by Simply BWWM
He didn’t let go right away, and she knew that he must have needed the hug. When he did let her go, he kissed her cheek gently and smiled at her as he stepped away from her. “Well, Jasmine, I think we’d better get to our show before they start it without us.” He gave her a wink. “Come on.”
She slipped her hand through his arm and walked with him the rest of the way to the car.
***
Cameron raised his arm and wiped his sweat band over his forehead as he looked at the high hill above him and all of the towering redwood trees that surrounded him. The trees were so tall that they created a dark canopy hundreds of feet above him, and where he was, there was little light other than patches of it that filtered through to the forest floor. There was a stillness in the woods where he and his best friend Justin Leonard were hiking. A stillness and a timeless feel, as if time did not pass in the place where they were at the same rate that it passed everywhere else.
The trees were ancient and slow growing. They made their way upward over decades that became centuries, and the rush and bustle of man outside of their small world meant nothing, and had no real connection or reach with them. The narrow and dusty worn paths that wound long miles through the trees had been made there by men who had come during the gold rush, men who had been explorers, searching for land, searching for fortune and a new world, and searching for whatever lay behind the next hill. Those men had trod the earth where Cameron walked, and he thought of them as the soles of his feet stepped where they had stepped, so many years later.
“Are you trying to kill me?” Cameron called out ahead to Justin who was a fair distance in front of him as they went up the side of a steep incline. “Because, I just want you to know, you’re not inheriting anything. There’s no benefit to you if you do me in.”
Justin turned around and looked back at him. He had thick light brown curls that framed his long face. His eyes were blue and his smile was narrow. His nose was long like his face was, and with his longer hair curling around his head, he was sometimes told that he looked as if he could have been one of The Beatles when they were in their rebellious long haired phase.
“I’m not trying to kill you, I’m whipping you into shape, and there is a benefit to me. I get sadistic pleasure out of knowing I’m causing you some small amount of pain. It makes me feel better about you graduating with a higher grade-point average than I did,” Justin called back to him.
Cameron laughed as he made his way up closer to Justin, who was waiting for him. “You have to get over that, Justin. You really do. You can’t hold on to that forever. It was over a decade ago.”
“I can hold on to it. We’re going to be two grumpy old men and I’m still going to be bitching about it. So, get your wornout butt up here and let’s hike this together.” Justin chuckled as Cameron finally caught up with him.
“Okay, I’m here.” Cameron breathed out heavily, trying to wheeze.
“I’ll let you catch your breath. I don’t want you dying on this hill because then I’ll have to drag your ass back out of here again.” He laughed and took a drink from his water bottle.
“You can’t kill me, I’m an expectant father. At least let me see my offspring before you ruthlessly torture my life from me.” He laughed a little at his own joke and then took a long drink from his water bottle as his body began to slow down.
“Speaking of which,” Justin eyed him curiously, “how’s that whole thing going?”
Cameron sighed and put his water bottle away, looking around him at the landscape. They had gotten up far enough on the side of the hill that the trees were a little shorter and the sunlight came through a little stronger. It felt warmer to him, but he wasn’t sure if that was because there was more sunlight around them, or if it was because he had worked up a sweat getting to where Justin was. He could see more blue sky from where they stood, and that was encouraging to him.
“The whole thing,” he said as his thoughts shifted to the future and him becoming a father, “is going very well. So, Jasmine, who is the girl I hired to do the surrogacy, is actually a really great woman. I’m surprised, actually. I hadn’t expected her to be quite so good at what she’s doing, and it makes me feel a lot better about it all, and about her.”
Justin tipped his head to the side slightly. “What do you mean… good at what she’s doing? She’s pregnant. So, are you telling me that she’s good at being pregnant?”
Cameron lifted a brow as he thought about what Justin had said. “Yeah, actually, now that you say it that way, I guess that’s exactly it. She’s good at being pregnant.”
“How so? Doesn’t she just have to carry the baby and that’s it?” Justin asked, frowning slightly in confusion.
“See, that’s what I thought too. Find someone healthy, who has a healthy family background, and hire them to carry a baby, and that’s it. It’s just a pregnancy, right? Well, that’s not what she’s doing. She came to see me at my office and I offered to help her however I could, and she told me that she was eating organic food, all organic food, so I told her I’d pay for it. She says she’s not eating anything processed or high in sodium or high in fats… she’s really watching her diet, eating only the best, because of the baby.
She’s going to maternity yoga so she can relax and they can both be healthy and strong. She asked me to get her a machine that she sets on her stomach and it plays classical music like Beethoven and Mozart, and Bach and Handel. All of that classical music-” he was going to continue, but Justin beat him to the mark.
“All that classical music is good for the baby. Stimulates brain functions and critical thinking areas of the brain…” Justin trailed off and nodded. “You’re right. She is good at being pregnant.”
“Yeah!” Cameron smiled at his friend. “She’s good at it. She is really taking this thing seriously, and she’s doing all that she can to make sure that the baby is healthy and happy and doing well. She’s taking care of herself, and of the baby, and it really blew my mind when she came to me with those things. I thought, if she’s taking it so seriously right now, then I need to be right there side by side with her, taking it just as seriously as she is. So, I bought tickets to take her to the symphony.” He beamed happily.
Justin raised an eyebrow as he looked at Cameron. “You took her on a date?”
Cameron’s cheeks warmed and turned a little pinker than they already were. “No… no, not like that. Remember I just said that she asked me for the machine that plays classical music to help the baby. Well, I got the machine for her and while I was at it I thought that if recorded music was good for the baby, then live music has got to be even better, right? So, the San Francisco Symphony had a concert and they were playing Mozart. I took her to that, you know… for the baby, to help the baby.”
Justin narrowed his eyes as he considered Cameron. “You took her to help the baby.”
“Yes.” Cameron answered, looking away from Justin as Justin’s eagle eyes regarded his face and his expressions closely.
“Is that the only reason that you took her?” he asked coolly.
“Of course, it is! What other reason would I have for taking her out to the symphony?” Cameron scoffed at it, but his heart rate picked up and he began to feel a little apprehensive.
“You didn’t take her at all because you like her?” Justin asked quietly.
Cameron shook his head and looked down. “No, nothing like that. She’s just there to have the baby, and she’s doing a great job. I mean, sure she’s… she’s beautiful and smart and sweet, and she’s got a great sense of humor, and she loves old things like I do, and she’s determined… She has this dream to open a flower shop and she wants to open it in downtown Palo…” he trailed off and looked back up at Justin.
Justin watched him silently. “You don’t like her?”
“I’m doing it all for the baby. She’s really nice, and I like her as a friend, but everything that I’m doing, I’m doing for the baby.” Cameron said seriously.
&nb
sp; Justin nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“So… how’s it going over in your new building?” Cameron changed the subject as he headed up the trail again, hoping to dissuade his friend from any further conversation regarding Jasmine. He hadn’t considered that he might like her, and he didn’t want to consider it. He wasn’t in the market for love or anything like it, no matter how amazing she was.
***
In recurring moments over the following days, Cameron found his mind drifting to Jasmine, thinking of something she had said, or the way her laugh sounded, thinking of how much she cared for the baby and how dedicated she was to making sure that the baby was getting the absolute best possible food and care even before it was born.
He found himself thinking of her warm and welcoming smile, and the way she looked so lovely and graceful as she walked along near him. When she crossed his mind, he would pause in what he was doing for a moment and enjoy his thoughts of her, and he would find himself smiling.
Cameron began to feel that perhaps he should try to do more for her, that he should try to take better care of her and show her his appreciation for the things she was doing to care for his child. Near the end of the week after he had taken her to the symphony, he had made up his mind that he wanted to make dinner for her. He called her, and she was less surprised to hear from him than she had been when he showed up at her door with the music machine and the symphony tickets.
“Hello Jasmine, how are you doing?” he asked with a grin as he heard her voice on the phone. It seemed to brighten him from the inside, bringing with it its own happiness.
“I’m doing wonderfully, Cameron, how are you?” She smiled, glad to hear from him. He sounded as sweet on the phone as he was in person.
“I’m very well, thank you. How’s the baby doing?” he asked, curious as always about his child.
“The baby’s good. It’s growing and I’m beginning to show a little more,” she said with a trace of excitement. “I’m beginning to really feel more pregnant than I have up until now.”
“That’s wonderful!” She could hear in his voice that he was beginning to feel a thrill about it as well. “Listen, I was thinking that I’d like to make dinner for you, you know, as a thank you for all that you’re doing. I just… I really appreciate everything and I’d like to do something good for you.”
He hesitated and then added with a laugh, “It’ll be all organic, I promise, so you’ll be sticking to your healthy diet. I’ll make sure of that. I want to take care of you and the baby.” He chuckled again and found that his heart was beating a little faster in his chest as he waited for her reply.
Jasmine blinked and looked around her room in surprise. “Dinner? Well that would be lovely, thank you. You really don’t have to, you’ve done so much for us already, but if you want to, I’d enjoy that! Thank you!”
It was a touching gesture and she knew that they would have fun talking and sharing each other’s time and company. She smiled, thinking what a nice friend he was turning out to be.
“Would Saturday work? I can come and pick you up, and bring you over to my place.” He realized that he wasn’t feeling any anxiety about it, but rather a sort of thrill, a happy buzz as he worked out the details with her and they said goodbye. He would have a week to think about their upcoming time together, anticipating it and looking forward to it, and the thought of that brought him a good amount of joy.
He planned the meal and stopped for fresh flowers on Saturday, preparing for her visit. His home was spotless thanks to the staff that worked there for him, but he arranged a cozy dinner setting for them in his dining room.
Saturday afternoon came and she took a little more time dressing herself in an ivory colored dress and sandals. The material was soft and light, flowing when she walked almost as if she was moving through a cloudy mist.
He arrived on time as he had for the symphony, and smiled widely when he saw her. “You look lovely,” he said, feeling his heart begin to beat faster. She didn’t make him nervous, she made him happy, but there was something about her that sparked many things in him, creating a hum of excitement and joy, and it was that that coursed through him like electricity moving through cables.
She gave him a smile and hugged him. “Thank you, you look good too!” She noted his button up shirt and dress pants. He always seemed to look as if he could have stepped off of the cover of a gentleman’s fashion magazine. He made have been a computer whiz in college and not had time for dating and girls or any kind of a social life, but since he had made his fortune, he had definitely found time for learning some great fashion sense.
He walked with her to his car and a short while later he pulled up to his house. It was tucked away on a street set back from the main roads.
She wasn’t entirely sure what she had been expecting, but it wasn’t what she saw when he parked the car in front of his house. There was a wide circular drive and a parking area in front of the house, so that at least five or six cars could have been parked there. It was light concrete, so it looked almost more like a patio.
In the center of the circular drive was a garden with rose bushes and carefully trimmed grass. Around the outside of the circular drive were immaculately groomed gardens carpeted with a beautiful green lawn, flowering bushes, tall shady trees, fruit trees, and there was a medium sized hedge around the entire property at least as far as she could see.
The house itself was two and a half stories, made of darker wood with a Tudor style. There was a small front porch where pots of flowering plants stood. She realized that she must have imagined in the back of her mind that he lived in a mansion of some sort, simply because he was a billionaire, but as she thought about it, walking with him along a side path through a garden gate around the house to a sliding glass door that entered into a big open kitchen, she realized that she couldn’t have been more wrong.
His office in town was simple and old fashioned. It was a classic sort of style; it wasn’t loud and garish, or large and luxurious, it did not bespeak wealth and grandeur. It was instead something much more true to who he was without all of the money that he had.
It occurred to her that he must still be the same down to earth man that he had been all of his life, and that becoming a billionaire in a decade and a half hadn’t changed him. He hadn’t gone out and splurged and flashed his money around; he hadn’t grown shallow and lost his soul to the fortune he had made.
He was just as happy being who he was as he had been before he became wealthy. The money was just a side note to him, and a way to allow him to help others when he found smart investments that he could grow his money in while benefitting others.
The interior of his home was designed around wide open spaces and lots of light. The living room encompassed both the first and second floor, giving it enormous area, while the kitchen had high ceilings and opened up into a formal dining room with slightly lower ceilings. All of the furnishings were modern and the kitchen had the most up to date appliances.
There was hardwood flooring in the kitchen, along with marble countertops and oak cabinetry, which matched the floor. The living room had a soft thick carpet and a rock stone fireplace which stretched up the entirety of the wall to the ceiling two stories above.
It was a comfortable looking home. There were a few tech magazines laying on a table beside the big sofa in the living room, and an old wooden desk in a little side office off the living room where she saw that he could work from home when he wanted to.
The kitchen surprised her a little, in that she could see that it was so up to date because he used it often. There was a walk-in pantry which had a sliding door that was pushed all the way open, and from the look of it, it stayed that way all the time. The pantry was filled with shelves of dried goods in labeled Tupperware containers, from spices to pasta, rice, cereal, and dried fruits to nuts and baking needs such as flour and sugar.
The counters had containers with an array of utensils to cook with, and there was an elevated pot
and pan rack that hung in the air above the space in the pantry. With as much as he had in his kitchen in the way of foods and gadgets and appliances, she could see that he was no stranger to a kitchen, and that surprised her.
“Do you cook often?” she asked, wondering at all that was around her.
He nodded and smiled. “I do. I love to cook. It’s my creative outlet away from computers. I started cooking when I took home economics in high school and I found out that I was good at that as well, though no one else was surprised.
I probably couldn’t change the oil in my cars, and I won’t try to, but I can create a good meal, and I really enjoy doing it. I guess my kitchen is outfitted enough that it shows. I could walk into a kitchen supply store and be in there for hours. I’m a sucker for creating all kinds of things with food.”