_________________________
The meeting was quite boring which made it feel twice as long as it really was. I felt out of place being the only woman in the room surrounded by sullen businessmen, but they didn’t seem to notice me anyway. Adam didn’t talk much, allowing the other men to trade off ideas and prices. My poor hand took a beating with all of the note writing, but I got it done even with Logan trying to invade my concentration.
To: Logan Starkes
From: Samantha Beckman
Subject: Dinner Proposal
Well Logan, you’ve managed to put a smile on my face twice in less than 24 hours. Thank you for my flower, it’s beautiful.
I accept your envelope dinner proposal. Let me know when and where you would like to meet.
Samantha Beckman
Executive Assistant
The instant I hit send, my anxiety level sky rockets. By choice I haven’t been on a date in years. My last relationship sucked and ended pretty bad. I was a fool. This is going to be a damn train wreck. I get nervous and sweaty, losing my strength and confidence. He’s going to take one look at me and run the other direction, I know it.
I begin to cypher through my notes and type them up for Adam so I can leave before midnight tonight when a ding from my computer, alerting me to a new email, sends my heart palpitating.
To: Samantha Beckman
From: Logan Starkes
Subject: Can’t Wait
I’m glad you liked your flower, and I’m even happier that I made you smile…again.
Friday night, 6:00 p.m. at Elkridge.
See you then.
Logan
Elkridge? Holy cow that’s a romantic and fancy restaurant. I hate fancy. Don’t like to do it. It takes too much to prep and most of the time you’re fake, acting in a pretend world. I’ll already be a nervous wreck and then I have to keep myself controlled. Yeah, train derailing for sure. I’ll have to rob Jess’ wardrobe since I don’t own anything past professional skirts and comfortable clothes.
_________________________
Later in the evening, Jess and I are sitting at the table eating salads and discussing my date with Logan and what I’m going to wear when there’s a knock at the door. As I open the door, I’m met by an obnoxious vermin of a man.
“Hey, Sam. Is Jess here?” Marty stretches his neck inside, his shit brown eyes scanning the room for the one he came for. I swear he never brushed his brown hair after he crawled his annoying ass out of bed this morning.
“Oh look, it’s Marty,” I deadpan, rolling my eyes.
I announce to Jess that he’s here and reluctantly open the door letting him in. He doesn’t take notice of the effect he has on me and plops down on the couch jerking his feet up to the table with his sneakers still on. Yeah, like he owns this place. He must have been born in a barn. Jess skips in and plops her butt down right beside him, clearly not caring about his shoes on the table either, and places a little kiss on his cheek. Jess and Marty dated in high school, and although they are just friends now, he can do no wrong by her. She’s blind to his low level of maturity and his annoying ways. He’s a decent looking guy, athletic build, dresses nicely, perfectly straight teeth, slender face, but he ruins it by opening his mouth every time.
“Oh, Belle! I forgot to tell you, I’m leaving tomorrow. Jackie is dragging me with her to a meeting in New York. No worries, though. I should be back Friday night or early Saturday morning.”
I gasp and throw my hand over my forehead, “The apartment all to myself? Oh how will I manage,” I say overdramatically in my best southern accent.
“You know the last time I left you alone, you barely survived. You called me for everything.”
“That’s because it was all still in boxes, bitch!” I snort.
“Excuses. Excuses. Just admit it. You can’t live without me.”
“And you know you can’t live without me.” Marty tosses in his two cents, ruining the whole banter between her and me.
I don’t reply and use this opportunity to excuse myself, retreating to my room. I’d rather drown myself in a good book and reread what I missed the other night than listen to her giggle at every awful schoolboy joke he offers. She swears there’s nothing between them, but she’s an idiot if she’s trying to fool me or herself.
Chapter 6
The last few days have been awfully mundane. Jess left yesterday to go to her meeting and the apartment lacks her liveliness. I haven’t managed to do anything except watch what I want, which isn’t anything to do with broken hearts, sex, and tears.
I’m anxious for tonight’s date with Logan, and time seemed to have taken notice. The hands on the clock kept me bound to the desk all day, taunting me that it didn’t move quickly. I gave up at four o’clock and asked Adam if I could go ahead and leave. Thankfully, he didn’t argue and it gave me an ample amount of time to ready and calm myself. Okay, I didn’t get calm, but I do look stunning.
Jess made me try on all her fancy dresses the other night, and she chose a baby blue high-low dress that gives me a sultry but polished look. I have to admit this was my favorite of all the hundreds I tried on. I take one last look in the mirror. My breasts look sensational allowing just enough cleavage to play peekaboo with, my hair is up with flowing strands around my face, and my make-up is applied to perfection, but the train is hauling a sack of my nerves with no light at the end of the tunnel.
I’m greeted by the maître d’ when I enter the restaurant. I’m so nervous that my voice is trembling, and if I don’t get it together before I get to the table, I’m going to sound like a crying goat. He leads me through the quiet, dimly lit restaurant. Each table has a burning candle inside of a clear votive, and seated couples are enjoying each other’s company. In a very secluded part of the restaurant, sits Logan in black slacks and just a plain button up white shirt, anxiously waiting for me.
“You look stunning, Sam,” he says pushing in my chair. I’ve never understood why men do this since I can pull myself up to the table just fine.
“Thank you. You don’t look bad yourself. I didn’t know you had slacks and button ups in your closet.” My teasing brings out an amused smile from him.
“Would you like some wine? I ordered White Zinfandel. I hope you like it.”
I slide my glass toward him. “I do. Good choice.”
Our conversation is full of small talk as we skim over the menu. I can feel my cheeks begin to burn realizing I can’t pronounce half the shit in this thing. Not only do I not like dressing fancy, I also can’t understand fancy lingo. I recognize the word Alfredo in the description of one of the pasta dishes. I smile inwardly knowing I can’t look like an idiot with the choice.
“Have you had a good week?” he asks when the waiter leaves after taking our order that I proudly said without a stutter.
“Yes, I did. Glad it’s over though. The flower was beautiful. What made you decide on an Iris?” I’ve always gotten roses. It’s like a go-to thing for a man which is why his choice of flower has been on my mind for days now.
“From what my mother taught me, an Iris symbolizes ‘my compliments.’ Roses are so cliché and I needed something that stood out like your beauty.”
I flush red, unable to look at him. “Thank you.”
As dinner comes to a close, I’ve learned he listened to his mother more than one time in his life. He doesn’t talk while eating because she taught him it’s disrespectful and ill mannered. At first I thought it had something to do with me, but after he told me how his mother thought, I was relieved. He has held on closely to the wisdom she distilled in him. Most men blow mom’s advice out the window, but he really has stuck to her words. It’s impressive to say the least.
He walks me to my car like a perfect gentleman. Before he opens the door, he turns to me with mischief in his eyes. “I have one more thing I’d like to do.”
“And that is?” I say bracing for the awkward first kiss.
“I need you to drop your car off at home. I’ll follow you. I have somewhere else I want to go.”
There it is. A typical man’s agenda. Dinner, charm, and insert penis in panties. I hate to break it to him, but I’m not that type of girl.
He grabs my chin drawing it toward his face. “I know what you’re thinking and that tells me you have a hell of a lot more to learn about me. I’m not that type of man,” he says firmly.
“You just want to know where I live.” I force out a laugh trying to hide my nervous embarrassment.
“Sam, you basically walked across the street from the pub.” He grins arching his eyebrow. “Come on. I’ll follow you.”
By the time I park my car, I’m a nervous wreck. I hate surprises, especially ones with someone on the first date. When I slide out, Logan is standing at my door. “Do those shoes hurt your feet?”
I look down at my black strappy open toed heels confused at his concern. These are the most comfortable heels I have. “Uh, no?”
“Good. We’re walking from here.” He pulls me by my hand toward the sidewalk. The sun has disappeared for the night and the moon mixed with the yellow-orange glow from the street light has illuminated our way.
“Where are we going exactly?”
“I want to show you a different view of the sky,” he says glancing down at me.
As compelling as this sounds, this is only the second time I’ve been with Logan and aside from Jess, no one knows who I’m with. I’ve seen horror movies that end badly with this as the beginning.
“Almost there,” he distracts me from my apprehension as he guides me toward another apartment building just a few blocks from mine. He opens the door for me, placing his hand on the small of my back and leads me through a small lobby before proceeding to the elevators. I haven’t had a man touch me so intimately in years, and this simple gesture sends shivers rushing down my spine.
As the elevator comes to a halt, he grabs my sweaty hand and leads me down a long, dark hallway pausing right before a metal door.
“You ready for this?” There’s excitement sparking in his eyes, the kind little boys get before seeing the elephants at the zoo. I nod at a loss of words that have been hijacked by uncertain fear.
I gulp in air as he pushes the door open exposing my certain death. Instead of my demise, I’m standing on the rooftop of the building surrounded by a breathtaking portrait of the moon illuminating the sky around us. The stars shining brightly against the backdrop of the dark sky remind me of lightning bugs in a field, some flashing brighter than others.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” He puts his arm around me, grounding me back to earth.
“It’s absolutely amazing, Logan!” I let go of the breath I didn’t notice I was holding.
He tugs my hand toward a small metal table, and I gasp recognizing an Iris he’s placed on it.
“Logan!” I turn to him floored at his romantic gesture. Construction worker with romance running in his veins is something you only hear of.
“My compliments, Sam. You intrigue me.” There’s longing in his brown eyes, something that tells me he’s in it for more than just a date.
“But I was a witch to you at the bar.”
“You were, but I liked it. You rival my arrogance.” He pauses and begins to laugh, “I guess that makes you an ass too, huh?”
I laugh, turning back to the view of the moon illuminating the sky around us. “How did you find this place?”
“A friend told me about it,” he says sitting down in the chair. “Now I live in this building just because of this escape. Sometimes I need a break from those damn paper pushers who like to send orders while they sit at their desks enjoying a constant room temperature.” He leans back in the metal chair, folding his arms across his chest, mocking the words I said to him at the bar. His grin is devilish and he’s clearly amused by my puzzled look. “You said you like to give demands to the bosses of construction workers, right? Well, this is where I come when the boss’ demands are high.”
“You work for Weston?”
“Not exactly. I work for one of those contractors you like to pile the orders on.”
How freaking ironic is this?
“Well without me you’d go broke and have to look for a job,” I snicker. “All joking aside, I am only following the boss’ orders myself.”
“Trust me, I understand. It all goes down the chain of command.”
Our joking grows silent as the night sky beauty demands our attention. The city streets below us that were bustling an hour ago are hushed. It’s a calming quiet, one that would be even better if I had a hot bubble bath to soak in while enjoying it.
“It’s time for me to walk you home,” he says reluctantly checking his watch.
“Yeah. I guess I can’t refuse it this time since your car is at my apartment.”
_________________________
“Tonight wasn’t long enough.” He leans against a stone pillar in front of my apartment complex.
“No, it wasn’t. I had a wonderful time, Logan. Thank you for showing me such a beautiful view.” I glance up and notice the beauty of the sky isn’t as evident from the ground. I wish I had a sweet escape like his.