girl of his dreams, and the one he’d want to spend his life with, and anything she said was ultimately inoffensive. Never in his life had he met someone so intoxicating, so on-the-nose. She was refreshing, if not disquieting in her vocal opinions. He knew in that moment that he needed to stand up, lean forward, and kiss that champagne right off her mouth.
But he stopped himself as he rose. Then he lowered himself back into his chair before he could lean forward. He didn’t yet know how she would react to something so spontaneous. The last thing he wanted was to upset her the moment she had become friendly with him.
“You all right?” she asked, as she watched him sit back down.
“Yes, just needed an adjustment.”
“Ah, yes. My legs are getting tired, too.”
She stood up and sat back down, mirroring his actions perfectly. Now he wished he had followed through with his original intention.
Johnny was feeling unrest in his heart, but he was also running out of things to say. It suddenly occurred to him that they were reaching the end of their meals, and that if he were to see her again, ever, he needed to say something in line with his thoughts. He didn’t know what exactly to say or do—efforts to begin a relationship with lesser women had gone badly before, and he still hadn’t found the working formula to win one over, perhaps because every woman was different from the one he’d tried dating before and there was no variable he could learn from—but he knew he would have to give it another go. The only certain ending he knew was the one where she’d walk out of his life if he didn’t make some effort to keep her in it.
“You still driving to London tonight?” he finally asked her.
“Yes, of course.”
His knees began to bounce in anticipation of his next question. His stomach knotted. This level of boldness was unbecoming of him. But he had to do it. There was no other option. His decision had already been made for him by fate, and for once, fate was standing in his corner.
“Would you like some company?” he asked her.
She smiled at him. Then she rested her hand on top of his, gently stroking between his knuckles. His heart leapt at her forwardness. The sensation of her skin touching ever so softly his affection-starved fingers sent a strange kind of electricity that he had rarely ever experienced. This was the touch of a human goddess, packed with as much voltage as the grandest of any Greek female deity. His knees nearly lost feeling, and most of it raced upward toward his pelvis. And her eyes…so striking, so piercing. She stared directly into his. Her gaze was paralyzing, but in a pleasant way. The awakened coma he found himself in was one he could stay in for as long as she wanted him there. It was at that moment his neck and back began to sweat. She was starting to lean toward him. That bead of champagne was still glistening off her apple-cherry lower lip, and it was coming closer to his lips. If Claire didn’t respond in the next second, Johnny was likely to pass out from sexual tension overload. Please tell me your answer, you loveliest of dangerous creatures! he could hear his brain screaming at her. And then, as if among her many celestial gifts she could read his mind, she spoke.
“No,” she said, sweetly. Then she straightened her back.
Johnny was taken aback. Even though he partially expected her response to be negative, he was still hopeful that fate was on his side. After all, it had brought her to his table tonight, and that was possible only because it had rained on Barney’s leaky roof.
“Pardon?” he said. He knew it sounded lame the moment it came out of his mouth, but he couldn’t stop it. The surprise came on him like a spit bubble that refused to stay hidden on his tongue. It popped on him just as quickly.
“I appreciate the offer,” she said, “but we don’t really know each other. I can’t travel with someone I just met, even if we do live within an hour and a half of each other.”
Johnny was crestfallen by her logic. But she was right. If he was to see her again, he needed to take a different path to their future together.
“Perhaps I could just ring you sometime?”
Her hand was still on his, and once again she stroked his knuckles.
“Let’s get through dessert first, then we can decide what we want.”
The server had come to their table with the dessert menu less than five minutes later. Claire ordered a pecan pie. Johnny’s stomach was too tense to eat anything more. He offered to share hers if she needed help. She assured him that she could finish the whole thing.
When the bill finally arrived, Johnny noticed that the server had put both of their meals on a single ticket. He showed Claire the breakdown in items and prices. He kept his hand out as she scanned the list, expecting her to return the bill to him, but she drew the slip of paper in closer to her. Next thing Johnny knew, she was pressing her credit card in with the bill.
“You don’t have to pay,” he said.
He had actually wanted to treat her as a gesture of appreciation for her not only joining him but for staying at his table long enough to finish their sudden date. He wanted to show her that she was worth treating, and leave it in her mind that he was in good standing to do it again if she’d meet him again soon. But she seemed to miss the message. Instead, she wrapped the bill around her card and set it at the edge of the table. Then the server appeared out of nowhere and stole it off the table’s surface before Johnny could object to Claire’s charge and was gone into the depths of her serving station before he could call her back. Claire smiled at him when Johnny gave up and looked back in her direction.
“My treat for your being so sweet,” she said.
Once the card came back, and it was time to finally leave the café, Johnny jogged Claire out to her car, a rose-colored Fiat, in the steady rain. He reached out to open the door for her, but realized as he pulled against the handle that he had no way to unlock it. He shrugged at his faux pas.
“Again, thanks for being sweet,” she said, as she patted his cheek and smiled. “But I got this one.”
Teardrops from the sky bounced off her raised shoulders, and Johnny suddenly realized she was even more beautiful under the floodlit rain. And he was overcome with the fear that this might be the only time he’d see her this way if he didn’t insist on seeing her again. He had to insist. He had to.
Claire reached into her handbag for the keys. When she pulled them out, she brought them up to her perfectly sculpted chest.
“Well,” she said, “I enjoyed our meal together. Thanks for the company.”
Johnny didn’t say a word. Instead, he reached out for her hand, the one holding the handbag, since the one holding the keys was still pressed to her breast and that might’ve been too forward. As his fingers tried to find a hold under hers, which was difficult given how tightly she kept her handbag pressed to her stomach, he smiled at her. Then he leaned in, carefully, assessing her reaction to him with every inch he gained on her. Then, as his lips got within a foot of hers, she released his hand and quickly pecked him on the cheek. When she pulled away, after a second, she smiled back.
“Too soon for that,” she said. “But maybe one day it won’t be.”
Johnny nodded, secretly disappointed that she rejected his advance. But he was relieved by her words. They were laced with promise.
“That mean I can ring you?”
Claire looked up to the sky, which was still dumping moderate amounts of water on her head, and then turned to her car door. She unlocked it and quickly got into the driver’s seat, out of the rain.
“Do you believe in love?” she asked him.
“Of course.”
“What about destiny?”
“Sure.”
She flashed him her teeth.
“What is it they say about love?”
Johnny shrugged.
“Dunno. Don’t talk about it much.”
“If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was meant to be.”
Johnny felt a pang in his chest. He didn’t speak much about love, but he had definitely heard that saying befor
e. And he had definitely experienced the reality of what happens when something isn’t meant to be. The promise in her voice was rapidly transforming into potential, and he didn’t want potential. He had to salvage this conversation before it turned into something even worse. He had to see her again. Had to. He had never met anyone like her before, and twenty-three years was a long time to go without someone so amazing in his life. There was no way he could stand another twenty-three without her. Fate had brought her here for a reason, just as it had brought him! He needed promise! He couldn’t let fate screw him over again.
“I want to see you again, Claire. And soon. Dinner with you was the best thing to happen to me in a long, long time.” He was surprised by his sudden boldness, but he could hardly credit it to courage. He was basically on autopilot now. Self-preservation.
“I’m glad,” she said. “I enjoyed your company, too. Perhaps fate will favor us again.” She looked at a clock in her dashboard. “Well, I must be going. Need to get to London before bedtime.”
Johnny was about to speak up, about to plead for her phone number once more, but she closed the door and locked it. Less than a minute later she was out of the parking lot. He stood there in the rain for the next ten minutes hoping she would turn around and come back and profess her rising love for him. She didn’t.
The Past (Yesterday)
Johnny sat at the café bar for more than an hour, but his night with Claire could not be
The Celebration of Johnny's Yellow Rubber Ducky Page 3