by B Ivy Woods
“Hey, Mom. Our food just arrived, can I call you later?”
Jules’s mom mentioned something about her? Mrs. Cartwright was a lovely woman, but she and Rae didn’t interact. Maybe this had nothing to do with her. Rae thought for a second and had an aha moment. Flint. It might be about him.
Jules ended the call, and it took everything for Rae not to ask Jules a million and a half questions. “So?”
“My mom said hello, and she hoped you were doing well. I need to pick up her favorite perfume because she is running low, and my dad forgot to order it.”
Rae side-eyed her. “That couldn’t have been what made you stare at me like a deer in headlights when you were talking to her.”
“She mentioned something exciting about Flint.”
Rae swallowed hard. “And what’s that?” She didn’t know if she wanted to hear the answer to this question. She couldn’t lie to herself. She did.
“A local magazine featured him and released it today.”
The nervousness oozed out of Rae’s body. That wasn’t so bad. “Congrats to him. He should have sat down for an interview with Eve instead.”
Jules nodded before saying, “There were a few tidbits that were…interesting, to say the least.”
“Are you going to keep dragging this out, or are you going to tell me what’s going on? Does this have anything to do with me?”
“My mom is sending me a copy of the article, so I’ll show it to you in a minute. I don’t want to dive into anything until we have the article, but it was nothing bad as far as I heard.” And that sent Rae’s heart into overdrive. She was thankful that the tablecloth covered her bouncing foot.
Rae and Jules ate in silence until a ping came from Jules’s phone. She picked it up, hit a few keys, and smiled.
“Here you go,” she said as she flipped the phone around for Rae to see. The photo of Flint was stunning. The proper words to describe it were sexy and sophisticated. He was wearing a black suit that fit him like a glove, a white button-down shirt, and a blue tie. Rae could see hints of the man she knew when they dated several years ago, but the differences surprised her. Gone were the Air Force uniform and in its place was a beautifully tailored suit that fit him like a glove. She started reading the article and grinned as she read his accomplishments in the Air Force and his life afterward. The journalist wrote the article in a question-and-answer format, which made it easy to find Flint’s quotes.
“He cofounded a foundation to help combat homelessness in the veteran community? And in part funded it?” Rae asked, looking up at Jules.
“Yes. I think Flint hit it big by investing in a company that went public. The Wests’ fortune is also nothing to sneeze at. We’ve given donations to the foundation in the past.”
“Why didn’t you mention it to me before?”
Jules sighed and looked down at her hands before looking back at Rae. “I wasn’t at liberty to mention what organizations we donate or provide grants. Plus, he kept his involvement with the organization on the down-low until it leaked about a month ago.”
Rae did a double-take. “First, since when do you say down-low? Second, I’m not shocked Flint co-founded this organization, because he always talked about how he wanted to help others. I didn’t expect he would do it in this capacity.”
“What’s wrong with saying down-low? Anyway, now that everyone knows he cofounded this organization with a friend, it will probably lead to a lot more exposure for veteran homelessness, the foundation, and him. That wasn’t the only thing I wanted you to see. Keep reading.”
Rae did just that. She resisted the urge to skim, which came naturally to her when reading longer items. She continued her quest to find the other part of the article that Jules wanted her to read.
“What the hell?!” screamed Rae. She didn’t realize she’d screamed and jumped out of her seat until she surveyed the restaurant. The patrons that were quietly enjoying their meals and drinks around their table were now staring at her. When she looked down and realized she was standing, Rae apologized and slinked back down into her seat. Shuffling her chair closer to the table, she put her elbows on the table and her head in her hands. She then rubbed her eyes and grabbed the phone again. Rae moved it closer to her face to reread the line again and again. She couldn’t be reading these words.
The interviewer asked him about his love life as a throwaway question near the end of the profile.
Question: Is one of Northern Virginia’s most eligible bachelors still single or is there someone special in your life?
Answer: I am single because I let “the one” get away years ago. When I came to my senses, she had already moved on to bigger and better things. If I had the opportunity to date her again, I would do it in a heartbeat.
“You know he’s talking about you, right?”
“We don’t know that for sure.” What she did know was that line had removed any appetite she had left for the rest of her shrimp and grits.
“But your mind jumped to the same conclusion mine did.”
Rae didn’t confirm Jules’s comment, but she was right. The interviewer gushed over his answer before ending the article.
“Well, that was…something.” Rae’s thoughts were jumbled. She stopped the bouncing of her leg by shifting her position in the seat.
“I knew he was still interested in you.”
“We don’t know if he’s talking about me. Who knows how many people he might have been in relationships with over the years.”
“True. But based on the article, it sounds like the woman he was with before a lot of his more recent accomplishments. Like he might have still been in the service.”
Rae shrugged. “Who knows? They could have taken his comments out of context.” Jules wiggled her eyebrows at her and that was when Rae knew that Jules had spent too much time hanging out with Liv. “Are you going to ask him?”
Jules laughed out loud. “Probably not, but you could if you wanted to.”
“Are you crazy? I haven’t spoken to him in years. I don’t even know if his number is still the same.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t speak to him now. You’re on his brain. And now I’m convinced that he is on yours.” Jules paused before opening and closing her mouth. She opened her mouth once more and said, “Hell, he also knows that your number hasn’t changed, so maybe he will reach out.”
Rae rolled her eyes and gave up. Jules wouldn’t let her win this, so there was no point in arguing about it.
“I found it interesting that the interviewer seemed to push the idea that he might run for Congress someday. Scratch that. The interviewer was urging him to consider running, and he brushed it off.” Rae thanked herself for her quick thinking and coming up with a reason to change the subject.
“I thought that was interesting too. I know Flint lives in Arlington, and I haven’t heard anything about Rep. John Clarkson retiring, so I am not even sure where that came from.”
“Maybe it’s just a thought for the future since he has plenty of time to run.”
Rae shrugged, but Flint potentially running for Congress rolled around in her head. Based on what she read in that article, he sounded like a strong candidate to run for office. Being young, smart, and having served his country and continuing to help would all be points in his favor. It didn’t hurt that he was well-spoken and attractive. And that thought caused Rae to snap out of the mini daydream she was having about Flint.
“Are you almost finished? And did you still want to check to see if we could find your mother’s perfume?” Rae drank from the glass of water in front of her before placing it back on the table. She took her hair out of the ponytail and let it drape around her shoulders.
Jules nodded as she patted her lips with her napkin. Rae chuckled at the expressions Jules was making as she tried to remove any remains of the salad she had been eating without ruining her lipstick.
“You know you could just reapply it, right?”
The “no shit, Sherlock”
look on Jules’s face made Rae chuckle again. She pulled out her credit card in anticipation of the bill while Jules was finishing refreshing her makeup, their waiter returned. Rae slapped her hand over the receipt and handed it and her credit card to the waiter so Jules wouldn’t have a chance to grab her wallet.
“Didn’t you pay for our drinks last week at happy hour? Plus, you drove us here. I got this.”
Jules beamed. “Thanks, lady.”
Once they settled the check, the two strolled around the shopping area to see if anything else looked appealing.
“Can we stop in this store? I know they have a decent perfume selection, so maybe the brand my mom uses is here.”
Rae nodded as the two entered the department store. Thankfully, Mrs. Cartwright’s perfume was in stock, so Jules grabbed the one she wanted and took it to the register.
“There is one thing I forgot to ask you,” Jules mentioned as they were sitting in Jules’s car on the way back to Arlington. The two had spent another hour at the stores before calling it quits. Their shopping trip was somewhat successful, so Rae couldn’t complain.
“What would you do if you saw Flint again? Chances are it will happen since we all live close to each other.”
“Wait, what do you mean we all live close to each other?” Rae’s glare could melt steel. What else was Jules keeping from her?
“Um, yeah. I told you Flint lives in Arlington.”
“Arlington isn’t small.”
“Oops. Well, he doesn’t live too far from us.” Rae had found an apartment that was a few blocks away from Jules’s building.
“Where does he live, Jules?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized her tone sounded harsh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say it like that.”
“No worries. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I swore I did. Anyway, he isn’t too far from the Ballston Metro. I’m not sure exactly where.”
Rae did a double-take. “Oh, you meant literally in my soon-to-be future neighborhood.”
Jules cringed. “I swore I told you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m not changing my moving plans for him. If we run into each other, I’ll act like a perfectly normal, rational adult.” Rae paused. “I’ll hit him over the head with a frying pan.”
Jules snorted and glanced at her friend. “I’m sure that will go over well. You wouldn’t want to ruin the face of one of Arlington’s most eligible bachelors.”
“No. We couldn’t have that, could we?”
3
A few days later, Rae checked her calendar on her work laptop and saw that she had enough time to get lunch and bring it back to her desk. She knew she had to continue working while she ate, but also knew getting some fresh air would do her good. Delighted at the idea of taking a break from looking at the slides she had been working on for the better part of the day, she slid her black blazer over her dress, grabbed her purse, and walked downstairs.
Rae was thankful that her office was near one of the food truck gathering areas, which would hopefully cut down on the time she would be away from her desk. She quickly ordered two tacos at one of the many food trucks, paid for the order, and stepped aside to wait. She checked her phone to see if there were any emails, and when she glanced up, her heart ended up in her throat.
She thought she saw someone she once knew.
“Flint?” she whispered. Rae tried to get a look at the man walking across the street with his back to her. Before she could think about it further, they called her order up. Snatching the food off the truck counter, she headed back to her office.
Rae was about to dig into her food when her office phone rang. Danielle, her boss, called Rae to give her the answers she needed ahead of Danielle walking into her next meeting. Rae breathed a sigh of relief and turned her attention back to her tacos. Just as she was about to finish the last taco, some salsa landed on her upper thigh. To make matters worse, Rae had chosen a beige cocktail dress to wear to work today, so the stain was visible.
Rae growled at the stain. “This would happen to me,” she muttered as she grabbed a napkin and tried to get the spot out. When that did nothing, she jumped up, banging her knee on the desk.
“Ow,” howled Rae as she rubbed the spot where her knee met the desk. Could her luck get any worse? She grabbed her cell phone and hobbled over to her door. She switched to the flats she always kept in her office and swung the door open impatiently. She rushed down the hall so fast that her coworkers might have mistaken her for Allyson Felix. Days like today, she wished her office was closer to the bathroom. Rae stood in the bathroom and did everything she could to get the stain out. Although it was less noticeable, she could still see it, but she hoped that was because she was looking for it. Deciding that the answer to her problem would be to throw on the black blazer that she kept at her office in case she needed to run to Capitol Hill for a meeting, she breathed a small sigh of relief. She washed her hands, grabbed her phone, and started the long journey back to her desk on the other side of the office. Thankfully, her knee had stopped throbbing, so at least she had that going for her.
Rae was on her phone checking her email when she briefly glanced up as she walked past the glass windowpanes of the main conference room. Suddenly she stopped in her tracks. That couldn’t be who she thought it was.
Flint. In her office. Right now. In the conference room with Danielle, Danielle’s boss, and the CEO.
Rae’s mouth flew open. She knew staring was rude, but she couldn’t help herself. Her boss, Danielle, looked up and raised an eyebrow at her. That motion was enough to snap Rae out of whatever daze she was in and to propel her feet forward. She turned her head, doing her best to focus on the path in front of her, but she could see Flint had looked up. She turned to her left, and his eyes caught hers. But Rae was better prepared after getting caught staring by her boss. She hurriedly walked past the conference room and was thankful that her office was on the other side of the building. If he wanted to come and find her, he would have to hunt her down.
When she reached her office, she caught herself on the door as she almost slammed it in her excitement at getting through that noninteraction unscathed. Rae pulled out her phone and hammered a text to her friends.
Rae: SOS.
She hoped someone would respond quickly, but given that it was the middle of the workday, that was up in the air. As she waited, she wiped the mist of sweat she hadn’t realized had formed off of her forehead. Whether it was from seeing Flint or practically sprinting to her office, she didn’t know. The sudden vibration of her phone caused her to jump out of her seat.
Jules: Everything okay?
Rae: No. You wouldn’t believe who is in my office right now.
Eve: Who could it possibly be that would make you this jumpy?
Rae wasn’t surprised that Eve could read her mood even over a text message.
Rae: Flint.
Jules: Shut the front door!
Liv: What she meant was shut the fuck up. Do you know why he’s there? Did you talk to him? Please tell me you didn’t freak out.
Rae: No freak-outs because he was several feet away in a conference room surrounded by a bunch of people and my boss. No idea why he’s here, and thankfully I didn’t have an opportunity to talk to him. And now I’m wondering if I can play sick and get out of here.
Eve: You wouldn’t want to leave when he’s leaving. Do you know what time that meeting is ending?
Rae silently thanked Eve for her voice of reason as she scrolled through her boss’s calendar to see when the meeting was ending.
Rae: Looks like it’s ending in 10 minutes. I can get out of here in 3.
Eve: And what if the meeting ends early?
And just like that, Rae wanted Eve’s “voice of reason” to eat shit.
Rae: I guess I need to hunker down in my office.
Liv: Aye aye, matey! Jules, did you tell Flint anything about where Rae worked when you saw him recently?
Jules: Nope. He asked what
she was up to, but I didn’t name specifics. It probably wouldn’t be hard to find out information on her, though. All it would take was a simple search online.
Rae sighed as she threw her head back and reclined in her chair. What was she going to do?
Rae: Maybe he won’t come this way. I assume the big bosses called the meeting with his firm, not the other way around.
Liv: I highly doubt it. Based on the article Jules sent us, fat chance of that.
Jules: Yeah…I don’t know if his visiting your office was a complete coincidence.
Rae: Jules, I can’t remember if you mentioned where he worked last night. Do you know?
She knew damn well Jules hadn’t mentioned where he was working last night.
Jules: Sure, it’s for the same firm that his father owns. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t do consulting on the side. But I’d lean more toward it being firm-related.
Why would Wild Parks, Wild Lands be hiring another law firm outside of the lawyers they already used? And what did it have to do with Danielle? The buzzing of her phone snapped her out of the rabbit hole her thoughts were about to go down.
Liv: I think he knew you worked there. I don’t believe in coincidences.
Rae didn’t either, if she had to be honest. She took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. She was a grown who could handle this.
Rae: What type of law did you say he practiced, Jules?
Rae knew Jules had never mentioned what type of law he practiced either.
Jules: Corporate law? Tax law? I’m not sure.
As she was composing a response, there was a knock on her door. She briefly glanced at the clock on her desktop and saw that it was 2:05 p.m. The meeting had definitely ended.
“Come in,” she said as she took in a deep breath.
Her breath whooshed out quickly when Danielle poked her head into the room.
“Can we have a quick chat in about fifteen minutes? I need to fill you in on a project I want you to work on.”
“Sure. That shouldn’t be a problem.”