Love Left Behind (11 page)

Work was busy as Janet
gave me plenty to do. I hadn't been lying when I told Jackson that there were a
lot of things that my boss wanted finished before the weekend.

Janet left for a
business lunch and I settled in my desk with a sandwich I had picked up so that
I could catch up on some emails. Celeste, who wheeled over to my cubicle in her
chair, interrupted me. I swore she had that chair surgically attached to her
rear.

"So how was the
big date?" Celeste asked slyly. "I was disappointed that you didn't
show up in the same clothes you were wearing yesterday."

"Celeste!" I
protested, but I couldn't help laughing. "You have a one track mind."

"Well? Are you
going to make me ask again?"

I groaned but complied.
I had only known Celeste for a few days, but I knew she could be doggedly
persistent.

"It was good.
Actually, it was
really
good." I
leaned back in my chair as I thought about how Jackson had made me feel.
"His name is Jackson and he's actually a friend of my roommate's. It
doesn't hurt that he's gorgeous and sweet and a great cook."

"Oh, really?"
Celeste interrupted gleefully. If she were a cartoon character, her eyes would
be bugging out and popping out of her head on springs. "How do you know
he's a great cook?"

"After the gym we
went back to his place and he made me dinner."

Celeste sighed and
leaned back in her chair. "This is why I have to live vicariously through
you. I just went home and heated up leftovers for my husband."

I laughed at Celeste's
disgusted expression. "It
was
amazing."

"
How
amazing? Clothes dropping to the
floor amazing?"

"Celeste!" I
was scandalized by her bluntness and I couldn't help reddening from the
accuracy of her statement.

"Ah ha!" she
exclaimed triumphantly. "I knew it! Nothing wrong with that, honey. You're
young. You're allowed to have fun."

"That's exactly
what I'm looking for. Fun. Jackson seems to be looking for the same thing, so
it's a perfect fit."

Celeste frowned.
"He told you that? That he was just looking for some fun?"

"No, but my
roommate has been friends with him for years. She knows him pretty well so she
filled me in on the types of relationships he looks for. And he looks for the
no-strings attached kind, which is good with me."

"Did they ever
date? Your roommate and Jackson."

"They went out on
a few dates when they first met, but that was years ago. They realized that
they were better off as friends."

Celeste looked
unconvinced but her phone started ringing and she wheeled back to her cubicle
to answer it.

I went back to my
emails when I heard my cell phone beep inside my desk drawer. I pulled it out
to see that I had a text from Jackson. I felt giddy as I opened it.

How's New York's most up-and-coming marketing executive's day going?

Good. How's the city's most sought after trainer's day going?

Average. It started out amazing, but now I'm just counting the minutes
until Friday.

I giggled like a
schoolgirl, happy that Celeste wasn't around to see me grinning so foolishly.

I'm looking forward to Friday too. Thanks for the wonderful dinner last
night.

No problem. Thanks for an incredible evening. And an amazing morning. I
like waking up next to you.

Heart-wrenchingly sweet
things just seemed to roll off Jackson's tongue. Well, his fingers anyway,
since he was texting. It was hard to keep a clear head when he said those kinds
of things to me.

I like waking up next to you too.

I hit send before I
could change my mind, a little shocked at my own boldness. I wasn't used to
laying bare my feelings. I wondered if I felt freer to express myself because I
knew this wouldn't be a long-term relationship.

Call me when you get home from work, even if it's late.

Okay. Talk to you later.

I forced myself to put
my cell phone back in my desk. I didn't need to be tittering like an idiot all
day, checking my phone constantly to see if I had a text message from Jackson.

Fortunately, the day
was busy and I didn't have a moment to spare to think about Jackson. As I had
anticipated, I worked late and didn't get home until nine-thirty. The apartment
was empty when I got home and I changed quickly into shorts and a t-shirt.
Janet and I had ordered dinner delivered while we worked so the only thing left
to do was call Jackson.

As I lay in bed,
listening to the phone ringing, I started getting nervous. Even though I had
done the most intimate of things with Jackson, we had only met a few days ago.
I still felt jittery just thinking about his face above me, looking at me with
passion and desire.

"Emma."
Jackson's voice was bright, as if he were happy to hear from me.

"Hi,
Jackson." I paused, unsure what to say next. "How was your day?"

"It was okay,
nothing earth-shattering. That was reserved for last night."

I laughed, feeling some
of the tension drain away from me. "You're going to give me an inflated
ego if you keep saying things like that to me."

I could practically
hear Jackson grinning through the telephone. "That's not the only thing
inflating when we're together."

I groaned. "That's
so corny."

"Okay, enough of
my lame come-ons," Jackson said laughing. "How was work? Did you just
get home?"

"Yeah, it was
tiring but I'm still enjoying it. Fortunately, we got a lot done today so I
don't have to work late tomorrow."

"Great! Can I pick
you up tomorrow at six-thirty? That way, we'll have enough time for dinner
before the play. It doesn't start until nine."

"That should be
fine, but don't you need to rehearse or something beforehand?"

"Nah. We still
have rehearsals every now and then during the weekdays, but it's pretty
sporadic since the show is running now."

"Before I forget,
did I leave my skirt at your place?"

"Yup. I liked the
way it looked on my floor."

"There you go
again," I said laughing. Jackson was irrepressible. "Can you bring it
tomorrow?"

"Why would I do
that?" Jackson asked slyly. "It's an excuse to get you over to my
apartment again."

I rolled my eyes even
though he couldn't see me. "I don't need an excuse to want to come over to
your place again."

"Ah, I'm happy to
hear that. Let's just say I'm holding onto your skirt as leverage."

I smiled at Jackson's
playfulness. "If you say so. How many people did you train today?"

Jackson regaled me with
funny stories about his day, from the client who refused to ride the stationery
bike because it was against her vow of chastity to another client who spritzed
perfume on herself every five minutes to dilute the smell of sweat, giving
everyone a headache around her.

Jackson seemed
genuinely interested as he asked me about the details of my day, and about what
I was working on at Mass. It was easy to talk to him. He was a good listener
and made me laugh. It felt good to have someone to tell the details of my day
to, from what I ate for lunch to the scandalous things Celeste said to me. It
had been a while since I had someone to talk to like this. Sean and I had
stopped sharing details long before we broke up, seemingly just living side by
side without much interaction.

I looked at my alarm
clock, surprised that we had been on the phone for almost two hours.

"It's almost
midnight," I said. "I need to go to sleep or I'm going to be the
walking dead tomorrow."

"Alright. I'll be
at your place tomorrow at six-thirty. See you tomorrow."

"See you
tomorrow," I echoed. I waited for Jackson to hang up but there was just
silence. I wasn't sure if he was still on the line.

"Hello?"

"Hi," he
answered back with a laugh.

"Jackson, you're
supposed to hang up!"

"So are you."

"Okay, I'm really
hanging up now. It feels too junior high to argue about who's going to hang up
first."

"Okay. Sweet
dreams."

"Sweet dreams to
you too."

I hung up before I
could be tempted to stay on the phone to see if Jackson was still on the line.
It was as if we were reduced to puppy love teenagers reluctant to hang up the
phone and break the connection.

I steeled myself
against the giddy emotions rising in me. I really needed to be careful and not
get my emotions too tangled up in this. When our fling ended, I wanted to be
able to be friends with Jackson. Although I didn't know how any woman could
just be friends with Jackson.

I left my bedroom to go
to the bathroom to wash up for bed and saw that Claire had come home. She was
sitting on the couch flipping through a magazine.

"Hey. I didn't
hear you come in."

Claire looked up.
"I just got in a few minutes ago. I met Nathan and Mia for a few drinks at
Max's. What have you been up to?"

"Not much. I got
home late and then I talked to Jackson on the phone for a while. I'm ready for
bed, I'm beat."

"How's Jackson
doing?"

"Good," I
said as I walked into the bathroom. I left the door open so that Claire could
still hear me. "How's Nathan and Mia?"

"The same. Nathan
wanted me to remind you about his art show on Sunday."

"Oh yeah," I
said as I started wiping off my makeup with a cotton ball. "I'd love to
go."

Claire stood and leaned
against the doorjamb of the bathroom, watching me. "Great. We'll all go
together. It starts at six."

I smiled at Claire in
the reflection of the mirror. "Sounds good."

Claire twirled a piece
of her hair around her finger, looking thoughtful. "Nathan asked Jackson
to come meet us out tonight, but he said that he couldn't because he was
busy."

I felt a little bubble
of happiness that Jackson had apparently wanted to stay home for my call, but I
just shrugged. "I'm not sure what he was up to before I called him."

"Did he know that
you were going to call?"

Claire questions seemed
odd and I began to wonder if she had been entirely truthful about her lack of
feelings for Jackson.

"He asked me to
call him tonight when I got home from work."

Claire suddenly smiled
widely at me. "I never thought I'd see it."

"See what?" I
turned around to look at Claire.

"I think Jackson
Reynard has it bad for you!"

I laughed, shaking my
head. "We're just having fun together, that's all."

Claire looked
thoughtful. "I've never known Jackson to wait around for a girl's call.
This is something more."

"I doubt it,"
I said, trying not to feel excited by her words. I reminded myself that I
wasn't looking for something more. At least I didn't have to worry about Claire
and her feelings. She looked positively ecstatic at the possibility that
Jackson saw me as more than a fling.

"Hmm," Claire
said noncommittally but her eyes were dancing.

"Enough," I
said with a laugh, holding up my hand. "You're going to make me all
confused about what's going on between me and Jackson."

"Okay," she
said in a singsong voice, clearly not convinced. She went back to the couch and
her magazine.

"I'm going to
bed," I said when I was finished washing up, flicking off the bathroom
light switch. "Are you staying up?"

Claire nodded. "I
can never go to sleep right after I come home. I'm too wired. I need time to
unwind."

"Okay,
goodnight."

"Goodnight. Sweet
dreams." Claire winked at me and I just smiled. It seemed like everyone was
wishing me sweet dreams tonight.

Friday dragged even
though I had plenty to do during the workday. I couldn't help checking my watch
every half hour, willing the time to go by faster as I excitedly anticipated
seeing Jackson tonight.

I was checking my watch
again, happy that it was almost time to leave, when my intercom buzzed.

"Hi, Janet,"
I said, picking up the phone.

"Can you come in
here for a minute, Emma?"

"Sure." I
grabbed my pad and pen, hoping that this wasn't something that would delay my
leaving for my day. I opened Janet's door and she glanced up, motioning me in,
and then looked back at the stack of papers on her desk.

I sat down and waited
while Janet finished scanning the document before her. She finally looked up,
smiling.

"How did you like
your first week?"

"It was great!
Everyone's been really helpful and it's been interesting to work on your
accounts."

"I'm happy to hear
that. I just wanted to let you know that I thought you did a terrific job this
week. I'm glad that you took initiative on things, like researching
Canonfield's competitors without me having to ask you."

Canonfield, a
pharmaceutical company, was Janet's biggest client and I knew it was her top
priority, so I had done some additional research about its competitors' current
drug trials for Janet to review. I was appreciative of Janet's recognition of
my work. Even though she was usually in work mode, delegating responsibilities
in a no-nonsense style, she reminded me that she was human with glimpses of
humor and kindness.

"Thanks, Janet.
I'm really enjoying working here so far."

"Great,"
Janet said with a smile. "You can leave for the day. I won't be here much
longer. Have a good weekend." She looked back down at the report on her
desk, clearly dismissing me.

"You too!" I
closed her office door behind me and saw Celeste's head peeping up above her
cubicle wall.

"You
leaving?"

I nodded excitedly. I
had already told Celeste about my date with Jackson tonight and she had made me
promise to memorize every detail so I could fill her in on Monday.