by Parker, Ali
Then, suddenly, she emerged from the throng of people in front of me, and a smile spread over my face. I was just relieved she had turned up. For some reason, I had been nervous all morning about the thought of meeting her here, as though she was going to change her mind and not turn up at the last second. That just told me everything I needed to know about the last time I had been dating, back in the day when getting stood up was a real possibility, when nobody bothered with manners or basic kindness.
Autumn was wearing a green sweater and a pair of jeans, her hair loose around her shoulders, and she beamed when she laid eyes on me. The color of her sweater made her hair glow almost supernaturally around her face, and I moved toward her to greet her as she approached me.
“Hey.” She gave me a quick hug, and I was surrounded by the scent of her perfume for a moment. Flowery and slightly powdery, it seemed to suit her, a gentle and delicate scent. I removed myself from her embrace and straightened my shirt, and she raised her eyebrows at me expectantly.
“So, what exactly is it you want me to help you with?” she asked, and I took a deep breath. I had been meaning to do this for ages, and now that I had a woman here to help me, hopefully I would be able to pull it off without picking something totally awful.
“I need to get a new suit,” I told her, cocking my head to the side as I spoke so I could get a read of her reaction. “And I was hoping you could give me a hand.”
“You’re serious?” She laughed, her entire face lighting up.
“Deadly.” I shrugged. “I keep on planning on buying a new one, but then it always slips my mind because I’m sure I’m going to pick something crappy. I could use a guiding hand on this.”
“Well, I suppose if I’m going to be setting you up, I need to make sure you look the part,” she replied playfully, running her hands through her long red hair and smiling. “Buy me lunch after?”
“Sure thing,” I agreed at once.
“Then I’m in. Where do you want to start looking?”
“Lady’s choice.” I gestured back to the mall, and she hooked her arm through mine and started leading me to her first shop of choice.
“This place is pretty expensive, but you can probably afford it,” she told me, and she rolled her eyes to the heavens and laughed once more. “I’m sorry, I sometimes hear myself speaking and I know that I come out with the dumbest shit. I don’t mean to sound so rude, I promise.”
“No, it’s fine,” I assured her, surprised that I meant it. Normally, I would have been irritated at someone with such loose lips, but on her, it read as charming. Maybe that had something to do with how nice it felt to have her arm through mine like that, the weight of it, the ease of her close to me. Jesus, I needed to get out on a real date, if this level of contact was already getting me thinking twice.
“Okay, but you have to tell me if I’m getting too rude for you,” she warned me. “I need you to stop me from making a fool of myself in all these fancy shops.”
“I’ll try my best,” I promised her as we arrived outside the door of a glossy, minimalist place that I had never seen before.
“Are we starting here?”
“Sure are.” She headed inside. “I’ve always walked by this place and thought the suits in the window looked so cool.” She sighed as she began to walk a little reverently through the store.
“Uh…” I looked around at some of the mannequins. They were pretty avant-garde, to say the least. It seemed like the kind of thing a young actor might wear on the red carpet, and I wasn’t sure I could pull it off as a single dad and businessman.
“Ooh, look at this one!” She came to a halt next to a navy suit with a checked blue shirt underneath and a crisp red tie over the top, and a matching handkerchief tucked into the pocket.
“That’s a little forward-thinking for me,” I remarked, and she rolled her eyes.
“Oh come on, this would look great on you!” she argued. I could see the shop assistant, a snooty-looking dude a little younger than me, eyeing her with distrust.
“Can we start with something a little more old-fashioned first?” I suggested, and she rolled her eyes again and let out a long sigh.
“I guess so.” She grinned, and with that, she headed off to the back of the store to take a look at the suits that were a little more my speed.
She was so into it that I couldn’t help getting caught up a little. Most of the clothes I picked out these days were for Hunter, not me, and I had long since forgotten what it felt like to actually shop for myself. I had a few suits I had collected in the early days of running the business, but that was pretty much it, and all of them were hopelessly out of style by now anyway.
“So, tell me about your business,” she asked me, as we rounded out of one shop and started to head down to another one.
“What do you want to know?” I asked, and she shrugged.
“Have you been running it since Hunter came along?”
“Since just after,” I told her. “I guess I wanted to run my life with a newborn and a business all at once.”
“So you run the place all by yourself?” she asked, and I nodded again.
“Yeah, I always wanted to be the one in complete control over there. I know it sounds a little anal retentive, but I like things to be the way I want them to be. I have my reasons.”
“Ooh, mysterious,” she teased, tossing her hair over her shoulder and waggling her fingers in a witchy fashion. “Am I ever going to find out what those reasons are, by any chance?”
I hesitated for a moment. I had never been forthcoming in telling anyone the truth of what had happened between Hunter’s mother and me, why she had left and what about it had driven me to the place I was in my work today, but for some reason, the way she was looking at me made me want to open up. I guessed that was part of why she was so good at her job, because it was so simple for people to tell her the truth.
I shook my head and waved my hand. I didn’t want to dump all that on her, not when we were having such a nice day together thus far.
“Maybe another time,” I suggested, and she shrugged and turned her attention to the window next to us.
“Oh, I like this shop too.” She pressed her finger to the glass. “We should go in and check it out. They’re a little more old-fashioned, but maybe that’s more your style.”
“You calling me old?” I raised my eyebrows at her, and she grinned.
“Just saying that judging by your taste in suits, someone might assume you were,” she replied sweetly, and I shook my head and followed her into the store.
Normally, I wouldn’t have let anyone talk to me like that. I could be oversensitive, I knew that, but years in business had taught me to try and sense everything anyone was feeling before they even knew they were feeling it. It was what had gotten me so far with the company, but sometimes I found myself overreacting to people when they said benign stuff. But with her, I found myself relaxed enough that I could laugh along to her occasionally blunt comments. In fact, I would even have gone as far as to say I was having something of a good time.
We went through pretty much every store in the mall, and I couldn’t find anything that looked right for me. Each one she pulled out for me, I would find a little detail wrong with it. In the back of my mind, I knew it was because I didn’t want this day to end yet. I was having a good time with her, and sometimes it was fun to forget about all my responsibilities for a while and let myself goof off this way. And being with her was a good time, a great time, even. If this is what actually dating could have been like, I wouldn’t have avoided it for so long.
Eventually, we had made our way around every store in the mall, and I had still failed to come up with something that fit my standards. She planted her hands on her hips and shook her head at me as we came out of the last one.
“Well, I’m not sure what else we can do,” she sighed, faux-exhausted. And then a smile spread across her face.
“What is it?” I asked cautiously, and she caugh
t my hand. I felt a buzz of sparks pass from my fingers to hers and tried to ignore them.
“Come and try on that suit in the first place we looked,” she suggested. “You’ve got nothing to lose.”
“I’m not sure—”
“Come on, for me?” she pleaded, and I looked into those gorgeous green eyes and found myself wavering. I should have been able to say no, for the love of God, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to please her, and she was giving me a straight route to doing so.
“Fine.” I nodded. “I’ll try it, but I’m not promising anything.”
“An open mind is all I’m looking for.” She let go of my hand, and I felt as though I had landed back in the real world with a hard thud. I followed her back to the store and stood in front of the suit once more.
“I’m not sure about this,” I warned her, and she gave me that look, the one I had such trouble saying no to.
“Just try it on,” she ordered, and she waved the assistant over to find me one in my size to test out. I pulled a face when he handed it to me and shot a glance at her.
“If I look like a fool, I’m blaming you,” I warned her, and I headed into the changing room. I undressed swiftly and pulled the suit on, and then turned to look at myself in the mirror. And I had to admit, I looked good.
What I had thought would look silly and self-consciously youthful on me actually seemed modern and fresh now that I was wearing it. I looked totally different. Maybe it was more than just the suit. Maybe it was something about the look on my face, the gleam in my eyes. And that had more than a little to do with the woman who had chosen this suit for me.
“Well, how does it look?” she called through the door impatiently. “I’m starting to look creepy hanging around the changing rooms like this.”
She spoke so loudly, half the shop must have heard her, and I couldn’t help but shake my head and laugh at the thought. I took one last look at myself in the mirror and then pulled open the door so she could take a look at me.
“See for yourself,” I told her with a smile, and I watched her for a reaction, feeling lighter than I had in months.
14
Autumn
“Well? What do you think?”
As soon as he stepped out of the dressing room, I knew this was the suit for him. He might have pulled a face at it earlier, but it looked fantastic on him, modern and fresh and new, bringing his look to the right here, right now. And hey, I had to admit he looked pretty damn handsome to boot. Not that it bothered me how he looked, but still.
“I love it,” I told him firmly, and I reached out to fix the shoulders and dust down the front. I had never done that before in my life, but I wanted to—to touch him? That sounded a lot less creepy in my head. I stepped away swiftly, letting my hands drop to my sides, and nodded with approval at the sight of him like that.
“You look awesome,” I assured him, and he looked down at the suit, shook his head, and grinned.
“You know, I would never have thought of something like this if it hadn’t been for you,” he said. “So thanks. You saved me from getting something terrible.”
“It’s the perfect thing for whatever date I set you up on,” I remarked, and I could see his face drop slightly. I wasn’t sure why, since we had talked at length about the dating thing before. Maybe it had been a long day, and he was tired. That could be it.
“Yeah, right.” He glanced toward the changing rooms. “I’m going to take this off and get it, and then I think I owe you lunch, don’t I?”
“You sure do,” I agreed, and I watched as he made his way back into the changing room and pulled the curtain over. I gave him some privacy, wandering away to look at the pocket squares idly. I found my mind drifting to what kind of date I would send him on in a suit like that—something fancy but fun, like a tasting menu at some hip restaurant. I felt my heart twist slightly in my chest and ignored it. I was nervous about setting him up with the right woman, that was all.
He emerged with the suit and paid for it, and I linked my arm through his again as we stepped out of the shop.
“So, where for lunch?” I asked, and he grinned.
“I actually think I have the perfect place,” he told me. “I used to go there all the time before the business took off.”
“Lead on.” I waved my hand, and he took me out of the mall and down a couple of side streets, and before I knew it, I was standing outside a tiny little coffee shop with big windows and comfortable chairs scattered around the floor inside.
“I used to live not far from here when Hunter was first born,” he explained as he headed inside. “They had a better internet connection than I did back then, so I would come down here to work all the time.”
“And you rate it?”
“Best place in the city.” He pulled the door open for me and gestured for me to go in. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had held a door for me, but it was the kind of thing a girl could get used to.
We took our seats, and I ordered a coffee and something from the artisan sandwich collection they had laid out under glass at the counter. He joined me at one of the low tables and took a long sip of his latte.
“Man, being here brings me back.” He shook his head. I smiled. There was something about this day, as low-pressure and silly as it had been, that had satisfied something in me I didn’t even know was awake.
“I still can’t believe you started your own business when you were raising a newborn.” I still had no idea what had happened to Hunter’s mother and, judging by his reaction the last time I had brought it up, I had a feeling it was best for me if I kept any comments on that matter to myself.
“Me neither,” he said. “That’s what it’s like when you’re young though, right? Boundless energy all the time, and you can’t imagine anything being any different.”
“I hear that.” I raised my coffee cup to him and took a sip. It spoke well to how much I liked him that I was able to spend time around him without a glass or three of wine. The conversation flowed as easily, maybe even better, than that first night, as though both of us could relax now that we knew we weren’t trying to impress the other in a dating sense.
We chatted some more over lunch, about his work and about mine and about how I had ended up doing what I was doing. We had more in common than I’d thought, even though we were at completely different ends of the career spectrum. I would have assumed that he spent as much time as he could at work, but he told me he was working hard on being able to leave the office without stressing and spend more time with his son. I thought that was sweet as hell and likely explained why he had turned to me for dating advice. He hadn’t dated anyone since his kid came along, and I couldn’t imagine how lonely it must have been for him, raising a child when the rest of his peers were out partying and having a good time. No wonder he wanted to catch up on that life now.
“Well, I can only thank you for all your help.” He extended his hand to me when we were outside, and I laughed and knocked it away.
“That’s a little formal, don’t you think?” I teased him, and I went to give him a hug instead. He seemed a little surprised, but he lifted his arms to wrap them around me for a moment, and I inhaled the sweet scent of his aftershave, masculine and classic, like him. Expensive, like him.
I pulled away swiftly and straightened out my sweater, then returned my attention to him.
“Thanks for today,” I told him. “I had a really good time. Better than getting lunch, for sure.”
“Thanks for helping me pick out a suit that doesn’t make me look a thousand years old,” he replied, and I grinned at him.
“You know, I’m going to have to find a woman to go with that suit,” I remarked. “I feel like I know you well enough now. I’ll start putting some feelers out, see who I can find—”
“Don’t you think you should spend a little more time with Hunter and me first?” He cut me off. “Just so you know what kind of dynamic we’re working with.”
“Uh,
I suppose so.” I nodded. “Actually, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Let’s do that. You call me up, and we can figure something out, all right?”
“Will do.” He flashed me another one of those rare but heart-spinning smiles and turned to head off. I watched him as he went and bit my lip. I had a hard time imagining him struggling with the women, yet he had recruited me for my help. Or something else entirely.
No, I wasn’t going to let myself think like that. I was a friend doing another friend a favor. Because that was all it was—that was all I had a reason to think it was anyway. Sure, he had seemed keen to spend more time with me, but that was nothing to read into. He valued his son and wanted to make sure anyone I set him up with was going to be compatible with the kid and with their dynamic as a father-child duo. I got that. I had worked with kids my entire career, and I understood better than most people how difficult it could be to find someone who would fit comfortably into that world.
Yet, as I made my way home, I couldn’t help looking forward to seeing him again. Which was, as I said, totally crazy because it was nothing more than platonic. From both sides. Wasn’t it? Either way, I was excited to see him again. As a friend, of course.
I arrived back at my place, but my brain was still running at what felt like a mile a minute, and I struggled to keep my head straight, so I decided to give Zoe a call. She was my go-to to get this stuff right, the voice of reason when I needed it the most. And damn, but did I need it right here and now.
“What’s up?” She yawned down the line.
“How are you tired? it’s the middle of the afternoon!” I scolded her playfully.
“Hey, I had a late one last night,” she shot back. “What about you? What are you up to? Want to go out and do something?”