“Jesus.” He balled his fists at his side and glared at me. “I like you, Claire. Point blank. Period. From the moment I saw you at Pacific Bay Lounge on New Year’s Eve, I was captivated by you and I’ve never been this drawn to a woman in my life. I’m not hung up on your age at all. You are. All I see is a beautiful and intriguing woman who is hell bent on frustrating the shit out of me. If I thought you weren’t interested, or if you would have convincingly told me that all you wanted me for was sex, I would have left it alone. But, since neither of those things have happened, just admit that you like me and say that you want to date me because I know deep down you want to.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond. I just sat there, blinking at him, trying to process everything he’d said. I didn’t remember ever seeing him at Pacific Bay Lounge. I thought our first encounter was at the grocery store.
I put on my best poker face and sighed. “It’s—”
“It’s not that difficult. I’m not asking for your heart or anything. I’m just trying to get to know you better in other ways... Just say, ‘I like you Jonathan and I want to date you.’ That’s it.”
“I think that—”
“I like you, Jonathan, and I want to date you.” He fumed.
“What’s the difference between what we’re doing now and dating? Public dinners? Movie nights?”
“Admit that you like me and I’ll show you.”
“And if I don’t admit it?”
“We’ll keep sailing out here until you do. I’ve got all year.”
Just say it...
“I’ll think about it.”
“Close enough.” He pulled me close and draped his arm around my shoulders. “Was that so hard to say?”
“I didn’t say anything. I said I would think about it.”
He rolled his eyes. “There’s something else I want to talk to you about, but not here. Lunch on Monday?”
“Together?”
“Yes. When two people are dating, they typically eat together.”
“I still don’t want people at work knowing that—”
“I’ve been eating lunch with a different director every day for a month now. No one is going to suspect anything. They’ll think I’m having another business lunch.”
I sighed. “Okay...”
“Good. Now that that’s settled, there’s one thing I’ve wanted to do to you all night.” He moved his arm from around my shoulders and held my face in his hands.
He looked deep into my eyes and I braced myself for another passionate kiss—closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. Then I felt him ripping off my Batman Band-Aid.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a different Band-Aid, a clear one, and softly pressed it onto my hand.
“No grown man should be carrying around Batman Band-Aids.” He pushed me down onto the couch.
“Seriously? Are you that insane?”
He covered my lips with his. “You have no idea...”
I was sitting in my office, listening to one of my associates present his idea for the sTablet. It was conversations like this that made me wish the Golden Gate Bridge was closer so I could run out there and jump off of it.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Travis asked. “With this idea we can capture our lowest demographic market of kids between the ages of ten and twelve. We’ll be forcing their parents to run out and buy one!” He held up his board and pointed at the colorful clowns.
“Travis...” I sighed. “Our target market for this product is adults aged twenty-five to thirty four. I’m not sure if—”
“No, wait! I haven’t told you the best part yet! The magical clowns are delivering all these cool sTablets to the kids after school, right? So, once the kids get them in their hands, the clowns start shouting, “Use your imagination!” and the kids suddenly disappear! ‘sTablet...It’s Magic!’ See? Awesome, right?”
I refuse to deal with this today...
“Get out of my office. Now.”
“But—”
“Right now.”
He gathered his boards and rushed out, slamming the door behind him.
“I’ll be down to your office in ten minutes so we can finish our conversation from Saturday.” Jonathan texted me.
I looked over my schedule for the day and realized I had to sit through eight more associate presentations. I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to do it. Although Travis’ idea was a bit far-fetched, his was actually the best one of the day.
I slipped my comfy slippers off under my desk and reached for my pumps. I had a feeling I was in for a long conversation with Jonathan today. We’d discussed a few things about dating each other—exclusivity, keeping it private, and not rushing things—but the conversation had been cut short with sex.
There was a sudden knock at my door.
“Come in!” I was still changing my shoes. “I thought you said ten min—” I looked up and realized that it wasn’t Jonathan knocking at my door. It was Michael.
I stood up and smoothed my dress. “Um...Hi?”
“Hello, Claire. I hope you don’t mind me stopping by.” He walked in and handed me a fresh bouquet of yellow roses. “I was delivering some prescriptions to the nursing home down the street and I remembered that you worked here. Since you were sick Saturday and had to go home early, I was thinking we could try it again? How does this Friday work for you?”
Shit...
“Umm...”
“No seafood. I promise.” He laughed. “You can pick the restaurant and I’ll bring my epi-pen just in case you break out in hives or something.”