Trusting Jay: (A Chicago Suits Romance) (Loving Jay Book 1)

by Simone Sowood

  “The traitor! Anyway, like I said, it’s nothing to do with the blond.”

  The door opened and a group of suited men walked in. I couldn’t see all of them straight away, so I stared as they made their ways to the counter.

  Sam looked to me then looked to them and back to me again. Her mouth opened wider with each turn of her head.

  “Close you mouth, you’re about to catch flies.”

  “Don’t try to change the subject, I’m on to you. It’s the guy who was here on Friday, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe.” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.

  “How are we going to find him again?”

  “I’m going to blow a lot of money on coffee until I do.” It wasn’t a good plan, granted. And I didn’t have the money to spend on coffee. When I’d come up with the plan, coffee shop guy was already waiting in the coffee shop for me Monday morning and treated me to the first coffee.

  “Well hopefully he’ll be here in a minute.”

  “Unlikely, but a girl can dream.”

  The door opened again and my heart crashed against my ribcage. My cheeks burned.

  “What? Is it him?” Sam asked, whipping her head around to see, “It’s him!”

  “So what do I do now?”

  “Go talk to him!”

  “But what if it isn’t interested in me?”

  “Sweetie, I was here Friday, trust me, he's definitely interested in you.”

  I didn’t know whether to believe her, but I wanted to. I had to. Otherwise I knew damn well she’d go up to him on my behalf. I should have thought of that before I’d told her. I patted my cheeks willing the red to go down, cleared my throat and stood. Sam’s smile gave me the last bit of confidence I'd get. At least she’d be there to pick me up after he rejected me.

  I walked toward the prep area. Yes, I would wait there the way he’d waited for me on Friday, it was all coming together. Except as I walked towards the little counter, I was looking at him and not where I was going. I stumbled into a chair and sent both me and the chair toppling to the floor, accompanied with a deafening screech.

  I laid on the floor, half under a table. A used kleenex was far too close to my face, but I still contemplated pulling it apart and using it to shield my face as I fled the coffee shop.

  “Abbie, are you okay?” Oh no. Please no. This is the worst thing possible. Coffee shop man crouched beside me. I closed my eyes, willing to see Sam when I opened them again. She stood halfway between me and our table, as if she had rushed over then hung back when the man got to me first.

  I can’t believe he used my name. I can’t believe he remembered my name! Too bad he’d wipe it from his memory now.

  “I’m fine, thanks,” I said sitting up, conscious every single person in the shop was watching me.

  “Here, let me help you,” he said grabbing my hands. My face burned red, but at least he would think it was from my fall and not from talking to him. The next moments were a blur but somehow I ended up sitting at a table with him and a glass of water. Over his shoulder I saw Sam hightail it out the door.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked.

  “Only my pride.” I tried to smile, though my insides were a clash of emotions, fighting between embarrassment over the fall and excitement over finding him so easily.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve done things a hundred times worse.”

  “You have? Like what?”

  “Um,” he hesitated.

  I jumped in, “Liar!” His eyes widened at my accusation and we both laughed.

  “I have,” he protested. “When I was a kid I got to ride my horse in a town parade. And I fell off.”

  I burst out laughing. Not knowing whether to believe him. “I appreciate you trying to make me feel better,” I said with a smile beaming across my face.

  “Sir, your coffee,” the barista called.

  He stood and took a step towards the counter before turning back to me, “Don’t go anywhere.”

  My heart swelled, Sam was right, he was interested in me. I watched as he fixed his coffee, then retrieved my coffee from my original table. “Here,” he said as he set it in front of me.

  4

  “So…you remembered my name.” That sounded awkward, why did I say that?

  “I never forget a pretty girl’s name.” He certainly didn’t lack for confidence but his comment had my heart dancing.

  “Do I get to know your name?” I asked, fiddling with my stir stick.

  “Of course. It’s Ja…”

  Was he done? He didn’t sound done. Did he forget his name?

  “Jay?” I repeated.

  “Yes,” he said, sounding surprised.

  “Nice to meet you, Jay. I’m Abbie White.”

  “Yes, I’m Jay, Jay McCal…”

  “Jay Mickle?”

  “Yes, Jay Mickle.” This was a strange conversation.

  “I feel like Judy Garland in The Clock,” I said.

  “Except you tripped over a chair, not me. And you didn’t break your heel.”

  “I,” I was speechless. How did he know that movie? No one knows that movie.

  He smiled at me, holding my eyes in his.

  “You’re a fan of old movies?” I finally said.

  “My mother watched them endlessly when I was growing up.”

  I sucked on the rim of my coffee cup, looking at him. Pondering.

  “Normally people look at me with blank faces when I make a reference to one.”

  I glanced at my watch. Holy cow, we’d been talking for an hour. Calvin would freak, fingers crossed Sam came up with a convincing story to cover for me.

  “Is everything okay?” Jay asked.

  “Yes, it’s just I have a real hard ass for a boss, and he's going to freak on me for being late.”

  He shook his head, “Don’t worry about him.” How could he say that? I had a mortgage to try to keep up with. I’m sure Calvin will put this on my record. I’m convinced he’s building a case against me to get me fired.

  “You sure must have a nice boss with a comment like that.”

  He laughed. “I don’t have a boss.”

  “What do you mean you don’t have a boss?” My comment seemed to surprise him, and he sat up straighter.

  “No, I don’t have a job.”

  “You don’t have a job?” What kind of person doesn’t have a job? It’s not like he’s old enough to be retired. But it does explain his lax attitude towards my job. He probably got fired from his last job for laziness. But it doesn’t matter what he does for a one-night stand, as long as he does me.

  “No, I’m, um, between jobs right now.”

  “Oh, then why are you hanging out downtown?”

  “You know, job interviews.”

  “What time is your interview? I don’t want you to be late because of me.”

  “Don’t worry, I have time. I like to come good and early.”

  “What’s it an interview for?”

  “IT stuff. Nothing exciting.”

  “Good luck today. I’m sorry, I really have to get to work.” I really, really don’t want to go to work.

  “I hate to lose your company while I wait. Are you doing anything Friday?”

  “No, nothing at all.”

  “How about dinner? My treat?” He just asked me out. I had to pinch myself under the table to make sure I wasn’t lying in my bed masturbating.

  “I’d love to, what time and where?”

  “Meet me at Dish at eight on Friday.” Wow, he must not have been out of work long if he’s going to spring for Dish.

  “Sounds perfect.” I stood, my face beaming with excitement. He stood beside me, so close it caused butterflies to flutter around in my chest. He smelt incredible, of crisp white sheets that made me want to bury my face in him and drink in his scent all day long.

  “We should exchange phone numbers, in case anything comes up.”

  “Good idea.” My thumbs flew over my phone to open my create new contact scr
een, and I’d typed in Jay Mickle, waiting for him to tell me his number.

  “Just a second, I never remember my number and it always takes me a minute to figure out how to see my number.”

  Is this guy serious? Who doesn’t know how to see their number? And what kind of IT guy doesn’t know how to look under ‘me’ in the contacts? Oh well, he’s hot and fun to talk to and that’s all that matters.

  “Why don’t I tell you mine and you can text me, then I’ll have yours.”

  “Good idea.”

  My phone beeped with his text, and I added him to my contacts. “Great, it’s been lovely meeting you Jay, I’ll see you Friday.”

  “I look forward to it,” he said, his smile so broad and genuine my insides melted.

  He held the door open for me. We went to go our separate ways and after a few steps I turned to him and called, “Good luck in your job interview.”

  His brow furrowed for a second before he said, “Thanks.”

  5

  I hurried to my desk, praying Sam had come up with a good cover story for me. Maybe I could say I was at a meeting, bigging up the merits of his Weeksend reports to the powers that be. Ha. Fat fucking chance.

  “How did it go?” Sam pounced on me before I’d even had the chance to sit down.

  “Really good.”

  “I can tell, judging by the smile on your face. Are you seeing him again?”

  “Friday. At Dish!”

  “Dish? I hope he’s paying.”

  “He said it was his treat. So I’ll be having an amazing meal before I get a little nookie.”

  “What’s he like?”

  “So much fun to talk to,” I said remembering his old movies comments. “But really, really confident. Except when it came to his name, he seemed to forget that.”

  “Why, what’s his name?”

  “Jay Mickle.”

  “That’s weird, don’t you think?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t care what his name is, as long as he gives me something to call out in the throes of passion.” Sam burst out laughing.

  “Abbie, how good of you to come to work this week.” Calvin’s voice was like nails on a chalkboard.

  “Calvin, I just got out of a meeting. How was your weekend?”

  “What meeting?” he pressed.

  “With Jay Mickle.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “You must have heard of him, he does all that stuff on the most effective way to present data in reports. I learned a lot from him in such a short time, it was a really beneficial use of my time that I think will help our little department.”

  Calvin gave me a puzzled look, I hoped he believed me. No, I don’t care if he believed me, I wanted him to stop talking to me about my tardiness. I bite the insides of me cheek to stop myself from laughing. Judging by Sam’s face, she was doing the same thing. Calvin nodded and walked into his office.

  Sam and I sat down, laughing at Calvin’s reaction to my story.

  “You’re too funny,” she said.

  “He’s just a slow witted idiot,” I said, and we laughed all over again.

  My phone bleeped

  Hi Abbie. Looking forward to seeing you again. Can we change restaurant from Dish to D’Angelo’s? J

  My face fell.

  “What, who is it?” Sam pried.

  “It’s Jay.” I held my phone out for her to see.

  “He must’ve looked at the prices.” She laughed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh.”

  “What do you think it means?”

  “It means he doesn’t want to pay Dish prices.”

  “But.”

  “No but. Who cares?”

  “You’re right,” I said. It didn’t matter, I only wanted him to fuck me, not wine me and dine me.

  Sure, no problem

  “At least I can walk there from my apartment,” I said, disappointed.

  6

  “Thanks for helping me get ready,” I said as I stood in my bedroom.

  “Of course. Mostly I’m here to make sure you don’t back out,” Jenny said.

  “I’m so nervous.”

  “Don’t be, he’ll be throwing himself at you in that dress. Hell, even I want to throw myself at you.”

  I twirled back to the mirror, my tits almost popped out of my strapless dress as I spun.

  “On second thought, I don’t feel comfortable enough to wear this.” I pushed it down and wiggled until the fuchsia dress ended up at my feet.

  “How about this one?” Jenny rummaged through my closet and held up a little black dress with a halter top.

  “Oh my god, I forgot I owned that.”

  She zipped me into it and tied the tails of the halter behind my neck.

  “Wow, how could you forget you own this?”

  “Is it too much cleavage?” Holy cow it was a lot of cleavage.

  “There’s no such thing as too much cleavage!”

  “Is it classy enough?’

  “Classy enough for D’Angelo’s?”

  “Right. Will I stick out?”

  “Yes. But for the right reasons! Come on, let’s do your nails.”

  My heart was fluttering with nerves. I hadn’t been on a date in so long and I was on the verge of vomiting.

  “I don’t know if I can do this.”

  “Don’t be silly. It’s like you said, it isn’t a date, it’s a one-night stand with dinner first.”

  “Okay, I can do this.” I forced myself to breathe.

  My crimson nails flashed in the light as I pulled open the door to D’Angelo’s. I stepped in and scanned through the dim light for Jay. He was sitting at a table near the back, and stood when he saw me.

  Jay was wearing the same expensive suit he’d had on at the coffee shop. At least it might have been the same, but admittedly I can’t tell one expensive suit from the other. Instead of a crisp shirt and tie, he wore a stylish gray dress shirt that hinted of the muscles underneath.

  Most attractive of all was the confidence his body language projected. I mean, you have to be pretty confident to wear a suit to D'Angelo's and not feel out of place, but he owned it. And more.

  “Hi,” I said as I approached the table.

  “Abbie, you look more beautiful than Audrey Hepburn.” He took my hands in his and I hoped he couldn’t detect my nervousness.

  “Thank you.”

  We sat and chatted, the words flowing easily between us. He sat back in his chair, a constant smile on his face, and I relaxed.

  As the food arrived, I asked him, “So, how did your job interview go?”

  He looked puzzled for a moment then said, “It went okay.”

  “Do you have any others coming up?”

  “Other job interviews? No, not really.”

  “How long have you been looking?”

  “Oh, a few months.”

  “You don’t seem concerned to be out of work.”

  “It’s not a big deal.” Was this guy for real?

  “You must have a lot of money to have that attitude.”

  “Money? No. No, I don’t have a lot of money.” He sounded defensive.

  “Then how do you live?”

  “I get by, it’s not a big deal. How’s your chicken?”

  I took the hint, “It’s delicious, thanks. Did you see the list of desserts? They all sound amazing.”

  I didn’t care about the dessert. I cared about after the dessert. But the closer we got to ending our marathon meal, the more my nerves reappeared. As much as I wanted this sexy man to take me home and ravish me, I started to worry about it. I’d never slept with a man other than Matt. Unadventurous Matt, a man who was happiest if I spread my legs and laid still for him. What if I sucked in bed? And I wasn’t sure I wanted Jay to see me naked. Fuck me yes, but not actually see my imperfect body.

  “Everything okay?” Jay asked.

  I snapped out of my thoughts and smiled at him. “Yes, absolutely.”

  “So tell me about your job, how do
you like working at Force McAllister?”

  “It was good, until my current boss was hired. He’s evil to work for.”

  “But aside from him?”

  “Aside from him it’s a pretty good company. I guess.”

  “You guess?”

  “Yeah, it’s good. Do you want me to try to get you in? I have a friend in IT.”

  “No,” he said laughing, “It’s okay.”

  “It’s a good company. It relocated here from Lexington, Kentucky about five years ago.”

  Jay nodded but said nothing, so I dropped the point. I took a sip of my after dinner coffee. How did he know I work at Force McAllister? I don’t remember telling him which company I work for, but the moments right after my coffee shop tumble were hazy.

  True to his word, Jay picked up the check, though I felt guilty for not contributing. We sat, finished, staring at the paid bill. With my heart in my throat, I waited for him to make a move.

  “Shall we?” he asked, already walking away from the table.

  He held the restaurant door open for me. As I stepped outside, his arm came to a rest across my shoulders. We walked a little ways, in the opposite direction to my apartment. Neither of us said anything. I wasn’t sure where we were going. Quite frankly, I didn’t care where we were going. I was too busy enjoying the sensation of having a man holding me.

  Jay let out a big sigh, and I worried something was wrong.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  “Did you drive?”

  “No, I live nearby. Did you?”

  “I got the bus.”

  “Sorry, living right in the city means I don’t have a car.”

  “I don’t have one either. But I’ll walk you home first. I’d like to make sure you get home safely.”

  His words woke my inner animal and I felt a little heat grow between my legs. One-night stand, ready or not here I come.

  “Well, here it is,” I said as we arrived at my building.

  Jay smiled and wrapped his other arm around me, embracing me in his strong arms. He looked down at me, and I thought he was going to kiss me but then he turned his head away.