by Kaley Marsh
LOVE, OUTSIDE THE LINES
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 1
“Why, do I continue to hang out with these crazy girls”, Claudia comically thought to herself, with a grin, as she turned back to wave goodbye to her energetic best-Girlfriends Angela, Anika and Candace. It had been a great brunch, that Saturday afternoon, but what Claudia thought she really needed after a hectic week of demanding Public Relations clients was a great book that transported her to another world, even another universe, considering the week she’d had.
With concentrated movement, Claudia maintained a steady pace to her favorite book store within two blocks of the “brunch-restaurant”. Washington, DC had become Claudia’s city. She transplanted from South Carolina 7 years earlier for undergraduate and graduate school. She lived and worked in the midst of the political town but reading classic books acquired at various antique book stores in and around the Washington, DC area was her retreat. Today she decided she would remain close to home since she wasn’t in much of an adventurous mood to venture outside the city on this particular weekend.
Claudia sprints into “The Ernest Read” - her favorite quaint antique bookstore. She and the store owner, had grown quite familiar with each other. Claudia gives him a polite smile and somewhat shy wave as she walks by his cash-register. The elderly gentleman joyfully welcomed her. “Good day young lady!” Claudia flashed a friendly smile.
“Hello Mr. Marshall” she sweetly replied. “What will it be today?” he continued.
Claudia began to continue down one of the store aisles when she looked back. “We’ll see…we’ll see.” Mr. Marshall discharges a hearty laugh as he returns to assisting the customers at the register.
Claudia beamed with anticipation. She was in the belly of her sanctuary now. Everything else before this moment faded away in the distance. One by one Claudia inspected every title. Some of the titles were repeats of course. She visited this particular store at least once a month which was among her routine circulation of stores throughout the District each month. But re-reading each book label gave her great pleasure.
Transported to another world, Claudia was completely oblivious to anyone else in the whimsical book store - including the tall 30ish year old man concentrating on books now above her head. The young man didn’t see Claudia either. Well, until it was too late. Claudia and the golden blonde, athletically built gentleman quickly collide into one another.
Feeling muscular skin against her own Claudia’s face turns red and she looks up at the person towering over her. Time appears to stop as he gazes back. “I am so sorry.” Claudia finally utters. “Oh no, no, no. it’s completely my fault.” He quickly replies. “I’m Max…Max Charleston” he spewed out before Claudia could get away.
She smiled politely. “I’m so sorry…” She bows her head for a moment then returns her focus to Max. “I’m Claudia Jefferies.”
Max responds to her introduction with a board smile, his eyes fixed on Claudia’s smooth chocolate brown skin and soft brown curls.
He feels the brunt of the responsibility for the incident and tries to persuade Claudia that it was completely his fault. Claudia was mostly past the embarrassment of their accidental encounter and wanted to return to her “sanctuary”. With a cordial smile she assures Max that all is well but he is not convinced that his debt has been paid. He attempts to learn more about her and the story behind her visit to the bookstore. However Claudia’s focal point was getting back to selecting her “book-of-the-week”.
Max continues to try to engage Claudia but she is very distracted and refuses to release her focus on her chief purpose in the bookstore. She then excuses herself, as politely as possible, double backs down the aisle, snatches a book she notices earlier and heads to the cash register. Max observes he speedily retreat and breaks into a huge grin. She shakes his head and reluctantly returns to reviewing book titles. But that didn’t last for long.
Claudia is next in line to ring-up her, soon to be, newest paperback. She nervously twitches in-front Mr. Marshall. He attempts to discuss her selection but she courteously provides him with non-verbal responses and looks behind her on occasion as though someone is following her.
Finally Claudia is finished checking out her novel and begins to bolt out the door just when she hears behind her; “So will I see you here next Saturday?”
Claudia pauses. She is surprised and somewhat put off by the question and turns slowly to see Max’s smiling face at the edge of the store’s door. “I don’t know” was all she could manage to conjure up and continued to walk away from the store and toward home.
During her 15 minute walk home, Claudia thought about her encounter with Max constantly. “That was bizarre... He was weird… Perhaps just friendly.” She thought. “I certainly never experienced that back home in South Carolina. Life in the big city I guess.”
Once at home, comfortable with a cool drink and huge chocolate-peanut cookie all Claudia could think about was reading. She read, and read, and read. When she did decide to take a break, it had just passed 7pm. She looked up and realized she had been immersed in her book for 5 hours. Claudia smiled, stretched and contemplated dinner choices. All of a sudden thoughts of her meeting with Max came flooding back. She didn’t know what to make of the event. She tried her best not to give it too much importance but it all floated around in the atmosphere until bed-time.
Determined to make the best of her weekend, Claudia made a decision to seek counsel from one of her best friends, Candace, early in the week. Candace is one of 3 best-friends Claudia made between undergraduate and graduate school. Candace tends to be very perceptive. She is candid but chooses her words carefully and objectively. Even more importantly in Claudia’s mind was that Candace was the descendent of an interracial union having a white grandfather and interracial couples intermittently sprayed across her clan. Once the decision was made, Claudia retreated to her book and large chocolate peanut butter cookies.
Inside a café deli located midway between their offices, Claudia and Candace are seated for lunch. “Hmm… So, what’s his name?” Candace asked after listening to Claudia’s interesting encounter with Max. “Ahh, Mal… No! …Starts with M…Max…yes, Max…If I remember correctly.” Candace uttered after working through it. “Forget the last name. That I don’t remember, at all.” They both laughed.
“He certainly sounds friendly.” Candace got out through her laughter. “So what specific question do you have about this incident?” Candace continued? “Are you beside yourself because someone was friendly in the “Big City”?” The women begin laughing again at Candace’s words.
Claudia wipes her watering eyes, clears her throat and chimes in. “Well, that and…” Claudia softens her voice. “…he’s white.” Claudia got out in a whisper, working not to attract the attention of diverse lunch patronage around her.
Candace chuckles. “Dorothy you’re not in Kanas anymore…and in your case; South Carolina.” Both Ladies laugh heartedly. After they both get the laugh out of their system, Candace looks at Claudia and says pointedly; “It’s no big deal Claude. Sounds like a friendly guy who wanted to talk about literature.” Claudia takes it all in, as Candace spews her wisdom. “If…or when, he gets your name and asks you out, and then let’s really talk about this…Ok?” Claudia nods and smiles; “Ok. Sounds like a plan.”
Over the next two weeks thoughts of Max and their interaction faded further and further into the background of Claudia’s mind. She threw herself into her work, troubleshooting for demanding clients all while strategically laboring to attract others. Claudia was rather impr
essive to her supervisors and a source of aggravation for a couple co-workers who believed she stole their thunder as the Golden Agents of the PR and Marketing firm. Needless to say there was tension, and at times friction, on a daily basis.
By the end of the professionally tumultuous fortnight Claudia was mentally exhausted. All she thought about when Saturday morning rolled around was soaking in a bath with a good book that would eclipse 2 weeks’ worth of stress and hard work. She rolled out of bed, wiped her eyes and scanned her current in-house library for the appropriate selection. After about 15 minutes, she was not satisfied and decided she’d venture to “The Ernest Read”.
Chapter 2
This weekend Claudia wanted to visit one of her other favorite antique bookstores in the suburbs on the edge of the city but she was in no shape to do that. “The Ernest Read” was the furthest distance she could manage today. She just hoped Mr. Marshall was not too chatty. Little did she know that Mr. Marshall was the least of her worries.
Max’s run in with Claudia played over and over in his mind since the 3 Saturdays prior. He was intrigued by the brown-eyed book worm to the point that he returned to the book store 2 Saturdays in a row. While there, the affable Max and sociable Mr. Marshall grew quite chatty during each visit. Mr. Marshall quickly sensed Max’s intentions and subtly fed him what he knew about Claudia. Max’s interest was piqued but Claudia was nowhere to be seen. Maybe the third Saturday will be the charm?
With a big bush of tightly coiled curls, clad in grey female trimmed sweat-pants, a white tank-top, a grey fitted sweat-shirt, and flip flops Claudia headed out for the short walk to the book-store. She was tired and certain that she looked that way too. But that didn’t matter now. She was confident that her prescription was scribed across the pages of “the perfect book” at “The Ernest Read” and it was only a few minutes in her future.
Claudia stepped into the book store with great anticipation. She whisked past the cash register located near the door. It was vacant but she could hear the jovial Mr. Marshall in another part of the store. It appeared that he was toward the back of one aisle. He seemed to be educating a new comer about his acquisitions and the history of the store. Claudia knew she would interact with Mr. Marshall soon enough, and continued on her quest.
Apprehending the right book was taking longer than Claudia had planned. She even began to grow disappointed in herself that she couldn’t make a decision more speedily. Particularly considering how frayed she was. Thirty minutes later Claudia found her “The Book”. Just as she was about to walk to check out she heard a jolly Mr. Marshall. “Hey there, Max! Nice to see you...” Mr. Marshall winks at Max and motions his thumb to point in Claudia’s direction. At first Max doesn’t know how to interpret the gesture and responds. “Hey there Mr. M. How’s it going?”
“I’m good…I’m good young man” Mr. Marshall continued with his incognito gestures.
Claudia froze in place when she heard Max’s name and then his voice. Their earlier interaction came flooding back. She desperately wanted to escape a second one, particularly since she wasn’t dressed for it. Claudia decided to walk around to the cash register in the opposite direction of Max’s voice. Her plan was not quite full-proof. Max still located near the front spotted Claudia emerging from the farther-end of one aisle. With eyes wide open and a huge smile, Max greets Claudia. “Hi there! Back for another “Ernest Read?” He looks at Mr. Marshall and they both release a roar of laughter.
Claudia walks toward the front, in what seems like slow motion. She felt awkward, uncomfortable and everything not good right at that moment. Claudia wished that she could write the rest of this story. She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her up at that moment. Max continued to attempt to engage Claudia as she drew closer to him and Mr. Marshall. “You really do consume these books, don’t you?” He said. “How did you like the one you got the last time you were here?” Claudia remained guarded but responded with her Southern Belle charm. “It was really good”. She said with a courteous smile.
Claudia hands her new selection to Mr. Marshall. As he began to ring it up, Max kept being chatty. “So, I…I also got that book you bought 3 weeks ago.” Claudia looks at him in astonishment. “I figured it had to be good since you chose it.” Claudia picked up her book from the counter, waved goodbye to Mr. Marshall and makes a motion to exit. Max partially blocks her. “So, what do you think about having a little book-discussion…Maybe with coffee?” Claudia was taken aback by the request. She pauses in thought then looks at Max. “I am just so busy with work, I don’t think…”
“What about discussing books here next Saturday?” Max suggests.
Claudia was surprised at his persistence. “Ah, did you want me to recommend a book for you?” She interjected, hoping that it would quiet his questions. “Sure…sure that would be great. There is a café 2 doors down from here where you can educate me about as many books as you want…what do you say?” Max said with a winning grin. Claudia thought Max would go on all day and she just wanted to get to her book and a warm bubble bath. “Coffee…Coffee is fine. Monday, 6pm. Here’s my card to firm up.” Claudia fired off in her business-like tone. Arranging it like a business meeting allowed her to think less about any other potential purpose of the meeting, the outcome or lack thereof.
Claudia is a bundle of nerves. On a mid-week evening, she arrived 15 minutes early at the Café she agreed to meet Max for coffee at. She sat facing the door, ringing her hands. She contemplated whether to get her cup of coffee before Max came or after. God forbid he should offer to pay for it, and then it would appear to be a date. “No!” She thought – screaming within her head. He asked to compare notes about the book they had in common and that would be the platonic end of it, she worked to convince herself.
Max walks in hurriedly at 6:02pm. He seemed somewhat out of breath. It was his intention to impress. He scans the interior briefly before he spots Claudia toward the back of the café, facing the door. He flashes a huge grin and saunters over to the table. “Hey there, sorry I’m a bit late.” Max greets Claudia with a semi-salute. Claudia looks up and reciprocates with a nervous smile. “Hello.” she says with a softened polite tone.
Max excitedly pulls out the chair next to Claudia and sits down. Claudia slightly nervously shifts her body away from him. Max notices she’s a little jumpy and gets the conversation going. “So, did you want some coffee…or tea…or anything?” He asked. “Oh...um, I’ll get myself some coffee…” Claudia interjected and motions to stand. Max interrupts her; “Oh no worries, someone should guard the table.” He said jokingly. Max then springs to his feet. “So, what will it be?” he asked Claudia. Feeling defeated she requested some green tea with 2 sugars. Max happily went to the counter and ordered their beverages.
With warm drinks in tow Claudia dived right into discussing their book. “So, did you realize that every time we read about the little girl, it was a flashback…?” Max stared intently at Claudia. “You’re not from here are you?” He interrupted her in-depth analysis.
Rattled, Claudia stumbled with her reply. “Um…no, I am not.” She said slowly and with a tad of irritation. “Why do you ask?” she continued. “I hear a little accent, not common to this area in there. Max said mischievously. Attempting to get back to the book Claudia shot off questions to Max but he had more personal questions in mind.
Claudia and Max did the dialogue tug-of-war for about 15 to 20 more minutes until Claudia gave in and began sharing personal information. Twenty minutes later Claudia glanced at her watch, looked up at Max, and then scrambled to gather her purse and empty coffee cup. “I…I really have to go.” Claudia was determined on not going over an hour. In her mind, keeping her guard up was her way of avoiding any awkwardness with the stranger. She looked directly into the bright blue pools that are his eyes.
“Um, I’m sorry. I have a pile of work to get ahead on.” She explained nervously. Max stood to give her a sendoff. “Oh sure…no worries! I totally get it. I take
work home all the time. Kind of a requirement when you shape young minds.” Max tried to keep things light and jovial. However Claudia feeling a mix of emotions worked to exit as quickly as possible.
Claudia puts out her hand to shake Max’s. “It was nice to meet you.” Her hand is left suspended and unattended. “Ahh, Is that it?...I mean that sounded sort of final.” Claudia drops her hand to her side, tilts her head and looks at Max with a puzzled look. “We met to discuss the book which we did…well for the most part and...” She tried to explain. Max interrupted. “Well that’s just it “for the most part”…There’s that lesser part left that we didn’t discuss.” He says with a huge smile. Again Claudia shoots Max a puzzled look and slowly shakes her head. “So ah, you want to discuss…”the lesser part”?” Max smiles widely. “Yeah, that would be great.”
Claudia didn’t know what to think. Her head was spinning. Being raised in South Carolina where polite charm was a staple but not necessarily genuine as ethnicities remained in their separate corners, she had never experienced a proposition from a white male to discuss anything. She thought briefly. “Um, work has been crazy. I have no idea when.” Claudia explains. “Absolutely no problem…Here’s my card….Wherever you can squeeze me in, works for me.” Max smiles sweetly. Claudia feels a twinge in his stomach. She cautiously reaches out to retrieve the card from him. “Um, I will let you know if possible…thank you.”
After a polite goodbye, Claudia quickly places Max’s card into one of the compartments in her bag as she hustles out of the café’s door. As she continues home she tries to rationalize Max’s true intentions. “Perhaps he is just a literary enthusiast.” She thought to herself. “After all I met him at “The Ernest Read” looking for a book. Hmmm” Her thoughts were off and running. Before she knew it, she was at home.
