First Sight

by Donohue, Laura

  Marissa must’ve found problems with some of the content if she was still meeting with them. Usually if we had any edits or new reviews to submit we could just email them over for posting on the website. Since she’d given me the go-ahead and I had no idea how much longer she’d be, I didn’t have much choice but to leave without her. I gathered up my things and not seeing Elizabeth or Travis around, headed out on my own. I walked down the block to the metro station and hopped on one of the trains heading to Arlington. I knew Marissa would be annoyed that she had to stay late again, but we all had various deadlines in the upcoming weeks and would be working late one night or another.

  As I exited the metro station, the streets were crowded with other office workers heading home for the night. I weaved my way through the throngs of people in front of the escalators and cut across the street. Walking past a few stores and a little café, I pulled open the door to Rock Bottom. Catching my reflection in the glass, I noticed that my cheeks were a little flushed from the cold. It was 6:20, but even though I was early, I hurried inside to escape the chilly air. The bar was starting to fill up, and I looked around to see if anyone else was there yet. I finally spotted Travis seated at the bar, his back to me. He was wearing a black leather jacket and drinking a beer. His hair looked slightly damp, and I wondered if he had just come from the gym. I hadn’t spotted him when I left the office, so maybe he had ducked out early for a workout. I made my way through the crowd of people that was beginning to form and was soon standing right beside him.

  “Hey,” I said, sliding onto a barstool. “Where’s everyone else?”

  “I’m not sure,” he replied, turning to look at me and giving me a warm smile. “I got here a little early.” His brown eyes twinkled warmly, and I realized that this was the first time we had been alone since the retreat. There was a slight trace of dark stubble on his strong jaw, and I noticed that he was wearing a grey ribbed sweater that I didn’t remember seeing him in earlier. It was a little snug, showing off his strong arms and chest. I wondered if he’d gone home to change just for tonight.

  The noise of the other patrons was dulling into the background, and as Travis and I sat beside one another at the bar, it felt like we were the only two people there. “Early, huh?” I asked. “Eager for happy hour?”

  “Well, I was at the gym—I finished lifting early.”

  I nodded, and noticed that he watched me as I brushed back a strand of hair that fell in my face. “At least we were able to get seats. Marissa and I come here all the time since we both live nearby; it fills up quickly most weeknights.”

  Travis didn’t respond but tilted his head slightly, his eyes crinkling a little as he looked at me intently. “I always thought your eyes were brown,” he said, his voice deep, “but they have a little circle of green around them.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I replied, surprised that he noticed.

  Our eyes locked a moment longer, and he looked like he was about to say something else but seemed to catch himself and changed the subject. “Do you want a drink?”

  “Yeah,” I said, looking around for the bartender. “I’d love a beer.”

  He raised his hand to signal the bartender for me, and a twentysomething guy walked over to take my order. I ordered a Corona and then flushed slightly when the bartender asked for my ID. Travis seemed amused at my embarrassment. “How old are you anyway?” he teased. “Twenty-three? Twenty-four?”

  “Twenty-five,” I said defensively. “And you’ve never been carded?”

  “Not recently.” He grinned and took another swig of his beer.

  “So how old are you, Mr. ‘I don’t get carded’?”

  “Thirty-one.” There was still a hint of amusement in his eyes.

  “And what makes you think you’ll never be carded again?”

  “Years of experience,” he replied smoothly, his brown eyes gazing down at me as a smile once again played on his lips. I didn’t answer him, confused at the entire direction our conversation was taking. He was suddenly teasing me about how old I was, commenting on the color of my eyes. Was he flirting with me?

  Before I could think of a reply, I heard Marissa calling out to us from across the bar.

  “Maddy! Travis!” She waved as she walked over.

  “Hey Marissa,” Travis said with an easy smile.

  “Hey! You got here quickly. I thought you’d be stuck at work a while longer, so I headed over without you,” I said, feeling slightly guilty that if I’d waited a few minutes, we could have come together.

  “Oh, no worries,” she said. “Besides, it looked like you two were having a fun time without me.”

  “Huh?” I asked, confused, and glanced over at Travis. He shrugged.

  “Hi guys,” Elizabeth said, following closely behind her. “Travis, your phone was ringing when I left….” She started relaying a message to Travis as Marissa eagerly plopped down on the barstool beside me.

  “You won’t believe what just happened!” she squealed, flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder. I noticed a few guys standing nearby watching her, but she was completely oblivious as she leaned closer and proceeded to tell me all about the new guy that she had just met. “We were both at the coffee shop. I stopped by on the way over here because I was dying—I needed some caffeine. Anyway, he accidentally cut in front of me in line—well, he said he didn’t realize that I was in line. I was reading a text on my phone, so I didn’t move up fast enough. But then when he stepped in front of me….” As Marissa went on with her story about the guy asking her out, someone saying my name suddenly caught my attention.

  “…Maddy and you, huh?” I heard Elizabeth ask.

  “What? No,” Travis quickly replied in a low voice.

  “…how you were looking at her.”

  “Elizabeth… must be imagining things.”

  “…don’t think so…retreat….”

  Her voice was muffled, and I couldn’t make out exactly what she’d been saying. Travis changed the subject then, and I wondered what they had been talking about. I wished that I had been able to hear the rest of their conversation. Had Elizabeth noticed how Travis had been teasing me before she and Marissa arrived? How he’d looked at me? Maybe it wasn’t just my imagination. And I was pretty sure people other than Elizabeth had noticed us together at the retreat over the weekend. I flushed as I remembered standing in front of him at the end of the zip line, his hands on top of mine, neither of us moving even after he’d finished helping me.

  “Maddy, are you listening?” Marissa asked, drawing my attention back to the present.

  “Oh yeah, totally,” I said, my focus slowly returning to what Marissa was saying. She had just finished her story about how they’d met—his name was Rob, I think—and was now excitedly telling me about the date they’d planned for the weekend.

  “So what do you think?” she persisted when I didn’t say anything else.

  “Wow,” I said, trying to muster some enthusiasm. I’d missed half of what she said. “He sounds great.”

  “I know, right? That was so sweet of him to buy my coffee.”

  “Who sounds great?” Elizabeth asked, saving me from answering any more of Marissa’s questions about what I thought of her story.

  “Marissa’s new boyfriend,” I said with a smile, hoping Elizabeth and Travis would ask a few questions so I would be off the hook.

  Marissa immediately restarted the story of how she and Rob had met earlier. Marissa was so picky; it was hard to imagine anyone being perfect for her. The whole Mike scenario hadn’t lasted very long. And despite the several new prospects after him, none of them had made it past a single date. I wasn’t sure if I could even name any of them now. She seemed really excited though, and I hoped something would work out for her this time.

  We ordered another round of beers, and as Marissa continued to wax poetic about Rob, Elizabeth and I teased her about the “problems” she’d had with her last few dates while Travis looked on in wonder. One guy had been
too shy, another too much of a jock, and yet another lived in her building, so she said it wouldn’t work because there would never be any mystery in their relationship. She didn’t seem too troubled by her “discerning taste,” as she called it.

  Travis rolled his eyes jokingly and sighed. “You three are terrible. I don’t think a guy has a chance with any of you!”

  “Elizabeth’s married,” Marissa pointed out, “so evidently someone had a chance.”

  “Well, she lucked out with Steve,” he agreed as Elizabeth laughed. “But you two are definitely trouble.” He looked pointedly at each of us.

  “Maybe, maybe not,” I said with a smile.

  “In that case, Marissa is definitely maybe,” Travis replied. “I should call the poor guy to warn him!”

  “Marissa may be trouble?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Exactly.”

  “So Maddy’s maybe not?” Marissa asked, laughing. “That doesn’t sound right.”

  “I would never be trouble,” I said, feigning offense at Travis. “But at any rate, it’s time for ‘Maybe Not’ to get going. It’s been a long day.”

  I saw Travis smirk a little at my response. He had been teasing all of us tonight, so maybe I had just been imagining things before. I pulled some money out of my wallet and laid the bills on the bar.

  “Yeah, me too,” Marissa said, hopping off her barstool and throwing some money down on top of mine. “I need to get my beauty sleep after all.” She slipped on her brown suede jacket and looked over at me.

  “You don’t have a coat?”

  “No, it was nice out earlier.” I shrugged.

  “Do either of you need a ride?” Travis asked casually. “I drove over here from the gym earlier.”

  “Sure, that’d be great. Maddy and I are right around the corner from one another,” Marissa said.

  “I drove, but thanks anyway,” Elizabeth said as she grabbed her coat and purse.

  After we each gathered up our things, we headed out. We said goodbye to Elizabeth, and the three of us walked down the block to Travis’s car. He’d found a prime spot on the street, and as he clicked his car alarm, the beep-beep from the black BMW convertible parked a few feet away showed me which car was his. Funny that I hadn’t even paid attention the last time he’d given me a ride. Of course my mind had been completely preoccupied then with worry about my mom. Travis walked over to the driver’s side, and Marissa got in the back, so I climbed into the front passenger seat. As Travis started the engine, I shivered and crossed my arms across my chest to keep warm.

  “Do you want my coat?” Travis asked, looking over at me. “You look a little cold.”

  “No, I’ll be okay. It’s not very far.”

  “Here, I don’t mind,” he said, shrugging out of his black leather jacket. He handed it to me, and I pulled it up over me like a blanket. It was warm since he’d just been wearing it and smelled just like Travis—the faint scent of soap and his aftershave. He smiled as I wrapped it around myself, and for the first time that night I wished that Marissa wasn’t there and it was just Travis and me alone in his car.

  “Thanks,” I said softly.

  His eyes met mine for a beat before he turned up the heat and pulled out of the parking space. “Which way are we headed?”

  Marissa gave him directions, and we drove down Wilson Blvd., Marissa chattering along the way. There were people milling about in front of bars and restaurants and others walking down the street, but I was happy to be warm and snuggled into Travis’s car. Marissa’s apartment building was closer than mine, so Travis headed there first. After he’d pulled to the curb, she climbed out and then peeked back in the door before shutting it. “Thanks for the ride, Travis. Bye, guys,” she said hastily before scampering off into her building, and the car suddenly seemed very quiet without her there.

  “She seemed like she was in a hurry to get out of here,” Travis said, amused.

  “Who knows,” I said with a shrug. “She was probably rushing off to text Rob or something.”

  “Probably so,” he chuckled.

  “I’m around the corner,” I said. “Just turn right at the light.”

  “Okay,” Travis replied, smoothly pulling out onto the road.

  As we drove down my street, I pointed out the building up ahead. Travis pulled to a stop right in front of it. “Thanks for the ride,” I said, looking over at him. I pulled his jacket off and handed it back over.

  “Anytime,” he said, smiling at me. “I’m glad we finally made it out to happy hour.”

  “I know, right? We’ve been talking about it long enough.”

  “We’ll have to do it again soon.”

  “Definitely,” I agreed. My eyes met his in the darkness, the inside of the car lit only from the street lights, and I briefly wondered what it would be like to kiss him. He didn’t say anything, and I felt my heart inexplicably begin to pound in my chest. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was get out of the car and walk through the cold into my apartment building. But he was my coworker, and it’s not like we’d been out on a date or something. He was just dropping me off after a night out with colleagues.

  “So, I guess I should get going,” I finally managed. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Goodnight, Maddy,” he said softly, and I had the vague feeling that he was taking his cues from me. If I had wanted to stay and chat for hours, or had somehow gotten up the nerve to kiss him goodnight, he wasn’t exactly going to put up a fight.

  “Goodnight,” I said, before turning to get out. I walked to the entrance of my apartment building and pulled open the door, pausing a second to look back. His car was still there on the street. I gave a small wave, and saw a slight movement in the car that must have been him waving back, although it was hard to tell in the darkness. It wasn’t until I walked inside that I finally heard the engine of his car rev as he drove away.

  ***

  My cell phone was already ringing as I unlocked the door and walked into my apartment. I pulled it out of my purse and saw Marissa’s name on the screen.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I asked, tossing my purse onto the kitchen counter and opening a cupboard to look for a snack.

  “Are you alone?”

  “Alone? Yeah, I just walked into my apartment. Why?”

  “What was up with you and Travis tonight?” she squealed.

  “What?” I asked in surprise, pausing as I pulled out a box of granola bars.

  “He was totally flirting with you when Elizabeth and I came in!”

  “Oh come on, he was just teasing me.”

  “Yeah, teasing, flirting…because he likes you. Then he gave us a ride home, offered you his coat.”

  I blushed, happy that she wasn’t there to see my reaction and that she hadn’t seen me lingering in Travis’s car moments earlier. “Marissa,” I replied as calmly as I could, even though I felt my heart racing a little. “He offered us a ride home—both of us.”

  “That’s just because he didn’t want to be rude! I was sitting there right next to you at the bar. Anyway, Elizabeth and I both think that he likes you.”

  “Well, I’ll be sure to take your thoughts into consideration.”

  “Maddy!”

  “What?” I asked innocently.

  “You’ll see,” she said confidently. “I know that I’m right.”

  I laughed at her stubbornness on the whole issue. “He’s our coworker, Marissa. It’s not like anything is going to happen. Anyway, I gotta go. I’m starving, and I really just want to go to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I flipped my phone shut and sighed. Despite what I told her about nothing happening between Travis and me, I found myself secretly wishing that I was wrong.

  Chapter 11

  The next morning, my mind replayed the events of the night before: chatting with Travis alone at the bar before the others arrived, overhearing the conversation between Elizabeth and him, sitting together in his car in the darkness as we said goodnight. Were the others right about
his feelings for me? He would make such a great boyfriend. No, I said silently to myself, shaking my head, we’re just friends. Coworkers. Besides, he was probably just being polite. That’s just how he was.

  I tied the sash of my black wrap dress as I finished getting ready for work and put on a long, delicate silver chain. I fingered the delicate links of metal and adjusted the necklace just so as I glanced in the mirror. I looked a little tired, but that was nothing a little mascara and blush couldn’t fix. Slipping on my black patent heels, I grabbed my tan trench coat and purse, ready to head out the door. Not bad for getting ready in such a rush.

  Marissa wasn’t there yet when I arrived at the office, so my morning got off to a quiet start as I sorted through my emails and read through some of my notes. I was just getting ready to go grab a cup of coffee when my cell phone rang.

  “Hey Sweetie,” my mom’s voice came on the other end of the line.

  “Hi Mom!” I said, surprised to hear from her so early in the morning.

  “Are you at work already?”

  “Yeah, I’m sitting at my desk right now. Is everything okay?”

  “Well, I’m actually having a lot of back pain, so Dad is taking me to the doctor today.”

  “Oh,” I said, my face falling. “You seemed like you were doing better over the weekend.”

  “I was, and I’m sure it’s nothing. My doctor still wants me to come in though.”

  Suddenly I heard Marissa’s voice wafting down the hallway. “That would be so fun!” she squealed. I wasn’t sure who she was talking to, but I wanted a little peace and quiet to finish talking to my mom. I stood up and headed out the door, walking the opposite way down the hall to one of the conference rooms, which was bound to be empty this early in the morning.

  “Hang on Mom, I’m just going to where it’s quieter.”

  “I didn’t mean to interrupt you at work, Honey. I just didn’t want you to worry in case you talked to Brian.”

  “Wait, you already called Brian? What time is your appointment? I can come, too, if you need me.”

  I rounded the corner and almost bumped into Travis. I looked up, startled, and saw a look of concern cross over his face when he saw the worry in my eyes. He hesitated in the hallway as he watched me hurry into the conference room.