There was an awkward moment where neither one of us was sure what we were supposed to do. Did we hug? Did we kiss? Shake hands? I went for a hug and he kissed me softly on the cheek. My heart pounded in my chest, threatening to shake my entire body.
“Jeannette said you came by yesterday,” he said, breaking away from me. I wanted him to keep touching me, but I wasn’t sure my nerves could handle it. I felt like a girl meeting her crush behind the school for the first time.
“Yeah, I didn’t know you weren’t going to be here. I’m learning the importance of scheduling,” I replied. I played with the food tray, wheeling it back and forth.
“I’m sorry I missed you. I just realized that I haven’t seen you since you got here and that was a couple of days ago,” Jack said, leaning back against his desk.
“You’ve been busy, I get it. You’re important.”
“That isn’t a very good excuse,” he said, shaking his head. His hair gleamed in the soft light from his desk, and it took all my will power not to run my fingers through it. He shrugged and gestured to the food. “You hungry?”
“Starving actually,” I answered. He came beside me and pushed the cart towards a couch and coffee table in the corner of his office. As he took the cart, he brushed against me, sending shivers down my spine. My body ached to remember how he felt, the way he moved inside of me. The beginnings of a blush tried to sneak onto my face, but I tried to mimic Jack’s easy nonchalance and it seemed to keep the heat down lower.
He carefully placed each of the plates on the small table, motioning me to sit down. I sat gingerly on the leather sofa, my stomach doing flip flops. I couldn’t understand my anxiety; I had slept with the man, but now, now that we were going to actually have to get to know one another, I was nervous. Jack had met vacation me. Vacation me was bold and did crazy things like marrying strangers.
Unfortunately, vacation me lived in the Caribbean, not New York. Now I was New York me and I suspected New York me was pretty much the same as Iowa me. The cautious boring me that didn’t know how to have a boyfriend. I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew was that I wanted to be near him.
"You brought hamburgers!" He grinned as he opened up the lid.
"Yup. They are fancier than any burger I've ever seen. Look, they even have fancy catsup. Notice how it's spelled with a C?" I pointed to the glass bottle.
Jack laughed and opened the bottle, pouring the red sauce onto his burger. I quickly mimicked him and poured it on my burger as well.
I really liked Jack. I liked the way his smile was slightly crooked, but always genuine when he looked at me. I liked the way he smelled, the combination of cologne and man was intoxicating. I liked that he seemed to relax with me. His shoulders seemed to lower as I watched him poor sauce on his plate for the fries, like he was unwinding.
Jack sat down next to me, our knees barely inches from touching. A current of electricity ran between us and I knew if we touched, sparks would fly. A nervous giggle escaped and I tried to keep it under control. I wanted to be sophisticated and interesting, but I was pretty sure I was nervous and obviously attracted to him.
“Tell me about your day,” he said, lifting the lid to one of the entrees.
“You really want to know?” I asked, raising the lid to my own plate. It smelled divine. Jack nodded and took a bite of his dinner. “Well, Dean—my bodyguard—took me to the New York Museum of Art and gave me a tour.”
“Dean knows art?” Jack asked, his mouth full of burger. The normalcy of it made me smile.
“Yeah, a lot about art in fact. I’ve never really understood what makes one painting better than another, but having him explain the paintings to me actually made it interesting.” I took a bite of my own food before asking, “What about you? How was your day?”
“Insane. We had a board meeting today and practically everything is behind or delayed. I don’t want to bore you with the details, but this is honestly the best part of my day today. Tell me more about the museum. I haven’t gone in years and never with a guide.”
“Like I said, I know almost nothing about art, but I did discover I have a favorite artist. Monet. His paintings make me feel like summer. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I’m happy when I look at them.” I blushed, feeling like I had revealed something.
“Monet... he did the water lilies painting, right?” Jack asked, his brows scrunched together as he tried to remember the artist.
“That’s one of the most famous ones. They had one there called, “View of Vétheuil”. It reminds me of summers at home. Here I took a picture.” I pulled out my ancient flip phone and began navigating through the menus to show him some of the pictures from the museum.
“How old is that phone?” Jack asked, looking askance at the archaic device. I shrugged.