by Aja Cole
“Unhuh.” I grunt, reversing out of the driveway and pulling onto the street. The school’s only about a 15 minute drive. It’s some kind of day to appreciate fitness and health, so there’ll be some stuff on healthy eating and I know the guys and I are are going to lead some PE games and stuff.
“So….” He starts. “How’s your love life going?”
I glance at him briefly, then back at the road, putting on my turn signal.
“What do you know about a love life?”
“Nothing, that’s why I’m asking you about yours.” He emphasizes.
“Why? Do you have one?”
I can see him shrug, and he drinks from the bottle, swiping a hand across his lips.
“There’s a girl at school that I think I like, but I don’t know if she likes me. I don’t know if I’m ready to be tied down yet either, you know what I mean?”
I barely contain my laughter.
“Have you asked Jesse for his advice?”
“Yeah, he told me that girls are bad news and I should accept now that they’ve been sent to earth to destroy my self-esteem. I figured it would be smart to get some more well-rounded advice.”
I can’t completely fault the man.
“Probably for the best. Tell me about the girl. Why do you like her?”
There’s a little bit of traffic and I glance over at him, a smile pulling at my lips at the intense expression on his face.
“She’s really good at science but she doesn’t act like a know it all. She’s pretty but not stuck up like those girls at the other school, and she laughs at my jokes sometimes.”
I miss the simplicity of being that young.
“She sounds like a really cool young lady, champ.”
“So you think I have a shot?”
“Can’t hurt to ask. Why don’t you ask her to be your partner on one of the games today? Or ask her to eat lunch with you.”
“Those are good suggestions. See, I knew you’d be better to ask than Jesse.”
I pull into a parking space, “The trick is, you just gotta try things and see. Within reason, of course. I don’t need to talk to you about respecting young ladies and women, right?”
“Nope.” He pops the p, grabbing his book bag and hopping out of the car. “I’m not an idiot.”
“Atta boy.” I ruffle his hair as we walk towards the school. “Gotta check in at the front office, I’ll see you later.”
“Cool, later Jax.”
“Later, Jamie.”
I head to the front office to get my visitors pass, dreading talking to Sienna next week more than ever.
“Hey, how was your day?” I answer the call in my car, merging lanes on the expressway.
“The usual. I’m finished with work but wanted to pick up a few things around the place before Tyler gets here. Do you want to meet me, then we’ll grab dinner?”
“Sounds good. Headed your way.”
‘Okay, see you soon.”
“Great, lo—.” I snap my mouth shut.
“Did you say something?”
“Nah, I’ll text you when I’m on the way up.”
“Okay, bye.” She ends the call and I smack my steering wheel, cursing.
Almost fucked that up royally. Probably not a good time to drop that when we’re at an impasse, and something tells me she won’t appreciate it so early.
I grew up in a house where there was just a lot of love and a lot expression. The more I learn about Sienna, the more I understand why she was a little more reserved.
When we had dinner with her mom before she left town, she was a lot less disapproving and at least seemed open to getting to know me. I think I passed since I got a few smiles from her, even told me to call her Deirdre instead of Ms. Maxwell.
It still felt like a cross examination, but a slightly warm one in the end.
I text Sienna that I’m on the way up after I park, but she doesn’t say anything back. Knocking when I make it up to her floor, I wait on her the open door.
When she does, there’s an expression on her face that I can’t quite read. Whatever it is, I don’t like it.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” But her smile is tight. “Caroline’s son is here already, so we can leave in a few minutes.”
“Okay.” I close the door behind me, and walk further into the apartment. I don’t see anyone else around, so I stop her by the arm gently. “You sure nothing’s up?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.” She pats my hand, moving away and I see movement out of the corner of my eye.
I turn, and keep my expression neutral.
That is not an 18 year old kid.
“You must be the boyfriend.” He moves forward, raising his hand in a small wave. He’s shorter than me, probably around 5’8” with an athletic build. More lean runner type than bulky, with deep brown hair and brown eyes. “I’m Tyler.”
“Yeah,” My eyes slide to Sienna. “Jaxon. Nice to meet you.”
“You too. Lucky man, I was disappointed to find out she’s taken.” He looks at Sienna and she moves her gaze away, making me sharpen mine on him.
Sienna’s not one to act this way, new person or not.
“Hey babe, make sure you don’t forget your clothes for the next few days. Don’t want to have to come back and interrupt Tyler’s stay.” I make the decision in a split second, and when Sienna’s eyes snap to mine, there’s relief there.
“Right. There are a few things I forgot to add, actually, I’ll be right back.”
“Not staying here with me? I’m disappointed.” Tyler asks, and I want to punch him in the face for the tone of his voice.
Every bone in my body is telling me the bastard is no good.
“I’m sure you’ll survive.” I hope my smile is razor sharp, and I cross my arms. “Hurry up baby, we’ve got dinner reservations.” I call to Sienna, my eyes not leaving Tyler’s.
“Ready.” She pops out of the room with her stuff, and I grab her hand, not bothering to say anything to Tyler.
“Hope to see again, Sienna. Nice meeting you.” He speaks and I start to turn around, but Sienna squeezes my hand.
“Don’t.” She says quietly, and I grit my teeth, opening the door for her.
When we’re alone, I want her to tell me everything that asshole did and said.
Whatever happened before I got there, it was enough to make her extremely uncomfortable and I don’t play games when it comes to respecting women.
He better hope it was something minor, or else the next thing he’s going to be disappointed about is my foot up his ass.
She’s not stepping back into that apartment while he’s still there, whether we’re together or not.
Sienna
I follow Jaxon back to his place in my car, knowing he’s not going to let earlier go and wishing I’d been better at hiding my discomfort.
Part of me wants to lie to him because I don’t think he’ll react to it well, and another part knows that being dishonest isn’t any way to carry on a relationship.
I can only hope that he’s reasonable about it, because I don’t want any drama or for anything to make it’s way back to Caroline or anyone else. When we park, he comes to my car and grabs my garment bag and weekender bag, and I get my purse. Inside the house, he sets everything down and sits on the couch, patting the cushion next to him.
“Come, let’s have a little chat.”
I look at him skeptically and he raises an imperious eyebrow, nodding to the couch. Reluctantly, I sit next to him and think about how best to phrase what he wants to know for minimal damage.
“What happened before I got there?” He pulls my legs over his lap, lightly massaging my calves and staring at me intently.
“Before I say anything, I want you to promise that you won’t do anything irrational.”
His pauses his hand movement for a second before continuing, his face shuttering. “I promise that I won’t do anything unwarranted.”
Not exactly the s
ame, but I think that’s all I’m going to get out of him so I’ll take it for now.
“When Tyler came in initially, he thought that I was cleaning up the place. He didn’t know that I was the one staying there.” I pause, trying to figure out how to say what I know I need to say next. “He was pleasant enough and went into his room to settle in, then he came back and made some…advances that I didn’t appreciate. I let him know that I wasn’t interested, set the record straight and told him I’m already spoken for. You came not too long after.”
To his credit, his facial expression doesn’t change. He strokes my legs, silent.
“What kind of advances?”
“He was a little handsy, insinuated that he’d tip me more if I…offered extra services for him. Once I let him know who I was, he was mostly apologetic.”
“Mostly?” He questions.
“I mean, it became less, “I’ll tip you extra” and more, “We should get better acquainted, let me take you out.” Then I told him I’m not interested, etc and it was over. It wasn’t a big deal, and I handled it. I’d rather just put it behind me now.”
“Are you going to tell his mother?”
“Why would I do that? There’s no need to bring anyone else into it.”
“If he felt comfortable being inappropriate because he thought you were the maid, it’s probably not the first time he’s done that.”
“Well, I can’t exactly do anything about that and I don’t want to go to a senior executive at my company and accuse her son of a pattern of behavior that I can’t prove and know nothing about. It happened, it’s over, and I’d like to go to dinner now.” I try to swing my legs from his laps, but he holds them fast.
“Okay. I’ll drop it. What do you feel like eating?”
“Korean Barbecue?” Just thinking about the bulgogi beef and yellow sauce and grilled squash is making my stomach rumble.
“A woman after my own heart.” He leans over and kisses me, scooping me up from the couch and making me cling to him.
“The door is that way, sir.” I laugh.
“I’ve always been a believer in dessert first.” He starts up the stairs and I bury my face in his chest.
He’s not going to get any protests out of me.
I took a short nap after dinner because I knew I’d need to liaise with Sales, Finance, and Market Research about our competitive response plan. For the most part, we try to keep a good work/life balance, but I’d rather be ahead than behind and I’m not good at sitting around waiting on things to happen.
I’m not completely sure where Jax is, and I get engrossed in my conference call so I’m startled when the front door opens and Alena pops her head in. I put up a one second finger and she nods, sliding through the front door with a bag in hand.
She goes to the kitchen, and I finish up my call, telling them we’ll finalize things tomorrow.
“Hey, I wasn’t expecting you.” I lean on the back of the couch, watching her move around the kitchen
“I got this new wine ice cream, and I figured you’d be a wonderful person to appreciate it with.” With spoons and two cartons in hand, she plops onto the couch and kicks her feet up on the table. “Do you want to try Red Raspberry Chardonnay or Cherry Merlot?”
“Damn, how am I supposed to choose with options like those?”
“Trick question, you don’t. We’ll trade off.” She passes me the Cherry Merlot and a spoon, and takes the lid off the Red Raspberry Chardonnay. “Have you seen this show called The Good Doctor?”
“Nope, what’s it about? I’m a little behind on my TV watching.”
“This young doctor with autism, crazy smart and really endearing, and like how he interacts with patients and proves himself to the other doctors and stuff. I’ve only seen a little bit of the first episode, but I’m into it.”
“Well, let’s check it out. I’m clocked out for the night.” I pick up the remote and turn on the TV, stopping when I get to Hulu. “So where’s your brother right now?”
“He called Chris about going to the gym, so I thought I’d come bother you.”
“Is that definitely what they’re doing?” I dig my spoon into the carton as the show starts. It’s smooth and creamy and definitely wine tasting, but not in an overwhelming way.
“What do you mean?” I survey her face, looking for any signs of deceit, but either her poker face is as good as mine or she really believes they’re just going to the gym.
“Something happened today and I made Jax promise not to do anything ridiculous. I didn’t believe he’d listen, but I guess he really is not acting on impulse as much.”
“Well, I don’t know anything about that. Jax just asked Chris to meet him at their gym, and I grabbed my ice cream and came to share.” She motions for my carton. “Is that good?”
“Very.” I settle into the couch and we switch off like that, catching up on the show until we both doze off on the couch. I wake up briefly when Jax comes home and shuffles me upstairs, but I knock out pretty quickly again until the next morning.
When I get downstairs in the morning, I find Chris, Alena and Jax standing in the kitchen and looking at the TV.
“Good morning.” When he hears my voice, Jax switches off the TV and comes to me, hugging me tight in his arms and kissing my forehead.
“Morning, tiger. You got any plans for today?” His face is bright and I look for any sign of bruises or something that’d indicate he was up to no good last night. I feel total relief when I see none of that.
“Going into work for a few hours, but nothing after that.” I greet Chris and Alena and pad over to the coffee pot, needing my morning fix.
“Cool. Cool. Hey, does Caroline work in the office?”
I pause before I answer, wondering why he’s asking. I swing my gaze to Chris, but he just looks curious.
“Usually. But she’s traveling this week.”
“Got it. Just wondering if you’d given any more thought to speaking to her about what we talked about.”
“No.” I drag the word out a little. “And even if she was, I’m not interested in discussing it. Ever.”
“Okay. I’ll drop it now.” He presses a kiss to my cheek, taking down another mug. Very affectionate this morning.
“Well, we’re going to head out. Alena wants to repaint the living room and make me look at a bunch of color swatches that are exactly the same.” I hear an Ow, and then Chris talks again. “I mean, there are so many different shades of blue, I really had no idea the color spectrum was so vast.”
I giggle, leaning on the counter and sipping from my cup.
“See you guys later.”
They head out and I scroll through my phone, realizing it’s on silent and I have a missed call from Caroline.
I don’t particularly want to speak with her right now, so I’ll call her back at another time.
“Want an omelet, baby?”
“Yes, please.” I sit at the island and watch him gather up the ingredients, admiring the way his shirts molds against his skin so well, and he’s got a tight ass under his sweats.
I could see myself doing this every morning.
I know that if I want that, then I have a lot of thinking to do about how I see my future and what I want. There’s only four days now before we have the talk, and the sooner I know what I need to get off my chest, the better.
Sienna
“Brigette, can you get Marcus on line 2? Tell him I have some questions about how he’s allocated the budget for the Dubai push.”
“Do you want me to do that before or after you meet with Caroline?”
I still.
“Why am I meeting with Caroline? I thought she was still in Texas.”
“She just got in, I was actually just syncing your calendar.” As if on cue, my calendar dings and “Meet With Caroline” pops up in deep pink.
“Did she mention what she wanted?”
“No, just asked that I schedule her in as soon as possible. Doesn’t she have your
cell, though?”
“My phone has been having connectivity issues.” I lie, because I’ve ignored both of Caroline’s calls today. I just didn’t know that she’d be back in Atlanta this soon. “Thanks, Brigette. I’ll take Marcus now.”
“Of course.” She clicks off, and I turn my phone around in my hands, before I open Jax’s text thread.
Me: Hey playboy, anything you want to tell me?
The three dots appear for a bit, then disappear, then his text comes through.
Jax: Yep. Miss you. Want whipped cream with my dessert next time.
Even though he can’t see me, I fight a smile anyway, but there’s definitely heat crawling up the back of my neck.
Me: Sounds messy. Sign me up. See you for lunch xx
Jax: