Chapter Fourteen
They remained in the restaurant for another half-hour, talking. Neither of them seemed in a hurry to leave. A little bored with office talk and feeling feisty from the liquor, Julie took the conversation up a notch by reminding Mike that he promised her last Saturday to make the evening “strictly business.” She wondered why they’d been sitting around just chit-chatting all night.
“Is that all you think we’re doing?” Mike replied.
“Well...yeah...What would you call it?”
“Look, Julie, we’re going to have to work with each other. So, naturally, we have to get better acquainted, don’t you think?”
“I suppose,” she said. “But, do you have these getting acquainted sessions with all your direct reports?”
“Only when necessary.”
She could not tell if he was being serious, or if this was merely a convenient dodge. “So then you’ve brought me here out of obligation.”
“Well, actually, I want us to feel particularly comfortable together because we’re going to have to collaborate on most of the company’s new sales opportunities. And, in order to be as productive as possible, we’re going to have to actually like working with each other. The best case scenario would be for us to know what each other is thinking without even having to ask.”
“So, you’re wining and dining me to get me to buy in.” She threw her verdict back at him somewhat recklessly but also quite valiantly, feeling like she had gained the upper hand with her line of questioning.
“If that’s what you prefer to call it.” He looked away from her to tally and sign the check. He then pocketed his AMEX card and stood up. “Come on, time to go. Wining and dining activities for the evening are complete.” There was somewhat of an edge to his directive. Still, in gentlemanly fashion, he waited for her to get up. Then he re-positioned her chair.
They did not talk again until they were in the car. She was thinking that perhaps she should apologize for her sarcastic remark, that maybe she had angered him, and he was giving her a little silent treatment in return. This is all so ridiculous, she thought. One date, and we’ve already got problems. But then, it was entirely possible that she was blowing the incident out of proportion. He might just be tired from his week on the road. And she had badgered him, slightly. She decided to operate on the latter supposition. “You must be anxious to get home after traveling all week.”
“Yeah. I really am. But I haven’t missed much. There’s not much to come home to, just the maid, and she only works on Thursdays.”
Julie must have guessed right. He didn’t seem to be harboring much hostility toward her. She probed deeper. “Tell me something, Mike.”
“What’s that?”
“How is it that a guy like you has remained a bachelor all these years?” It was a gutsy question, but well within the bounds of her new persona.
“I don’t know. I’ve never met the right girl, I guess.”
She thought better of responding.
He continued, “It’s not that I haven’t wanted to settle down. But so many women these days are…well…shallow, if you know what I mean. I can’t picture myself with an airhead, trophy-style wife. But I’m not looking for Susie Homemaker either. And at my age, almost everybody has baggage. It’s difficult.”
She knew what he meant. It looked somewhat the same from her side of the fence. “That’s so interesting,” she said. “I would have thought that a guy like you could get just about any woman he wanted.”
“It would be nice if it worked that way, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.” He paused momentarily. Julie mentally spun through the possible reasons why he couldn’t manage to find or successfully keep a woman.
Then Mike went on, “Take you for example. Let’s say I decided on you, hypothetically speaking, of course. So...I somehow convince you that I might be worth knowing, or at least you’re willing to try one night on the town with me. I take you out for a nice dinner and some wine and a little conversation, and, before we can get out of the restaurant, we’re embroiled in a debate over some inconsequential thing or another, simply because we don’t happen to see everything the same, identical way. Or, something one of us says gets misconstrued, and, next thing you know, we’re arguing over it, and that’s the last time you ever care to see me.”
“Is that what you think happened back there?”
“No, no, absolutely not. I’m just trying to give you an example of how things sometimes go. Relationships are difficult, that’s all.”
“I can’t disagree with that.”
He stopped for a traffic light and looked over at her. “Look, Julie. I really like you, and I think you and I are going to work well together, back at the company at least. But I can’t seem to figure you out. You seem so distant. It’s like you’re a million miles away at times, in some other galaxy or something.”
“Really?”
“Really. And so I’m just trying to determine how I should communicate with you across the void.”
“I’m right here Mike. There is no void.”
The light turned green and he drove off again, re-fixing his gaze on the road.
Julie sat in the passenger seat, motionless and quiet, listening to the car stereo. Someone was playing a saxophone in the style of Kenny G. It might even be him; she could not say for sure. Poor Mike, she thought. He’s not at all what he appears to be on the surface. He may even be more melancholy and lonesome than I am, if that’s possible. We just might be right for each other. Anyway, landing him could be easier than I originally thought.
Mike stopped the car in her driveway and killed the engine. He looked over at her. In the soft glow of the streetlights, Julie could see weariness in his eyes. “I hope you’re not upset with me for tonight. I didn’t deliberately mislead you,” he said. “I just wanted to get to know you better. That’s all.”
“I’m not upset, Mike. I just like to play it straight with people, and I like when they do the same with me. I’m too old for games.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “I don’t like games either.” He cracked open the car door. “Come on, I’ll walk you to the house.”
They began the twenty paces to her front gate. Quickly, Mike reached over and took her hand. Her heart jumped. They kept walking, hand in hand, neither of them looking at the other. As they arrived at the entryway to her villa, and before she could reach for her key, he drew her to himself and into an embrace. She didn’t fight him, but neither did she return the gesture. She simply allowed him to hug her while resting her head against his shoulder. With her hands dangling limply at her side, she was constrained by his grasp. They remained that way for about ten seconds, though it seemed longer to her. Then he eased himself back, just far enough to look down into her eyes, his hands still clasped behind her. “No more games, I promise,” he said.
She remained silent. Their eyes were locked.
“I want you to know how much I enjoyed being with you tonight,” he said.
She broke his gaze and looked down, fumbling in her pocket for her house key. Meanwhile she racked her brain for some kind of response that would be both kind and non-committal. He continued to hold her.
“I would really like to kiss you right now,” Mike said.
“I’m not ready for that,” she replied. “I better go.”
He did not release her. “Julie, don’t deny the obvious. There’s a mutual attraction between us.”
“I like you Mike, and I enjoyed getting to know you a little better tonight. But I think we should keep things professional between us. It’s really for the best.”
“And I think you and I could have something special together. Why not give it a try?”
With key in hand, she wriggled enough to get her right arm free of him. “I’m going inside now, Mike.” She unlocked the gate. “Please don’t be angry with me, but I don’t think we should try anything. Think about it, how are we going to work together at the office if there are romantic feelings between us? That can only lead to trouble.”
“Do you really want me to just walk away and leave you alone?”
“Yes...and no. But yes is the sensible answer.”
“That’s what I thought,” he said. “You feel it too. Just kiss me once, and I’ll go home. I promise.”
“No kissing, Mike.”
At that, he took her head in his hands and turned her to himself once again. Bending slightly to her, he looked into her eyes as if to say, Stop me now if you dare. When she said nothing, he kissed her lips, softly at first, then harder. She let him have the moment he’d begged for. Then, as he separated from her, she repeated her earlier statement. “I’m going inside now, Mike.”
This time she followed through.
* * *
As she changed into her pajamas, she could feel herself shaking. Her body was racked from the experience. At one point she’d almost given in and let him come inside with her. He certainly wouldn’t have refused; in fact, it was unquestionably what he wanted. Then, what would have happened?
Instead, she summoned her wits and held him off. Except for that kiss, of course. And, though she really didn’t have much choice in the matter, allowing him to kiss her assured him that she was not completely out of reach. It should serve to keep him in the game — a game which, she was more and more convinced, was to be played under her rules. In fact, there would not be any action on the field at all until she could apprise him of her definition of terms like fair play, out-of-bounds, fouls, and penalties. Then, if he proved willing to go along with her conditions, and if she still felt him worth the effort, she might start to show a little affection of her own.
He wasn’t perfect, of course. She could already list off a number of his faults. But then again, she did not expect perfection. Yet, there were things about Mike that made him very appealing. Even Tracy would probably agree if she were the one being pursued. One should not generalize about people, men especially. Each has to stand on his own merit. And Mike certainly had merit, or so it appeared from her immediate vantage point.
For now, she would just continue to observe him, maybe give him a little encouragement when necessary. Ultimately, she would determine if he was truly worth her devotion, and eventually, her love. He already had her attention.
On Sunday, Danny awoke to find the Water-Winter-Wonderland in complete meltdown. According to the newspaper forecast, the temperature would reach the low forties today before falling back by mid-afternoon. Unfortunately, the brief respite from the freeze would only serve to exacerbate winter’s treachery as everything iced up overnight.
He checked his e-mail, hoping to find a note from Julie. Nothing. He could not help worrying that his last letter might have scared her off. She had responded so quickly twice before, now four days and — nothing. Maybe he had miscalculated, or perhaps had been too presumptuous about the possibility of renewed interest on her part. But he knew that there wasn’t anything more he could do in a letter to get her to come around — to trust him, and perhaps even to want him once again.
Though he considered the option briefly, a phone call was definitely out of the question. The best chance he had with her was face-to-face. He would have one whole week out there to turn her heart back twenty years. He hoped it was enough time. Every moment would have to be used to his best advantage. Starting now, he would have to, as Vic might say, “plan his work and work his plan.” Plus, by spending time working on his strategy, he might get his mind off last night’s date with Michele and the nagging feeling that he had closed off any future possibilities with her, and that, if he changed his mind once more, it would be too late. If things went badly out on the coast and he had to come crawling back to Michigan, hurt and rejected, he’d have no one to come back to. He’d seen to that last night.
First, he would work out. His body was already responding to the routine, and he found himself looking forward to pushing himself beyond the pain threshold. After that, he would go back to the books. Amazingly, from what he had read in the past few days, he felt like he was beginning to understand women, at least in some small way. He was anxious to share some of his ideas with Valerie.
That’s one good thing, he thought. At least there’s Valerie. Sweet Valerie. I’ll still have her friendship. Somehow that didn’t seem as fragile as love, at least the kind of love Danny had experienced in his life. And suddenly, he knew what Valerie meant, that the key to success with Julie was to win her back as his friend. The only question was: With only one, short week, could he win back both her trust and her friendship? Of course I can, he thought. Friendship is easy. I’m good at friendship. As for trust, well, that’s going to be the tricky part.