“Can I get you a cab?” he asked as they approached Washington Street.
“No thanks. I can walk from here. It’s only a few blocks.”
“Are you sure? Why don’t you let me walk you home?” He straightened as a sudden protective urge sliced through him.
“You don’t need to walk me home. It’s perfectly safe.”
Jacob looked around at the people who milled about on the sidewalk, coming in and out of the local bars. He couldn’t let a woman walk by herself in the dark. He’d never forgive himself if anything happened to her. “Look, call me crazy, but I’d feel better if I knew you got home safe. If you don’t want me to walk you home, at least let me hail you a cab. Please?”
She nodded. “It’s not necessary, but okay.”
They stood together under the glow of the lamplight. Car headlights made patterns on the pavement. He stole a glance her way. She was staring at him with…interest? Maybe he should get to know her better. He was about to suggest they find a quiet place for coffee when the traffic lights changed. A cab approached. Aviva flagged it down, and it pulled to a stop. Jacob opened the door.
She started to climb in. “Thanks for escaping with me, Jacob.”
“Escape artist at your service.”
He closed the door and waved as the cab retreated into the distance. Her floral scent hung in the air around him. He inhaled and walked away. It was probably better this way. He didn’t have time for a relationship. Right?
Chapter Two
The next morning, as Aviva waited for her caffeine elixir to brew, Erica walked into the tiny kitchen. She wore earbuds and workout clothes. She looked more awake than Aviva could imagine at eight thirty on a Saturday morning, especially after being out so late the night before. Aviva squinted at her. Erica turned off her music.
“Hey, I lost track of you last night. Why did you leave early?”
Aviva groaned. “Because it was awful.”
“Really? I thought this one guy, Paul, was fabulous. All the women were hanging on his every word.”
Of course they were. They all fell for his “Look how important I am” flash. Until they try to spend time with him and switch the focus off him. She wished she could go back to bed. Erica’s taste in men left a lot to be desired.
“I don’t know. I didn’t click with any of them.” Except maybe that one… “But thanks for trying.”
Erica patted her shoulder and squeezed past her to open the refrigerator. She grabbed a smoothie and took a few swallows. “Well, at least you got free drinks out of it. Let me give it some thought. I’m sure I can find someone for you.”
Aviva started to protest, but Erica replaced her earbuds and disappeared into the workout ether. With a sigh, Aviva stuck her mug under the coffee drip.
Their parents were best friends. Growing up in the suburbs, Aviva and Erica had been joined at the hip. But sometime during high school, the two diverged. Erica pursued any man with a hot body as well as a financial future like their dads. Aviva did all she could to avoid the same path, leaning toward musicians, Goths and artists. As roommates, they worked. But for dating advice? Why she was listening to a woman who changed men faster than most women changed their purse, she had no idea.
****
By the time Jacob finished reading and annotating fifty pages of Hart & Wechsler on Sunday night, it was two the next morning. He hadn’t been able to concentrate because flashes of the woman he’d met on Friday night popped into his head. Pools of light splashed his desk, reminding him of the way the lights in the club caught her Chai necklace. Voices outside made him look out the window, expecting to see her walk down the street. But it had only been a random twenty-something student walking with friends who gave him an odd look. Even staring at his book, he hadn’t seen the text written on the page, but the way she swirled the A in her name when she’d written it in his pamphlet.
To make matters worse, Adam woke early on Monday. He made enough noise to serve as a human alarm clock. Three hours later, Jacob stumbled into federal courts class, large coffee in hand. He sank into a chair, yawned, and turned on his laptop to take notes. He leaned down, opened his backpack, and searched for his flash drive. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw female, jean-clad legs walk to the seat next to him. As he angled his head to say hello, he saw chestnut hair curled behind an ear, and froze. Adira…Alina…Aviva. Aviva. Aviva? He whipped around and winced at the crick in his neck. It wasn’t Aviva. It was Lori, the woman who’d been in his class all semester. She’d also been in several of his classes each of the previous two years.
He shook his head. He was losing it. This was why he wouldn’t pursue a relationship. If he was this distracted by a random stranger, imagine how he’d be with a girlfriend.
“You okay there, Jacob?”
He gave her a grim smile and sat straight in his seat, overtaken by a sudden warmth. “Yeah, just tired.” How in the world did he mistake Lori for Aviva? Sure, both had brown, short hair, but he couldn’t pinpoint Aviva’s features, not when Lori was next to him. Aviva was a mirage, a barely remembered memory from a few days ago. An incredible distraction. He didn’t have time for this. Distraction didn’t fit into his plan.
His professor’s arrival forced him to pay attention to his class. No matter how tired he was, he needed to maintain excellent grades in order to get the prestigious law firm job he’d been offered after graduation. It had been his goal throughout law school: graduate with honors, get a high paying law firm job, pay off school loans, have a stellar career. He would finally be able to take care of his mother the way she’d taken care of him all these years. With his father gone, it was up to him. Nothing would distract him.
So, why couldn’t he get Aviva out of his mind?
****
Hannah, another PR associate, and one of Aviva’s closest friends, popped her auburn head into Aviva’s office, messenger bag on her shoulder. “You ready to go?”
“Give me a sec.” Aviva rummaged through her bag. She pulled out lip-gloss. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“You need lip-gloss for class?” Hannah said.
Aviva shot her a look. “I always need lip-gloss. Now come on, I don’t want to be late.”
“You’re the one who put on the lip-gloss.”
“So how was your weekend in Boston?” Aviva asked. They made their way to the PATH station to catch the train to their writing class at Rutgers in Newark.
“Cold. I had fun with my nieces and nephews, though. Didn’t study enough. You?”
“Erica dragged me to a speed dating thing, and spent the rest of the weekend—”
“Wait, tell me about the speed dating!”
“It was just as I expected. The guys were all full of themselves, except for one. He and I snuck out early.”
Hannah stopped dead right before putting her metro card in the slot. She spun around. A pedestrian behind them banged into Aviva. Two others muttered curses as they stomped around them. “You left early with someone? Who?”
“Han, we’re going to be late. The train is coming.”
“I don’t care. I want the details.”
Aviva sighed. She pushed Hannah through the turnstile. “Okay, but there’s really nothing to tell. Just some tired guy with wavy brown hair and a stained shirt. He wasn’t overly polished, and he didn’t make up some obnoxious one-liner when he came to my table. Neither of us wanted to be there, so we escaped.”
“Where did you go?”
They boarded the train, squeezed together as it lurched along its way. “Don’t give me those eyes, Han. He called me a cab. I got in. I don’t know where he went.”
“Well, you must have liked him enough to plot with him to leave.”
Aviva shrugged. “I’ll admit he was the best of the bunch. He was funny.”
“Funny?”
“Yeah, he got my sense of humor. He joked about being an axe murderer.” She stifled a laugh.
“Sounds like he has potential.”
�
�I could be reading into it. Besides, I don’t have his number.”
Aviva relayed the rest of the story as they hopped off the train, exited the station, and walked the few blocks to their class. The crowded sidewalks made conversation difficult. By the end, Hannah was laughing. “You know, it’s a shame you don’t have his number. He sounds like someone you might like to know better. I bet you could get it from the organizer.”
“After ducking out early? I don’t think so.”
Hannah paused in the open door of the classroom. “That’s too bad.”
Aviva shrugged. “No matter how charming he may have seemed at the time, he’s a law student, Han. Law students became lawyers. Lawyers put in way too much time at the office. He’s probably no different than any of the other guys I’ve dated. Furiously climbing the corporate ladder, with no time to enjoy the things around him.” Like their wives and children. She’d had enough in her life with her dad. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. It didn’t matter, did it?
Chapter Three
“Of course it matters, Jacob,” his mother said on the phone to him the next morning. “Your social life is important, whether it’s casual now or more serious after you finish studying.”
Jacob gripped the hair at the nape of his neck. He began counting to ten. He made it to three.
“Jacob? Jacob, are you there?”
He gritted his teeth. “Yes, Ma, I’m here.”
“Well, we need to talk about your social life.”
He took a deep breath. He closed and opened his eyes before he spoke. “No, we don’t. I need to study.”
“Jacob, you’re a brilliant young man. Any law firm would be lucky to have you. But you also need to balance things out with a girlfriend.”
“I don’t want a girlfriend.”
“Wait. Jacob, are you trying to tell me you’re gay? Because it’s fine if you are, but you need to tell your mother these things.”
He was going to lose all the hair on the back of his head. Did men lose hair there? He’d have the reverse “monk” look. It would be ridiculous. Especially since he was Jewish.
“No, Ma, I’m not gay. But thanks for your support.”
“Are you sure? Don’t be lippy with me. I’m still your mother.”
He swallowed. There wasn’t enough oxygen in the world for him to breathe through all his frustration. “I’m positive. I just don’t have time for a girlfriend right now.”
“But you would if you had one.”
“Huh?”
“You’d have time for one if you had one. You’d make the time. Just like you make time for other things. Which is why I’ll introduce you to the daughter of a friend of mine.”
“What? No! You can’t do that.”
“Jacob, it’s a mother’s job to make her son happy.”
“But I am happy.”
“Don’t lie to your mother.”
She was killing him. “Uh, I’ve kind of already met someone.”
“What?”
Jacob pulled the phone away from his ear. On a good day, he could hear his mother through the phone when it sat on his lap. Right now, with her shriek, well, he couldn’t hear anything, but when his hearing returned, he’d be able to hear her across the room.
“I said I’ve already met someone.” He wasn’t lying.
“When? Where?”
“Last weekend. At a speed-dating event.”
“Speed-dating. Hmm, we’ll talk about that later. In the meantime, tell me about her. What’s her name? What does she do? What’s she like?”
“Her name is Aviva. She has short brown hair, a great sense of humor, smart.” So far, so good.
“What does she do?”
Crap. “She’s an escape artist.”
His mother was silent on the other end of the phone. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Jacob?”
“It’s a joke, Ma.”
“Is Aviva a joke?”
“No, she’s real.”
“Stop joking and tell me about her.”
He pulled his hair again. What kind of woman would his mother think was perfect for him? “She’s pretty. She lives with her parents in New Jersey. She’s going to cooking school to learn to be a chef and hopes to open her own restaurant. She has a dry sense of humor and likes Rowan Atkinson, like Dad used to. She loves animals and kids. She coaches a girl’s basketball team at a local Boys & Girls Club, likes to travel to exotic places and plays the piano. Jazz.” Oh man. He was totally lying. To his mother. Thank goodness she would never meet Aviva.
“Well, it sounds like a lovely list of character traits, but how do you feel about her?”
“It’s a little early for feelings, Ma.”
His mother sighed. “When do I get to meet her?”
“Ma, I just met her.”
“Jacob, don’t waste time. If she’s as wonderful as you say, she won’t stay single for long.”
Jacob said he had to study and they said their goodbyes. He hung up and sank onto the sofa. He’d barely avoided a catastrophe with his mother, all because he didn’t want to date anyone.
He stared at his books but couldn’t concentrate now. Her voice reverberated in his mind. He needed to do something to quiet it. Turning to his computer, he scrolled through his emails until he found an advertisement for a pirate exhibit at the Discovery Times Square museum. He smiled to himself. He loved pirates when he was a kid. His dad had fostered that love. This would be the perfect way to get his mind off his mother. Grabbing his keys, he left the apartment.
Worst case, it might provide him a way to make her walk the plank.
****
“Aunt Aviva, come look at this pirate!”
Aviva smiled at her nephew’s enthusiasm as Ben dragged her through the crowded display hall of the Discovery Times Square museum. At seven, her nephew loved everything to do with pirates. As soon as she’d heard about the Shipwreck exhibit, she reserved tickets for the two of them.
They approached Blackbeard’s display. Ben made pirate noises while Aviva read his story out loud.
“Did you know he operated around the East Coast of the United States?” she asked him. “He never harmed the sailors on the ships he took.”
“I read a book about him. He used his beard to scare people.”
“Do you think his beard was scary?”
“Maybe if he growled a lot.” Ben scrunched his freckled face into a fearsome frown and stroked a pretend beard.
Aviva laughed. “Hey, you can draw your own pirate over there.”
They waited in line for a kiosk to free up, and Ben got to work. When they were done, they turned to go. Ben bumped into someone.
“Sorry,” Ben said.
The man looked down. “It’s—”
Aviva looked up and gasped. “I can’t—”
Ben looked between the two adults. “What’s going on, Aunt Aviva?”
Aviva’s stomach fluttered. She absently slipped her hand over Ben’s head. “We know each other. It’s Jacob, right?”
“Yeah. You’re Aviva?”
She nodded. “I didn’t expect to see you again.”
“Same.” He looked at Ben. “Exploring pirates with your nephew?”
“How…oh. Yes, he’s a big pirate fan.”
“So am I.” His face colored. Aviva smiled. He was embarrassed to admit he liked pirates? How sweet.
“What’s your favorite part of the exhibit?” Jacob asked Ben.
Ben looked around the room, his face scrunched in concentration. “I think I like all of it the best.”
Aviva smiled at her nephew.
“I should let you both get back to your explorations.” Jacob turned to leave.
“Are you two going to go out on a date?” Ben asked.
Aviva gasped. Her heart thundered and her cheeks warmed.
Jacob turned around and tipped his head toward him, one eyebrow raised. “Why do you ask, matey?”
Ben looked solemn. “Because you’re being nice to he
r. Girls like that.”
“Ben!” Aviva fought her sudden desire to escape. She fingered her Chai necklace.
Jacob’s shoulders shook. By the look on his face, he was trying not to laugh, which made her desire to disappear more urgent. “They do, huh?” he asked.
Ben nodded. “And they like stinky flowers too. Except, they don’t think they stink.” He shook his head in disgust. Aviva didn’t know if she should laugh or try to melt into the floor.
“You seem to know a lot about girls.”
“Girls are icky. No self-respecting pirate would let a girl on his ship.”
“Hey, wait a minute, Ben,” Aviva said. “Look over there at that display. It’s all about female pirates.”
She pointed across the room to a small, but interesting, display. “You should check out Back From the Dead Red,” she added.
Ben’s eyes widened. He ran to the display. Mortified, Aviva realized Jacob continued to stand with her. She wracked her brain trying to figure out whether to apologize for Ben or create an excuse to leave.
“Your nephew is cute,” Jacob said, breaking the silence.
The sound of his voice eased some of her nerves. She took a deep breath. “Thanks. He’s my brother’s son and the first and only grandchild, so he gets a lot of attention. I usually have to beat the grandparents off with a stick to spend time with him.” She was babbling.
She walked toward Ben, who was mesmerized by the display. Jacob followed. Why doesn’t he just leave?
“See, Ben, women were pirates too.”
“Did you know she pretended to be dead, Aunt Aviva? She lived like a man. She died in a shootout!”
“Sounds pretty violent to me, Ben,” Aviva said.
“That’s ’cause you’re a girl.”
“It’s a pretty good thing she is a girl, Ben,” Jacob said.
“Why?” Ben asked.
Jacob looked at Aviva. He winked. She raised her eyebrows waiting for his response. Maybe he should stay a little longer.
“Because if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t be your aunt.”
Ben paused, his face scrunched. With a shrug, he moved onto the next display.
“That’s not where I thought you were going,” Aviva said.
Five Minutes to Love Page 2