I Picked You
Page 29
He caught her arm a few strides from the door and she turned quick, looking almost as though she were ready to attack with her hand plunged deep into her shoulder bag. He pictured her digging in that bag for sharp keys or pepper spray, and he immediately pulled his hands back and shook them at his sides in a gesture he hoped she’d understand as him waving a white flag or extending an offering of peace. Her tensed frame relaxed a bit as she exhaled deeply. He smiled quickly.
“I’m Jake,” he started, and held out his hand. She dismissed his hand with a glance and looked up and past him down the street, where he heard the rumble of an approaching bus before she returned her stony gaze to his.
“Any chance you’d come back inside and let me buy you a drink?”
She smiled at that, and the message he saw in her eyes sent his earlier intrigue into an instant state of admiration and want.
“I don’t think so,” she said holding that same smile, but looking past him as a bus slowed to pull to the curb.
She made a move towards the bus stop and he caught her arm for a second time. He wasn’t used to having his invitation refused and he’d never had to chase a woman before. They typically and quite happily fell at his feet, or he thought again with the idea of irony close at hand, they were the sad, desperate ones chasing him out the door, looking for love or a quick one-way ticket to the top.
“Alright, any chance I could see you again, or you could give me your number so I could call you?” He shoved his hands into his pockets because he had a feeling her answer wouldn’t be what he hoped to hear. Yet as he waited, he found himself pulled to her even more strongly because he believed straight through to his core, she was about to turn him down.
She took a few more steps sideways towards the bus and held up her arm to signal the driver she was coming. She turned, and with a sweep of her eyes, briefly considered.
“You look like a resourceful sort of guy. Jake, was it?” She accented his name in such a way that he took a step closer before he even realized it. “If you want my number, I’m sure you can find a way to gather that information.”
He took two more strides towards the bus as she climbed the steps and grabbed hold of a pole near the door. He saw her engage briefly with the bus driver before he closed the door. She smiled at the driver and her face lit up before she adjusted the shoulder strap of her bag and swiveled with her arms still wrapped around the pole. Her eyes drifted to the window and meeting his again, he raised his brow and returned the now full grin that wasn’t intended for him.
He watched the lights of the bus fade as it bumped down the street. Then he turned on his fine leather shoes and went to find out who she was and when and if she was scheduled to take the stage again.