Never Choose Flight (A Fighter Romance Novel) (9 page)

I walked in five minutes late, and Samantha had a bit of a worried look on her face. But when she saw me she perked right back up. “Good morning,” she said.

“Hey.”

“How’s Jessica today?” she asked.

“Jessica is pretty good,” I lied. Jessica was feeling amazing. “What’s up with you?”

“I am a wee bit worried,” she said.

“What about?”

“Derek,” she said.

My head spun to look at him, but he wasn’t there.

“He’s not here yet,” she said.

“He always gets here before me,” I said.

“He usually gets here before me too,” she said, “and I get here way too early.”

We both looked at the desk with no Derek behind it. “What do you think happened?” I asked.

“No idea,” she said. “Maybe he’s sick?”

“How often does he have sick days?”

“Never,” she said. “Maybe he’s got a bad case of a broken heart.”

“A shattered ego,” I said.

“Or just a shattered face,” she said. She turned back to face me. “That man you’ve found can sure throw a punch.”

“You should see him when he’s trying,” I said.

“Can I?” she asked.

I paused. “You probably shouldn’t. It’s not the safest stuff to be around.”

She shook her head. “Jessica. Going to things too dangerous for someone like me. I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Trust me,” I said, “neither did I.”

We laughed.

“Seriously though,” I said, “do you think I can get in shit for what happened to Derek?”

“You?” she said. “Probably not. I mean, you weren’t even really part of it.”

“But Malcolm?” I asked.

“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. I’m sure the security tapes show that Derek had a knife, so it was just self defense. But I don’t know if there are microphones in here or anything. Or how exactly the fight was organized. I think that matters a lot too - if one person is egging the other on than the whole thing can be ruled as that person’s fault.”

I tried to remember the whole conversation, but it was all a bit blurry. Much more important things had happened to me since then.

“I’m sure you’re fine though,” she said. “And I’d bet that Derek won’t want to press charges or anything. He’s not that kind of guy. He has way too much misplaced pride. The worst that could happen, I think, is that he challenges Malcolm to another fight.”

“Ha,” I said. “I don’t think that will happen. Derek learned his lesson. I mean, he didn’t stand a chance. Malcolm was just joking around and
still
managed to disarm him and break his nose. Derek might be annoying and awkward, but he’s not
that
much of an idiot.”

Suddenly a look came on to Samantha’s face of panic and laughed. “Yeah, so I just watched a movie,” she said, and then her eyes darted to behind me. “Oh hey Derek!”

Derek mumbled something and then carried onto his desk. “Talk to you later,” I said to Samantha, and then took my place across from Derek.

He looked
terrible
. There was a large, white bandage on his nose. Something to keep everything in place. Beneath each nostril the skin had been dyed red - I guess from all the blood that had run over it. And then around each eye was a large, dark, bruise. Two black eyes, just like Malcolm had predicted.

Normally I never start the conversation when I’m with Derek. Of course, normally Derek starts one so quickly that I hardly have a change. But not today. Today he just sat down in silence and got to work. Didn’t even give me a second glance.

“How’s it going?” I asked, quietly.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Thank you for asking.”

“I’m doing alright as well,” I said, not wanting to brag about how great my evening had been. “Sorry about what happened with Malcolm yesterday.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “It was dumb of me to try and fight him.”

I actually kind of felt bad. Derek had gone from so high to so low,
so
quickly. Like one day he was an emperor, and the next he was a peasant child.

“Samantha has your knife,” I said.

“Cool.”

“I’m sure she’ll give it back to you if you ask nicely,” I said.

“But what’s the point?” he asked, looking up at me. Staring at me with his broken face. “Apparently I can’t use it anyway. And the one person who I try to impress has found someone else.”

“There are lots of other people who are worth impressing,” I said. “Seriously.”

“Sure,” he said. “And I bet I’ll meet lots of them at a job like this. Sitting across from the same woman all day every day.”

I gave up. There was no way I was going to be able to cheer him up. Clearly he just didn’t want it to happen. I got to work. Got to my emails. Tried to forget about Derek sitting there moping. But then he spoke to me. “Is is because I’m ugly?”

“Aw,” I said. “No. Of course not. You aren’t ugly, Derek.”

“Of course you say that now.”

“I mean, you’ll look a lot better once the bruising goes away, but you’re a handsome guy. You just aren’t my type.”

“Sure,” he said.

“I know that somewhere out there is a girl who’s perfect for you. And one day you will meet her. And you will be very happy for a long time.”

“And you’re that girl to Malcolm, you think?”

“I think I am,” I said.

“I’m happy for you.”

Then he turned his head back to his work, and I got back to mine as well. It felt like the end of an era, having a conversation with Derek where I did most of the talking and he didn’t try to hit on me at all. It felt good.

I actually got some work done. I didn’t mind it so much this time. I was just working like I had before. Making sales. Getting it done. I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I knew that I had the man who I wanted. I knew that I had an interesting life that was going to start happening after work. And that was enough. I didn’t even need a cup of coffee every half hour.

At one o’clock, Malcolm showed up. Walked right over to my desk and put his hand on my shoulder.

“Hey,” I said.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

“Not bad, I’ve just gotta finish up this email.”

“Sure,” he said. Then he looked over at Derek. “Sorry about your nose, guy. But you really were trying to stab me.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I’m not going to press charges or anything.”

“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt,” said Malcolm, “and assume that you’re doing that out of the kindness of your heart, and not because you have no case.”

Derek let out a bit of a laugh. I had not heard him laugh many times. Maybe he’d actually changed a bit after the fight.

I typed out the rest of my email, hit send, and then stood up.

“Where do you want to go today?” asked Malcolm.

“Joe’s?” I said.

“Same as last time?”

“Why not?”

And so we went down the stairs, out of the building, and down the sidewalk holding hands. Into Joe’s we went, and we ordered the same things we’d ordered last time. The man behind the counter smiled, and we sat where we’d sat last time.

It felt like a pleasant routine already. We were already slipping back into a rut, but not it was a rut together - not separate ruts. It felt nice.

“So,” he asked, “is there any point in me asking you how work is every day, or is it basically always the same?”

“It doesn’t change much,” I admitted. “What about you? What’ve you done today?”

“Went to the gym for a while,” he said.

“Cool,” I said. I didn’t go to the gym much, so I didn’t really have a follow up.

We sipped our drinks and ate our food.

“Thought about you for most of the workout,” he said.

I smiled and blushed a bit. “Aw. What about me?”

“I want to take you out,” he said.

“Isn’t that slang for assassinating me or something?”

He laughed. “Yes. But that’s not what I meant. I meant take you out to dinner.”

“That would be nice,” I said. “Or we could just go to your place. I bet you can cook a great dinner.”

“Eh,” he said, “I’m mainly a breakfast aficionado.”

I laughed.

We finished up in silence, staring into each other’s eyes. It felt so nice and romantic. I just wanted to pounce onto him right there in the cafe. I couldn’t imagine how crazy I’d go if we ended up going to a fancy restaurant sometime.

He walked me back up to the office, and we past by Derek again, but he didn’t say anything. I could tell that Malcolm felt a bit bad about that whole thing. We kissed goodbye, but before he left he said. “So I’ll pick you up at six?”

I just stared at him, head tilted to one side.

“For the dinner out?”

“You wanted to do that tonight?”

“I can’t see why not.”

“Six?” I confirmed.

“Yep. Wear something nice.”

“Alright,” I said.

And he gave me another peck and then left. I stood there, dazed for a minute. This man moved fast. Like, I understood that we’d already had sex twice, but it still seemed fast. It’d be our third date-like-thing in two days.

I guess I was still smiling as I walked past Samantha. “Good lunch?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Sounds like I’m going out to a fancy dinner tonight.”

“How fancy?” she asked.

“I don’t know. He said
dress nice
. Whatever that means.”

“When a man like that says those words, it means it’ll be somewhere really nice. Is he rich?”

That was a question that I’d literally never given any thought to. Clearly he was well off enough to have a place. But I still didn’t think he had a car. So how would he pick me up. And was he still fighting for money, or did he just do it for fun? “I have no idea,” I responded.

“Sounds like you’ve still got plenty of surprises in store with this guy. That’s good.”

“It is good,” I said. “I just hope they’re all good surprises.”

“I’m sure they won’t be,” said Samantha. “But you’ll get through them. Or you’ll dump him. Either way, I think you’re in for a good time.”

“I’ve already had a couple good times with him,” I said.

She raised her eyebrows at me. She knew exactly what I meant. “Didn’t you start dating, like, yesterday?”

I just gave her a wink and then walked over to my desk. I looked back once I had sat down and she was smiling, shaking her head to herself. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I think she was jealous. Of me. Of the incredible man I’d landed. The man who I got to have dinner with.

The rest of the day flew by. I tried to figure out what to wear. What makeup I’d put on. How I’d do my hair. There’s a reason girls never suggest dinner dates on the day they’re going to happen. A lot of planning needs to be done to make sure everything goes just right. But I had a feeling everything would go just right anyway. What could go wrong?

Derek didn’t speak another word to me. We just both worked, getting sales done, and then he left ten minutes early. He never normally left early. He really did seem like a different man.

I sped all the way home. I only had an hour from the time I was off work until I was getting picked up. I had no idea what I was getting picked up
in
, but I knew that it was happening soon and that I had a lot of getting ready to do.

I got home and hopped in the shower for a quick rinse, trying not to get my hair wet. I put on a pair of panties and a bra that matched. Black with a bit of lace around the edges. I looked in the mirror and felt how he’d described me. Womanly.

I never wore dresses, but I did own a few. So I pulled one on - a  dark blue on that went halfway down my thigh. It looked good enough, and somehow I only had twenty minutes left to get ready so I went with it.

It felt very freeing to wear a dress. I always felt too ugly for them. You never see women like me wearing sexy dresses. Never in magazines or on TV or anything. If you see a woman like me at all, she’s always in jeans, and often being made fun of. But I felt good. I felt free. And I felt sexy.

The makeup was simple. I wasn’t very good with makeup, so it kind of had to be. I pulled out a box of makeup that I’d almost never used. I had my regular stuff that I used every day, and then I had this stuff. The fancy stuff. Christmas and birthday gifts from over the years.

It was mainly things that I thought were too bright for me. Things that would draw too much attention. Things I never thought I would wear.

But I pulled out a tube of red lipstick and applied it, puckering at myself in the mirror. And damn if I didn’t look sexy in it. I powdered my cheeks lightly, and then applied the smallest amount of blush with a red that complimented my lips.

I applied a thin line of eyeliner, and then went with some mascara and an eyelash curler. Then just the tiniest amount of blue eye shadow. It worked together well with my dress.

I stood back and looked at myself. Looked myself up and down, like I was a guy checking me out. And I liked what I saw. I really, truly did. And that sensation was still so new to me.

I loved it.

Then I put on my only pair of black high heels, and threw on a black cardigan. One more glance at myself in the mirror, and then there was a knock at my door. I waited a minute. I didn’t want to seem
too
eager, for some reason. Didn’t want him to think I’d been doing nothing but wait for him ever since I got home. I mean, that was basically the truth but it wasn’t the right kind of romantic for the moment.

I opened the door, and there he was. He wore a simple, well-fitted black suit with a blue shirt underneath. He was totally clean-shaven. He looked gorgeous.

“Oh. My. God,” he said, looking me up and down. “You look stunning. Absolutely stunning.”

“You don’t look half bad yourself,” I joked.

He stepped towards me for a hug, and then over his shoulder I saw it. A limousine.

“Holy fuck,” I said, I thought just to myself.

He turned around and looked at it too. “Yeah, I don’t have a car and I didn’t think a taxi would be nearly nice enough.”

I couldn’t help but smile like a crazy person. No one had ever,
ever
, picked me up for a date in a limo before. It was incredible. “I can’t believe it,” I said.

He took my hand and walked me to it. The drive was standing there, and he held the door open for us. I stepped into the back and it was incredible. Exactly like in the movies. It was more luxurious than my house.

He stepped in after me, and smiled at me. Reached for the mini fridge, handed me a glass, and popped open a bottle of champagne. “Normally,” he said, “I don’t drink. It lowers reaction time. But I don’t think anything is going to go wrong tonight. Not with you here.”

He poured us each a glass as the limo smoothly pulled away from the curb, and I smiled at Malcolm uncontrollably. No one had ever treated me this well.

“Cheers,” he said, holding his glass towards me. “To us. And to whatever may happen.”

“To us,” I repeated.

Our glasses clinked, and we each took a sip. It was bitter, and it bubbled on my tongue, but I loved it.

I looked down at my outfit. “I sure hope I’m dressed nicely enough,” I said.

“You’re dressed perfectly,” he said.

“So where are we going?”

“Funnily enough,” he said, “we’re going to Joe’s. But not the same Joe’s. It has the same name, but it’s opposite in every other way. The full name is, like, Joe’s Ristorante Italiano or something.”

“Sounds very fancy.”

“It is,” he said, “but you deserve it. We deserve it. I haven’t been out to a nice dinner in a long time.”

“I guess you don’t really need to go out when you can cook as well as you can.”

He laughed. “You’d be surprised,” he said. “I really am not joking around when I say I’m only good at breakfasts.”

I laughed. We both laughed, and drank more champagne. He sat real close to me, muscular arm resting over my shoulders.

“You really do look incredible,” he said. “I thought I’d already seen the most beautiful woman ever, but then you went and broke your own record.”

All I could do was smile.

We finished our champagne just in time for the limo to come to a stop and open the door for us. I watched Malcolm pull out a large stack of bills and pay the drive, and then we were there. At Joe’s. But not the same Joe’s. Joe’s Ristorante Italiano.

He took me by the arm and we walked in. Everything was going perfectly. A fancy date. A handsome boyfriend. I was on top of the world. But, of course, that didn’t last forever. It didn’t even last very long.

* * *