“Maggie would fire me on the spot. We’re not allowed to fraternize with our clients outside of the office,” I replied, acutely aware of how timorous my response was.
Sean pondered my answer for a minute, blatantly checking me out one last time before leaning in close to me, brushing a hand against my cheek as he said, “I’ve got what I hope will be my last session here right after I’m back and then I’m done with this. If you want to get a taste of something stronger than what you’re used to when I’m back, let me know.”
As I sat there pondering how to respond, I heard fierce, dueling voices in my head. The angel on one shoulder was imploring with me to behave and to tell Sean in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t interested. The other voice was pleading with me to dive in head first and not look back.
The second voice was making a convincing argument.
Thankfully, Paul, timely for once in his life, came out to collect Sean and saved me from having to respond.
Thank God I was going to have a few weeks to consider this one…
The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy – Yves Saint-Laurent
12. After Sean had left the office, I made a conscious decision to put any thoughts regarding his offer on the back burner for a while and I refocused on my plans for that evening.
As part of my preparation for dinner, I had to briefly flee the office to get my nails done. The exquisite perfection of my resultant French manicure was matched only by the intense agony suffered by my cuticles as my tiny Korean manicurist adroitly manicured my nails with all the compassion of an IRS tax agent during audit season.
If men ever had any idea what we put ourselves through in order to look coiffed and fabulous, I’m positive that no girl would ever again find herself sitting next to a guy that smelled like stale beer or having to spoon someone whose back was hairier than his head!
After work, I hustled home to complete my preparations only to find Elyse still skulking about the condo like a caged animal with too much pride to nose open the door.
“Hey kid, how’re things going?” I inquired tentatively, not wanting to mention Sam unless she decided to take the conversation in that direction.
“Not a call, not a text, nothing,” Elyse retorted, spitting out her reply with disgust.
“You would think that if I meant so much to him, he would at least be making an effort to make me feel better about this situation,” she continued despondently.
“Well, you did ask him for some time to think. Maybe he’s just trying to respect that?” I responded, doing my best to be supportive while at the same time ensuring that I devoted enough time to looking somewhere in the neighbourhood of stunning for my date with Jonathan.
“Since when do guys ever listen to, let alone hear, what we say to them?” Elyse responded bitterly as she threw the cork from her bottle of shiraz at a picture of Sam above the fireplace, causing it to teeter precipitously on the mantle for what felt like ages before settling back on its frame.
For a petite girl, she had a rocket of an arm.
“Maybe he’s trying to show you he cares about what you want?” I replied before inhaling sharply as I struggled to squeeze into my new dress, all the while silently cursing myself for subsisting on a diet of wine, cheese and chocolate over the holidays.
“Maybe I just need to polish off this bottle and go find myself a man for the night,” Elyse retorted brusquely.
“Besides, I’m only 24. If he really cares about me, he should just have kept things the way they were!” she continued, her temper coming dangerously close to its tipping point.
Not really wanting to go down that particular conversational path with Elyse, I gave her a moment to compose herself before stepping into the living room as I said “So, how do I look?” while I shot her a sultry stare over my shoulder.
“Wow babe, you’re going all out tonight huh?” she responded, pushing a glass of wine my way.
I reached for it gratefully, thinking that my own nerves could use a little calming as well.
Just as I sat down, the buzzer for our door went off. I hopped back up and I was greeted by Jonathan’s deep, yet ever so nicely modulated, voice on the other end.
“Come on up,” I replied, before briefly turning back to Elyse.
“Why don’t you give Sam a call and try to talk things out? He’s always been a pretty stand-up guy,” I told her, giving her a quick hug and hoping she wasn’t going to toss away someone that I was pretty sure she would regret losing.
“I’ll think about it. In the meantime, go have a great time and don’t even think about coming home tonight,” she said as she affectionately swatted me on the bum.
As I waited for Jonathan to arrive, I was acutely aware that I had butterflies in my stomach for the first time in longer than I could remember.
You hit his car the last time you met and he still wanted to take you to dinner, I reminded myself.
That’s a pretty low bar to clear for tonight. Just don’t throw up on him and you should be just fine…
We never forget those who make us blush – Jean-Francois De La Harpe
13. Upon hearing a knock at the door, I opened it to find Jonathan doing an admirable job of filling the doorway and looking quite chic in a charcoal grey suit with a Burberry tie. As I stepped towards him, he gave me a warm hug and the scent of his aftershave sent shivers pulsating down the length of my spine.
“Wow, you look gorgeous. I’ve been wondering if you might have just been a beautiful apparition I dreamed up,” he exclaimed, smiling at me.
“Well, if I was, at least your car would still be in one piece. Hopefully I’m worth all the trouble,” I said, grinning back at him.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” he responded sweetly. “Oh, also, I got you a little something,” he continued, pulling a small glass case from behind his back and handing it to me.
Staring at a delicate stem of tiny pink buds, I replied softly, “Those are beautiful. What are they?”
“It’s a pink shamrock stem. Not only are they supposed to be good luck, but they even come with their own case and I know how women love to accessorize,” he responded as he flashed me his own pearly whites.
I started to giggle quietly, my face taking on a reddish hue as Jonathan looked at me nervously.
“That wasn’t exactly the reaction I was expecting,” he said with a quizzical expression on his face.
Laughing now, I replied, “No, no, they really are beautiful. I love them. It’s just that the last gift I got from a guy was a John Deere hat which just so happened to match the shirt he had on for our date. This is just slightly different than what I’m used to, but in a very good way. Thank you,” I said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
After quickly introducing him to Elyse from the hallway, I grabbed the arm he offered me as we walked out to his car.
As Jonathan held open my door (whoo hoo, an actual gentleman!) I joked, “I hope your car doesn’t hold a grudge against me.”
“I guess we’ll know if the roof pops open and the ejector seat launches you out of here,” he replied with a chuckle.
Once we had arrived at the restaurant, Jonathan politely pulled out my chair for me and, as we were looking over the wine menu, he asked with a grin, “So, now that I’ve seen you drive under the influence of coffee, I should probably ask if it’s safe to provide you with alcohol.”
“Well, I’m not driving, so the worst case for you is that you get to carry me to my door later. But, I’m not the one that just graduated. I should be asking you if you’re legal to drink yet. I don’t want to get charged with corrupting a minor,” I retorted, winking back at him.
“Who says that I’m going to give you a chance to corrupt me?” he replied, feigning innocence. “Besides, I’m 27, so I’m really not that young. I’ll try not to stray into any inappropriate first date questions, but does that put me inside an appropriate age range for you?”
I had a
rule about dating anyone younger than myself as, particularly now that I was staring 30 in the face, I couldn’t bear hearing from another guy that he still lived at home. However, I got the sense that that wouldn’t be an issue in this case, and besides, rules were made to be broken, right?
“Well…” I replied, choosing my words carefully so that I wouldn’t scare him off. “While I typically do prefer an older vintage, quality bottles are in short supply so I think that I’m willing to broaden my horizons and sample something that perhaps hasn’t been aged quite as long as what I’m used to. Provided it’s of a high quality and sufficiently sweet of course.”
“Wine’s such a subjective thing. I should probably let you draw your own conclusions about what appeals to your palate after you’ve had a chance to sample this vintage. I personally appreciate a full bodied, finely aged vintage that leaves you wanting more and which has a lot of legs,” he replied, playing along with me.
“You’ve sampled older vintages before then?” I asked, more than a bit curious now. I was hoping that I wasn’t just some fantasy on his bucket list that he was hoping to cross off.
“Almost exclusively,” he responded, catching me off guard a bit. “I find more mature wines tend to be satisfying across a broader range of senses if you can appreciate the intricacies.”
Hmm, clever and he’s saying all the right things.
Twenty questions would become so much more interesting if you actually knew if the guy was telling the truth.
Too bad it isn’t socially acceptable to strap a guy in for a lie detector test on a first date. If anyone ever comes up with a portable version that you can hide in your purse, I’m going to be first in line.
“So, was it against law firm policy not to sue the pants off me?” I asked, still curious how I managed to escape my predicament completely unscathed.
“Well, as I’ve yet to see you in pants, suing your pants off seemed like an unnecessary step. Kudos on your ensemble for tonight by the way,” he replied, grinning at me.
“I know our firm’s got a bit of a rep for being sharks when it comes to litigation, but I work exclusively on the corporate side. I primarily do environmental regulatory work, so personal injury litigation really isn’t my thing. Besides, I refuse to take my job home with me and, since I’m sort of starting to take a personal interest in you, suing you would have been a clear violation of that policy,” he continued, his eyes firmly locked on mine.
After years of suffering through conversations where my dates’ eyes were inexorably pulled down to my breasts as if their necks were too weak to keep their heads upright, it was almost a bit unnerving to sit across from someone that seemed perfectly happy to focus his attention north of there.
I had yet to see him drop his gaze to take so much as a peak and I was starting to wonder if there was something on my face.
That being said, it was absolutely intoxicating to be around someone with whom I truly enjoyed bantering with. It had been far too long since I’d sat across from a man and not pondered every little flaw that I noticed or wondered at what point good was good enough.
Better still, the more we talked, the more enthralled I was becoming. Also, I couldn’t help but notice that we had each brought our seats a bit closer to the table and that I wasn’t the only one leaning forward to get a bit closer.
Just then, as I absentmindedly reached for my glass to calm my nerves a tad, I accidentally grazed the specials menu with my hand, sending it on an agonizing, slow motion descent right into the candle at the edge of our table.
With a whoosh, the paper caught fire in an instant. Thankfully, with a synchronized splash from each of our water glasses, it was out as quickly as it had started.
“I didn’t even have time to say ‘Opa!’” Jonathan noted, doing his best to brush off the incident as I slouched down in my seat, suddenly feeling about as warm as the fire I’d just started.
“I cannot believe that just happened,” I replied, my words coming out in a tiny, slightly pouty, squeak.
“It’s okay,” Jonathan said, reaching out to give my hand a squeeze. “I wasn’t really feeling any of those specials either,” grinning at me as I burst out laughing.
“At least now you know that I’m skilled in the art of flambé,” I retorted, both of us laughing so hard by that point that we were verging on tears.
I suppose the upside to almost torching one of Vancouver’s finest eateries is you get to see how someone reacts under stress.
So far, so good…
A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out the years – Rupert Brooke
14. Having survived the rest of the meal without any further near death experiences, I was riding a natural high by the time we left the restaurant.
It had been such a long time since my cheeks had hurt from laughing with someone so much and I wasn’t really ready for our night to end just yet.
“So, if you’re up for a drive, there’s someplace that I’d love to take you,” Jonathan mention, as we got back into his freshly repaired car.
“Do I get to ask where or is it a surprise?” I inquired, perfunctorily.
I didn’t particularly care what the intended destination was at that point as long as Jonathan was going to be there too, but I didn’t want to sound too enthusiastic in case he got the wrong/accurate impression.
“Nope, you’re just going to have to trust me on this. I figure that since I was able to stay quiet after having my heart in my mouth every time you reached for your wine glass tonight, I’ve earned a little reciprocity,” he replied as he gently squeezed my thigh.
“Hey!” I exclaimed, swatting him on the arm. “It was totally uneventful 9 times out of 10. You can’t expect perfection on a first date!” I said, grinning at him.
“Hmm, okay, I think you’ve earned a little trust. Let’s see what you have in mind,” I countered, as we pulled away.
Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the top of Burnaby Mountain, looking down on the city and the ocean on a rare, surprisingly clear, night.
“I’ve never been up here before. What a gorgeous view!” I exclaimed, as I gazed out at the twinkling lights of the city set out on display in front of me.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Jonathan said, playfully giving me a light tap on the bum while he stood behind me before he wrapped his arms around me, the smell of his cologne and the feel of his arms around me giving me goose bumps.
“Hey, no checking out the goods. I want to make sure your intentions are honourable Mister,” I replied teasingly, as I nestled myself deeper in his arms.
“So, what do you think? Was it worth having a little faith in me?” he asked, his voice lips vibrating softly against my ear.
I had to admit, this was certainly a step up from target shooting with the John Deere man-child, and we had yet to chat about the intricacies of crushing rocks, so he had cleared the rather low bar that I had set for the night with flying colours.
If he kept this up, I might have to readjust my expectations in the not too distant future.
“This whole night has all been a pretty steep price to pay for such a little dent in your bumper,” I replied impertinently, “but, despite having to put up with you, it is a pretty nice view,” I continued as I put my hand over his and turned to look him in the eye.
“Well, perhaps you’ll give me a chance to make amends for the imposition in the future,” he responded quietly, as he leaned in and kissed me softly, drawing me in to him.
Good Vibrations Page 6