Knowing Is Not Enough (11 page)

I didn’t want tonight to mirror the last time we went to The Boulevard. I got it together and found something to wear—barely. I checked my schedule to determine what time my last appointment for the day. Sanford coming tonight was making me take my game to another level. Not
having a little pampering time for myself beforehand was not an option. According to my calendar, a nine o’clock and a ten o’clock appointment were scheduled. I yelled to Karen in the receptionist area. “Hey, Karen, do you think we can move my ten o’clock to Monday?”

Karen popped her head in my office, “No ma’am. Mr. Nelson will not be pleased if you move his appointment, but after him you’re free for the day.”

I sighed. “Ah, okay—you’re right that shouldn’t have been on the table in the first place.”

“How about this,” She clasped her hands together. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re trying to do?”

“I know this sounds terrible but I wanted to go running before I got my hair done.”

Karen titled her head turning the bottom lip downward and inside out. “Aw, you can afford to skip a workout . . . you’ll still look cute for your date.”

I placed my hands up. “Slow down, it’s not a date especially since Tobey will be there. If we can just move Mr. Nelson up an hour it would give me more wiggle room in my schedule. It’s seven now, but if he can get here by eight o’clock I can see him before I see Mrs. Williams.”

Karen walked toward the door headed back the receptionist area with her back facing me. She said, “That, I may be able to do. Let me call him, but next time let’s talk this through a little more before I commit you to these time slots.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth.”

While I waited to find out the verdict on Mr. Nelson I typed out my notes from yesterday’s appointments.

Karen popped her head back in the doorframe.
“Okay, I asked Mr. Nelson to come in earlier and he can’t, so you have to see him at ten o’clock. Sorry, I know you want to go work out, but it’s just not going to happen, at least not before noon.”

“Okay, well, if I can’t change it, I can’t change it. I just feel funny when I don’t work out.”

Karen tilted her head and frowned at me. “You have almost zero percent body fat. Again, you’ll survive.”

I blushed. “Okay, let’s get this day moving. Hopefully Mrs. Williams will be okay and won’t need any serious intervention.”

Karen left and I started back writing Mr. Thomas’s plan. Time flew and before I knew it, I was halfway completed with Mr. Thomas’ behavioral health plan, and I met with Mrs. Williams and Mr. Nelson. Now that the workday wound down, I needed to get out of office and over to Stacy’s to get my hair done.

“Hey, Karen, can you forward calls to my cell phone?”

There was no answer. This ghetto intercom of yelling through walls is not always an effective means of communication. “Karen, did you hear me?”
We really need an intercom
. I looked down at the desk phone. The red notch for line one was lit, but when I shifted back to my monitor the light was dark again. I was in earshot of the receptionist area and I could overhear her talking to someone in the office.

I recognize that voice
.

I stepped into the doorframe and a familiar scent filled the hallway. I only knew one man who smelled of coconut oil. It could only be Jake, and the man wasn’t far behind the scent. I only made it to the doorframe when I almost went head first into his chest. Karen, barely visible behind
him, pointed at his back mouthing, “Jake is here.” I dropped my head, raising both eyebrows over the rim of my glasses, subliminally informing her—
“Yes, I know.”

There were no words or rules in the book for this. I hadn’t seen Jake in over a year.

I moved out of the doorway, allowing him to enter my office and sit down in a chair in front of my desk. He looked well—
then again, when has he not
. That didn’t help. “Have you been tanning?”

“No,” he responded. “You know I don’t tan. The Arizona sun did this to me.”

“However it happened it looks good on you.”

Jake smiled. “Thank you.”

I smiled and pointed to his shoulder-length hair. “You grew your hair out,” I said.

“I can say the same for you. I always liked it longer. You look like you did when we were in college.” He cleared his throat. “I was going to call, but I figured you’d just tell Karen to say you were out or not see me.”

I nodded. “Probably.”

“Which one?”

“Both . . . I was about to leave when you arrived.” I was sure he could see my heart beating through my tailored shirt I unexpectedly was thankful I’d worn. I walked around in front of my desk, stood with my arms folded and said, “After years of not talking you just drop by . . . unannounced.”

“It doesn’t look like you were leaving.”

“Well . . . I was. So, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Nothing and no one,” he said. “I was just up the street taking care of some business and thought I’d stop in
and see if you were here.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Oh, so you’re by yourself?”

“Yes, I’m by myself. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Let’s not say that, okay, because you did a whole lot of stuff I didn’t think you’d do.”

He sighed. “I know I’m not your favorite person. I just wanted to say hello. We haven’t talked in a long time.”

“There’s a reason for that—remember?” My brining up the past chilled the air. Jake appeared uncomfortable, shifting in his seat. His emerald green eyes felt like lasers. I needed to get out of the room. “Can you excuse me for a minute?” Jake leaned forward in his chair as he nodded. I rounded the desk and headed toward the restroom. Firmly bedded inside, I closed the door, leaned my entire body against it, clinching the door handle in a futile attempt to catch my breath.
A few more minutes, and I would have been out of the door
. After agonizing seconds, I released the door handle, and walked over to the sink. Two steps in, and I was surprised yet again this time by Karen charging into the restroom. I turned toward her clinching my chest, “Geez, you scared the crap out of me.” I placed my free hand on the sink to settle myself, and nerves.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I heard you come in here. Are you okay?”

“Yes . . . I mean no. I just need to catch my breath and get over the shock of him being here.”

“Well, he never disappoints do he . . . Jake is so—”

“You know . . . one of the bonuses of divorcing Jake is not hearing how
fine
he was every five seconds.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

I waved my hand. “No, it’s not you Karen . . . it’s me.”

Karen grabbed tissue from the dispenser. “I didn’t
mean to upset you more. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

I released my grip of the sink and turned on the water. In the mirror, my reflection polarized what I was feeling. A disobedient tear made its way down my cheek. I cupped lukewarm water in my hands, and splashed it on my face. Karen handed me tissue. I raised my face, covered with beads of water, lightly tapping each one away as not to disturb my makeup. The last thing I wanted to do was return looking worse than I did when I left. “I think it’s just the emotion of it all. I didn’t have this reaction before.” I threw away the tissue. “Let’s get back out there. I’m sure he’s thinking something’s up.”

Karen rubbed my back. “Who cares . . . he can sit there for a minute.”

I checked my eyes in the mirror. “I know . . . first things first, let’s get out of here.” Karen exited first with me closely behind. Jake, unmoved, remained in his seat in front of my desk looking at his cell phone.

“Checking your text messages?” I asked. Jake put away his phone as I rounded my desk to retake my seat.

I sighed. “Look—I’m having a good day. I’d like it to continue that way. So perhaps we can stick to neutral subjects. Your mother, for example. How is she?”

“She’s okay,” Jake responded. “She misses you, which is one of the reasons I wanted to stop by. I think she would love to hear from you–you should call her.”

“
You’re
the reason I stopped calling her,” I pointed out.

“I know, and I was wrong. You should talk. I know my mother would really like to talk to you.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear she is doing okay.”

He stood up. “I don’t want to keep you, just wanted to see if you were okay.” I followed him to the door. He turned and put out his arms as though to hug me. I promptly took one step back. He stayed in the same position and finally I relented and walked into his open arms.

“It really is good to see you.” Jake released me. “I’m glad you let me come in.”

“Technically, you were already in by the time I saw you—but okay.”

Karen was on the phone when he walked out. A part of me was glad to see him, but the other part wondered why he’d really stopped by. Karen hung up just as Jake turned around to wave bye. Karen and I simultaneously waved back. I threw in a smile for good measure. As soon as Jake was out of sight, Karen turned to me and asked, “Have you been talking to him?”

“No, not at all. I’m just as surprised as you to see him.”

“So what did he say?”

“Nothing, really, just that he wanted me to talk to his mother again and he wanted to say hello.”

“Talk to his mother?”

“Yeah, talk to his mom. I don’t think he wanted anything and I need to get outta here. He’s already thrown me off schedule.”

She followed me back into my office. “When is the last time you talked to Jake?”

I continued to pack up my briefcase with everything I needed to work on this weekend. “Well over a year.”

Arms folded, Karen watched me pack up. “He
surprised me, but I’m fine now, really I am.” The frown lines in Karen’s forehead began to fade. I could tell she was still worried, but I wanted to focus on my evening ahead not the life I left behind. Jake has a supernatural ability to take over, even when he’s not trying to.

Karen asked me to call her from the car, but I knew I would be calling Linda first. There has to be a reason that Jake had shown up out of the blue, and if anyone knew what that reason was it would be Linda. She was a vault when it came to keeping secrets.

“Hey, are you busy?” I asked.

“No, just got home. What’s up?”

I was surprised. “Why are you home so early?”

“Well, nosey, if you
must
know, I went for my annual physical and decided not to go back to the office.”

“Oh, good—you need to take more time off.” I smiled. “I guess I shouldn’t be giving that advice.”

“No, you shouldn’t. So what’s up?”

I pulled out on the street and headed toward the hair salon. “A visitor stopped by today. I figured if anybody knew something about my visitor being in my office today that person would be you . . . Ms. Sneaky.”

“Sneaky?”

“Yes, Sneaky, what have you been up to? Spill it.”

There was a pause. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I started feeling impatient. “Don’t play. You know Jake came to see me.”

She ignored the question. “Where are you at?”

“I’m in my car, driving to the salon.”

“I thought you were going out tonight,” said Linda.

“We
are
going out.”

“Who all’s going?”

“Tobey, Sanford and me.”

“Sanford? Hmm—interesting.”

I hadn’t told her everything about our sort-of-not date Wednesday. I left out the kiss. “We’ve started to get back to normal.”
More or less
. “Tonight will be the first time we’ve seen each other since Wednesday.”

“Oh, wow, then this should be good. Okay, so what is it you think I did?”

Think?
“I know you talked to Jake.”

“Why do you think I talked to him?”

“Because you did, and I know you did. Why else would he just pop up?”

“So what did he say?”

“He didn’t say anything, just stopped to say hello, and told me to call his mother.”

“Was Karen there when he stopped over?”

Her questions were getting to me. “Yeah, she works there, remember?”

“Smarty, I was just asking—but the truth is I don’t know what you talking about. It doesn’t sound like you need Scooby Doo to solve this mystery. He wanted to see how you were, he did that—and now he’s gone.”

“The last time I saw Jake was with you in the courthouse. How’s that not a big deal? He just shows up unannounced out of the blue.”

“Let’s not get too dramatic about this, okay? What else did he say exactly?”

I took a deep breath. “He said he was in the neighborhood doing some business and decided to stop in and see if I was there.”

“Okay, so what’s strange about that?”

She made it sound completely reasonable, even I had to admit to its plausibility. “Nothing, now that you put it that way.”

Linda laughed. “Girl, stop bugging me about nonsense. Aren’t you supposed to be meeting this new guy tonight?”

I pulled off the road into a gas station and parked. “Oh, shit, Linda! I completely forgot about that.”

“Maybe I should come—you’re in a pickle, my dear.” She laughed. “Well, try not to get back on Sanford’s naughty list. Call me tomorrow and let me know how it went.”

I put the car in drive and headed back toward the gas station exit. “So, still not telling me anything?”

“Girl, bye!” There was a decisive click. It didn’t matter, she reminded me there was a bigger issue tonight than Jake.