Chapter Four
ALICIA
I put the phone back down on the side of the tub after I talked to Adam and sighed as I dipped back down into the sudsy, warm bubbles. I felt horrible for him, but I also felt bad for me. He should be here or I should be there and Marjorie shouldn’t be anywhere in our solar system.
I closed my eyes and heard the sound of his voice when he said Jack had been “bumping into me” a lot lately. I wasn’t happy that he was jealous per se, but at least maybe it gave him just a taste of how I have to feel every time he was with Marjorie, only ten times worse, considering he was still married to her. Jack and I had really only bumped into each other again, just this time not literally.
On the way home, I’d decided I still had too much nervous energy after the run in with Marjorie to relax. Instead, I headed down to Times Square where the shops were all still open late for holiday preparations and began my Christmas shopping.
I walked from shop to shop, picking out things that I thought my mom and dad would like. I found a gorgeous pashmina for Kyla, and bought several small holiday baskets for assorted people from the office. By the time I reached the last shop, my arms were so full of packages that I could hardly carry them all. The last shop was a jewelry store that offered custom designed items. I found exactly what I was looking for as a gift for Adam. I placed an order for a watch and inscribed it with the words,
“My boss, my mentor, my lover, my friend. Always, Alicia”
After I left there, I stopped in to a quaint little coffee shop on my way back to the garage where I left my car and ordered an extra-large latte. As I sat down at the nearest table to the counter and relieved myself of the weight of the packages, I slipped off my heels, too, and for the first time since seeing Marjorie in the parking garage at work, I began to relax.
“Wow, I hope you have a sleigh outside to carry all of that home in.” The voice startled me until I looked up and realized it was Jack. He was standing next to the table dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a black polo shirt, wearing that sexy lopsided grin that used to take my breath away.
I laughed and said, “That would be nice, actually, because maybe there would be a few elves out there to help me carry it all.”
“Well then, tonight is your lucky night,” he said as he sat down without an invitation,
“My other persona is an elf, and I was born to be a helper and a giver.”
I smiled, and asked him, “Do you have a crystal ball that helped you to find me this evening or were you just out shopping, as well?”
“Shopping,” he said, grinning again. “Unfortunately. That crystal ball thing would have been really cool.” We sat for a while, sipping our coffee and talking again, like hardly any time had passed between us. By the time we were ready to leave, I had laughed so much that my cheeks hurt and I had hardly allowed Marjorie to enter my thoughts once.
“Thank you, Jack. I needed this.”
“What? Coffee with an elf?” he asked playfully.
“Yes, an elf that can make me laugh and forget my problems for a bit was exactly what I needed.”
“Well then,” he said with a mock bow, “I am so glad I could be of service to you.”
Jack helped me gather up my bags and insisted on carrying most of them to my car. I gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before getting into the car. “Thank you again. I had a wonderful evening,”
“You’re welcome, again,” he said. “So did I. Do you need me to follow you home and help you get this stuff up to your apartment?”
“No, thank you. The doorman will help me. He’s a very nice man.”
Jack looked disappointed, but said, “Okay, be safe and have a good night. I am looking forward to our dinner on Friday night.”
“Me, too,” I said as I got in the car.
Jack had stood there and watched me drive away. As I glanced in the rearview mirror before I pulled out of the lot I found it a little strange that he was still rooted to the spot I had left him in and watching me. I wasn’t going to admit that to Adam, though, especially since my imagination was probably simply going crazy because of all of the stress.
********
Adam and I didn’t see each other outside of the office again until Friday afternoon. He had sent a message to me through Mary inviting me out to lunch. He had been in meetings all morning outside of the office, so we decided to meet at a café we both liked in Manhattan. Adam met me out in front and gave me a long, sweet kiss.
“God, I missed you,” he told me when he had finally let me go.
“I missed you, too.” We went inside and were seated at a table near a big window. While we waited for our lunch, I asked him about his meetings and then finally addressed the elephant standing between us.
“How have things been with Marjorie?"
Adam made a face like he had tasted something sour. “The good news is, I’ve been so busy with work, I’ve hardly had to see her. The bad news is, I did have to see her a few times coming and going. I can hardly stomach looking at that woman. I can’t imagine what I ever saw in her to begin with.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to ask, but…”
Adam laughed and shrugged his shoulders. “It will forever be one of those ‘what was I thinking’ moments I guess.”
“I would probably understand it better if you had told me you were smoking crack when you proposed,” I said with a giggle.
“Me, too, actually,” Adam admitted. He turned serious then. I was glad when our lunch came and he was at least distracted for a time while we ate. Feeling bad about bringing Marjorie up, I changed the subject to Christmas and what I planned on making for dinner Christmas Eve.
“Do you think you’ll have any time next week to go and buy a tree with me?”
“I will do my absolute best,” he said. “I haven’t bought a Christmas tree in years.” I was about to ask about his and Marjorie’s Christmases, but caught myself. He was looking at his watch anyways, and I knew he was on the verge of leaving.
“Time flies, huh?”
He smiled. “Unfortunately, only when I’m with you. I do have to get back, babe. Miles’ trial begins right after the New Year. There are so damn many witnesses to interview. Each time I think we’re close to finishing up, someone else gets added to the list.”
“I have a lot to do at the office this afternoon, too,” I told him.
“And, your date with the old flame tonight, right?” Adam asked. He was smiling, but it was a tight one.
“Adam, you aren’t truly upset that I’m having dinner with Jack, are you?”
“No,” he said as he signed the credit card receipt the waitress had brought him. “I’m just jealous that he gets to spend the time out with you and not me, and honestly, baby, I’m still a little uneasy about how he seems to keep turning up everywhere you go.”
We walked outside arm in arm and stopped on the sidewalk. I rose up on my toes so I could look into his eyes and said, “He’s only ‘turned up’ twice, actually. And, if it helps to know this at all, I’d rather be with you, than anyone, anytime.”
Adam tipped my chin up further, and parting my lips with his tongue, he gave me a deep, passionate kiss that I never wanted to end. It did so suddenly, however, as we both felt and saw a flash of light at the same time. We turned simultaneously towards the source. Standing about three feet away on the sidewalk was Rose Dugan, and some young kid with pimples on his face and a professional-looking camera draped around his neck.
Rose, with the over confidence that we had both seen upon meeting her on separate occasions, waved at us with three fingers and smiled like she was in on a private joke that neither of us knew about before getting back in a van that was adorned with the Post logo on the side and driving away.
We stood there stunned for a moment. We weren’t celebrities, but somehow representing a billionaire oil baron had brought us both smack dab into the middle of the media circus. We both had a few choice words to say about the young and exceedingly arrogant Ms. Dugan on the way back to our cars. Once there, Adam kissed me again and said,
“I actually hope that picture gets put on the front page, that way the whole world will finally know how I feel about you.” That simple statement sent me back to work with a smile on my lips and hope in my heart.
I spent the afternoon working hard, leaving a little later than I had hoped. When I got home, I showered and dressed in a white angora sweater dress and boots. I was putting the final touches on my hair and make-up when Jack called. “I just wanted to make sure we were still on.”
“Yes, of course. I was just getting ready.”
“Great! I’ll be there about seven.”
“Perfect. Do you need directions to pick me up?”
“No, I have you on GPS,” he said, and then added, “I just pulled it up now, as we were talking so that you wouldn’t have to bother trying to tell me how to get there.”
That was odd and gave me a little creepy feeling. Maybe I did need to talk to him about my relationship with Adam. I thought again about what Adam was implying about Jack running into me “too often.” I decided I’d talk to him at dinner and said, “Okay then, I’ll see you at seven.”
Jack rang the bell exactly at seven o’clock. I had known he was there already, thanks to the phone call that I had received from my doorman Luis, asking if I was expecting him before sending him up. I opened the door, and there stood Jack in a black suit with very small dark green pin stripes that perfectly matched his eyes. He was holding a bouquet of fragrant pink and white roses in one hand.
“You look beautiful,” he said as he held out the roses. “For you.”
“Thank you,” I said and stepped back to allow him in as I went to put the flowers in a vase. “You look very nice, yourself. Where are we going?”
“To a little Italian place I found downtown called Romaletti’s.”
I turned to look at his face. I wasn’t sure if Adam’s suspicions were playing on my mind or if in fact Jack knew way too much about my movements since he had been in town.
“Romaletti’s?” I repeated. “What made you decide on that restaurant?”
“I asked the concierge at my hotel for a recommendation,” he said. “He recommended it highly. Is there a problem?”
“No. No problem. Romaletti’s is a wonderful place. I’ll just get my coat.”
I grabbed my coat and bag and as I started to lock the apartment door, Jack took the key from my hand and locked both locks. He gave the knob a shimmy to make certain and then handed the key back to me. When I gave him a quizzical look he said,
“I just want to make sure you’re safe.” I didn’t say anything, but definitely we needed to talk. I allowed him to open the elevator and push the buttons and then open the car door for me when we got downstairs. He tried to lean across me to buckle my seatbelt also, but I thought that was going too far.
I took the belt out of his hand and said, “I got it, thanks.”
Jack only nodded, and then closing the door, he went around to the other side. Once in and buckled up himself he hit the automatic lock buttons on the doors. I looked at him strangely again.
“This is kind of a scary city, I want to be sure no one sees my gorgeous passenger and tries to jump in the car with us.”
Weird. I thought this was my opportunity to talk to him.
“Jack,” I started, “I’m not complaining that you’re so thoughtful of me. I’m afraid though that I’ve maybe led you to believe there could be more between us than is possible.” I looked at him, and couldn’t quite decipher the look on his face in the dark car. He didn’t say anything, however so I went on,
“I’m in a relationship. I didn’t tell you before because I hadn’t really seen it as being significant in our relationship since we have been only friends for a very long time now. I’ve just started to get the feeling the last few times that we’ve talked that you may be looking for this to go further?”
I said the last sentence like a question. He glanced over at me, and then putting his eyes back on the road, he said,
“Honestly, I had hopes. I’m a little embarrassed to say it now. I had just seen you so many times and you had been alone always, so I assumed that you weren’t seeing anyone seriously right now. I suppose it was wrong of me to assume. I should have asked.”
“I’m sorry, Jack. I never meant to lead you on. My relationship has been really complicated lately and difficult to explain to anyone.”
He didn’t say anything, but as he pulled into the parking lot and the lights illuminated his profile I could see that his mood had drastically changed since we had left my place. He parked the car, then looked over again.
“You don’t have to be sorry. You haven’t done anything wrong. I suppose I also just imagined myself as not ‘just anyone’ in your eyes. At the very least, you are my best friend. I feel like I can tell you anything, even after all of these years. I was sincerely hoping you at least felt that much for me, as well.”
“Oh, Jack, I do think of you as my dear friend. It’s not that I felt I couldn’t talk to you about it. It’s like I said, it’s just all so complicated that it’s not a conversation I wanted to try to have over a fifteen-minute coffee ‘catch up’ session. Maybe we could talk about it tonight, if you’d like.”
He nodded and got out of the car. I waited and let him open mine for me and then I took the arm he offered and let him lead me into the restaurant. Marco was at the front desk and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he recognized me right away. I smiled at him and said, “Hello again, Marco. This is Jack. He’s a friend from my childhood that is visiting New York from London.”
I was afraid that he’d think I was cheating on Adam. Marco didn’t let on if he did, though. He gave Jack the same welcome that he had given me the first time he had met me. After our boisterous greeting, he upgraded the table Jack had reserved for us to one that he referred to as his “first class, VIP tables” and a complimentary bottle of the best house wine was sent over, as well.
“Wow,” Jack said. “This guy you’re in a relationship with must be really something to merit all of this attention just by knowing him.”
I smiled. “I think he’s really something, and apparently so does Marco.”
“So tell me about him,” Jack said as he poured us both a glass of wine.
“Well, he’s the owner of the firm I work for, for starters.”
“Adam Hanson?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes, you know of him?”
“I think anyone who is connected to the law in this town, or who picks up a newspaper, knows of Adam Hanson. He’s currently representing the most infamous billionaire in the country, is he not?”
“Yes, which is part of the reason you have been running into me alone so often. Adam has been up to his eyeballs with this case.”
“And the other part,” Jack asked, after the waiter had taken our orders.
“Well, that’s the complicated part. Adam’s in the midst of a messy divorce. His soon to be ex is being extremely difficult, and has even recently moved back in with him, claiming she’s staking out ‘her’ home so that Adam doesn’t take it from her just by virtue that she’s not in residence.”
“Hmm, actually that sounds like a smart move on her part.”
I gave him a look that I hoped conveyed I didn’t appreciate him defending Marjorie in any way before saying, “It was actually her lawyer who gave her the idea. Adam thinks she’s sleeping with him.”
“Alicia, you do know that you deserve better than part of a man’s affections and all of this drama, don’t you?”
“It’s not like that, Jack. Adam is entirely devoted to me. This will all be over soon. I find him to be worth waiting for.” Jack didn’t respond to that, so trying a shot at changing the subject I said,
“Is there anyone special in your life these days? My mother mentioned not long ago that she heard you had gotten engaged.”
A dark cloud passed before Jack’s eyes. “That was a mistake. Alicia, promise me something. If the drama doesn’t stop soon with this man, you’ll reevaluate what you want and need out of a relationship.”
“Jack,” I said, trying to choose my words wisely, “I am quite capable of looking out for myself. This will be over soon, but even if it’s not, I do have the right to choose what I do and do not wish to deal with. I feel that I’m level-headed enough to make that decision on my own.”
Jack nodded. He looked about to say something else when our dinner arrived and interrupted him. By the time we started eating, his mood seemed to have changed again. He was back to being the old witty Jack, telling jokes and funny stories to make me laugh. I wrote off his moodiness to the residual feelings he still harbored and let it go at that for the time being.
The rest of the evening was spent on light conversation and I really enjoyed myself. By the time Jack dropped me at my apartment and gave me a chaste kiss on the cheek goodnight, the uncomfortable feelings about his earlier behavior had all but gone away.