Authors: Brooke St. James
"You don't need to explain yourself to me," I said, feeling yucky and defensive at the mention of her name.
"Please don't pull away," he said. "What sort of gentleman would I be if I brought her here only to leave her without a way to get home or an explanation?"
"You don't need to explain yourself to me, Dr. Crawford. Just do what you need to do and, if anything's meant to happen with us, it'll happe—"
I stopped speaking when he stepped forward and took me by the arm. We were standing so close that I could feel his body heat. He put his mouth right next to my ear. "My name is Jordan, Bailey. Can I hear you say it?"
"You want me to say your name?" I asked breathlessly.
"Yes." He lowered his head so I could speak in his ear.
"Jordan," I said.
His chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath. "Say the word and I'll leave here with you."
I was silent for several long seconds feeling extremely tempted to say those words, but then I imagined myself in Vanessa's position.
"Go be a gentleman," I said, finally.
"How am I supposed to get in touch with you?" Jordan asked as I started to walk off the dance floor.
I knew it would be awkward for us to stand there and exchange phone numbers, so I said, "I work at 3K Advertising."
He nodded as if that was explanation enough, and we parted ways. I didn't watch to see where he went—didn't want to see the blonde or whatever conversation they might be having.
I spotted Ben who was standing near the dance floor talking with an older woman. I approached with caution. "Hi," I said smiling shyly once he caught sight of me.
He smiled and turned to the woman. "Harriet, this is Bailey Black, one of my best designers. Bailey, this is Harriet Vinson. Her husband owns Vinson Construction… I guess they both do."
I smiled and shook her hand. "I worked on your latest campaign."
"Did you?" she asked. "You must be pretty talented because my husband said this last one was his favorite so far."
"I'm glad to hear it," Ben said.
"Mike was the brains behind it, really," I said. "I just helped him out."
"And she's humble to boot," Harriet said, winking at Ben.
He wrapped his arm around me. "Believe me," I'm hanging on to this one."
"You better." She curtsied slightly the way rich women do. "I should get back to Peter. It was a pleasure meeting you, Bailey."
"Likewise," I said, bowing slightly even though I wasn't quite sure if I was doing it right.
She disappeared into the crowd, and Ben looked at me with a smile. "I thought I lost my date for the evening." He paused and looked over my shoulder. "Did you wise up and refuse that bum?"
I giggled. "Not exactly."
"So what are you doing here with me," he asked still looking over my shoulder has if expecting Jordan to walk up any second.
"It wouldn't really be right for us to leave our dates, now would it? He needed to square things away with that woman he was seeing. It wasn't really fair for him to walk out in the middle of a date."
He held his fist to his mouth and coughed a laugh.
"What?" I asked.
"You're telling me that dude had the nerve to come out there and break up our kiss, but he didn't have the decency to leave his date?"
"It wasn't like that. He said he would—"
"Bailey, don't let that guy treat you like that. You're totally worth leaving a date for. If he can't leave her now, what makes you think he'll do it tomorrow?"
I shrugged. "I thought he was doing the right thing by—" my statement was interrupted by Ben making a sound of disapproval.
"Pffft." He shook his head, and hugged me by the shoulder, looking down at me. "Just so you know,
I'd
leave my date for you," he said. "I'd cause a scene, and get in a fight, and break another girl's heart any day of the week for you."
I smiled up at him, rolling my eyes a little. I didn't know what to say.
"And another thing, while I'm at it," he said.
"What?"
"I really enjoyed kissing you. I know I was doing it to make him jealous or whatever, but I'm a man, Bailey, and you should know that I had fun kissing you and would do it again in a heartbeat if you let me."
"You're talking like you forgot you're my boss."
He smiled. "I didn't forget anything. I know you work for me and that we had no plans whatsoever to let this go anywhere, but I just wanted you to know, I enjoyed myself on more than a
let's make this other guy jealous
level."
I giggled. "I'm pretty sure if I wasn't already obsessed with that other guy, I would have enjoyed myself, too."
"That's what I'm saying. Maybe you need to rethink being obsessed about someone who can't bear to leave his date for you."
I narrowed my eyes at him and he laughed and raised his hands in surrender. "I'm just saying. Did he even get your phone number?"
"He knows where I work," I said defensively.
"Pffft," he said. "No guts."
My eyes widened and I slapped at his shoulder, making him laugh.
"You know I'm just messing with you," he said, "…mostly."
"Well, then I'll tell the itty bitty part of you that isn't messing with me that you're wrong about Jordan."
He smiled. "Oh, he's Jordan now?"
"Dr. Crawford, whatever. It wouldn't be right for him to leave his date or girlfriend or whoever she is without an explanation or a ride home."
Ben smiled and put his hands up in surrender again. "All right, I'll leave you alone about it. Regardless of what I think about his manliness, I'm glad to have you around for the rest of the evening."
"See? You wouldn't like it if I left you in the middle of this thing."
"Yeah but I would understand if it was for true looove," he said dramatically.
"Well you're a guy and she's a girl, and they were here on a date, not as friends. It's different."
He shrugged. "Either way, I'm glad to have my dancing partner back." He held out a hand in a way that said he wanted to dance, and I obliged. I had no idea when I would see or hear from Jordan Crawford again, and I was happy for any distraction that came between now and then.
The ball was on a Saturday evening, and I spent the entire next day wondering if I had actually seen Dr. Crawford, or if I had hallucinated the whole thing. I thought I remembered details of our encounters, but honestly it seemed too good to be true, and I convinced myself I was making half of it up. It seemed as though he was as into me as I was with him, but as the day went on I started to doubt myself—especially once I put it in the context of everything Ben had said.
My friend, Lexie, came over that afternoon, and I began telling her the story. She remembered meeting Dr. Crawford and knew I was infatuated with him while I was in the hospital. She was amazed to hear that I had run into him. As soon as she got to my apartment, we set out to the coffee shop a few blocks up the street. I recounted the details as we walked.
"It's a good thing you looked hot last night," she said, after I told her everything.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that it was the first thing she thought of. "Certainly better than I looked in the hospital," I said, still giggling.
"I can't believe you were kissed by two guys in the same night," she said. "Especially when you consider that before last night, it had been literally years—and then all of a sudden, two hot guys in the same night."
"It wasn't even like that with Ben," I said.
"Yeah, but you have to admit, it was sort of awesome that he said all that stuff about leaving his date if he were in Jordan's shoes."
"Do you think he had a point?" I asked, even though I wasn't sure if I wanted to know the answer.
"Who am I to say?" she said shrugging. "I mean, yeah sure, it would be really cool for a guy to abandon all rationale and ride off into the sunset with you, but what are the chances of that happening?"
"I think he would've done that if I would've asked him to," I said, as much to myself as to her.
"I'm sure he would've," she assured me.
We put our conversation on hold as we entered the coffee shop and ordered our drinks. The place was called The Big Heavy, and it was the hippest of hip when it came to coffee shops. It was one of those places where your body had to be at least three-quarters covered in tattoos to pick up an application. Dreadlocks were a bonus. Lexie and I looked like Sporty Spice and her twin sister compared to most of the people there, but it had a cool vibe, and we hung out there almost every time she came to my apartment.
She had a thing for one of the guys who worked there, but he wasn't behind the counter that afternoon. We got our drinks and sat at a table near the window so we could watch foot traffic on the street. She was curious about the charity ball and asked more questions, which I answered gladly since I enjoyed reliving the whole thing. It cracked her up that Dr. Crawford was stunned at the sight of me being there with Ben, and that he was jealous enough to interrupt our dance.
It gave me butterflies just to recount the story, but they were nothing compared to the ones I felt when I glanced at my phone a little while later. I had a text from a number I didn't recognize, and of course, I hoped and assumed it was Jordan Crawford.
Unknown Number: "Is this Bailey Black?"
I grinned from ear to ear as I read the text, which, had been sent nearly an hour before.
"What in the world are you looking at?" Lexie asked, noticing my grin.
"I got a text."
"What's it say?"
"It says,
'is this Bailey Black'
?"
"Aaand that's what you're smiling at?" she asked sardonically.
"It's from an unknown number," I added.
"So you think it's the doctor?"
I nodded and looked at her with wide eyes. "What do I say?"
She laughed. "You say
'yes this is Bailey Black. Who's this?
' Or you could just not respond to it."
I laughed. "Yeah, that's a good idea," I said sarcastically. "It's probably no one I'm interested in talking to, anyway."
She knew I was being silly, and didn't bother responding. It was better that way because I was preoccupied with composing a text.
I typed: "Yes it is. How can I help you?"
I showed it to Lexie before I pressed send, and she shrugged as if it was as good a response as any.
"What if it's not even him?" I asked.
"Who else would it be?"
"I don't know. I'm just trying not to get my hopes up."
My phone lit up within a minute after I sent the text. I squealed as I picked it up, and Lexie cracked up at my reaction. I blinked at the screen, trying to focus on the words even though I was really nervous.
Unknown Number: "You can help me by saying I can see you again."
I put a hand over my mouth and stared at Lexie with wide eyes. I flashed the screen in her direction so she could read it.
"What are you gonna say?" she asked.
"What should I say? Should I play hard to get?"
She giggled. "Ask who it is."
I typed out another text.
Me: "Who is this?"
I bit my lip as I read it, wondering if it was the right thing to say. I pressed send before I could overthink it.
"I can't believe I just did that!" I said, slapping a hand to my forehead. "Why'd I do that?"
Lexie shrugged and laughed.
"I'm glad you're getting a kick out of this," I said.
My phone vibrated in my hand, and I looked down at it.
Unknown Number: "I hope you're kidding."
Me: "I hope you're Dr. Crawford."
Unknown Number: "Jordan to you."
Me: "In that case, yes, I think we should probably see each other again."
I pressed send.
"What are you guys saying?" Lexie asked.
I passed her the phone. She was only reading for a few seconds when she handed it back to me. He's texting again.
Jordan: "How about now?"
"He's asking if he can see me
now
," I said, staring at Lexie with a stunned expression.
"Tell him yes!" she said as if that should be obvious.
"I'm not dressed for the ball. I'm like Cinderella the next day when the guy comes around with that glass shoe."
"He still loved her that day, didn't he?"
"I'm no Cinderella, though."
"Yes you are, Bailey. Don't say that. You're beautiful."
"I'm not talking about looks."
She stared at me as if trying to figure out what I was talking about.
"Never mind," I said. "Everybody has their thing."
Her look of confusion intensified, but I didn't bother explaining. She was the type of friend who wouldn't ask me to, and I loved her for that.
I stared at my phone, typing another text.
Me: "Now is perfect."
Jordan: "Where are you?"
My stomach tied into knots the instant I read his words. It sunk in for the first time that I might actually see him.
Me: "Having coffee with a friend at The Big Heavy coffee shop."
Jordan: "Want some more company?"
Me: "Yes, please."
Jordan: "Give me twenty minutes."