by Sherie Keys
“Wow, you look gorgeous,” I said and Melanie smiled at me.
“So do you. Has anyone ever told you that you look like James Dean?” she asked and I laughed.
“Yes I’ve heard it before,” I said and Melanie grabbed a small purse before she flipped off the light by the door and stepped out into the hall to lock up. “It’s actually a pet name that my family uses to annoy me,” I said as she and I walked back down the hall together.
“So I’m guessing you’re pretty sick of people comparing you to James Dean?” she asked and I laughed.
“It comes up every time I meet a person. ‘Oh, my goodness you’re like James Dean’s doppelganger!’” I said in an exaggerated female imitation and Melanie laughed.
“So what does your family call you? James?” she asked and I shook my head.
“Dean, my brothers do it the most because they’re, well…brothers,” I said and Melanie chuckled.
“I know what you mean, I have a twin brother and he’s probably responsible for all my woes as a kid,” she said and I smiled.
“You’re a twin?”
“Yep, of course he’s older by like eleven minutes, but we have a pretty tight relationship,” she said fondly.
“That’s cool, I have three brothers and a sister.” Melanie’s eyes popped and I laughed. “Yeah and we were raised in the city too, no less,” I added and she looked at me in disbelief.
“Your parents have to be amazing,” she said and I smiled. Yeah, I was definitely liking Melanie.
“They are, to this day they’re still driving us crazy, but they keep us all together as a family,” I said and Melanie nodded with a small smile.
I led her down to the garage and to my car and made sure to be a gentleman by opening her door for her and everything. Once in the car I started the drive to Broadway Theatre. There was a sort of lull as I pulled out of the garage and I searched for something to talk about.
“So how has your week been so far? All two days of it?” I asked and Melanie smiled, though it didn’t fully reach her eyes.
“My week has been pretty good so far I can’t complain, I paint during the day and have plenty of free time in the evenings,” she said and I nodded.
“How many books have you illustrated so far?” I asked her and she chewed on her bottom lip while she thought about it.
“Well, all in all, I’d say close to twenty, the more contracts I get, the better for me, more money of course,” she said and I smiled.
“So you’re in it for the passion and to prove that you can make money doing what you love,” I said and she nodded.
“Yep, exactly, I hope to be world famous by the time I’m forty,” she said and I smiled.
“Anything can happen if you really want it and work towards your goal,” I told her and she sighed.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping for…I was supposed to be a lawyer like my brother, it’s what my parents wanted…” Melanie trailed off and I glanced over at her and gave her an encouraging smile. “I mean, sometimes I feel like I’m just doing it to prove them wrong on some level. I really do love to paint though,” she said and I nodded.
“I totally get it, all my siblings are successful on some level so when I graduated college with a simple business degree and no idea how I wanted to use it, my parents freaked out a little. Of course they were still my parents and they loved me, but they were pushing me in directions I didn’t want to go.
“So I literally went off the grid for about a year and completely freaked them and the family out. When I emerged, I was on my way to being a successful stock broker, everyone was shocked. But I did it, I proved them wrong,” I said and Melanie smiled.
“Yeah, when I’m able to splurge on a car like this or like the one my brother has, then I think I’ll have reached my goal,” Melanie said and I laughed.
“Forget the car, if you love your life as is, then you’ve reached your goal,” I said and she smiled at me with a look in her eye that I couldn’t quite place.
“You’re right about that one,” she said finally and I smiled to myself a little bit pleased. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Melanie was liking me, too.
Once we got to the theater and our seats, I could see the excitement in her eyes for watching the show and she thanked me about a million times for getting such great seats.
The show was, of course, amazing and I was pretty sure neither Melanie nor I looked away from the stage at all, even during intermission we stayed in our seats. After the show we decided to take a walk along Broadway.
“So you loved the show?” I asked her and Melanie practically glowed.
“It was amazing, I love Broadway shows, absolutely love them. And I can’t say how fantastic it was that you got such perfect seats, it was over everyone else’s head, but close enough to the stage that I didn’t even have to squint, those seats must have cost a fortune,” she said and I shrugged.
“It wasn’t a big deal to get them, and I’m glad you had a great time. Oh hey, I know of this great ice cream place a couple of blocks over if you want to go?” I asked her and she smiled up at me like a little kid and nodded her head.
“Ice cream sounds perfect,” she said with the same grin and I chuckled.
Melanie was kind of perfect; I had to make sure I didn’t fall too hard too fast with her.
“So how often is it that you meet someone you’ve met at one of the events you crash?” I asked her and she almost did a complete one-eighty. Her smile faltered and she seemed to back pedal a little bit as she thought of her answer.
“Well, there’s the few occasions that I might see someone from one of the parties that I met. As in, from far off, and I would never bother to go up to them or say hi. It’s extremely rare that I see someone out on the street and have them come up to me for a conversation…or to ask me out,” She glanced up at me with a smirk and I laughed.
“Well, I’m kind of glad that doesn’t happen, otherwise we might not be out on this date,” I said and Melanie laughed almost a bit nervously.
“Even if I’d say your charm worked for you,” she replied.
I grinned. “Well, the only way to make it on Wall Street really is with killer charm,” I said and Melanie snapped her fingers.
“So that’s it! That’s the secret ingredient, you know today I was wondering how hard it is to work the stock market and I pretty much have it figured out now,” Melanie said and I looked at her in amusement.
“Oh, please do tell me what secrets are you’ve figured out,” I said and Melanie gave me an eager smile as if she was sure she had a perfect explanation.
“Well, I figured, stocks are up one day and they’re down the next. Why do they fluctuate so much? Is it because people sell their stocks? Well, of course, it’s because people sell their stocks.
So if a stock is doing well and prices are up, stock holders will sell to make money, therefore making the stock cheaper for people to buy up because inevitably that stock will raise again. Am I right?” Melanie looked up at me hopefully and I had to admit I was a little impressed.
“You are on the right track with that, yeah. What made you start wondering about the stock market?” I asked her with a chuckle and she shrugged.
“I don’t know, I was just wondering, I wonder about things,” she said and I laughed.
“Well you have the basics down, you should consider becoming a stock broker or advisor in your spare time; an advisor is better, more flexible hours,” I said and Melanie laughed.
“The only thing is that the stock market involves numbers and whenever those are involved, my mind sort of shuts down,” she said and I cracked up.
“But what about money? If the numbers involve money, surely you’d pay attention?” I asked and she shrugged.
“My money, yeah, someone else’s…not so much,” she said and I laughed all over again.
We walked over to the ice cream parlor and Melanie’s eyes widened when she saw all the flavors lined up in their s
uper long cooler display case.
“Oh my goodness, how can anyone ever make up their minds?” she gasped and I laughed.
“Every time I come here I get something new, and they invent new flavors all the time too, but you have to ask for the flavor of the week,” I told her and she focused on all the flavors while we waited in line.
By the time it was our turn to order, Melanie chose a waffle cone with a scoop of candied caramel praline ice cream. When she was handed her ice cream cone, I had to smile at the bright expression on her face. I got a scoop of apple pie flavored ice cream and then we went outside to have a walk in the chilly air.
“There’s just something about eating ice cream when it’s cold out,” Melanie said and I nodded.
“It makes you appreciate the cold even more,” I added and it was her turn to nod.
We walked in comfortable silence for a little while as we ate our ice cream and I found myself thinking of something else to talk about, which was never a good sign.
“So uh, did you grow up in the city?” I asked her and she looked up at me with an open smile and shook her head once as she licked a bit of ice cream from the corner of her mouth.
“No I grew up in Long Island and then moved to the city for college with my brother, then never left.”
“I get that; I can’t imagine living anywhere else but New York City. It’s never boring, and in all my time being here, I can honestly say that there’s always something to do.”
“That’s exactly why I never left; also, there’s always a hidden gem to find when it comes to food,” she said and I grinned.
“If you’re a real foodie, you should travel to Pittsburgh or Chicago, Miami even. There’s great food everywhere, you just have to know where to look,” I said and Melanie looked at me curiously.
“Have you traveled just to eat before?” she asked me and I shrugged.
“Guilty, I’ve been a lot of places in and outside of the US, I could be your foodie tour guide.” I grinned at her and she laughed.
“That sounds like a fun trip, but I’ve actually always wanted to visit L.A. and see what’s up with all this fusion cuisine.”
“L.A. has a lot of unique flavors and there’s a lot of stuff that works, you’d like it there, but I can’t stay for more than a day or two, same thing with Miami. Chicago is okay, Pittsburgh is better, I guess I get homesick really quickly,” I said and Melanie snorted.
“City boy through and through, you remind me of my best friend Peter, he won’t even step foot outside of New York for a vacation. He thinks going to Buffalo to ski is vacation enough,” she said and I laughed.
“Yeah, that sounds like me, until I ate foods other than New York style pizza and got curious,” I said which made Melanie laugh again.
“You’re such a guy, but at least you’ve opened up your palette,” she said with a chuckle and I grinned.
After we finished our ice cream and walked back to my car I drove Melanie home and walked her up to her apartment.
“So this was nice, right?” I asked her outright and she giggled.
“Yeah, this was really nice Caleb,” she said softly and I released a deep breath which made her laugh. I took it as a good sign that she laughed a lot while around me.
“So I’ll give you a call tomorrow then?” I asked and she nodded. “Cool,” I licked my lips and then acted on an impulse and simply bent down to kiss her.
Melanie’s lips were soft and I knew I could easily get carried away with how amazing her lips felt against mine and how good she smelled.
Already my dick was stiffening and I pulled away before anything down there became noticeable. How long had it been since the last time I had been with a woman? The fact that I had to ask myself that question spoke volumes.
“Talk to you tomorrow then,” she said and I waved at her as she unlocked her front door and stepped inside.
Once the door was closed I walked down the hall with a huge grin on my face.
Hunter
It had been nearly all week since I’ve seen Melanie and we’d been talking every day over the phone. Whatever it was that was making it so impossible to flush her out of my system was also making it impossible to think about much else but her. I couldn’t wait until Saturday to see her at the Giants’ practice field.
I was sitting in my living room staring at the clock. It was only six o’clock, I thought maybe I should call her and see what she was up to.
I pulled out my phone and dialed her number, which I had pathetically memorized one sleepless night, which happened to be the night before. I was in it bad with Melanie and I’d never felt that way about a woman before. I was certain she had some sort of sorcery about her.
“Hey Hunt, how are you?”
Mel’s alluring voice soothed my nerves almost instantly and I smiled ruefully to no one in particular.
“Well, if I’m completely honest, I’d have to say that I’m a little bored and thinking about you is driving me absolutely crazy, make it stop,” I said and she laughed.
“Well, what are you up to tonight?” she asked me.
I sighed. “Nothing, absolutely nothing, which is rare,” I answered in hopes that she’d invite me over or something.
“Why don’t you come over, tonight is one of the extremely rare nights that I’m cooking dinner,” she said with a laugh to her voice.
I was already standing and looking for my keys as I had given my driver the night off.
“I’ll be there in less than ten minutes, time me,” I said and I caught her giggle before I ended the call.
I broke a lot of speed laws, but what NYC driver didn’t? I knocked on Mel’s door and she opened it soon after and greeted me with an impressed grin.
“Right on time, you have a real knack for that,” she said and I smiled at her in return and then leaned towards her to press a kiss to her cheek.
“It adds to the overall irresistible package that is me,” I said and Melanie cracked up as I stepped inside and shut the door behind me. “It’s true, people like a guy who is always on time,” I said as she stepped into the kitchen to stir something that smelled like really good pasta sauce.
“What are you making over there? Trying to be a five-star chef?” I asked and she snorted.
“Trying? I am a five-star chef, I’m just undercover,” she quipped and I grinned, she had picked up on my sarcasm habit fast and adapted pretty well with her own wit. I had to admit I really liked that about her. I walked into the kitchen and peeked over her shoulder. She was indeed stirring pasta sauce.
“So what is my own personal five-star chef making tonight?”
“Pasta with meat sauce and Texas toast,” she said.
I licked my lips and then pressed them against the curve of her neck which caused her to shiver delicately.
“Sounds really good, smells good, too,” I murmured and then kissed her jaw before pulling away from her.
I glanced around her decent sized eat-in kitchen and then decided to give myself a tour of her place. The kitchen was to the left of the front door and to the right was the living room and a pretty decent view of SoHo; she even had her own balcony, which was a hot commodity in the city.
Past the two rooms was a hallway that had one bathroom, a master bedroom, and then another room which had all her art stuff inside. I studied her easels out drying and could follow the story of a dog walking through a farm and having conversations with all the farm animals. She was really good at what she did and I could see how she made enough to afford her apartment.
Real talent was hard to come by and people in well-known publishing companies knew it when they saw it. I wandered back into the kitchen as Melanie was pulling out the toast from the oven.
“You have a nice place here,” I said and she shrugged a little.
“Thanks, it’s just right for me, I think,” she said and I nodded.
The place was definitely Melanie. It was pretty updated and had a bit of an industrial feel to it with the
painted brick walls here and there.
“Alright, so you have to fess up, how did you find this place?” I asked her and she rolled her eyes at me as she shut off the stove and got a couple of plates out to set the table. I walked over to help her while she served the food.
“If you must know, my best friend Peter is a real estate agent and knew the people who built the building. Instead of putting this unit up for sale, he somehow convinced them to rent it out to me really cheap. The building is only a few years old,” she said and I smiled, another secret unveiled.