FOUR
“What do you think? Are we all a bunch of dreamers or is EPE going to be an achievable feat?”
Again, they were in the back seat of a car but this time around, it was in a different city. Night was falling slowly, and a persistent golden orange color lit up the sky as the sun took to its bed. The city of Seattle was beautiful. Carla had only been to the city once with Brad – there, Carla put a lid on her thoughts. She didn’t want any sad thoughts to disrupt her night. She had been admiring the orange hue of the sky when Jackson asked his question. With a determined smile, she turned to him.
“I would say every single individual in the EPE project team is a dreamer as well as a realist,” she answered truthfully. “I interacted with a few people during the conference and I can tell you this – everyone believes in this dream. The member organizations were well chosen, and representatives carry the enthusiasm well. I even spoke with the founder of Emile Foundation, Emile Duncan himself and I was impressed – I still am. An old man; rich and famous but he still will not forget his humble roots. I was moved to tears when he told me how he lived the first fourteen years of his life without a roof over his head. Now, I know why he is so passionate about EPE. He really is a great man. I am a believer too – EPE is going to be an achievable feat.”
“I knew it was a great decision to bring you with me,” Jackson said knowingly. “When things start moving, I’ll need someone who understands the core, the reason behind the project to work with everyone.”
“And what about you?” she asked him, confused.
“I’ll not always have time to oversee things when the project kicks off in earnest,” he explained. “I need someone in the role and thankfully, here you are.”
“I’m sure there are other people at the office who can work in the same capacity,” Carla told him. “I am sure Peter, your manager, would love to be in charge of a project like this. I am still pretty green, you know?”
Carla really was confused. She was new in the company and though she had been learning on the job really fast, she was still a greenhorn when it came to the construction company.
“I know my manager quite well and I know his strengths and weaknesses. EPE is not for him,” Jackson said firmly. “As for you being green, well, green is good, isn’t it?”
“I’m serious,” Carla insisted. He couldn’t seriously be considering leaving the EPE in her hands!
“So am I. Of course, I’ll be available when I can, so you won’t be alone in this.”
Carla opened her mouth to protest again but Jackson stopped her with his next words. “The construction work is not going to begin any time soon, Carla,” he said soothingly. “We can discuss this further when the time is right. But it’s good you know you have this one.”
Since she couldn’t very well continue arguing with him, Carla reined in her argument and sat back in her chair. Again, she let her attention return to the streets. The sun was setting more rapidly now, Carla could feel the darkness preparing to take over. They were driving back to their hotel and she could feel the vehicle slowing down now.
“How many more minutes till we get to the hotel?” Jackson asked into the intercom from the back seat.
“Five more minutes, sir,” the driver responded in the same way.
“Good,” he said before turning to her once more. “Would you like to join me for dinner?”
Carla’s automatic answer was a ‘no’ but she stopped herself in time. The past two weeks, she had been behaving like a prickly bear around him. And she had screamed his name during sex. Carla still couldn’t figure out how that had happened, but things seemed to have changed today. Right from the moment he began to tell her about his youthful shenanigans, she found herself at ease with him. All through the day, she hadn’t felt the least bit awkward around him.
She wanted to find out if she could maintain this new ease she found with him. It could certainly improve their work relationship if she was able to work with him in the office without feeling out of breath. Or mentioning his name during sex. More so, at the conference, she had discovered a side to the billionaire that she hadn’t expected; it wouldn’t be too bad to explore who Jackson Daniels really was. That way, she could forget about her little error too.
“That would be lovely,” she told him now.
“Excellent.” He glanced at wristwatch and then looked back at her. “Six-thirty okay with you? That should give us both enough time to freshen up; we’ve both had a long day. We can meet at the hotel’s restaurant.”
“It sounds perfect,” she let him know.
In her hotel room, Carla fell on her bed with a tired sigh. It was almost five-thirty, so she still had an hour to get ready for dinner. She thought about the conference kick-off that they just attended. She was glad to be a part of it. Talking to so many insightful people had made her realize just how much needed to be done for the world. The kick-off had mostly been an introduction into the project and a listing of all the partners involved and more that would still come on board. When the project details were finalized, her company was going to construct the buildings at almost zero service cost; it was going to be their contribution to the project. Jackson knew this, and he was still joining the project. Somehow, she hadn’t figured him to be that kind of man – the altruistic kind.
All those times when he came to Adrian’s office and she saw him, she had pegged him for many things. At first, she tagged him the rich kid with more wealth and inheritance than he knew what to do with. After that first meeting with Adrian and herself, he became the man who detested his brother as much as he was detested in return. It had been a shock to discover that Jackson Daniels played hard and worked harder. His name sprang up in the business newspapers as much as it did in celebrity gossip papers. As a matter of fact, Carla began reading the Manhattan Rich because of him. Only the fact that he and Adrian were archrivals remained unchanged.
Today, she discovered that he had been a spirited kid as well as a forgiving boss and an empathetic business owner who could give to charity. Carla didn’t know many organizations who would be willing to render the capacity of services for such a large-scale project like EPE as Clegg and Hyde was willing to give.
Summarily, she was intrigued by the man that Jackson Daniels was. Sometime between their drive to the airport and landing in Seattle in his private jet, Carla had lost her sense of discomfort around him. She told herself that she had only been reacting to the change in work environment and daily routine and held him responsible for the change. The breathless episodes she had when he walked down to her desk were only nerves – and fear of failing at her new job, nothing more. If she admired his butt and imagined having sex with him, it would be because it was a long time since she had sex. Of course, she always thought he was extremely handsome, but he was not her type – he was too fickle, too much of the ladies’ man for her, she decided. Carla had always preferred the steady strong types like Brad. She wasn’t about to dally with someone who was the exact opposite of her criteria. And of course, he wasn’t interested in her. That alone settled the case for her.
What she was going to do was go in search of Brad as soon as they got back from this trip. She was going to beg on her knees if that was what it took. When he took her back – she was almost certain that he would – she was going to apologize with the most mind-blowing sex he had ever had in order for him to forget her betrayal. And she definitely wasn’t going to chant another man’s name.
Her long one-sided pep talk had gone on for a quarter of an hour. Her decision made, Carla decided that working for Jackson was going to be a walk in the park from then on.
With a grin, she sat up in her bed and dragged her bag close to her and began to unpack. When she was done, she picked up her phone and dialed her friend’s number for a quick call. It had been too long since she heard from Sharon.
****
“You look completely refreshed,” Jackson told her as he held her seat out for her. He was early and had been waiting.
Carla nodded at him. “As do you.”
“I had a power nap before heading downstairs,” he informed her as he took his seat again. “It was relaxing.”
“Well, I didn’t get the chance to nap because I was busy trying to track down my friend, but I feel relaxed all the same because we had a good chat when we finally connected.”
“Oh? A male friend then,” he said very casually as he beckoned a waiter over.
Carla knew exactly what he was asking, and she didn’t mind telling him. It was good to be so casual with him.
“No, female. Sharon is my best friend – well, kind of like my only friend in the world, and also my housemate. We go way back, since the orphanage…”
Jackson’s eyes widened.
“You were in an orphanage?” he asked incredulously.
Carla smiled. “Yes, I grew up in an orphanage until I set out on my own with Sharon.”
“How come that’s not on your file?” he asked.
“Adrian was agreeable, I told him I would like to have my story begin when my life really began – at college,” she shrugged. “I guess I’m telling you now because well, I’m working with you now and it’s good you know.”
Really, she had no idea why she had just blurted out the bit about the orphanage but perhaps it was for the best. She didn’t have anything to hide about her past, but she didn’t want any issues to come up about it either.
“Wow, I had no idea,” Jackson said softly.
Carla waved the concern in his eyes away.
“It’s inconsequential now – Sharon and I were just one of those kids who never got a home to take us in and it was all good anyway. We wouldn’t be together now if we had been separated then.”
“I guess you must be really close,” Jackson smiled gently.
“She’s all the family I have in the whole world – and I’m hers,” Carla declared fondly. “Which is why I worry when she doesn’t check in with me every other day.” At the confusion in his eyes, she quickly explained. “Oh, Sharon works on several agricultural sustainability projects for various organizations and when she goes away on an assignment, it’s our routine to have her call in every two or three days. I hadn’t heard from her this week. In any case, I was lucky to reach her. She was full of apologies and I think there is a guy involved. The network was crappy – she’s in a remote area in Kenya currently – and we couldn’t talk for long, but the call made my day still.”
Carla scanned the menu list to order her meal and when she raised her head, she saw that Jackson was staring at her with a weird expression on his face.
“What?” she smiled.
“I’m just thinking how little I know about you,” he replied.
His voice was pensive like the thought had just occurred to him.
“Few people know much,” she shrugged.
“I would love to know more,” he said very seriously.
“There isn’t much to tell,” she said evasively.
“Now, why don’t I don’t believe you?” Jackson said slowly. She could see a glint of mischief in his eyes.
Carla laughed. He had that rakish look in his eyes – the look that showed he had had a hell of a childhood raising dust and knew when others had done the same too.
“Well, I could tell you a little bit about my college days with Sharon,” a small smile playing at the corners of her lips. Jackson shook his head at her but she rushed on before he could get a word in, “Really, the orphanage was just these big blurry years when we kept praying for a family to love us.”
Jackson shook his head in amazement. “And here I thought I had a rough time without a father – it must have really been tough on you.”
From bits of news here and there, Carla knew a little bit about Jackson’s life. She knew he was born out of wedlock and had lived with his mother and sister first, before his grandmother took him in after his mother died.
“Well, when Sharon and I turned fifteen, we stopped hoping and instead began planning on making a decent life. And so, we ended up in college with scholarships.”
“And then, you started living,” Jackson quoted her with a smile.
“Yes, we really did,” she answered. “We were determined to do all those things we had only dreamed of before.”
The waiter arrived with their meal and they settled down to eat.
Halfway into their meal, Jackson went back to the topic of her past.
“So, you wanted to tell me about your time in college,” he said.
Carla could tell that he was really interested. She figured he ought to be considering he still wanted to her to handle something as big as the EPE project. Too bad if he was fishing for a bad reputation, hers was cleaner than his she was sure! She proceeded to tell him just what he wanted to hear.
By the time dinner was over, Carla was sated by both the food and Jackson’s attention.
He was a good listener; better than any she knew, in fact. He never interrupted her mid-speech like most men she knew. He simply sat in his seat, watching her so intently while she talked that one would think he was drinking up every word off her lips. His eyes never strayed far from her face, giving the impression that he was with her all the way. Even while they ate, he would chew thoughtfully on his food with his eyes on her still. Carla was flattered by his attention and her respect for him shot up a notch with each passing minute. Now, she knew why he had those female friends who wanted to be something other than a friend. On rating the perfect partner, he scored six of ten for his listening skills alone. But then, he wasn’t her perfect partner, she reminded herself.
“Really? She decked him in the face while you grabbed his legs from under him?”
“Yes! We told the fool that we didn’t need his company, but he seemed to think that two ladies touring Delhi night clubs must be in want of something extra. We showed him what ‘extra’ meant.”
Again, Jackson laughed, shaking his head in mirth. He seemed thoroughly amused by all her stories and she could see the new admiration in his eyes. It was wonderful to be able to recount all her adventures to someone who actually appreciated them. Other men always thought she and Sharon were simply too much. One of her past boyfriends thought Sharon was a bad influence; she had kicked him out immediately. Jackson on the other hand obviously thought they were some heroines.
“And I thought I was up to my neck in mischief but you two…” he shook his head. “…you two would have been nightmares!”
“We weren’t that bad,” Carla defended easily. “We were just two girls who wanted to enjoy life no matter what.”
“I am glad you had your fun too. Life should be enjoyed.”
“Indeed,” Carla said, her smile fading off a little.
Now, she was thinking that it had been a long time since she and Sharon were up to some of their old tricks. They had left college more than four years ago now. What with finding a job and having to earn a living, they had fallen into a routine that didn’t involve traveling together and having fun. Admittedly, Carla was the first to find a job and the first to get busy, but these days Sharon was seldom home to even plan their weekends together with. Carla wondered if Sharon ever thought of these things, of their past.
“A penny for your thoughts,” she heard Jackson say. His voice sounded far away, as if it was coming from a far place and bringing her gently out of her thoughts like a siren’s call.
Carla snapped out of her thoughts to look at him. He was staring at her interestedly, and his head cocked to the side as if waiting for her. He had one arm folded on the table with the other standing upright to support his chin as he gazed at her quizzically. All of a sudden, she was fascinated by those hands of his, they were large and sparse hair grew up each arm. Tonight, he was wearing a short-sleeved black polo shirt and jean. Carla wondered idly why the brown hairs on his arms fascinated her now. Suddenly, she remembered that he had asked her a question. She mentally shook herself off all thoughts of large hands and brown hairs.
“Sorry, what was that?” she asked, trying not to appear distracted.
“For a moment, you had this lost puppy look on your face and I was wondering what brought such look into your beautiful eyes,” Jackson said very casually.
Because he said it so casually, Carla waved off the compliment – as well as her errant thoughts and said truthfully, “I was just thinking it’s been too long since Sharon and I had some girl’s time together. Probably not long after college.” The memory brought on a fond smile and she obliged the silent curiosity in Jackson’s eyes. “It was the December after graduation and we decided to blow our savings and get a decent job in the New Year or else. Then, we were only working odd jobs and we decided that we had had enough – we were better than what we were doing. So off we went to Canada to visit some friends we made in college. It was one of the most amazing three weeks of my life.”
“Good for you,” he softly applauded. “I assume you began working with Adrian soon after.”
Since she started to work at Clegg and Hyde, it was the first time Jackson had brought up Adrian in their conversation. Carla ‘felt’ the air around their table for some sign of unease on Jackson’s part but there was none. He really looked relaxed and comfortable listening to her. Carla might have asked something about their strained relationship there and then, but she decided not to. It had been a wonderful night in his company and she didn’t want to ruin it.
“Yes,” she said simply.
Soon afterwards, they finished up with dinner and took their leave.
“Got plans tonight?” he asked. “We could go for a walk if you have none.” If anyone asked her, she would say he seemed reluctant to let the night come to an end just yet.
“I promised Sharon I would call again after dinner. Our call was short and if she’s met some new Kenyan guy, then she has a lot to tell me,” Carla said with a bit of regret.
Jackson smiled. “And I assume you have a lot to tell her,” he said ruefully. “Tell her good things about me, will you?”
Carla could only shake her head at him. Tonight, they had gone back to the familiarity they had before she began working for him and Carla had to admit that it felt good. She was sure that she was on safe ground now and she felt strongly that this renewed sense of familiarity with Jackson would last.
Firmly, she stomped down hard on the unbridled thoughts that crept into her head before it even took shape. But try as she may, she just couldn’t help but imagine that the night could have ended differently if she hadn’t needed to call Sharon.