She scrunched her eyebrows slightly. “I’m not involved with any of the animal stuff.”
Shoot. He probably should have looked into what she actually did at the company before coming up with this big fake job offer. “Of course, but you’ve been around it for so long, that I’m sure that you’d be a great asset.”
“I see.”
She didn’t seem as open as he expected. Was she still mad that he didn’t return her romantic advancements?
No, that would be silly. How long could she hold onto a grudge just because he didn’t like her back?
James continued. “Have you been involved at all with this contest? This video contest to raise funding for veterinary clinics?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I’ve done work with some of that.”
“Oh that’s great.” He didn’t know how to casually ask her if she was a judge, or who the judges were, or what they were looking for. So he decided to just go for it.
“For something like that, what’s the drive? Do you use all of the videos for your own promotion? What makes a video the best video? Do you contact the pet owners on your own?”
She shrugged. “It depends. I don’t make those decisions though.”
“Sure. Well, if you came back to work for us, you could be in charge of anything you wanted.”
He was really promising the moon here. Whatever – for all he cared, she could come back and be in charge of a new marketing division. She’d be fine – probably. As long as she didn’t keep bringing him boxes of baked goods.
“Thank you, but I’m very happy where I am.” A smirk curled at the corner of her lips. “Let’s just say that the culture at my current company is different than Balin Labs.”
James frowned. “In that case, can I come and work with you?”
She laughed. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
“A friend of mine entered the contest – that’s actually how I heard about it. I was really impressed with it. The award ceremony – is it just for this one grant?”
Kylie shook her head. “No, it’s just one part of the event. Our company likes to throw a party every year for all of the employees and vendors. Black tie, of course. It’s a lot of fun, we also give out awards to salesman and innovators. Something I could never see happening at Balin Labs.”
“That does sound really nice,” James responded. “And you’re right, something my dad would never go for. He’d say it was a waste of money.”
Kylie smiled politely.
“Not to say that I agree with him,” added James. “I think it’s incredible. Truly.”
“Thanks. Which is why you can understand,” Kylie said, stiffening her shoulders, “why I’m not interested in leaving.”
“Alright then, I had to try. Plus you gave me an idea where we could improve.”
Kylie smiled. “Sure.”
James stood from his seat and shook her hand. “Well, thank you for taking the time to talk to me today, if you change your mind, you know how to find me.”
She stood, too. “Thank you, James. Best of luck to you.”
He smiled and nodded. He wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean. Best of luck? With their new drug? Or finding a marketing person?
He didn’t know, but she wasn’t being very forthcoming about the contest and he didn’t want to waste more time talking to her. He needed to fly back to Cleveland and pick up his car. He had the irresistible urge to drive back to Lansing, and he didn’t want to spend another minute with Kylie if he didn’t need to.
When he arrived at the car shop to pick up the Porsche, he half expected the police to spring from the bushes and arrest him. Luckily, they did not. His dad must’ve gotten over being mad. Or at least decided it wasn’t worth endangering Balin Labs’ reputation to get back at him.
James got into the Porsche and drove straight for Lansing. He’d managed to book a behind-the-scenes tour of the Lansing Zoo, and there was only one person that he wanted to take with him. The problem was that she wasn’t speaking to him at the moment.
He checked into a hotel on Saturday evening. The zoo tickets were for Sunday, and he was running out of time to call Juliet and see if she’d agree to go with him. He was terrified that she was going to say no, and then he’d have to put plan B into place.
By 8 o’clock that night, he set his mind to make the phone call. She might be getting ready for bed for all he knew; he couldn’t wait any longer. He took a deep breath and called her cell phone.
“Hello?”
She answered!
“Hey Juliet, it’s James. How are you?”
“I’m good, how are you?”
“I’m good,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure that you got home and that you didn’t have any trouble with the bus.”
“Nope. No problems.”
Well that was stupid of him to say, because that wasn’t the only reason he was really calling. “That’s good! Glad to hear it. I wanted to, uh, also apologize for almost killing you in that car accident.”
Juliet laughed. “First Deno, now me. You’re developing a habit.”
“I really am sorry,” he stammered. “I should’ve listened to you. I thought I was being helpful by getting us to Cleveland more quickly, but I was really just being pigheaded.”
“Well, thank you for apologizing. But it’s fine – really.”
He took a deep breath. “Okay, good. And just so you know, I talked to my dad. He told the police that the car wasn’t stolen. He was just being, you know, petty.”
“Ah. I’m glad to hear that there isn’t a warrant for my arrest floating around in the world.”
He laughed. “No, there is not. And actually, I wanted to make it up to you – you know, the car crash and everything. And I got these tickets for the Lansing Zoo tomorrow for a behind-the-scenes tour.”
Silence.
“Are you there?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m here.”
“Oh. Did you hear what I said? I wanted to see, if you have the time, and if you wanted to do a behind-the-scenes tour with me. Of the zoo.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yeah. It starts at noon, but if that doesn’t work – ”
“No, that would be fine.”
He froze. Did she just agree to go with him?
“Noon then? We could head over a little early and walk around the zoo first?”
“Sure, that’d be nice.”
“Okay, great! I could pick you up at like 11, if that works?”
“Hold on, let me check the weather forecast and make sure that it’s not going to snow…”
James smiled. “Ha ha. Very funny. The joke’s on you because I already checked it and it’s not going to snow. And if it is going to snow, I rented a small tank to get us there safely.”
She laughed. “Okay, 11 it is. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Okay great! See you then!”
James ended the call and stared at his phone in disbelief. Did he call the right number? Was that really Juliet?
He fully expected that she was going to turn him down. He even booked the animal experiences in a strategic way, so that her favorite animal (the penguins) would be at the end of the day. He planned to take pictures of himself throughout the tour so that she would eventually agree to join him.
It seemed like even that was a stretch. He never expected that she would just agree to it!
It was odd, but he decided not to question it. He had another chance to see her, and that was all that mattered. After this, the only excuse he’d have to see her would be at the award ceremony when they named the winner of the video contest.
He didn’t technically have an invitation to the ceremony, though Logan could probably secure an invitation if needed. Ideally, Juliet would agree to take him as her date. That might be too much to ask, though. He decided to take it one step at a time.
The next morning, James made sure to leave with plenty of time to get to Juliet’s apartment. He wanted to be early, pa
rtially so they wouldn’t miss their first animal encounter, but also to give Juliet less time to change her mind.
He was outside of her apartment at 10:40. Juliet’s landlord was walking around the property, throwing down salt on the sidewalks. At one point, he looked up and made eye contact with James.
James slowly raised his right hand and used two fingers to make a V, pointing first at his own eyes, then at the landlord. The universal “I’m watching you” hand gesture.
The landlord froze for a moment before hurriedly picking up the bucket of salt and rushing into a house next door to the building.
James laughed to himself. At least the landlord wouldn’t be bothering Juliet today.
Juliet came out of the apartment building a few minutes later, dressed in hiking books and a North Face jacket. James felt his heart jump; she looked like she walked right out of a camping magazine.
“Hey,” she said as she opened the car door.
James silently scolded himself for not getting out to open the door for her. Instead he gaped at her like an idiot.
“Hey, are you ready to go?”
“I think so.” Her eyes scanned him from head to toe. “Are you sure you’re going to be warm enough in that?”
“Oh don’t worry,” he said. “I have a jacket in the back seat. I can’t drive wearing it, it restricts my range of motion too much.”
She smiled. “That’s important for making sure you don’t get into an accident, right?”
“That’s right,” he said with a smile. “I hope you’re ready for some close-up animal encounters.”
“How many animals do we get to meet?”
“We have four today.”
She turned towards him. “Four!”
James was glad to hear the excitement in her voice. He loved booking these encounters whenever they were offered at a zoo, and he knew Juliet would love it too.
“Yes. We’ve got the big cats up first – I think it’ll be the African lions and the Siberian tigers. There’s a snow leopard, but I’m not sure if we get to see her.”
“I think they’re pretty shy,” Juliet said.
“Yeah, I think so too. After that, we have the black rhino.”
“Oh, that’ll be nice.”
“And last but not least, we have the river otters and the Magellanic Penguins.”
Juliet’s hand shot to her mouth. “Really? Do you think we get to pet the penguins?”
James laughed. “Usually they let you, yeah. I’ve done three other experiences with penguins and they’re pretty laid-back. There is usually at least one penguin who enjoys attention.”
Juliet smiled. “I have to admit, this sounds pretty cool.”
“I’m glad you think so. I figured it should mostly make up for almost killing you.”
“Mostly,” she said, turning back to look out of the window. “But what about your favorite animal? They don’t have anything with elephants?”
“No, but I think that’s because they don’t have any elephants in the zoo.”
“Ah, that makes sense then. I haven’t been there in a long time.”
“Clearly!” said James. “I can’t believe you haven’t done all of these experiences a couple of times already.”
Juliet shrugged. “My days are pretty full with dogs, cats, pigs and horses.”
“Fair enough.”
James kept his eyes on the road. He just had to make sure not to mess everything up like he did last time. As long as one of the animals didn’t try to eat her, what could possibly go wrong?
Chapter 17
They arrived at the zoo in no time. Juliet felt a bit silly that she agreed to go out with him. If she was being honest with herself, she felt sad when he stopped contacting her, especially after that dud of a date with the other James.
Then, when he called her out of the blue, she was so excited that she agreed to whatever he suggested. It was like all of her wry suspicion of him went out of the window and she turned into a giddy school girl.
Ugh, how embarrassing. Her cheeks burned as James found a parking spot.
At the same time, it seemed that he really might just be sorry and want to apologize for almost killing her. As far as apologies go, this was one of his best. He was always able to skillfully employ the big apology. Maybe because he often needed a big apology. Whatever the reason, he was good at it.
The zoo only had a few people milling about; even though it was a clear and beautiful day, it was bitterly cold. James suggested that they get hot cocoa to keep them warm as they walked around and Juliet agreed; James always seemed to know how to add a little luxurious touch to every situation.
With hot cocoa in hand, they decided to follow the path to the left of the entrance and take a look at the river otters. Unfortunately, the otters were nowhere to be seen.
“They’re probably in the back getting ready to hang out with us,” James decided.
“Right,” replied Juliet. “Like they have nothing better to do.”
He shrugged. “You never know. They could be back there in that cement hut, preparing appetizers for us, busting up oysters with their little rocks.”
Juliet ignored the part about the otters preparing food for them. “Oysters? Do you think river otters eat oysters?”
He paused. “Maybe?”
“So you think that they swim out to the ocean, go oyster diving, and bring them back to the river?”
He tapped his chin. “When you put it that way, it doesn’t sound right, does it?”
She laughed. “No, it doesn’t.”
“Well whatever they’re eating, I know that they keep a favorite rock to bust open hard shells. For like crabs and things.”
“Yeah, freshwater clams and mussels.”
He pointed at her. “That’s what I meant! Mussels! Not oysters.”
Juliet nodded knowingly. “Right.”
They moved on to the next exhibit – gray wolves. Again, they didn’t see any animals in the enclosure, but James wanted to wait for a few minutes in case one of them decided to make an appearance.
“I don’t think that they’re going to come out and play with us just because we want them to,” said Juliet.
Just then, they caught sight of movement at the far corner of the pen. A beautiful white wolf trotted across the enclosure, coming to a stop on a high rock, casually laying down and draping her paws over the front.
Juliet realized that her mouth was open. “She’s magnificent.”
“She is,” said James.
Juliet couldn’t take her eyes off of her fur, illuminated in the sunlight. “She looks so much like my old dog Ruthie.”
James squinted. “Yeah, she might be a little bigger.”
“Well, obviously.”
“Ruthie was a German Shepherd, right?”
“Yeah. And she was pure white, like that wolf.”
“I remember. Well – I remember you showing me pictures of her. She was gorgeous.”
Juliet felt her chest tighten. It’d been years since Ruthie passed away from lung cancer, but even thinking about her still brought tears to her eyes.
“She was.”
James turned towards her. “Please don’t get upset. You gave her a good life.”
“I know. It’s just – it’s really hard to lose a pet. You love them like family.”
“Is that why,” he said slowly, “you’ve never had another dog?”
Juliet swallowed. Why was James so nosy? “No.”
She turned to walk away from him.
“I’m sorry,” he called out. “I’m not trying to make you angry.”
“Well you’re not doing a very good job.” She continued walking down the path.
James caught up to her in a moment. “Hey, I really am sorry.”
She closed her eyes. It wasn’t his fault that she still missed her dog. And it wasn’t his fault that she was too afraid to get another dog, too afraid to love that dog for years and years and then one day, inevitably, have
to say goodbye.
“No,” she said, stopping. “I’m sorry for acting like that. I know it’s been a long time, it’s just – still a touchy subject.”
“I get it,” he said. “Well, not exactly. I haven’t been able to have a dog. Or cat. Or even a goldfish, really.”
“I know.”
“My life,” he said dramatically, “has been completely devoid of joy.”
She laughed. “Stop it. No it hasn’t.”
“It’s a very sad case. You know how I like to sit and cry in front of my fireplace.”
“Yes yes,” she said with a groan. “I know all about that. What’s next? Kangaroos?”
They didn’t have much time to walk around before it was time for their big cat encounter. They met with their first zookeeper, a woman named Sheila. She took them behind the scenes as she prepared meat for the tigers. Then they got to watch the tigers as they ate, not five feet away from where they stood. They were behind steel bars, of course, but it was still a thrill.
Next up, Sheila took them to the lion enclosure where they repeated the process.
“Is this going to be like one of those YouTube videos,” asked James, “where the lion knows you from years ago and comes running up and wraps his big paws around your neck?”
Sheila laughed. “Definitely not. These big guys know me pretty well, but I wouldn’t get between them and a cut of meat.”
James leaned in to Juliet’s ear. “How crazy would it be if the lion ran up and hugged me that way?”
“I’d be really impressed,” she whispered back, “that you’d managed to keep that relationship quiet for so long.”
They stood and admired the lions for the next fifteen minutes. Juliet couldn’t believe how big they were close up – it would be terrifying to run into one of them in the wild.
Next up was zookeeper Ryan, who introduced them to the zoo’s black rhino, Dario.
“We’re going to give him a snack,” said Ryan. “And then you can have a chance to pet him.”
“Wait, really?” said James. “Isn’t he aggressive?”
Ryan shook his head. “Nope. Dario is a gentle giant. You’re going to love him.”
Juliet was surprised by how sleepy and easy-going Dario was. They reached through the bars of the enclosure to pet his rough skin. He quietly munched on some vegetables, eyes half closed.
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