City Lights: A Short Story

by J. Nichole

  “You were rushing to get married but did nothing to make sure our relationship was on good terms now.” Taylor looks down at his feet. “You’d rather a ring on your finger than to be truly happy with us just being together.”

  Leaning against the dresser, I cover my face. “To be honest, it’s not about the ring. It’s not about a wedding.” I look at him and say, “It’s about knowing you are here for the long haul. That you want to be here as much as I do.”

  He pulls me into a hug. “I wanted to be here. But I have to admit, I miss our broke adventures. I miss going out to dinner in the middle of the week, staying up late laughing and talking.”

  “What now?” I ask without looking up at him.

  He backs away from me. “We see if we can get back to what we both expect, what we both need.” He grabs his duffle bag. “Until then, I’ll be at Matt’s place.”

  My words got us here last night. As much as I want to take them back and tell him to stay, I nod my head and watch as he walks out of the bedroom.

  Chapter Three

  The Basics

  Operation Get My Man Back has commenced. But I’m trying to listen as I sit in this design meeting for my next project. My girls and Taylor both pointed out to me how much we used to explore the city and live in the moment. I wasn’t such a Debbie Downer when we first moved to New York. I’m determined to find a balance between the career woman I’m trying to be and the fun girl I used to be.

  “Ms. Brooks, what do you think about the consolidation of the two projects?” Shit. “You’ll work with Jason to determine how they can be combined for the event.”

  Jason looks at me over the back of his laptop with a smug smile on his face. He knows as well as everyone else in the room that I haven’t been listening. “If Jason is up for the challenge, we’ll make it happen.”

  After the meeting, Jason pulls me aside to coordinate a meeting later in the day. I lobby for an after lunch meeting. Without a project on my plate, I have time to wrap up my plans for Taylor before I meet with him. “Alright. I’ll meet you in the conference room at two.”

  A few weeks ago, I had a co-worker bragging about her experience at a new restaurant in the city. When she mentioned it, I didn’t think twice about visiting, but now I’m searching through their open reservations. When I find a reservation for tonight, I clap my hands then remember I’m sitting in my cubicle in the middle of the bullpen. “You okay?”

  “Briana, what are you doing on this floor,” I ask, looking at her standing against my cubicle wall.

  “I had a meeting with Jason to wrap up our last project. I hear you are working with him,” she says with her eyebrows raised.

  “Yeah we are meeting today after lunch.” Turning my laptop to face her, I show her the restaurant on my screen. “I have reservations for me and Taylor tonight.” Briana places her cup of tea on my desk. “We aren’t back together yet, but we agreed we would try to get back to where we were.”

  Briana gives me a thumbs up. “And you look happy about it. I haven’t seen you excited about much in the last few weeks.” She looks around the bullpen. “Since you won’t be vying for Jason’s attention, put in a good word for me?”

  “Wait. What?” I point to her and say, “You are attracted to Jason?” She smiles widely. I agree to put in a good word for her and after she walks away, I remember I need to persuade Taylor to meet me for dinner tonight.

  Me: If you don’t have plans tonight, meet me?

  “How often are you going to check your phone?” Jason closes his laptop and looks at me. “You’ve been pre-occupied all day. What’s up?”

  “I apologize. Let’s wrap up this meeting so we can get started on this project.” Jason doesn’t budge. “Ugh okay. I’m trying to make plans for tonight and I’m waiting on Taylor to respond about meeting me.”

  “I’m sure he’ll respond eventually. He’s probably busy with work.” His emphasis of work reminds me that I should be occupied with work too. Jason still looks at me without opening his laptop. “Is everything between the two of you good?” A long sigh escapes before I can respond to make him believe everything is okay. “That bad?”

  “We’ll be okay.” I scoot my chair closer to the table. “By the way, are you single?” Jason cocks his head and begins to open his laptop before I say, “Feel free to tell me it’s none of my business. But if you are single, then I know someone I think you should take out.”

  “I’m open to going on a date.” He smiles as his fingers type across his keyboard. “Set it up.” I hide my excitement behind my screen.

  I manage to ignore my phone for the remainder of the meeting. Since I wasn’t listening during our earlier meeting I missed the key highlights of this project. This marketing ad will be for the dating app that I’ve been designing ads for and Jason’s speed dating events he worked on in the past. The ad will display in one of the city’s hottest prints, Millennial Magazine.

  On our way back to our cubicles, I remind Taylor that I’ll set up his date and he laughs. Safe in my cubicle, I check my phone before starting on my design concept.

  Taylor: Where and when?

  Butterflies seem to take residence in my stomach as I re-read his response. I text him all the details then force myself to put my phone in my purse till the end of the day. I focus on my design concept until the cubicles around me are vacated. My slacks and blouse are formal for my new age workspace, where jeans and a t-shirt would suffice, but way too casual for the restaurant tonight.

  Coming home to an empty apartment still seems unreal. I glance at the couch where Taylor would usually be sitting, waiting on me to come home. Pulling a red dress from the closet, I get dressed with music blasting to drown out the silence of the emptiness around me. With my bag in hand, I wait for the Moovn notification. With these heels, I’d never make the walk from here to the train, let alone to the restaurant after.

  My phone dings with a text alert and when I see Taylor’s name on my screen, I suck in my breath. If he cancels on me tonight, I’ll be heartbroken, again.

  Taylor: Outside of the apartment waiting on you.

  Locking up the apartment, I hurry to the front of the building where I see Taylor in his grey suit—that fits him like a tailor spent his precious hours measuring and sewing it just for him—with his black hard bottom shoes, leaning against a car. When he sees me, he puts his phone away and smiles before opening the door for me to take a seat.

  “I had a feeling you wouldn’t want to take the train.” Pulling out my phone, I show him my Moovn app before canceling my ride. “I’m glad you texted me today.”

  “Are you?” We haven’t exchanged many words since the weekend. I feel like the ball is in my court, but the pressure is overwhelming.

  “Not sure the last time we went that long without talking to each other.” He looks out the window as the car slows. “If I didn’t hear from you by tonight I was going to flood your phone with texts and calls.”

  “Feel free to do that anyway.” He looks at me with a grimace on his face. “Do you know how eerily quiet that apartment is?” He laughs and opens the door when the car comes to a stop in front of the restaurant.

  Sitting at a two top with a bouquet of roses between us, Taylor holds my hand from across the table as we review the menu. Before the waitress takes our order, she smiles and says, “Are you two celebrating tonight?” Looking around the restaurant, I don’t see roses at the tables surrounding us.

  Then I look at Taylor with his mischievous smile. He looks up at the waiter and says, “We are. We’re celebrating years of love.” The waitress gasps and places her hand over her heart before taking our order.

  “I haven’t seen you wear one of your get ‘em dresses in a while.” Taylor licks his lips and the thought of those lips on my body and what magic he can do with that tongue makes me squirm in the chair.

  Looking around the restaurant again I say, “It’s been a while since I had anywhere to wear it to.” With my arms on the table
, I lean in closer to him. “But hopefully we can change that. I miss how it feels to be all dolled up.”

  He pops his collar and admits, “I have to agree I like being out in more than my jeans and a tee.” He bites the side of his mouth. “Over the years we’ve grown. Remember when we went out in college?” We both laugh at the thought. Instead of get ‘em dresses and tailored suits, we would be lucky to not look out of place in sundresses and slacks at the mom and pop restaurant near campus.

  Smiling, I remind him that the simpler days were easy. “And can’t say we weren’t happy.” It’s not until bills started piling up and work became a burden that our sweet simplicity was replaced with hectic complacency. “I hear it’s supposed to be decent weather tomorrow.”

  With his brows wrinkled, he waits for me to continue, but instead of completing my thought, I let his memory serve him. “A picnic?”

  “How early can you leave work?” Daylight in the spring seems everlasting, but with both of our late hours, we won’t have time to make it to Central Park and have time to eat before it becomes dark.

  Pulling out his phone to check his calendar, I assume, he scrolls before asking if I’ll be able to be off by three. With the start of my new project, I’m sure work will be hectic, but I have to do better with managing my time. Fortunately, if I need to leave early I can always wrap up my work at home. We commit to meeting in the park by four.

  “Carrie was right, this restaurant hit the spot.” My mouth opens slightly. “You don’t remember telling me how much she bragged about this restaurant?” I look down at the table feeling like an ass for thinking he didn’t listen to my after-work ramblings. “It’s cool.” He reaches across the table, taking my hand in his. “Just know that every little thing you tell me, I hear.”

  “Thanks, Taylor.” Our dinner date ends with Taylor walking me to our door. I linger in the doorway and ask, “How’s Matt’s couch?”

  He looks behind me into the apartment. “Not as comfortable as our bed.”

  “You know you didn’t have to do that. Even if you don’t want to stay in our bed you can sleep on our couch.”

  He looks down at me before closing his eyes tightly. “I can tough it out for a while longer.” With a long exhale he continues, “Hopefully, I’ll be back before I need a standing appointment with a chiropractor.”

  “Alright.” Not knowing if we should hug or kiss, or if I could invite him in to feel his lips all over my body, I let him make the next move.

  “Tomorrow at four. Central Park. I’ll see you there.” He turns to walk away and I feel the air escape my lungs as I watch him walk down the hallway without a look back.

  Chapter Four

  No Picnic in the Park

  Briana sits across from me stirring her tea. “Did you think it was going to be easy? Like one trek down memory lane and he was just going to move back, and forget you broke up with him a few days ago?”

  “I didn’t expect that we’d be like strangers working through first date jitters.” What would we have lost if we ended our date with a kiss? If he sleeps on our couch?

  My phone alerts me to my next meeting. “Alright, I need to get to this meeting with your boo thang.”

  “Send him my love,” she says with a goofy grin. I haven’t shared with her my master plan to get them together yet. He still doesn’t know it’s her that I want him to meet.

  With our laptops open and sketches spread across the conference room table, Jason and I discuss our game plan to pull off this ad campaign. “Just when I thought you had checked out,” he studies one of my designs, “you pull this out of your bag.” I shrug off his compliment but I’m glad I was able to prove myself after spacing out during our meeting yesterday. “By the way, Millennial Magazine is sponsoring the next speed dating event this weekend. I hear somehow they’ll be debuting the dating app.”

  Surprised that I hadn’t heard about the event yet, I ask, “How’d you find out about the event?”

  “Don’t worry, I have someone upstairs feeding me details all the time. I’m sure you’ll hear about it before the day is over. We should be there to make sure we capture the essence of the collaboration in our ad.”

  “Of course.” Gathering my designs and closing my laptop I say, “Is it Friday or Saturday?” I plug all the details he gives me into my phone. “Thanks. And are you busy on Friday?”

  “Not really. What do you have in mind?” He opens the door for me and I walk out in front of him and spot Briana across the floor. Thankfully, we don’t cross paths.

  “Just thinking it would be a good day for you to go out with my friend.”

  “Are you going to introduce us first or are you trying to make this a blind date?” He stops walking and tilts his head. “One blind date themed event isn’t enough for the weekend?”

  “Might as well get the full feel for it.” I laugh and walk away to grab my bags. I’ll need to work tonight to wrap up my designs, but now, now it’s time for my picnic with Taylor.

  Central Park in the spring is everything Central Park can be with blooming flowers, tourists, exercise fanatics, kids laughing, and Taylor and I on a grass patch with a blanket spread beneath us.

  With our legs outstretched and paper bags between us, we share sandwiches, fruit, and laughs. “Did anyone question you leaving early?” Taylor asks between bites.

  “I just started a new ad campaign, and I’ll probably have to work tonight to make sure my designs are tight, but as long as I have my shit ready by the end of the week, I think I’m good.”

  Taylor gaffs at my response. “I’m sure you’ll have your shit ready.” He shuffles the bags around. “But don’t let your efforts to make things right wear you out. If we are going to make us work it has to be sustainable.” He shrugs his shoulders. “It can’t just be for a few days then back to our routine of passing each other in the apartment, more effort in work than our relationship.”

  “Things need to change. The past few days I’ve had time to think about what I want in my career and the balance I need with my personal life.” I wait for Taylor to look at me; I need him to understand that we are both to blame for the issues we had. “But whenever work, or anything else, gets in the way of us we have to communicate that.”

  Taylor closes his eyes tightly. “You’re right.” A ball rolls past us and a toddler runs behind it laughing. “While we are on the topic of communication. Since you never told me you had this timeframe to be married, do you also think you should be pregnant by a certain age?”

  I watch as the mother catches up to the toddler, scooping him up in her arms and twirling him around. Both the kid and the mother are laughing as if there is no wrong in the world. “Oddly enough, I never considered anything beyond marriage.” Taylor and I have discussed having kids and both agree we’d like to have them, one day.

  “But, if we get back together and one day get married, you’ll tell me if you hear that biological clock ticking, right?”

  The mother, ball and toddler in tow, walks past us again. Unlike ever before I feel a tug in my stomach, a pull in my heart, and my lips spread into a wide smile. “That baby may have given me baby fever.” Taylor’s eyes grow wide and he may also be feeling the pull in his heart, but his resembles something like a heart attack. “Are you okay?” I ask.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he stutters. “I think I am okay.”

  “Don’t worry, I hear baby fever comes and goes. I think we have some years before it’s serious.”

  Before we leave the park I try, again, to convince Taylor to come back home, but he isn’t ready yet. With a kiss to my forehead, he reminds me that I have work to do tonight. And I do.

  With my designs spread across my bed and my laptop open, the more I try to focus on the ad campaign the more the toddler from Central Park crosses my mind. I thought the baby fever would go away, but here I am alone in the apartment with work that needs to be done, and there that little boy is on my mind.

  I search through my bed for my phone to
call Amy; she’ll have the cure for this baby fever. “Busy?”

  “No, just sitting here laughing at these crazy chicks on this show. You know you’d have to pay me a pretty penny to ever show my ass like this on TV.”

  “I think the four of us could have an interesting show.” Amy laughs. “But then again we probably don’t have enough drama between us.”

  “Nope, and I’ll leave creating drama for my day job.” Amy works as a journalist for a local news station. Her beautiful face could surely be in front of the camera, but she finds her job behind the scenes helping to curate the stories of the day. “What’s going on with you? How was your picnic with Taylor?”

  “The picnic was good, but here I am still by myself.”

  “So what’s next? A ferry ride? A tour of the Empire State Building?”

  “I haven’t thought of the next date. I should be sitting here working since I left early to go to the park.”

  “Need some help?” I look at my designs and remind her that she isn’t that creative. “Oh those designs are for you, but I was thinking about the date. But I guess my lack of creativity won’t help with the date either.” Then it dawns on me, our next date and these designs. And just like that, I’m inspired to wrap up my work.

  “Thanks, I was calling about something else, but now I can wrap up this work.” Amy claps and acknowledges herself for being a source of inspiration. “Girl, bye.”

  My alarm buzzes and I slap the snooze button before rolling over onto a design board. With the corner of the board in my side, I open my eyes reluctantly. I spent most of the night and early morning finishing up my designs. Now that my designs are complete, I can wrap up my plans for Operation Get My Man Back.

  Chapter Five