Nine
Live A Little
Two missed calls from Maggie. She must have called last night when Cooper was here. I had left my phone in my purse and never even gave it a second thought. I pressed “call” and waited for her to pick up.
“It’s about time you called me back,” Maggie grumped when she answered her phone.
“Sorry. Been a bit busy. What’s up?”
“Busy doing what? The last time I was there it was just you and that big ol’ house.”
“Busy with… stuff. I do have a life you know.”
“No, you don’t. Lily, the last time we talked you were in your pajamas at seven thirty reading one of your romance novels. The time before that you were getting ready for bed at the late night hour of nine pm, and the time before that you were organizing your pantry alphabetically. Please tell me you were on a hot date and not color coding your closet again,” she said jokingly.
“As a matter of fact…”
“You were on a hot date?” she asked excitedly.
“Sort of. We stayed here, and he cooked dinner for me.”
“Oh really? Was there anything else cookin’?” she asked in a mischievous tone. Even though I couldn’t see her I knew she was doing that eyebrow thing like that stork on the Vlasic Pickles commercial.
“Yes, I ripped off his clothes and had my way with him on the kitchen table.”
“Be serious.”
“How do you know I’m not being serious?”
“Uh, because I know you and that’s not something you would ever do.”
“Then why did you ask?”
Maggie giggled. “Because it’s what I would have done!”
“Yes, I know. I’m still trying to forget that time I walked in on you and Vince.”
“Yeah,” she said, laughing, “sorry about that.”
“No you’re not.”
“You’re right. I’m not. The look on your face was priceless.”
“Does anything embarrass you?”
Thinking for a moment she said, “No I don’t think so. But I should have known that relationship wasn’t going to work out.”
“Why is that?”
“I baked him brownies for his birthday. Brownies. And you know what he said? He said, ‘I don’t like brownies’. Who doesn’t like brownies? I’m telling you, Lily, never trust a man that doesn’t like brownies.”
“Okay, Mags, I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You’d better, and don’t change the subject. We’re talking about you.”
“No, we’re not. You are.”
“It is my job to see to it that you don’t end up being a cat lady or something equally as lame. I want to see you happy and taking risks. Consider me your conscience and listen to my voice. Grab life by the balls and live a little.”
I actually let those words sink in and fought the urge to roll my eyes.
“Lily?”
“I’m trying, Mags. I’m just not like you.”
“No, you’re not. You’re you. And you need to start seeing yourself the way others see you.”
“And how do others see me?”
“You really don’t know do you?” I heard a crash in the background and then Maggie said, “I’ll have to call you back. My brother is helping me move some stuff around and he just dropped one of my boxes labeled ‘breakables’. I’m so gonna kill him.”
“Uh oh. Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”
“And don’t think you’re getting out of this. I want to know about that date of yours.”
“Say bye, Mags.”
“Bye, chick.”
I piddled around the big house for a while before settling down in front of my computer. I do have a Facebook account, though I rarely ever check it. For some reason I decided I would actually pay Facebook a visit this fine morning and wipe the cob webs off my long forgotten page. After logging in, I noticed I had a friend request. It was from Cooper. I accepted it and immediately started browsing his page. He hadn’t updated his status since last week. His last status update read:
Cooper Hudson: Isn’t it funny how it seems like every day is the same ol’ same ol’ until you look back a year later and realize how much has changed?
The update before that one read:
Cooper Hudson: If you’re always expecting the unexpected, then it’s really not unexpected…is it?
Inspired by his quirky comments I decided I would send Cooper a message on Facebook:
Cooper,
Thanks for the friend invite. Now I don’t have to ask Ms. Sophie to let me see pictures of you since I now have access to yours on FB, although, I’m doubting you have uploaded the embarrassing baby pictures so I guess I will be bugging Ms. Sophie after all. I did see one picture that seemed questionable though. You were dressed like a woman…? Not. Even. Gonna. Ask. Why.
Anyway, I thought I would leave you with something to think about… What does the K in K-mart actually stand for?
-Lily
Not long after I sent the message Cooper wrote back:
Lily,
That picture…I forgot that was still on there. Ha ha. That was actually a charity event we did at Joe’s. The male staff dressed up like women and all money raised plus tips went to buy Christmas presents for children whose parents couldn’t afford any. Don’t laugh. Someone actually tipped me fifty bucks that night.
We’ll talk about baby pictures later.
And I have no idea what the K in K-mart stands for. I’m pretty sure it’s one of those great unknowns.
-Cooper
Cooper,
I didn’t think it was possible, but I think you dressing like a woman for charity might have just made you even more adorable.
-Lily
My phone rang and it startled me. I looked down and saw it was Cooper calling.
“Hello?”
“So, I’m adorable, huh?”
“You can be – for about half a minute,” I said with mock annoyance.
Feigning hurt feelings, he said, “Ouch. So harsh. Only half a minute? You sure about that?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“Because I could have sworn last night you thought me adorable for a lot longer than a minute.”
“And what makes you think that?”
“I dunno. Just a feeling.”
“Well, you do have an adorable side Cooper Hudson. Shall I shout it from the rooftops and let the whole world know?”
“Please don’t,” he said laughing. “The last thing I need is for my friends to hear about my adorable side. We’ll just keep that between us.”
“Ah, I see. Afraid you might lose some cool points?”
“Nah. Just trying to keep them from getting jealous.”
I laughed. “Right.”
He cleared his throat. “I actually called you for a reason.”
“And what reason would that be?”
“I’m about to head out to work, but was wondering if you would like to meet me later?”
“Yeah, sure. Sounds great.”
“We can do lunch if you’re good with that.”
“Okay. Where?”
“Meet me at my office at noon. I’ll text you directions.”
“Okay, I’ll see you at noon.”
“Hi, you must be Lily. I’m Cora, Mr. Hudson’s assistant. He told me he was expecting you,” she said warmly, extending her hand toward a couple of chairs located behind me. “Have a seat and I’ll let him know you’re here.”
Cora was tall and thin. I would guess her to be somewhere in her fifties. Her sandy colored hair was extremely neat and every hair in its place, unlike mine, which was a mess of curls today due to the humidity. She wore a slim fitted black pencil skirt that fell below the knee and a cream color blouse with a bow that flowed from the neck. She was the epitome of professionalism.
“Thank you.”
She picked up the phone and I heard her say, “Mr. Hudson, Lily is here. Yes, sir.” She walked over to me and said, “Follow me, Lily. I’ll show you to his office.”
I stood up, placed my purse strap over my shoulder, and followed her down the hall to a pair of double doors at the very end. Behind those double doors was a giant sized office with a mahogany desk in the center, with book shelves lining the walls along the back. There were floor to ceiling windows along one wall and a large flat screen TV was hung on the adjacent wall.
Cooper was seated behind his desk and he looked up when we walked through. A broad smile appeared across his face. “Lily,” he said, focusing on me. He turned his gaze toward Cora. “Thank you, Cora.” She quietly closed the door behind her.
Cooper stood up and placed his hands inside the front pockets of his black dress pants. He wore a light blue button down dress shirt and a striped blue and white tie. Taking in the beautiful creature in front of me, I decided that blue looked good on him.
“Wow,” he said, “you look beautiful!” He moved from behind his desk and walked toward me. Stopping in front of me, he reached for my hands and lifted them up and out to the sides to gain a better view. His eyes scanned me from head to toe and then rested on my gaze.
“Thank you,” I said shyly. It was always hard for me to accept compliments. I don’t know why.
“That dress is ….wow,” he said, looking as though he could devour me with his eyes. It was a simple red cotton sundress with spaghetti straps that hit just above the knee and cinched at the waist, although I did dress it up with a nude high heel. “Stunning.”
I looked down at my dress, trying to figure out what was so spectacular about it, and then gave up. “Thank you. You look rather nice yourself. This is the first time I’ve seen you in a tie, I think.”
“I only wear ties at work. I feel like I’m being choked.” And with that he tugged at his tie, trying to loosen its grip. Then he placed his hand on the small of my back and led me toward the double doors. “Ready? Are you hungry?”
“Starved,” I said. I really was. I had skipped breakfast and was running on empty.
“Then let’s get you fed.”
I ordered a cheeseburger and fries, as did Cooper. By the time the waiter brought us our food I was famished. I was halfway through my burger when I looked up and caught Cooper staring at me. He had a mischievous grin plastered across his face.
“What?” I asked, feeling suddenly self-conscious.
“I’m just watching you eat. You weren’t kidding when you said you were hungry.”
Embarrassed now and wondering how ridiculous I must look to him diving into my food like this was my last meal I said, “Sorry. The burgers are really good here.”
“Why are you apologizing? I love that you eat like a real person and not like a bird. I’ve had dates that would pick at their food or just move it around their plate. Drove me nuts. I like that you’re not like that.”
Realizing he was talking about taking other girls out on dates I instantly felt a pain in my chest. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew he’d dated other women. But it wasn’t something I wanted to think about. And it wasn’t a subject we’d discussed yet. I pushed that thought out of my head for the time being and tried to come up with something to say. “Cora…she seems nice.”
“She is,” he said.
Picking up a French fry I asked, “Has she worked for you long?”
“She was there before I took over. She was my grandfather’s assistant.”
I nodded my head and dipped my fry in ketchup, looking back up at him when I could feel his eyes on me. It didn’t embarrass him that I kept catching him staring. Instead he said, “Lily, go out with me tonight.”
“Where?”
“Does it matter?”
“No.”
“I’ll pick you up at seven. Glad we got that out of the way. Now, do you want to keep talking about Cora or shall we branch out and talk about something else?”
Shrugging my shoulders I said, “What do you want to talk about?”
Giving me a thoughtful, yet playful look, he said, “What do you want to talk about?”
Our waiter stopped at our table before I could respond. “Is there anything else I can get either of you? Some dessert perhaps?
“No thank you,” I said.
“Just the check if you don’t mind,” Cooper replied without ever taking his eyes off of me.
“Certainly,” the waiter said before placing the check on the table.
Cooper reached around to his back pocket, removed his card and handed it to the waiter.
“Thank you, sir. I’ll be right back.”
In my head I had a list of questions I wanted to ask him but didn’t know which ones to ask first. If this was an open invitation to ask anything I decided to listen to my conscience (Maggie’s voice) and grab life by the balls. Using that figure of speech struck me as funny, seeing as I was applying it to ‘how to get to know Cooper better’ and I started to laugh at myself.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said trying to hold in my laughter. “I was just thinking about something Maggie said this morning. I do want to know something if you don’t mind me asking though.”
“Ask away.”
“Are you dating anyone?”
“You mean besides you? No.”
I brought my napkin up to wipe my mouth and smiled behind it. “That’s good to know.”
“Anything else you want to ask me?” he said, leaning across the table.
“Yes.
“Shoot.”
“Do you like brownies?”
He raised one eyebrow. “Do I like brownies?”
“It’s an important question,” I said looking very serious.
“I love brownies.”
Shaking my head in approval, I beamed. “Good answer.”
“Why do I get the feeling if I had said no I would have been in trouble?”
“No worries,” I said, taking a mental picture of his face in this moment and tucking it away for later.
“Here you are, sir. It’s been a pleasure serving you both. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
I gave our waiter a smile. “Thank you.”
Cooper also offered a friendly thank you while he placed his card back into his wallet.
“You, Lily Grayson, are an enigma.”
“But you like me anyway,” I said with an impish grin.
“You have no idea how much,” he whispered.
Cooper stood up and took me by the hand. He placed his other hand around my waist and leaned his face close to mine. Feeling the warmth of his breath in my ear sent a wave of chill bumps all over me. Cooper noticed. “Are you cold?”
“No,” I thought I said, but my voice betrayed me and nothing had actually came out…just the word formed over my lips.
“Does this give you chills?” he whispered in my ear.
I nodded yes instead of trying to speak again.
“That’s good to know,” he whispered one final time before placing his hand on the small of my back to guide me through the restaurant and outside into the fresh air. I immediately inhaled a deep breath. He threaded his fingers through mine as we walked hand in hand back to his office.
He was quiet on our walk back and I could tell he was thinking about something. As for me, I was thinking how much I enjoyed being with Cooper and how much I was going to miss him until I saw him again tonight. In my head I was thinking how silly that was. I was going to see him in a few hours and I was actually missing him even while standing right next to him holding his hand.
“Lily?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For making me feel again.”
Stunned, I looked at him and stopped walking, and he turned to face me. “It’s true you know…you make me feel, and for the longest I didn’t think I ever would. I know you don’t understand and this is sounding cryptic, but you have to know that you’re not the only one feeling overwhelmed. I do too. There are so many things I want to tell you, and I will, just not right now. Right now, I just want to do this…..hold your hand, whisper things in your ear because I know it drives you crazy, and look forward to our next date. But I needed to thank you for breathing life back into me. Thank you, Lily.” He brought both of my hands up and kissed the backs of my fingers, and then turned them over and kissed each palm.
I stood there with my hands in his while people passed us by on the busy streets. All the sounds of people talking, buses, cars, horns honking and all the usual sounds of a bustling city – it all faded to black and he was the only thing that I saw or heard.
I opened my mouth and managed two words. “You’re welcome.”