The first day of delivering for Jesse’s was almost over and I was beat. The final delivery was back downtown for one last place. I hadn’t been so tired in my life and I was already sick of the smell of food. I didn’t want to be the one bringing it in and setting it up; I wanted to be the one creating the food. I hadn’t spent any time at all in the kitchen, so it was hard in that way. I tried to tell myself that it was only temporary, but I wondered when it was going to be my time.
I went back to my apartment and was thankful that I didn’t have to face my family. The dinner yesterday had been a disaster. Once mom had brought up my new job, Karen had asked exactly the right questions to make me feel crummy about it. I wasn’t too happy with it either, but she’d found ways to make it seem even worse. It was not something that I wanted to think about.
So when I got home I just sat down, my feet throbbing and my head a little achy. The day hadn’t been all bad, but I was ready to relax and not have to make any more last-minute runs to companies that had more stairs than I’d thought existed in this town. I only moved when the wine called to me from the fridge and I was finally motivated to get up.
As I was tucking in for a quiet night at home, a few friends came round to brighten the evening. Before long I was mad drunk and feeling a whole lot better. The nightmare day was nothing but a faint memory when I finally went to bed that night. The next morning, I wished I could say the same for the wine. By the time the alarm clock woke me up, my head was pounding and I wasn’t sure if I could even get out of bed, let alone down to the catering service. It was my second day on the job and I was already thinking about quitting. Dream job, indeed.
I did manage to get up, rush to work and make it on time, but I was not as ready as I would have liked to be. My hair was loose down my back instead of up in a do, and I was still putting on mascara as I pulled up at Jesse’s. It ended with a finished product that I avoided having to see in the mirror, but I told myself that it was going to be okay. It wasn’t like I was there to impress anyone.
When I got the order to take some food to Carrington Investments, though, I wished I had taken more time to get ready. I still remembered the pale grey eyes of the man I had met there the day before. He had come up to talk and had seemed nice enough, but the eyes had told me everything that he wanted – and it had nothing to do with the delivery. I had felt attraction from men before, but with the businessman there had been difference. It had been more than an attraction. It had felt like a physical pull to him, and it had made me retreat as quickly as possible. He was dangerous. My radar went off when I was around him.
So driving up I was nervous, and I didn’t get out of my car until I had made sure that my hair was smoothed down. The natural waves had taken over and it was full. I put a little lipstick on and got the thermos bags out to take up to the top floor. At least the place had an elevator, I thought to myself as I pushed the button for the sixth floor.
My hands were trembling as I made my way down to the same conference room. Most of the people in it were different from the day before, but the handsome man with the slate eyes was there. Even knowing that I shouldn’t look, I did, and again I felt the beckoning that his body was calling to me. Did he know what he was doing?
“It’s good to see you again, Nicola.”
I was a little surprised to hear my name, but then I remembered that I was wearing a name tag. “Good to see you too, sir. I hope that everything is to your liking.”
Again, I felt like I just had to get out of there. He was giving me too much attention, and it was hard to ignore the look. His hand came out and stopped me. “You look like you’re having a tough day. Why don’t you sit down for a minute and try the food that you brought to me?”
I shook my head, even though I could have used a moment of rest. The funny thing about delivering lunches to everyone else all day was that I didn’t have time to eat until I got off. I was starving and the food did look good, but I was sure that eating it was against a rule of some sort and I didn’t want to ruin the job.
“I really should be going, sir. There are lots of people that are hungry.”
It sounded better in my head, but I got an eye flare and a release of my arm. He was not the type of man who was used to being told no, and I could see that he didn’t quite like it.
“My name is Jerold.”
“Have a good day, Jerold.”
He nodded at me, and I grabbed up the empty containers and left while I could. Being around him was like being around a lion. He was pure predator, and I didn’t know what he was going to do. What I did know was that I wasn’t ready to be consumed.
Getting back in the car, I was breathing a little heavier. It almost felt like I had run a mile or something. It wasn’t easy to come to grips with how turned on I was or what in the world was going on in my mind. Jerold was too old for me, and too rich. I wasn’t even on the same level as him, so there was no point in fantasizing about something that I would surely never have.
The thought put me in a sour mood, and then a phone call from my sister put me in a worse mood. There was a meeting over at the house, and I knew that a meeting with my family was never good. Someone had some news. I had to wonder what it would be.
I stopped off at the apartment, stripped out of my greasy clothes and then jumped in the shower to rinse off before going down to my parents’ house for the announcement. I was a little nervous about it. I hoped that it wasn’t something that I wasn’t going to like. Karen had sounded a little strange on the phone, so I was worried about what she was going to say.
When I got there, the house was full and it took me several minutes to say hi to everyone. Mom was sitting at the table with Karen. It was the first time I had seen so many people in the house and she wasn’t in the kitchen cooking. Everything felt off, and I was getting more leery by the moment.
“Sit down, Nicola. Why don’t we have a chat?”
I sat down slowly. There was something in the air, and then I realized that most of the people in the room were looking at me. I didn’t know why this was, but I knew then that I wasn’t going to like it. The bad feeling in my stomach had taken over my body and I swallowed hard.
“So what’s going on? What’s the big news?”
Mom couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She was practically beaming. Why was her happiness making me so uneasy? It shouldn’t, right?
“We have a surprise for you, Nicola, and I know that you are going to like it.”
When she put it like that, I knew I wasn’t going to like it at all. I waited for her to tell me what it was, or give it to me, but it was not something that could fit in a box. It was a person that I hadn’t seen in almost a year – and hadn’t wanted to see. It was Jamie, and it made me wonder why he was there. Why were they all there? Was this why mom had brought him up the night before?
Jamie came towards me and pulled me into his embrace. I was stiff in his arms, and I was still confused on what was going on around me. Why was he here? Why was he holding me like this, and why did he have that look on his face like he did when we were together? I waited for someone to say something, for someone to put me out of my misery.
“Nicola, I’ve missed you so much. Your mother called me the other day to see how I was, and I knew that I had to see you again. All of the old memories came back, and I knew then that it was you that I had been missing. I’m no good without you, Nicola. So I flew here to see you and see if you would come back with me. You are about to graduate, and now that you have that little thing out of the way, we can get married like we talked about before. Now we can start our lives, Nicola, together, as it should have been in the first place.”
He stopped and I waited. Was this his idea of a proposal? Was that why everyone was there, to see the moment? If that was the case, I doubted that I was the only one who was feeling a little disappointed. I was feeling shell-shocked, trying to figure out what the heck was happening. I looked to my mom and then to my sister. They both looked at me encouragingly from their place at the table.
I had never been on the spot like this before. It was not something I had been expecting. What was I supposed to say? Was that supposed to be him popping the question? Was this really happening?
“Um, I don’t know what to say to you, Jamie. I haven’t seen you in a long time, we haven’t been together in a long time, and I don’t know what this is all about.”
Mom piped up with her plan. “This is your engagement party, dear.”
I don’t know what my face looked like, but I knew what I felt like in that moment, and it was nothing close to the merriment that I saw on the faces surrounding me.
My engagement party? Did they really expect me to say yes?