Mid Life Love (5 page)

“No. I’m not
married or seeing anyone else. I’m—”

“So would eight
o’ clock tonight be fine? Where exactly do you want to meet?” He looked
directly into my eyes and I almost collapsed onto the floor.

The look he was
giving me should’ve been reserved for a seductive scene in a romance movie and
his dreamy smile was lethal...

“Look, I’m
completely flattered but you look kind of young.”

He furrowed his
eyebrow. “That’s very nice of you to say, but that doesn’t answer my question.
Where do you want to—”

“How old are
you,
Jonathan
?”

“Twenty eight.”
His beautiful eyes lit up.

Twenty eight?!
Why am I still standing here entertaining him? He’s eleven years younger than
me! No thanks...

“Well, that’s
way too young for me. I have a little cousin that’s more in your age range.
She’s currently studying law, but if you want I can call and ask her if—”

“You don’t want
to go out with me?”

“
No
. I’m
way too old for you and I’m not a cougar or a cradle robber. I have two
daughters and I would feel some type of way if they dated someone who had our
age difference.”

“Our
age difference
?”

“Yes. I’m
thirty
nine
, which means that when you were eight years old and learning how to
build fires with the Boy Scouts, I was nineteen and in college. It means that
when
you
were nineteen and trying to figure out what major you wanted to
pick, I was thirty trying to build a career in marketing. And just in case you
don’t realize how many years there are that separate us, there are
eleven
.
Do you not see the problem with that?”

“Not really.” He
grinned. “But I can’t
force
someone to go out with me, can I? Could I at
least give you my number just in case you change your mind?”

“Sure.” I took
out my phone and vowed to delete his number later.

“It’s 555-9845...I
really hope you change your mind,
Claire
.” He gave me another one of
those seductive glances and walked away.

––––––––

“W
hat are you
waiting for? Call him, Claire! Tonight!”

“Shhhh! I don’t
want everyone here in my personal life, Sands!”

“Whatever,” she
whispered. “Why can’t you go out with him?”

“He’s twenty
eight!”

“Which means
he’s practically
thirty
! What’s the problem? He didn’t ask you to marry
him. He simply asked you out and told you to suggest the place.”

“Wouldn’t that
make me a cougar though? Eleven years younger than me? Wait,
twelve
years younger than me once Friday gets here...What would my mom think? What about
his
mother?”

“Claire, it’s a
simple date. At the very least, maybe you two will hit it off, go out a few
more times, and then you can finally get some sex! How long has it been again?”

My associates
all looked up at me.

“Get back to
work!” I waited for them to look away from me and glared at Sandra. “I’ve only
been here a few years. Could we try not to have my associates gossiping about
me?”

“Sorry.” She
followed me into my corner office. “You hate it here anyway...All I’m trying to
say is that you haven’t been on a date in a while and—”

“I went out last
month, remember? Tucker Williams. He was a pediatric surgeon and—”

“Please! He
didn’t ask a single thing about you the entire night and he cursed at you once
you didn’t invite him in. Now that I think about it, that’s the only date
you’ve been on since you moved here! In four years! You really need to start
dating again.”

I sighed. “I
will, I will—only men that are my age or a little older though.”

“Fine, but you
don’t have a good reason not to take this Jonathan guy up on his offer. Who
cares if he’s younger? You did say he was attractive, right?”

He’s more than
just “attractive”...

“Yeah.” I leaned
against my desk. “He is...”

“So go for it!
You can still search for a more mature guy in the meantime, but can’t you have
a little fun until you find one?”

“Okay, okay.
I’ll call him tonight.”

“Miss Gracen?”
My assistant buzzed in.

“Yes, Rita?”

“Mr. Barnes
wants all the directors in the conference room for the weekly overview
session.”

“I’ll be right
there.” I hit the end button on my office intercom and gave Sandra a hug.

“I guess I
should get back to my practice huh?” She shrugged. “Don’t forget to call me
after you talk to him.” She walked towards the east elevators and I walked
towards the north ones. 

Another overview
session with Mr. Barnes and the rest of the directors was the last thing I
wanted to do today. No one ever had anything remotely interesting to discuss in
those meetings. It usually just entailed Mr. Barnes spewing out brainstorming
ideas until Bob from demographic research fell asleep and banged his head on
the table—everyone’s cue that another dreadful meeting was over.

I took my place
at the glass conference table and sat down.

“Good afternoon,
everyone!” Mr. Barnes seemed extremely chipper today. “As usual, we have some
very important ventures and promotional plans we need to discuss. But, before
we get into that, I want to introduce you to someone who has
never
visited
us before...All the way from the fiftieth floor, founding member and CEO Jonathan
Statham!”

Everyone stood
and clapped as he walked into the room. I gave a soft clap and was about to
begin my standard “tuning everything out” routine, until I noticed that all the
female directors were salivating—yes,
salivating
, at whoever had walked
through those doors.

I turned my head
to the left and saw that the “Jonathan” I’d met at the grocery store last week
was
the
Jonathan Statham.

My jaw dropped
as I looked him over. He was even sexier in his navy blue suit. He’d shaved his
stubble and his dark sleek hair was combed off his face —not a single strand
was out of place. His eyes were gleaming in a seductive hue of blue, and I
couldn’t take my eyes off his lips...or that smile...

He nodded his
head at each and every one of us, raising his eyebrow once his eyes found mine.

His lips curved
into a wry smile and he began to speak. “It’s an honor to be at your meeting
today. With over four thousand employees, it’s hard to know everyone, but this
year I want to make myself more transparent, more
available
.” His eyes
met mine again.

“I’m sorry I
don’t tell you how much I value you every day, but I really do,” he continued.
“As you know, we’re going through a restructuring phase. We’re going to be
shaking a few things up over the coming weeks by hiring new talent. Not to
worry though, no one is losing a job. We’re about to sign four major clients
and we want to make sure our marketing team is as strong as it can possibly
be.”

Just fire
everyone and start over if that’s the case...

“I’ll turn
things back over to you now, Mr. Barnes.” Jonathan walked around the table and
took a seat directly across from me.

The art director
who was sitting next to him blushed bright pink.

Everyone was on
their best behavior for a change. People were participating in the
brainstorming session and contributing ideas instead of scrolling away on their
phones or looking out the windows.

I contributed
whenever I was called, and couldn’t help but notice that Jonathan was watching
my every move. Occasionally, he would redirect his focus to the projector
screen or on whoever was speaking, but his piercing blue eyes always found
their way back to me.

Why is he
staring at me? And why is he making it so damn obvious?

I answered
another question about our latest ad campaign and caught Jonathan winking at me
as he poured himself a glass of water. I tried to look away from him, but it
was too damn hard.

He was too damn
sexy.

I was glad I’d
perfected the poker face a few years ago; I was a master at looking unaffected.

Maybe Sandra’s
right. Maybe I can date him and at least get some good sex out of it. I haven’t
had sex in a long time. A very long time...Wait, is four years really that long
of a time?

“Miss Gracen?”
Mr. Barnes interrupted my thought-fest.

“Yes?”

“Are you still
willing to work as team coordinator rather than going to the company’s IPO ball
this summer? You sure you want to gift your ticket to an intern?”

Jonathan tilted his
head to the side and narrowed his eyes at me.

“Yes, Mr.
Barnes.” I swiveled my chair around. “I don’t want to go. I think we should
gift it to the intern that works the hardest over the next few months.”

“Excellent
idea!” He began to say other things and I made a conscious effort to keep my
eyes glued on the presentation.

I looked at my
watch every five seconds, hoping the meeting would come to an end so I could
jump up and leave. I thought that there had to be something wrong with me. I
couldn’t believe I was actually fantasizing about a man who was eleven years
younger than me.

“Miss Gracen,
did you bring that segment data with you?” Mr. Barnes intruded my thoughts
again. “Did you include the latest prototype research?”

Could you please
end this fucking meeting?!

“Yes.” I held up
a blue folder.

“Great! Could
you give that to Mr. Statham please? And how about you, Mrs. Turner? Did you
happen to find out if—”

I tuned him out.
I wanted to jump across the table and thrash him for dragging this meeting on
longer than necessary, pretending like we actually did anything productive just
because we were in front of the CEO.

I turned my
chair around and saw Jonathan beaming at me with his hand outstretched. I
didn’t bother placing the folder into his hand—I didn’t want any bodily contact
between us, especially not with that panty-dropper smile of his.

I slid it across
the table and turned back around.

The meeting came
to an end
an hour
later, without Bob’s head bang as a gavel, and
everyone made a move for the door.

I leapt out of
my chair and squeezed between Mr. Barnes and the regional director. I was about
to step outside the room when Jonathan grabbed my hand, causing a sudden shock
of electricity to ripple through me.

He must have
felt it too because he immediately let my hand go.

“May I please
have a word with you, Miss Gracen?” he asked.

“Sure, Mr.
Statham...” I moved to the other side of the room.

He waited for
the last director to leave the room and shut the door before walking over to
me.

“How long have
you been working here, Miss Gracen?” He placed subtle emphasis on the
word ‘Miss’ and smiled.

“About four
years.”

“Hmmm. I can’t
believe I’m just now finding you.” He rubbed his chin. “Do you like it?”

There has to be
a better word than “sexy” to describe you...

“Do I like
what
?”

“Your job, this
company.”

“You want me to
be completely honest?”

“That would be
nice.”

“I absolutely
hate it here, but the offices are decorated quite nicely. The interior
designers did one hell of a job.”

“Good to know.”
He laughed. “I take it that since you haven’t called, you’re not interested in
going out with me?”

I nodded weakly.
“Clearly.”

“May I ask why,
Miss
Gracen
?”

He needs to stop
saying my name like that...

“There are
several reasons why.”

“Name the best
ones.” He stepped in front of me and looked deep into my eyes. “But your age
and the fact that you have kids aren’t good enough reasons for me.”

Poker face...Poker
face...
“Well,
as I’m sure you already know, it’s against company policy.”

“I can have that
rewritten by the end of the week.”

“It’s also
completely immoral and highly inappropriate.”

“That’s...
debatable
.”
He reached out and pushed a strand of hair away from my face. “Is that all?”

I didn’t say
anything. I
couldn’t
say anything.

I was too busy
getting lost in his incredible eyes. I realized that they weren’t entirely
blue
; his irises were outlined in a wispy cloud of charcoal gray and there
were speckles of emerald green gleaming within them.

“Miss Gracen?
Are there any other
excuses
?” He inched even closer to me, slightly
rubbing his nose against mine.

Why am I so
turned on right now? I shouldn’t be feeling this way...He’s way too young for me,
way too young for me...

“I’m not
attracted to you.”

He raised his
eyebrow. “Oh really?”

“Yes. Really.”

“Hmmm. Well, I
guess that is a good enough reason.” He looked at his watch. “I have another
meeting to go to...” He stepped away from me. “It was nice running into you
again. I’ll see you around?”

“I guess so.” I
nodded and watched him leave the room.

––––––––

I
wrote a few
notes in my “Zen” journal and sighed. “I love my job....I love my job...”

Nope. Still not
working...

No matter how
many times I said it aloud, I still hated my job. With an undying passion.

I went through
another stack of proposal campaigns and tossed them all into my “No way in
hell” pile. My associates were really starting to annoy me. All their recent
ideas were more terrible than usual; it was like they weren’t even trying.

I started typing
yet another inspirational email to invigorate them, to inspire them to think of
something that didn’t suck, but an email flagged as “important” popped up on my
screen.