!”
“That tough girl routine doesn’t work on me, Harper. You already know that. Buuuuuut, Mr. Hilton is downstairs right now wanting to speak with you.”
“What?” Travis had a large window that overlooked the first floor of the building. I walked towards it and peeked from behind the blinds. Jordan stood on the ground floor, dressed in a gray, tight cut Italian suit. I could see his chest bulging from beneath the suit coat before I closed the blinds. “Ugh, what does he want? I don’t have anything to say to him.”
Gloria walked towards me. “Are you serious? Look, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this man has a thing for you. He must be down with the swirl!” I shook my head as she kept talking. “What? That wasn’t funny?” I lowered my eyes, unimpressed with her attempt at a joke. “Anyway,” she picked up again, “go down there and see what he wants.”
I huffed, then headed to the door. “Fine. I’ll see what he wants.”
“Go, girl. I’ll be up here watching.”
As I walked down the stairs, Jordan stood in the same spot he did when he came to retrieve his phone a couple of days ago. I dreaded every step I took closer to him. To me, he was nothing more than a money hungry jerk who didn’t care who or what he had to do to make his dollar. I didn’t care how attractive he was because he would always be the scum of the earth to me.
I forced a manufactured smile onto my face when I made it down the stairs. “Mr. Hilton, it is a surprise to see you here again. Did you come to start knocking the building down a little earlier?” The sarcasm was thick with each word I spoke.
He chuckled. “Ha, that is ummm, that is funny, but no. I came here to speak to you.” He checked his watch. The diamonds sparkled under the lights in the hallway, but I was unimpressed. “What time do you take your lunch?”
“I am free to go whenever I please.”
He smiled. “Well, how about I accompany you to lunch today?”
I looked to my right and shifted my eyes just high enough to look inside my old office. I could see the corner of the blinds pulled back, and I knew Gloria was up there watching with a hawk eye. I turned back to Jordan. “Hmmm, no. I mean, I’ve got a lot of things to do today, Mr. Hilton. Looking for a job, making sure the residents around here have other options to turn to since this building won’t be here for long.” I smiled out of annoyance.
“Yeah, see, that is what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Well, if you come up to my office, we can–”
“Harper, it is a beautiful day outside, and I know a place that you would enjoy. Seafood, right?”
My eyebrows slid together in the middle of my forehead, “how did you know I liked seafood?”
“I have my ways.”
There was a brief silence between us before he spoke up again, “Please? Remember, I owe you for returning my phone and, being a man of my word, I want to pay what I owe.”
“Jordan, I–”
He looked at his watc., “So, I’ll be in the car waiting for you. My driver is parked right out front, and as soon as we are done, I will have him escort you right back here so you can finish your work. No harm, no foul.” I watched him as he stood in front of me. His boyish smile sent me back to the feelings I had for my high school crush. It was innocent. Harmless. “Ten minutes. I’ll be waiting.”
“But Jordan, I–” he walked out of the building and closed the door on my sentence before I could finish. I made it back to my office as Gloria waited by the door anxiously like a puppy waiting for its master to return home.
“So, what did he say? What did he say?”
“This fool asked me for a date.”
“A date?!” she said with a smile. “Alright! Yes! What did you tell him?”
“I told him no, but it was like he didn’t care. He said he was outside waiting for me and that I had ten minutes, but I told him no. I am not going.”
Her eyes lowered. “What? Why? Why would you tell him no?”
“Because. I don’t want to go anywhere with him. Why should I?”
Gloria walked to me as I stood behind my desk, aggressively moving items into the box. Her arm slid around my shoulders. “Do you not see what I see? I mean, seriously?” She exhaled. “Listen, all you have to do is go out with him–”
“Gloria–”
“–No, just hear me out. Go out with him. Flirt with him a little bit, you know? Show him a little thigh. A little boob. Brush your leg against his under the table. You know, girl, like you used to do before you turned into this old 27-year-old geezer.”
“Whatever.”
“No, seriously. Maybe you can be the one to get him to change his mind about tearing the center down. You know that the queen controls the heart of the king, and I am not saying you are his queen or anything like that, but I’m saying that a woman when she uses her powers for good, can have a positive effect on men.” She removed her arm from my shoulder, and suddenly, the normal easy-going behavior she usually exhibited was gone. Her tone was sincere. “I mean, just try, you know? I don’t want this center to come tumbling down like the London bridge. Just do what you can, alright? Talk to him and see what happens. That is all I am asking.”
I tapped my foot against the ground as she stood in front of me, silently pleading with her sad, puppy dog eyes. “Fine,” I said. “Fine. I’ll go. I’ll see what I can do.”
She wrapped her arms around me, then kissed me o
n the cheek. “Thank you. Now,” she said, pulling my top down to show more of my cleavage, “let the girls get a little air. He seems like an ass man, but you never know. He could be a titty man. And don’t act all snobby either! Be friendly!”
I smacked her hands, “Gloria, get away from me! Stop!” She laughed as I grabbed my purse and headed downstairs. She was right, though. Maybe I would be able to convince him to keep the building up. It was a long shot, but it was worth a try.
***
I walked outside into the blazing heat as Jordan’s car was parked near the curb. A man stepped outside from the front of the car and walked around to the side where he held the door open for me. “Ma’am,” he said with a smile, “my name is Kurt, and I will be your driver today.”
He extended his hand to help me inside of the vehicle. “Thank you,” I said as I stepped inside. White leather covered the spacious back seats. Cool air swirled around in the back, a sharp contrast from the aggressive Texas heat. Jordan sat on the other side with a smile on his face as he looked at his watch.
“You know, for a second, I thought you weren’t going to come.”
I placed my purse on the leather seat. “I wasn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because, Jordan… or, Mr. Hilton–”
“Jordan is fine.”
I smiled. “Right. Well, Mr. Hilton, I just didn’t believe we had anything to talk about, and I really don’t like to mix business with pleasure, so I was against it. We are obviously from two opposite ends of the spectrum and I know we wouldn’t have anything to discuss.” I folded my arms and leaned against the back seat as the car smoothly transitioned from the street to the freeway.
I glanced outside as we traveled on Highway 635 and it took a few minutes before I realized the thick silence that sat between us. When I shifted my attention towards him, he was smiling. It was a smile that said he wasn’t intimidated by me. Gloria was right, I could come off like a snob, especially with men that I didn’t like. I took a deep breath as her words replayed in my mind. “Just try it, ok? For the community center. Don’t be a snob.”
I forced myself to loosen up. “So,” I said, glancing at his tattoos. “When did you get those?”
“Oh, these? When I was younger. I was kind of a troublemaker before I settled down. I got these tattoos when I was twenty. They really don’t mean anything, I just like the designs.”
I looked at them closer as we whisked past buildings. “If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”
“Twenty-nine. I’ll be thirty in October.”
“Twenty-nine, huh? A billionaire at twenty-nine? Must’ve had a silver spoon along the way.”
He laughed as he reached into his compartment and grabbed a bottle of champagne. He lifted a glass, silently asking me if I wanted a drink, but I declined. He slid one of the two glasses back into the compartment and used his steady hand to pour a drink. I thought he would spill it, but surprisingly, nothing went awry. “Quite the opposite,” he said. “I hustled when I was younger. I was about twenty-one at the time. I got locked up because of it.”
My eyebrows lifted to the middle of my forehead. That was the last thing I expected to hear from him. “Don’t look surprised. What? Do you think a pretty boy like myself would never get involved with anything like that?” He laughed as he took a sip of his champagne.
I was intrigued.
“I just met the wrong guys and got mixed up in the wrong things. I was always good with numbers, though. Good with math and things like that. My uncle, a long time ago before he passed away, he was into stocks and bonds. He showed me the ropes during the time I was hustling, and I know he thought it was going in one ear and out the other, but no. I listened.”
The middle window rolled down in the midst of our conversation. “Sir,” the driver said, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but it seems we’ve hit a patch of traffic. We’ve got about thirty minutes before we arrive at the location because of the backup. Would you like to go to a different restaurant?”
“Shoot,” Jordan said as he snapped his fingers. He looked at me, “do you have any suggestions?”
“I know a place,” I said. “Rudy’s chicken.”
“In Oak Cliff?” he asked with his eyebrows scrunched up. “Oh, hell no,” he said, laughing. “No way. I am not taking this car over there. Nuh uh. I’ve been there before, and I don’t want that attention. Do you have a second choice?”
I laughed as I looked out of my window, “go ahead and take the next exit. We can just go to Pappaudeux’s. They have pretty good seafood.”
“Pappauduex’s. Alright, we can go there. That is fine with me.”
He finished telling me about his story as we rode to the restaurant. By the time we got there, I had completely forgotten how much I had hated him. He wasn’t much of a jerk after all. He held the doors for me and treated me like a queen. I didn’t want to believe that he liked me, but as we sat and ate, I found myself appreciating who he was and where he came from.
“Really?” I said, laughing out loud with a half-eaten piece of cheesecake right in front of me. “I cannot believe that! So, you went there with nothing but your underwear on?”
“Yes! Yes, I did. As embarrassing as it was, I showed up in my underwear. I am telling you, Alex is bad news. As a matter of fact, I can’t believe that the only thing I did was lose my phone. Alex is a wild guy. You’ll meet him sooner or later.” He took a sip of his drink as he peered at me from beyond his glass.
The waiter walked to our table, ready to serve. “Well, how was everything?”
“It was great,” Jordan said as he reached into his pocket. He pulled his card out of his wallet and handed it to the waiter. “Wait a minute,” he said, looking at me. “Did you want anything else?”
“No, I am stuffed. I don’t even think I can finish the rest of this cheesecake. I don’t know how I am going to work the rest of the day. I am liable to fall into a coma.”
Jordan laughed, then released his card to the waiter. “Thank you, sir. I’ll have this right back to you.” I tried to take another bite of cake, but it was no use. I dropped the fork onto the plate as Jordan watched me, smiling. “My goodness, why are you just looking at me like that? You creeper.”
He laughed. “I am sorry, I just… I don’t know, but you are beautiful. Gorgeous. Inside and out.”
I took a napkin and wiped my mouth. “Really, now? How do I know that you don’t say this to all of the women you take out to eat?”
“Because my time is valuable and I wouldn’t spend intimate moments with someone if I felt that they weren’t worth it. I’ve been single for a while now and um–” The waiter came back to our table and interrupted his train of though.
“There you are, sir. I hope you two had a pleasant afternoon. Stay as long as you’d like and just flag me down if you need anything else.”
“Will do,” Jordan said as he signed the receipt.
I looked at my phone. “Jeez... I need to get back to the community center. My God, how long have we been here?”
He slid the receipt to the middle of the table and tucked his wallet back into his pocket. “I think maybe an hour… an hour and half.”
“God, Gloria is going to kill me. I was supposed to help her with the reports today.” I grabbed my purse. “Can we head back now? Please?”
He leaned forward and wrapped his hands around mine, “Only. ONLY, if you let me do this with you again. Except for next time, we can come to my place and avoid all of this traffic. I have a personal chef who can cook anything on this side of the moon, and your taste buds will never forget it.”
“Your place?” I asked quizzically as his strong hands gripped mine.
“Yes, my place. I’ll be on my best behavior. Scouts honor.”
As much as I wanted to say no to him, I couldn’t. He was no longer the jerk I thought he was in the beginning. He was a gentleman. He was someone with a soft heart, and although I always said I would never mix busines
s with pleasure, his alluring smile and demeanor made it impossible to reject him. After trying to maintain a cold stare, I finally broke. “Fine,” I said with a smile. “Fine. Your place. Best behavior, right?”
His eyes met squarely with mine, “very best. How does this weekend sound? Friday? Saturday?”
“Friday will work.”
“Great.”
He stood up and extended his hand to help me out of my seat. We walked into the restaurant in a single file line, but we left with our arms connected with each other. I don’t know what happened, but the date went the exact opposite way that I thought it would go. Not only did this date go well, but I agreed to another one, and on top of it all, I think I was looking forward to it.
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