Not Quite Dating(32)

“It’s always a palm tree Christmas. Last year we actually ate on my mom’s patio. The inside was too warm from the oven being on all day.” Jessie blew into her cocoa and caught Jack’s eyes.
Both of them sat there staring at each other. He’d give anything to know what she was thinking. What did she really see when she gazed at him? He saw an honest-to-goodness girl next door whom he was quickly learning he couldn’t live without.
What was he to her? A dreamer, a wanderer. A liar. Jack broke their eye contact and glanced at his watch. “Wow, look at the time.”
“It’s late.”
Jack drank the last of his cocoa and took the mug to her sink. He needed to get out of her place before he broke down and kissed her again. If he did, he knew she’d pull the plug on their “friendship.” He wouldn’t give her a reason to push him away. Jack’s main goal in life was to wiggle under her skin until she couldn’t live without him.
He already knew he could spend every day with Jessie and never get enough.


The beginning of the week sped by. Between work and a few stolen hours shopping for Christmas, Jessie’s days ran into each other. Danny talked about Jack and the zoo so much that Monica told Jessie she felt as if she’d been there. “You will remember to introduce me to him on Friday, won’t you?” Monica teased.
“Give me a break, Mo. You caught me kissing the guy, not exactly a family moment.”
Monica laughed. “I know. Just doing my sisterly duty and giving you a hard time.”
Jessie was getting ready for work while Danny settled into the couch for movie time with his aunt. Danny never made it through the first hour without crashing, but it was his routine, and it worked for them.
The phone rang, surprising both Jessie and Monica. They didn’t usually get calls after eight.
Jessie answered it when she didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”
“Is this Jessie?”
The voice was slightly familiar, but Jessie couldn’t place it. “This is. Who’s this?”
“Hi, Jessie, it’s Brad, from the Christmas party at The Morrison.”
Jessie was stunned. She’d completely forgotten about the man. “Right. Hello.”
“I haven’t called at a bad time, have I?”
“No, um, hold on.” Jessie covered the receiver of the phone and spoke to Monica in a hushed voice. “It’s that guy from the party. Brad.”
Monica narrowed her eyes at her. “What about Jack?”
Talk about guilt. Instead of saying anything else to Monica, Jessie stepped into the privacy of her bedroom to take the call, keeping the accusing eyes away. “Sorry about that. I was getting my son settled.”
“I can call another time if it’s better.”
“No, now’s good.”
“Good.” His voice was kind, and somewhat flat. No real humor in it, but nothing that stood out as creepy, either.
“How was your trip?”
“My trip?”
“Didn’t you say you were out of town last week?” She remembered that much from their conversation.
“Right. Fine, I have a few clients back east that needed attention.”
OK, so he was a businessman. That was good. “Oh. What do you do for a living?”
She told herself she was just making conversation.
“I’m an attorney.”
She cringed. Didn’t Jack say he looked like a lawyer? “I’ll bet that’s exciting.”
“Corporate law is quite boring, actually.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Jessie told him, trying her best to push Jack’s voice out of her head.
“If you wouldn’t mind being bored to tears over my stories of work, I’d love to take you out.”
“I’m sure it isn’t that bad.”
“Is that a yes?”
What did she have to lose? She hated that she felt guilty, and tried to push the emotion aside. “I’d like that. Something casual, if that’s OK with you.”
“I know just the place. How’s this Saturday?”
She had to work Friday night, but she could manage Saturday as long as Monica could stay with Danny. “I’ll have to check with my babysitter, but Saturday sounds good.”
“Let me give you my number and you can let me know once you talk to your sitter.”
Jessie jotted down his number. “OK, I’ll try and call you tomorrow.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
They said their good-byes, and Jessie sat on the edge of her bed with a mixture of emotions rolling in her stomach.
One the one hand, Brad did seem like a nice person, a professional man who could offer some stability to Jessie’s life. She couldn’t say she was all that attracted to the man. She was excited to get the call, but not in an anticipating kind of way. More of a nervous, Should she or shouldn’t she kind of way.
Jack wouldn’t leave her mind. He was there, shaking his finger at her, telling her the man looked like a lawyer. The way he said “lawyer” sounded dirty and unacceptable.
Jessie tried to shake the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as she left her bedroom.
Monica met her in the kitchen with her hands perched on her hips and a scowl on her face. “You’re going out with him, aren’t you?”
Jessie glanced over to Danny, who wasn’t paying any attention to them. “I’d like to. Can you sit with Danny Saturday? I’ll be home by ten.” Having an end time on a first date was a good safety net in case the evening was a complete bomb.
“What about Jack?”