by Leah Kay
“This is it! This is what I wanted to show you,” Isha exclaims.
“Here we go again.” He’s never quite understood her obsession with infomercial products, although he adores the way she lights up talking about them.
“But Liam, they work. See this one; you can make six pies at once. Well, more like six pie pieces at once. So you never have to decide whether you want apple or peach or strawberry, you can make them all at once. Isn’t that smart?” She pauses, waiting for him to match her enthusiasm.
“Baby, when was the last time you baked a pie?”
“Well, I didn’t yet because I could never decide, but that is no longer a problem. Thanks to EZ pockets.” She is now grinning from ear to ear.
“Alright, woman, I will keep this on my list of Isha’s favorites.”
“Thank you, that’s all I wanted to hear from you.”
Pretty pleased with her dramatic performance, she goes back to watching TV. They finish the rest of the episode and Isha goes upstairs to hop in the shower before hitting the bed. Liam steps outside to run a quick errand before it gets too late. Isha stands in the shower with her back to the water contemplating ways to meet Nathan face-to-face tomorrow and get it over with. The feeling of warm water on her bare skin feels therapeutic after the kind of day she has had. Before she leaves the bathroom, she gives an affirmation to herself in the mirror. “It is just a dream! Stop being a wuss.”
Wearing a long sleep shirt, she steps into the bedroom and sees a plastic bag on her nicely made bed. Wondering if it was there when she stepped into the shower, she walks up to the bed to check it out. At the sight of what’s inside the bag, she shrieks so loudly that Liam, standing in the corner, is now in a fit of laughter. She runs up to him and jumps on him for a bear hug.
Wrapping his arms around her waist he asks, “Can I expect my six pies tomorrow, madame?”
“Oui! Oui! Oui!” She kisses him all over his face. “But how did you get it so fast? I thought you could only order the infomercial products online or on the phone.” She gets off him and examines her gift.
“Turns out the drug store around the corner from us has an infomercial aisle. I ran into it last week and thought of you. Since you had a nerve-wracking day today, I thought why not?”
She kisses him again. “Thank you so much, Liam, I am so excited!” She hops on the bed and plops down reading the instructions that came with it. Liam looks at her adoringly, wishfully hoping that nothing takes that smile away.
Genex headquarters, a high rise with 22 floors is indeed a stunning glass building in the heart of Center City. Pristine marble floors welcome “Genexers” every morning into the reception lobby where a massive double helix structure is suspended in the left wing representing DNA. Functional areas such as R&D, Finance, Strategy, and Project Management take up residence across several floors in the building. Employees enjoy perks such as a massive cafeteria called Eatery carrying a wide assortment of food ranging from the salad bar to Pizzeria, a deli, freshly made sushi, a burger joint, and Mexican Corner, as well as a state-of-the-art fitness center sprawling across two floors. Ultimately, the 22nd floor is a beauty where floor-to-ceiling glass windows provide an extensive view of the city’s skyline and hosting a cozy coffee shop called Joe’s.
It’s seven o’clock in the morning and Isha is at her Pilates class at the Genex gym, ready to start the day. Claire walks in a few minutes later, looking beat.
“Rough night?”
“I may have opened another bottle of wine when I got home and binge-watched Netflix.”
Isha laughs. “I am glad you showed up.”
“I am glad one of us feels that way,” Claire adds sulkily as she grabs a mat from the basket.
They roll their mats as the instructor begins the class. It’s a small class of 10 to 12 people. Isha and Claire usually run into the same set of familiar faces who fuel up on a fresh batch of endorphins before their work calendars deplete them of their energy by the end of the day.
An hour later, the class completes the workout with a total body stretch. Isha and Claire clean up their mats, put them away and head to the women’s locker room. After a quick shower, Isha dresses up in a Mustard chiffon long-sleeve tunic dress, which stunningly complements her olive skin. A few minutes later, Claire joins her in front of the mirrors to do her hair and makeup.
“You better introduce yourself to him quickly. This is a fresh start, and I want us to start off on the right foot.” Claire lectures Isha who is doing her makeup.
“Are you still with me?”
“Yes, introduction. On it,” she mumbles, avoiding eye contact. Her heart starts slamming inside her chest at the thought of meeting Nathan. She distracts herself by focusing on her opening lines with him to avoid coming across like an idiot.
Logging into her computer later, she checks her phone to see a new message from Liam. “Time to impress that new boss of yours, good luck!”
Isha lights up reading his message and replies, “Have a good day, love!” She puts her phone away and walks towards Bob’s old office to meet Nathan.
Her heart starts racing as she approaches the door and is quickly disappointed to see that he isn’t in his office. She feels a mix of relief and disappointment. A part of her wants to see him again and she assures herself that it is just to make an introduction and kick things off on the right foot. Feeling dejected, she goes back to work. As she swings between catching up with email and meetings in the morning, her mind keeps wandering back to Nathan’s striking good looks in all of those pictures she shamelessly scrolled through last night. To curb her budding anxiety, she chalks it up to healthy admiration of the masculine figure.
Making her way to a meeting at Joe’s with Claire, she forces herself to check out another colleague passing by to justify her tremors for Nathan. He is good looking, charming with a lovely smile. Despite her brilliant plan, there aren’t any tremors making waves this time. Annoyed with herself, she writes off all further thoughts about Nathan for the rest of the day. They order a coffee and a chai and begin to review the latest assessments to determine test sites to target for rolling out the project.
“I need to run these by Mark before he throws me under the bus in front of Nathan.” Isha takes a sip of her chai.
“Right. When are you meeting with Nathan to onboard him on the initiative?”
“I was hoping today, but I didn’t see him in Bob’s old office earlier when I stopped by. Maybe I will swing by again later.”
Moments later, Nathan walks into Joe’s with Mark. He notices Isha working with Claire and recognizes her as the woman who ran away yesterday.
“Mark, is she in our group?” Nathan asks, nodding in her direction, curious as to who she is.
“Her? That’s Isha Turner. She is leading Project Nexus with a team of us helping her. You haven’t met her yet?”
“I have been with Ron most of the day; we didn’t get a chance to connect yet.” He tries to play it off, but he is slightly bothered by her aloofness from yesterday. Throughout the day, he was greeted and fawned over by many in his group, and it puzzles him that she wasn’t one of them.
“She is supposed to onboard you on the project today so that we can finalize site selection immediately.”
“Ron briefed me on that; I’ll take at a look at it this week.” They grab their coffees and walk back to the elevator.
Isha notices Nathan leaving Joe’s and contemplates going after him to introduce herself, but she hesitates. As she places her cup of chai on the table, she knocks Claire’s elbow and accidentally spills chai on herself.
“Shoot, that’s all I needed today.” She tries to pat the stain quickly while cursing herself.
Claire laughs. “A great ice breaker when you meet Nathan later today.”
Forcing a laugh at her attempt to make light of her clumsy appearance Isha says, “
You are right. My lovely stain and I are ready for our big reveal!” She feels weighed down just by the thought of meeting Nathan. Determined to rip off the Band-Aid, she gets off the elevator on her floor and walks straight to his office, except she finds the door closed. Disappointed, she goes back to her cube and keeps herself busy with a few more meetings for the rest of the day.
Around five o’clock, Isha notices that Claire is still in her last meeting of the day and texts her, “Will you be done soon? I am ready to head out.”
Minutes later, Claire responds, “I won’t be done for another thirty. Don’t wait up. See you at kickboxing tomorrow.”
Isha packs up for the day and notices the bright lights in Nathan’s office as she walks past it towards the three elevators. Pressing the button, she waits for the ring before stepping into the far right one.
Walking in, she looks at her reflection in the mirror and notices the wear the day has had on her. The stress of meeting Nathan and a large stain on her dress were just a few scars she earned from today. Letting out a sigh, she presses the second-floor button to stop by the gym and pick up her bag from the locker.
As the door starts to close she hears a voice coming towards the elevator. “Hold up.” She quickly holds the door open with her hand, and a moment later, Nathan walks in with a backpack. She freezes at the sight of him.
“Hi, Isha? Right?” he says eagerly, reaching for a handshake.
With a stoic expression she replies, “Yes, I am. Hello, Nathan, nice to meet you.” She returns his handshake.
Taken aback by her indifference, he turns around and stares at the closed elevator door. An awkward silence fills the space with a rhythmic disturbance from the elevator rings at each floor.
Unable to tolerate the silence Nathan attempts to break the ice. “Ron mentioned you had to run some project details by me for a quick decision.”
Finding her own behavior peculiar, she turns towards him to answer. Visions of the dream flood her mind instantly; except this time, her nerves are replaced with a sense of familiarity and that baffles her.
With great difficulty she finds the courage to reply. “That’s correct. Would be great to get your opinion soon.”
Perturbed by her uneasiness, he wonders if she has stranger anxiety. He would have chalked up her odd behavior to that if it wasn’t for Ron’s high recommendation of her. According to Ron, she is a top performer, delivers exceptional results and has high emotional intelligence. He takes one look at the woman with a large stain on her dress, clutching her bag for support, avoiding eye contact by staring at the elevator door and realizes that something doesn’t add up. All he sees is a disheveled woman with a pretty face.
“I would be happy to help. How about nine a.m. tomorrow?” he suggests as she steps out of the elevator.
“Sounds good,” she replies and takes off towards the locker rooms without looking back.
Struggling to peg her oddness to anything logical, he settles on, “Yup, that’s one cuckoo chick.”
Hotel rooms are beginning to feel like a second home for Nathan. There’s been so much travel with work lately that it feels like he is practically living out of a suitcase. Acclimating to a brand-new site culture, interacting with a new team, coping with a time difference—none of it is helping his energy levels today. He takes a quick shower, gets dressed in jeans, a gray T-shirt that accentuates his perfectly toned physique, and distressed cognac leather boots before stepping out for a stroll in the city.
Genex has put him up in a chic hotel downtown, just blocks from their headquarters, for a few weeks until he finds a place to stay. Big corporate company jobs tend to come with many perks to take care of their valuable employees. Flying Nathan into Philadelphia for the interview in business class, setting him up in a fancy suite at a crème-de-la-crème hotel while wining and dining him to lure him into taking this job are just a few things to note. The red-carpet treatment didn’t end there. Once Nathan accepted the job with a handsome salary hike, his relocation assistance team took care of moving his belongings cross country as well as assigning a local real estate agent to help him find a place of his liking in the area.
One such agent reached out to him and suggested kick-starting the house hunting process during the weeknights. Nathan absolutely detests shopping of any kind. Given a choice between shopping and listening to the sound of fingernails scraping on a chalkboard on repeat, he would gladly pick the symphony over shopping. He turned down the agent’s offer and plans to familiarize himself with the city during weeknights to narrow down on a neighborhood.
At 7:30 p.m. sharp his phone rings. Expectantly, he answers it with a warm smile. “Hey there, Lil Devil!”
A shrieking voice responds back, “Dad! I miss you.”
A long day’s fatigue disappears listening to those words. “How’s it going, sweetheart?”
“Things are okay here. Feels weird not having you home.”
Moving to Philadelphia wasn’t easy for him. At the end of a long day, he always looked forward to going home and spending time with his 16-year-old daughter, Lily.
“I miss you too, honey. But I am excited you will be visiting soon. You’ll come to see me, right?”
“Of course. I want to explore the City of Brotherly Love with you. We need to check out the art museums together. Tell me, how was your day?”
Excited about seeing her soon Nathan replies, “It was good. The team seems great. Still recovering from losing their boss so abruptly. We will have to wait and see how they receive me.”
“Once they get to know you, they will welcome you with open arms.”
Her words have a way of lighting him up. “I am not sure about one of them though.”
“Why is that?”
“She seems like an oddball. Ignored me all day.”
“Is she on your team?”
“Supposed to be, but couldn’t care less about me.”
“That’s strange.”
They catch up on her school and friends for the next 15 minutes. “Alright, Mom and I are heading out to the grocery store. I will talk to you tomorrow?”
“Sure, honey. Take care of yourself and Mom for me.”
“I will, and good luck with Miss Looney Tunes. Hope she doesn’t ignore you again tomorrow.”
Catching a second wind after chatting with Lily, Nathan contemplates calling Sarah to check in on her but their history compels him to give her space.
As he takes in the sights of the bustling nightlife, his mind keeps wandering back to Isha. Why is she ignoring me? Perhaps she was close to Bob and naturally dislikes me. What is with her appearance? For someone born with a pretty face, she sure has an unkempt look. He tries to shut her off, but she occupies a sliver of his thoughts throughout that night.
Chapter 3
Redemption
Liam adds a fresh batch of cut up strawberries into the blender filled halfway with ice cubes. He has made this drink one too many times, which is evident from the way he eyeballs the amount of limeade, triple sec and Reposado tequila to add. Pressing “Go” on the Ninja, he walks up to the entertainment center and flips through the records before choosing one. Carefully removing the vinyl from the case, he places it on the turntable and rests the stylus towards the edge of the record. This is sure to bring a smile to her face, he thinks to himself.
He walks back, turns off the blender, pours himself a sample of the strawberry margarita to taste test and is pretty pleased with the results. He pours the margarita into a pitcher and places it in the refrigerator. A beeping noise from the oven timer reminds him to check on the consistency of the chorizo taco mixture. After a quick swirl with the spatula, he is satisfied with the way it turned out so he lowers the flame and lets it simmer. He pulls out a bag of corn taco shells from the pantry, places a few of them on a baking pan, bastes them with oil on both sides and has them ready to go into the o
ven. He checks the oven temperature and glances at the kitchen clock. “She should be home any minute now.” He turns on the record player and soon Marvin Gaye’s voice fills the room.
Meanwhile, Isha is beyond pissed at herself for making such a poor first impression with Nathan. A part of her is quite forgiving about her clumsy interaction considering how baffling the situation is, but the control freak in her is unwilling to cut her any slack. Perhaps a guarantee that nothing will ever transpire between them would alleviate her fear of interacting with Nathan. But the unpredictability combined with a baseless premonition has gotten her off her balance.
Stepping into her house, the smell of tacos engulfs her, and before she knows it, Liam takes her in for a warm embrace. Isha cozies into his arms, and they both sway to the music in silence for a few minutes while Liam plants gentle kisses on her forehead.
“I love you more than beers with my friends,” he whispers into her hair.
“Oh, do you now?” she teases him.
With his long fingers, he lifts her chin up and kisses her gently on the lips. Nathan crosses her mind at that moment, and she closes her eyes in an attempt to stop thinking about him. She appreciates Liam making an effort to make up for last night. That’s the thing with Liam, he knows when he dropped the ball and is incredibly charming in making it up to his beautiful wife. Leaving her bag and shoes in the entry hallway she plops on the couch and pulls the cozy throw over her legs. Liam walks into the living room with two glasses of margaritas and, true to his style, they are filled up to the brim.
She takes a big sip and lets out a happy sigh. “This is exactly what I needed today, thank you.” She cocoons into the couch as Liam fills her in on his day.
With Lady Gaga scheduled to perform at the Wells Fargo Center this weekend, Liam is having a hectic week. He is responsible for developing and executing of marketing and public relations campaigns for concerts, sporting events and shows. As a marketing manager at Wells Fargo Center, there’s a never a dull moment in his job. With Flyers and Sixers playoffs ongoing, it has been continuous activity at work. Add in the Mother Monster, you’ve got a full plate on hand. In preparation for the concert, he has been working with the show promoters in implementing successful advertising campaigns. He is responsible for handling all public relations aspects of events, including writing press releases, pitching stories to local media outlets, and executing public relations events. His job came with phenomenal perks. Free tickets—check. Skybox access to major sporting events—check. Opportunity to be introduced to professional athletes and other celebrities—check. Being a true Philly sports fan, Liam has always found his job extremely entertaining.
