“You’re going to shovel animal dung all day?” he’d say. “And you think that’ll make you happy?”
But James thought that this life was crazy. What was the point of it, any of it, if he wasn’t happy? Maybe his dad needed to work all the time to fill the void that appeared after his mother’s death. But James didn’t; though he missed her, it wasn’t a reason to waste the rest of his life.
He took a deep breath and set the phone call out of his mind. None of that mattered. He could take or leave the job. He didn’t care about it right now. All he cared about was apologizing to Juliet and showing to her – proving to her – that he was different than before.
James set his mind to his next task: ensuring that Juliet won the funding for her clinic. He made a call to his assistant Logan.
He answered right away. “Hey boss, what’s up?”
“Hey Logan, do you have a minute?”
“Sure.”
“Did you get the information for that drug?”
“Yup,” he replied. “I sent you some stuff to your email. The company that makes Delicaid is InnoCangen.”
James laughed. “What a name.”
“I know, doesn’t really roll off the tongue. But as it turns out, we do have a contact there.”
“Awesome! Who is it?”
“Kylie Simpson. Do you remember her?”
James frowned. “Not really.”
“She interned here. Not in our department, but she was a member of the marketing team. I think she had a thing for you.”
James felt his ears growing hot. “Was she the one who kept bringing danishes to my office?”
“Yeah! That was her.”
Well, that made it awkward. “I don’t want her to think I decided to return the crush after all these years. Can I have a meeting with her that legitimately looks professional?”
Logan laughed. “Of course. If you’re sure that’s what you want? She was pretty cute, I don’t know why you – ”
“Thanks Logan, but I’m sure.”
“Alright, fine. Then the only thing you can do is meet with her and try to recruit her back.”
James groaned. “Can’t I say that I’m looking into…I don’t know, using their drug for my cat?”
“No,” Logan responded flatly. “We have a really similar drug that’s a bit ahead in clinical trials than theirs is. If they’re smart, they’ll be our competition soon.”
“Ugh, fine. Could we use her on staff?”
Logan scoffed. “I don’t know, you’re the boss!”
“Whatever, I’ll figure it out. We can always use good people.” He paused. “Was she good?”
“She brought in all those danishes, that has to count for something.”
James rubbed his forehead. “Alright, well, can you set up a meeting for me with her? Tomorrow? And get me a plane out there.”
“You got it.”
“Thanks Logan.”
James took a deep breath. He needed to make sure not to lead this girl on. Maybe she had a husband by now, who knew. It didn’t matter.
He needed to casually feel out the criteria for the winner of the funding. And make sure that Kylie knew that Juliet’s video and program was the most deserving.
Should be a piece of cake.
Chapter 15
The bus ride was uneventful and Juliet got back to her apartment early in the morning. She didn’t manage to sleep much, so after washing her face and brushing her teeth, she crawled into bed to catch an hour of sleep before going to work. Luckily, her dad fixed his car, so she borrowed her mom’s car. She was no longer dependent on James.
The clinic schedule was quite full that day – they needed to catch up after Juliet was off. She was glad to be back; she didn’t want her thoughts to linger on what happened over the past few days.
Oddly, James didn’t try to contact her at all. At first she was relieved, but then she felt a bit disappointed, and then angry at herself for feeling disappointed. Maybe she could’ve been nicer to him. After all, he was a huge help, even if he was a bit of an idiot. And a bad driver.
Why was James so willing to help, though? Juliet still couldn’t put her finger on it. He probably thought that she had some special knowledge about the drug, and after he realized that she didn’t, he disappeared back to his fabulous life.
She told herself to stop being silly and focus on work. The day went by quickly and when she got home, she made a sandwich for dinner and went straight to bed.
The rest of the week carried on in the same way. Greg sent her the final versions of the videos – they both made her cry, and she watched them at least ten times each. She submitted them and tried not to obsess.
Juliet managed to catch up on sleep and was back to feeling normal by Saturday clinic. Well – mostly normal. She managed to forget one important thing.
“Are you excited for our double date tonight?” asked Sophie, one of the veterinary technicians.
Juliet groaned. “I completely forgot about that.”
“Don’t make that face!” Sophie slapped her on the shoulder. “It’s going to be fun!”
Juliet was looking forward to spending the evening alone, in front of her TV, in sweatpants. How could she have agreed to something like this? Sophie must’ve really talked it up.
Also, it was always easier to agree to things when they were far away. She could imagine herself feeling sociable and full of energy when something like a double date was a month in the future. When it was a few hours away, it seemed like a nightmare.
“What’s this guy’s name again?” asked Juliet.
“James.”
Juliet felt her stomach drop. “James?”
“But,” Sophie continued, “he goes by Jim. He works with Leo. I’ve met him a few times, and he’s a really nice guy.”
A really nice guy. If Juliet had a dollar for every time someone tried to force a really nice guy on her and he ended up being a weirdo, a jerk, or a bore, she’d have at least $15.
Though it wasn’t a ton of money, it was a ton of bad dates.
Juliet sighed. There was no getting out of it now. “Where are we going again?”
“The Spicy Pepper.”
Oh. That was a good restaurant; at least Juliet could get some tacos out of it, and they always served hot tortilla chips there, too.
“Okay, it’s a date.”
Sophie beamed. “See you at seven!”
Clinic ran late and at the end of the day, one of their regulars called in a panic. Their dog ate an entire plate of chicken wings, bones included.
Juliet didn’t mind staying after closing and told them to bring him in right away. She induced vomiting and within moments, a pile of mostly intact chicken wings appeared on the clinic floor.
After rushing home, she took a shower and tried to get dressed for her date. She wasn’t sure what to wear; she never wore makeup, unless she was going to a wedding or something, so that was out. Most of her wardrobe consisted of clothes that were comfortable to go hiking in, but not necessarily nice enough to go to dinner in. Even her jeans looked worn out.
She stood in front of her dresser with her arms crossed. She didn’t want to try too hard, either, and make this guy think that she was desperate or something, because that definitely wasn’t the case.
Embarrassingly, the newest thing she had in her closet was a sweater that her mom bought her because it was on sale and “It was just the right color!”
Juliet slipped into it and studied herself in the mirror. It was a nice sweater, and somehow the light blue seemed to make her skin look nice, even though she hadn’t seen the sun in months. She decided that no one needed to know that her mom bought it for her and she headed out the door.
When Juliet got to the restaurant, she sent a text to Sophie to see if they’d arrived yet. She didn’t want to go inside and end up alone with this guy.
Instead of going in, she sat in her dark car, feeling like a creep, watching each person that came in or out
.
Sophie clearly missed her text, because Juliet watched as she and her husband rushed into the restaurant. Juliet took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She reminded herself that she agreed to this, and it would be impossibly rude to back out now. Plus, she was hungry and it was getting cold in the car.
It wasn’t hard to find Sophie and her husband Leo inside, especially because Sophie was waving and yelling, “Juliet! Over here!”
Oh boy. This was already worse than she imagined.
“Hey guys, good to see you,” she said, taking a seat across from Sophie.
“Hey Juliet,” said Leo.
Sophie shushed him. “He should be here any minute.”
Juliet forced a smile. “Great.”
She opened up the menu, surveying the appetizers closely because she didn’t think she could make it much longer without food.
“What do you guys think? Chips and salsa? Or should we go for the gold and get chips and guacamole?”
Leo opened his mouth to respond but Sophie beat him to it. “Whatever, you pick. Hey Jim!”
Juliet turned away from the menu to look up at the man approaching the table. He offered an awkward wave.
For some reason, Sophie stood up. “Jim, I’d like you to meet my friend Juliet McCarron.”
He shot his hand across the table, almost knocking over Juliet’s glass of water. “Nice to meet you.”
She moved the glass out of the way and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, too.”
He took a seat. Juliet knew that she should try to make conversation with him, but what she really wanted to do was put an order in for an appetizer. She caught sight of a waitress walking by and made eye contact.
“You folks ready to order?” the waitress said, pulling out a notepad.
“I would love to put in an order for some chips and guacamole,” said Juliet. “If that’s okay with everyone?”
She looked around the table and everyone nodded.
“Alright, they’ll be right out,” said the waitress.
Juliet looked at the menu one more time and decided that she needed to make a decision so she wasn’t staring at the menu forever. She decided to go with the fish tacos.
“So, James who goes by Jim, what brings you to Lansing?” Juliet asked.
He set his menu down. “Oh, you know, work.”
“Oh,” she said. “Do you have any family in the area?”
“No,” he responded before looking back at the menu.
Oh boy. A real talker. She wasn’t in the mood to think of questions so that he could respond with one-word answers. She had nothing against shy people – she often felt quite shy herself. But if this guy wasn’t even going to try, then she wasn’t going to either.
Sophie stepped in. “Jim moved here from Florida. The company recruited him.”
“Oh, that’s neat. Do you miss Florida?”
“Yeah,” he said without looking up from the menu. “It’s way too cold here.”
“Oh come on,” Leo said. “You haven’t given any winter sports a chance yet. Let me take you out on my snowmobile.”
Jim laughed. “No thank you. I’ve managed to stay inside all winter without getting hurt and I’m not going to risk it now.”
Juliet couldn’t help herself. “Not one for adventure, eh?”
“Oh, I love adventure. Just not in the snow. I actually worked it out with the boss so I can work from home on snowy days.”
That seemed like a very Floridian thing to do. In contrast, Juliet and everyone she knew tried to one up each other every winter in driving in worse and worse snowy conditions.
“Sometimes it’s fun to drive in the snow,” she said.
“Oh, yeah, I agree. It is really fun,” said Jim with a bright smile.
That seemed like an odd thing to say for someone who just admitted to being afraid of the snow, but Juliet didn’t have a chance to address it; the waitress came back to take their orders.
Juliet ordered fish tacos, Leo ordered carnitas tacos, and Sophie ordered a chicken tostada. Jim asked to go last. Juliet was curious as to what he was going to pick.
“I’d like to get the Everything Burrito, but please hold the bean sprouts. And can you make sure that the black beans on there are really watery?”
The waitress frowned. “What do you mean watery? If it’s watery, your burrito will fall apart.”
“Trust me, I always get burritos this way. I like the bean juice.”
Bean juice.
The waitress’ face remained expressionless as she wrote down his order, but Juliet was dying inside. She knew that the waitress was going to go back and tell everyone what a weirdo this guy was.
“Okay, anything else?”
“One more thing,” said Jim. “I’m allergic to avocado, so can you please make sure there’s no avocado on my meal?”
“Of course.”
Oh dear. Allergic to avocado and Juliet just ordered a bunch of guacamole for the table?
“I am so sorry for ordering guacamole,” said Juliet. “I had no idea that you were allergic to it.”
He laughed. “Oh, it’s no big deal. I just won’t have any of it. You can’t really avoid it at a Mexican restaurant.”
“Right,” Juliet said weakly. Why didn’t he just say something? Now she felt like a jerk.
“So Juliet’s been away for a few days trying to win a fundraiser for our clinic,” said Sophie with a coy smile.
“Wow, that’s so interesting.” Jim leaned in.
He was too close to her face; Juliet sat back. “Thanks. We’ll see if we get the funding.”
“I just think that it’s so interesting that you’re a veterinarian,” Jim continued.
“Oh. Why?”
“It’s just – uncommon.” He cleared his throat. “What made you want to be a vet?”
“You know, the usual. I love animals. Wanted to save every one of them and help them live forever.”
“Plus you’re really smart,” added Sophie.
Jim smiled broadly. “I always knew that I wanted to be a programmer. My parents got me my first computer when I was five. They were amazed by how good I was at using it, and by the time I was ten, I was a real whiz kid.”
A whiz kid? Who says that about themselves?
“Really?” Juliet said. She had to force herself not to yawn. “That’s cool.”
Jim nodded. “In high school I was the lead for the design tech team. We designed a robot that could open and close a locker.”
Leo laughed. “That was very useful, wasn’t it?”
Jim ignored him. “Then in college, that’s where I really hit my stride…”
Juliet settled into her seat for the long history of James, who goes by Jim. She’d underestimated him. She thought he was going to be a silent and easily bulldozed kind of guy. It turned out that he was quiet at first because the only topic that interested him was himself. He kept talking until their entrées came.
She gave up on trying to be polite at that point. Instead, she focused on her tacos and getting the check as quickly as possible.
When they paid their checks, Sophie turned towards her with a broad smile. “We should go bowling or something. I’m not ready to go home!”
“Sorry, I can’t,” Juliet responded instantly. “This has been really nice, but I have a thing in the morning.”
Leo shot her a smile. “What kind of thing?”
Shoot. He knew that she was lying. Did that also mean that he knew she wanted to get out of there because Jim was kind of terrible? If he worked with him, he must’ve known that Jim was a self-involved brown noser.
“I promised my mom I would be over in the morning,” she said with resolution.
“That’s too bad,” said Sophie. “We should get together again soon.”
“Sure,” said Juliet. “It was great seeing you guys, and Jim, it was nice meeting you. Have a good night.”
Juliet wasn’t going to wait to make a graceful exit. She got out of ther
e before Jim asked for her number.
Another bad date on the books. As she drove home, she repeated some of the things that Jim said and laughed out loud to herself. How could Sophie have thought she was desperate enough to date that guy? Had Sophie ever even spoken to him before?
When Juliet heard that his name was James, she was worried that it might be her James. Well, not “her” James – he wasn’t hers anymore.
He was never hers, actually.
Well, whatever, she was relieved when it wasn’t that James.
But she also felt a bit disappointed, and she wasn’t sure where exactly that was coming from. She pushed it out of her mind and got ready to camp out in front of the TV for the rest of the night.
Chapter 16
Logan arranged a meeting with Kylie at a coffee shop. James was glad that she agreed to meet with him, though he felt a bit concerned that she might read into it and get the wrong idea.
When he spotted her, he remembered instantly who she was. She hadn’t changed much – she had long, dyed blonde hair. She always wore fake eyelashes, which James found distracting because they were so ridiculously long. And she had on so much eye makeup that she looked like she was about to walk onto a stage somewhere.
She was a pretty woman, for sure – but definitely not his type. It wasn’t personal that he didn’t like her. The only woman he liked was Juliet. Maybe he should’ve just told her that the first time she brought in danishes.
He made sure to make it obvious that it was a professional meeting from the start. “Kylie, I’m going to cut right to the chase.”
She offered a small smile. “Okay.”
“Balin Labs is working on a monoclonal antibody that’s a lot like one of your company’s drugs – Delicaid. And I think that we could really use a great mind like yours to market it.”
“Oh. That’s interesting.” She sat back and crossed her arms. “Our drug is just starting in human trials, though.”
“Right. Ours is a few steps ahead as far as humans go, but we missed an opportunity, I think, in marketing to pet owners as well.”
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