“Okay, sort of normal. I bought the restaurant for the evening. The chef and the waitress too. I mean—I didn’t buy them—you can’t buy people—”
Jack reached out and took my hand, cutting off my nervous chatter. His hand was warm and strong on mine, current flowing through it and sending my already racing heart into a new pattern.
“This is fantastic, Emma. Thank you.” His smile made my poor heart do back flips.
An excited waitress bounced over to our booth, her grin nearly pulling her face apart.
“So, what can I get you folks?” She tried to say it normally, but the grin on her face at serving the famous Jack Saunders, gave her excitement away.
Jack didn’t even bother opening the menu before ordering.
“I’ll take your largest burger with pepper jack cheese. Can you put a fried egg on it? Perfect. The works on the burger, fries, and a chocolate shake please.”
The young girl smiled as she scribbled his order on her pad before turning to me. Her smile seemed to grow even wider as she took my order.
“I’ll have the number 2 cheeseburger with everything, an order of half fries half onion rings, and a banana shake. Thank you,” I said. The girl beamed at the two of us, obviously star struck. It felt odd to have someone think I qualified as a celebrity. I knew she was trying her best to pretend like we were a normal couple, Rachel was certainly paying her enough, but her smile was infectious. She grinned and hurried off to the kitchen to start our orders.
“How did you do all this?” Jack asked, settling into the red vinyl seat.
“Rachel helped... a lot. I came up with the idea, and she made it happen.” I shrugged and smiled. “I wanted us to have a normal date night. You seem exhausted by the billionaire stuff.”
A tiredness crossed his face. It was the look I saw disappear when I brought him dinner each night. It passed quickly as he shrugged it off.
“Work is insane. So much has to be done, and the deadlines keep creeping up. I don’t want to talk about it. This is a normal date night. Let’s talk about something normal.”
I laughed a little. Here was a man sitting a suit worth half my year’s salary, in a greasy hamburger joint, wanting to talk about normal.
“Well, the Iowa Cubs are looking good this season. “
Jack cocked his head, obviously confused.
“Baseball. Spring training. They’re a feeder team for the Chicago Cubs. They are the closest thing we have to a major league sports team in Iowa. Other than the college stuff.”
“I played baseball as a kid. I was never very good,” Jack said. He laughed and I loved the sound. For a moment, we were normal. This was how a date was supposed go—sports, weather, laughing and sharing stories. He was the laughing happy man that I met on vacation; the cold business man was gone.
The waitress reappeared with our food, still smiling from ear to ear. Jack chowed down on his burger like it was the only food he had seen all day. Knowing his work schedule, it probably was. I dug into my burger, feeling ketchup drip out onto my plate. Jack swiped an onion ring from my plate, and I snatched one of his fries. This of course led to a fry battle, with the two of us creating elaborate defenses with our food to keep the other from stealing it.
My ribs ached from laughing. Jack’s foot kept playing with mine under the table as we played elaborate fry games above. It was a piece of heaven and we hadn’t even had pie yet. I was glad we were the only patrons in the restaurant, because we would have been kicked out for acting like rowdy kids otherwise.
I snagged one of his fries as he snuck an onion ring off my plate, making me laugh. The table vibrated, and my fry defense quickly fell. Jack glared at the phone on the edge of the table. It had remained mercifully silent, but now was vibrating as though full of bees. He shot me an apologetic look before reaching for it and standing up.
“I told you no interruptions,” he growled into the phone. He was instantly the cold domineering man. I wondered how he could switch on the businessman so quickly. I sighed quietly and leaned back against the booth, as he stalked over to the window, his voice angry.
For ten minutes I played with the straw in my milkshake. The fries were now soggy and the onion rings had lost their magic. I wondered if this would be what my life would be like. Small stolen moments with the laughing young man on the beach, surrounded by an ocean of business calls and interruptions. Would it be worth it?
“I’m sorry Emma,” Jack said quietly, taking his seat once again. I sat up once again in my chair.
“Don’t be. This is your job, Jack.” I smiled, trying to take the sting out of my words.
“It isn’t fair to you though. I still have a few minutes before they are coming to get me for an emergency meeting. What kind of pie do you think they have?”
I smiled and handed him a menu. He flashed me a grin that made my insides go mushy. Those eyes could make a girl go crazy. How was I going to decide?