“Love you!” Cara yelled from inside of the apartment.
I waved over my shoulder to them and slowed my pace once I got to the street. I walked the two blocks to George’s, past the boutique stores that I normally window-shopped, and tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. I patted the pockets of my jacket several times to make sure I had slipped my keys, wallet, and phone into them before rushing out the door, and I nervously smoothed my curly hair as best as I could. I was sweating, but I was too afraid to do a BO check. My bootie heels clicked against the sidewalk in rhythm with the steady beat of my thoughts. What am I doing, what am I doing, what am I doing?
When I got to George’s, I checked my phone. Ten p.m. I went up to the hostess stand and paused.
“Welcome to George’s. Do you have a reservation?” the hostess asked.
“No. I mean, yes. Well, not me. I’m here to see Jase? I mean, Jason Colbertson.” Wow, I seriously needed to get my shit together.
She nodded and then led me into the restaurant and then out again to a table at the edge of the terrace, under a heat lamp. Jase looked up as I approached and immediately stood to pull my chair out for me. Before I sat, he put his hand on my hip, leaned in, and kissed my cheek. I sucked in a deep breath and held it when his lips touched my face. In that moment, it felt like my heart stopped. I at least stopped breathing.
“Took you long enough,” he whispered near my ear.
“Huh?” My brain was short-circuiting.
“Never mind. Sit,” he said, gesturing toward the chair.
I sat with a clumsy thud while he gracefully slid back into his seat. He was wearing the same well-tailored, charcoal-colored suit and white shirt he’d had on earlier, but he had ditched the tie. The top button of his shirt was undone, and for a moment I imagined undoing the whole long row of pearly buttons beneath it.
“I wasn’t going to come,” I said.
“That’s a shame.” He blinked impassively.
“Don’t you want to know why?”
“No. You’re here now.” There was nothing left of the timid Jase I once knew. He was in full command here.
I looked out to the ocean. “Quite a view, isn’t it?”
His eyes were fixed on me. “Yes. It is.”
Our table was so small that I could easily reach across and touch him if I wanted to. Which I did. I just didn’t have the courage.
“A bottle of wine, perhaps?” he asked.
I nodded. “Sure, you choose.”
“Red okay?”
I nodded again. I was rapidly losing any mastery I had over the English language.
He summoned the server and ordered an expensive bottle of pinot noir, like he had done it a million times.
“So . . .” I said after the server left to get the wine.
“You didn’t finish the book this afternoon, I take it?”
“I read some, but I was busy.” The server returned with a bottle and two glasses. She poured the wine as Jase continued to pierce me with his gaze.
“Thank you,” he said.
I took a sip and smiled. “It’s very good.”
He sipped from his own glass and looked out to the ocean and then back at me. “God . . . I missed you so much, Em.”
My smile faded. I tried to fight the tears sprouting into my eyes. “Don’t, please.”
He looked away again. “So . . . Trevor, huh? Never pictured you with a jock.”
“It’s not like he’s an abusive alcoholic,” I said defensively.
“Is that all it takes?” he said with a wry smile.
“No, I mean . . .”
“I’m just playing with you.”
“You’re still exasperating, Jase.”
“You’re still beautiful, Em. Even more so than I remember.” His eyes traveled over my shoulders, my breasts, down the length of my black slip dress.
“When did you become such a pig?”
“I was just . . . appreciating how much things have changed,” he said, flashing a grin before he took another sip.
“Please.” I rolled my eyes. “We’re not children anymore.”
“We weren’t children then. If memory serves, we grew up pretty fast.”
“Regardless, I’m still mad at you,” I replied.
“I can tell.” He smirked.
“Stop fucking smirking at me.”
“Okay.” His lips flattened, but he couldn’t mask his cocksure expression.
A few moments of silence went by as we sat, sipping our wine and enjoying the view. Far from feeling strange, the tension between us seemed to relax.
“I’m so glad to be here with you,” he said, finally sounding earnest. “Crazy, huh?” He looked out at the moon glistening over the ocean. “California, like we always said. Can you believe we’re here, together?” I remained silent. “So, tell me, Em, what has your life been like? Because from the outside, it seems like you’ve got everything figured out.”
“Not at all, actually,” I mumbled, looking down into my lap.
He looked at my lips and then back up to my eyes. “Trevor is a good guy, I assume?”