CHAPTER NINETEEN

Chloe woke up on Thursday morning looking forward to her “day date” with Derek. It had been a long time since she had been to the zoo. She tried to lie and tell herself that was the only reason she was excited but she knew the truth was she had missed him.

That kiss on Saturday night was fantastic, but after a few days of living off of it, she was only left wanting more—much more than she knew that she was willing to give if that made any sense at all.

She wore a pair of khaki shorts and a light pink tank-top. Once she was dressed and had slathered on a pound of sunscreen, she straightened her hair and went out to have breakfast with Lexi.

“Hey, you look cute,” Lexi told her. “Where are you off to?”

“The zoo,” Chloe told her as she poured a cup of coffee.

“The zoo? What are you doing, research for when you’re a teacher, and you’re forced to go on field trips?”

Chloe laughed, “I like the zoo,” she told Lexi.

“Who are you going to the zoo with?”

“What makes you think I’m not going alone?”

Lexi sniffed the air and said, “I smell the distinct fragrance of Red. You hoard that bottle like it’s gold. You don’t wear it to work, and the only other time in the past two years I recall smelling it on you last week when you went out with Derek Stark…”

“Geez! You don’t need to be a dancer, you need to be a detective,” Chloe told her.

“So, you and hunk a hunk a burnin’ love have a zoo date?”

“We’re going to the zoo, together, it’s not a date.”

“Right. I slept with Brett last Saturday night. That wasn’t sex. He hasn’t called me since that’s not being dumped.”

“Oh, Lexi, honey! Why didn’t you tell me? This is why you’re talking about becoming a dancer isn’t it?”

“No. It’s not a big deal, really. I wasn’t even going to mention it. I don’t know why I did.”

“Of course it’s a big deal. Have you called him?”

Lexi looked horrified. “No way. We had sex all night long. He said he would call me. No way am I desperate enough to call him and ask why he hasn’t called.”

“Oh, honey. I’m sorry. They’re jerks, all of them. But listen to me, this isn’t about you. You didn’t do anything wrong; this is how men are. They have a one track mind, and they think women were put on this earth to serve them.”

Lexi laughed and said, “Poor Derek. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten you all riled up right before you went on your “not a date” to the zoo.”

“Oh don’t worry about him. He’s well aware of how I feel about men.”

There was a knock on the front door then, and Lexi told her, “They’re not all the same, Chloe. Even when I get my heart broken, I know that. But you have to kiss the frogs to find the prince. Don’t give up, and don’t count dream boat out there anytime soon, okay?”

Chloe hugged her and said, “You’re okay?”

“Peachy,” Lexi said. “Have fun.

Derek brought a gold colored Jaguar when he picked her up for the zoo. It was a convertible, and after he helped her in and closed her door he said, “Would you like me to put the top up?”

“No, I like it,” she said. “How many cars do you have?”

“Personally, or the business?” he said as he pulled the Jag out onto the road.

“Personally?”

“Three. The SUV is mine, and this one and I have a Mustang.”

“And for the business?”

“The Bentley is a business car and the Town Car, and we have a couple of economy cars that the agents drive when they go show properties.”

“So how was your trip to New York?” she asked.

“Boring,” he said with a grin. “There is nothing more boring than being in a room full of real estate people, and I had a hard time keeping my mind on business anyways.”

“And why was that?”

He gave her a smoldering glance and said, “I couldn’t get my mind off our “day date.”

“When was the last time you were at the zoo?” she asked him.

“I went to the Bronx zoo about three years ago. I guess that was the last time.”

“The Bronx zoo huh. What made you go? Was it a date?”

He grinned, “No, it wasn’t anything so exciting. I met my father and my brother there. My father was representing the family of a man that was mauled by a tiger at the zoo. He was there to take pictures of the habitat and the area the attack happened. I was only in town for that afternoon, so we met there for lunch. They have a pretty good little café there. Hey, are you okay?”

He had lost her at ‘representing the family of a man that was mauled by a tiger.’ She had a flash of a memory. Jesse was interning at his father’s firm. One night when he was actually sober and not treating her like shit, he told her about this family who came in looking for an attorney to sue the zoo and maybe even the city since that was who owned the zoo. They said their father had been mauled by a tiger that got loose due to a faulty lock on his cage. Jesse’s father wasn’t able to take the case. He was representing the zoo on a case of their own. He referred them to one of his friends who was an attorney.

“Chloe? What did I say? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Was she that stupid? Did Derek know Jesse? Was this whole thing about getting close to her and keeping her close until Jesse got out? She looked at him again. He looked genuinely concerned, but he could be a very good actor just like Jesse had been.

“So what happened with the case?” she asked.

“I honestly don’t remember. Maybe I never knew. I see my father and brother as often as I can, but we rarely talk about their cases. That one just came up because of where we were that day. Why, Chloe? What is it about the Bronx zoo that made you suddenly look like you want to rabbit on me again?”

It wasn’t the zoo. As usual, it was Jesse. He was in her head again, almost every day. A month and a half and he would be free and then looking over her shoulder every day would have to become second nature once again. She looked back over at Derek. This man has everything going for him. He would have way too much to lose if he let himself get involved in a silly scheme like the one she imagined in her head.

“I’m sorry,” she said, finally. “It’s not you. The talk about lawyers just reminded me of a creepy client at the club, that’s all.”

He curled his lip and said, “Then no more lawyer talk today.”

**

They made it to the Roger Williams Park Zoo just before noon. When they got to the front gate, Derek took her hand and as soon as he did she was convinced…she was letting her paranoia rule her thoughts again. Derek was real; he was genuine. She could feel that.

“What first?” he asked her.

“Monkeys,” she said without hesitation.

Derek smiled slightly and said, “Okay, monkeys it is.”

They followed the signs to the gorilla exhibit. It was a natural habitat where they were swinging from trees and long, thick cords that were strung across the wide opening. Chloe watched them swing from one tree to the next, sometimes letting go of their hands or their tail and flying through the air to catch the next one.

“You like the monkeys?” Derek asked her with a smile still playing on his lips.

“They’re gorillas,” she corrected, “And yes, I like them. They look so free when they’re up there in the trees like that.”

“They do,” he said. “It looks like fun.”

When Chloe was satisfied that she had seen it enough, she took hold of his hand again and pulled him along to the next exhibit, the lion habitat. Chloe loved the lions. It was so easy to see why they called them the “King” of the jungle. He just sat there with his golden paws crossed in front of him like he didn’t have a care in the world. His shaggy brown mane and his large rib cage expanded and fell in a silent rhythm while his yellow eyes took in everything around him. His sleek gold fur rippled across his long, muscular frame and he seemed to be almost sleeping. Then in one big, fluid movement, he was suddenly up on his feet. He glanced around at the humans who stared into his cage, and as if just to prove he was bored with it all, he yawned and stretched like a common housecat.

“He’s awesome,” Derek said.

Chloe glanced at the man who stood next to her. He was always so confident and self-assured. Of all the animals here, the lion most reminded her of him. She hoped that someday she could get to that place in her life where her self-confidence really came from within and wasn’t just feigned for the outside world to see.

They moved on from the lion cage to the sea life area. They watched the sea lions swim underneath the water in a glass tank that was about twenty feet deep with rocks and a faux beach along the top where they could get out of the water and rest in the sun for a while. There was amphitheater like seating all around up above, and they sat there for a while and watched one of the sea lions shows before moving along to “Stingray Bay.”

Chloe washed her hands up to her elbows like they were told to do and then like an excited child, she lay down on the cement barrier between them and the stingrays and stretched her hand out into the cold water. She reached and stretched and tried to touch them as they swam by for several minutes before she realized that Derek wasn’t next to her. She looked up and saw that he was standing back about a foot from the tank.

“What are you doing? Don’t you want to touch one?”

“Not even a little bit,” he said.

Amused and surprised at the same time, she thought she heard a little nervous quiver in his voice. “Big baby,” she said as she let her hand glide over the top of a silver stingray. “I touched it! Oh wow, it feels so weird. You have to touch one, come on.”

“No thank you,” he said.

Chloe laughed. “Oh my God. You’re scared of a stingray.”

“I’m not scared. I just don’t like…squishy things that swim around in the ocean.”

Chloe laughed. “I thought you were a tough guy with all of your big muscles.”

“I’m not scared.”

“Prove it,” she said, “Touch one.”

With a sigh, Derek laid his chest across the barrier next to her.

“Look,” she said, “Just stretch your hand out like this.” She took his hand in hers and stretched them both out into the water. Derek was making a face like he was just about to get a shot at the dentist. “Here it comes!” she said. A big black one was coming in their direction. Just before it got there, Derek pulled back his hand. The sting ray got scared and swam away. “You scared it. You big baby!”

“Okay, that’s it!” he said. He stretched his hand out again, this time further and deeper. He squinted his eyes, and Chloe laughed.

“You can close them,” she said, “If that makes it easier.”

“I’m fine,” he said, trying to sound tough.

“Good, because here he comes. Hold steady…don’t move. There! You did it!”

Derek’s face was beaming. “I did, didn’t I? He feels kind of spongey.”

Chloe’s face was right next to his. He looked so exhilarated over the simple pleasure of touching a sea creature and proving to her that he wasn’t afraid. Shocking herself, she brought her lips to his. He draped his arm around her waist and pulled her up against him, and they kissed like no one was watching. It was an amazing, delicious kiss. Unfortunately, someone was watching. They heard a throat being cleared loudly and looked up. One of the zookeepers was standing over them with her arms folded tightly across her chest. “This is a family place,” she said.

“Um…sorry,” Chloe said.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Derek said. When she walked away, Derek kissed her again.

The rest of the day at the zoo they were like two little children on an adventure. Every other exhibit or so, they would stop, and one or the other of them would initiate a kiss. When they finished seeing everything, they bought a picnic lunch from the snack bar and took it out to the park and ate their lunch underneath one of the giant old trees and watched the kids play on the playground. As they lay back in the grass, Chloe said, “I’m going to be a teacher.”

Derek turned his head towards her and said, “Really? That’s great. What age do you want to teach?”

“I don’t really care. I guess if I have the chance to choose, I would like to teach the little ones. It’s fun watching the way their little brains soak up information.”

“I think you would be a great teacher,” he told her.

“I’m only working at the club until I have enough money to finish paying for my degree.”

Derek reached over and stroked her cheek with his fingertips. Then he pulled her face towards his and kissed her lightly on the lips and said, “I hope you know that I don’t think any less of you for working at the club. I can see how badly you hate it there, so I hate it for you. But it’s a job, and you do it very well, and regardless of what some people might say about it, you have nothing to be ashamed of or explain.”

Chloe kissed him back and then said, “Where did you come from?”