Chapter Seven
Jorja
“H ELP WITH WHAT?” I blurted out, though, of course, I knew what he was referring to.
“The book fair,” he replied, not missing a beat. Nothing seemed to throw him off his game, a trait I wished I could say I had, too, but I knew I would never be as calm and confident as that. I shifted my weight from foot to foot, not knowing what to say, especially with Haley’s gaze burning into the side of my head like a laser beam right now.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude,” he continued. “I just heard you talking about it. I’m an event planner. I can help you put it together, if you want.”
“No, it’s fine,” I replied. “I can’t afford to—”
“You don’t need to pay me.”
“What?”
I frowned at him in confusion.
“I’m not trying to charge you for this,” he assured me. “I just want to make sure that this store stays open. Places like this, they’re valuable. If there’s anything I can do to make sure it stays open, I’ll do it.”
“No, you don’t have to do that,” I replied, shaking my head. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll figure something out.”
“You’ve got something figured out!” Haley cut in, clearly not willing to let me miss out on this. “You’ve got the book fair, and someone who’s willing to help with it. You’re set!”
I chewed on my frayed bottom lip. Oh, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I felt like accepting his help would just be rude, given that he had only just arrived in town and he was offering to do it for free. If there was one thing my grandmother had always been insistent to teach me, it was the value of time, and I balked at the thought of asking him to give away his for free.
But, as he gazed back at me, an open smile on his face, I knew there would be no better opportunity than this one. It wasn’t as though chances were dropping into my lap every time I turned around. Besides, with Wharton hanging over my shoulder, it was probably smarter to make a move and do something to actually change things around here. Desperate times called for desperate measures, right?
That was how I was going to justify spending more time with him, at least.
“I guess... I guess I could use your help,” I admitted finally.
He grinned, the smile spreading wider across his face. I noticed, for the first time, a dark smattering of stubble on his jaw, and found myself wondering for one crazy second what it might feel like under my thumb.
“Great,” he replied. “I’ll be able to pull something together in the next few days. This place’ll be full in no time, trust me.”
“Yeah, I hope so,” I muttered, fiddling with a hangnail and trying to keep my cool. I didn’t like having to accept anyone else’s help, but what kind of choice did I have? I knew Haley would kick my ass six ways ‘til Sunday if I tried to get out of accepting this guy’s help, and the last thing I wanted was to let her feel like I wasn’t doing everything I could to keep this store alive when things were getting tough.
“Let’s talk about it over dinner tonight,” he suggested smoothly.
Sheesh, as though I wasn’t blushing enough as it was, I could feel my cheeks burning a bright red, and I was sure he had to have noticed it by now.
“I’m not looking to date right now,” I blurted out quickly. But if I was, it would be with someone like you.
“That’s fine,” he replied, hardly fazed at all. “Call it a meeting then, about this book fair. Does that sound good?”
I hesitated a moment before replying. I still wasn’t entirely convinced this was a good idea, but I didn’t want him to change his mind about helping me. I would need all the aid I could get if I was going to keep this place open.
“Sure,” I replied.
“I can come pick you at your place around... seven, shall we say?” he replied. “Where do you live?”
“It’s just a couple of streets over,” I replied, and I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from the desk. “Here, let me write it down for you.”
I handed him the paper with my address on it, and, just like they had when I’d given him the book, I felt our fingers touch, the same little spark of electricity passing between our skin, like someone had closed a circuit. I drew my hand back quickly, sneaking a look at his face to see if he had felt it, too. If he had, he was doing a good job hiding it—a better job than me.
“Thanks,” he remarked, tucking it into his pocket. “I’ll see you tonight, okay?”
“See you then,” I replied, and with that, he turned on his heel, and made his way out of the store once more.
Haley managed to hold her breath just long enough for the door to drop shut behind him, before she spun on her heel to face me, clapping her hands together.
“You’re doing it!” she exclaimed.
“Going out with him, or the book fair?”
“Both,” she replied, nudging me playfully. “What are you going to wear for your date tonight?”
“It’s not a date,” I replied firmly. “You heard what he said. We’re just getting together to talk about what we’re going to do for this book fair.”
“Oh, it’s a date,” she teased me. “Your eyes are going to meet over a copy machine, and that’ll be that.”
.I couldn’t help but laugh “Not exactly my idea of romance,” I replied, as I tapped on one of the covers of the books we had unloaded earlier. “You think these books have a lot of event planning in them?”
We finished up for the day. Haley promised to lock up the shop, telling me to get home and get all dressed up for my evening with Seth. And, while I could tell her all I wanted that there was nothing to this particular meeting today, I was still worried about what I was going to wear and how I was going to look.
I didn’t exactly have a lot in my wardrobe that would have passed for date-night wear. It was either stuff I could wear at the store, or cozy clothes for hanging around at home in. Mia was perched on the bed, cleaning her face and shooting the occasional judgmental glance in my direction as I laid out pretty much every item of clothing on the floor, praying that at least one of them would jump out at me.
A dress, right? I should go for a dress. That was appropriate. I only had three dresses. The black one I tried on first looked a little too serious, but the other dresses were obviously for the summer, and I didn’t know exactly how many layers I would need to put on before I could bear to be out in the winter cold in them. I tried one of them on, but shook my head and pulled it off again. No, I didn’t look right. Too fluffy and frilly. I would have to go with the black one.
I did my make-up and hair in the mirror, putting my dark hair up, then down, then up again. What was going to convince this guy that I was really not looking for anything romantic? Was I even convinced of that? I couldn’t tell. I wasn’t sure. I felt like I was losing my mind a little, and he was due here in just ten minutes or so. I scrubbed off the red lipstick I had put on and chose a nude. Now wasn’t the time to go experimenting with a bunch of different stuff. Just stick with what made me comfortable, and I would be just fine.
I stepped into a pair of low heels, the only pair I owned, and then slipped the dress on.
The zip was a little fiddly, and I was groping around at the back to try and heave it up when I heard the doorbell go. Crap! I checked the clock on my bedside table, as Mia took off down the stairs to see who it was – we didn’t get a lot of visitors, so I guessed she had good reason to be intrigued.
I hurried down after her, still fiddling with my zip. I couldn’t quite pull it up, but I couldn’t just leave him standing outside the door, could I? As long as I didn’t turn my back to him, then I would be just fine.
I peered out of the peephole, and there he was, standing just a few feet away from me. dressed in a crisp blue shirt with a light gray jacket over the top of it, glancing around as he waited for me to answer the door. My heart twisted in my chest when I saw him like that. Oh, I still didn’t know why he was so intent on helping me, but maybe it was about time I just accepted that he was serious about it. He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t want to make a difference, and I needed to remember that.
Pushing back my shoulders to try and hold both sides of the dress together, I put a smile on my face and opened the door. He greeted me with a grin.
“Hey, Jorja,” he murmured. Oh, the sound of my name on his lips, it made me a little weak at the knees. Which, I was pretty sure, wasn’t supposed to be how you went about a business meeting. Thankfully, Mia took some of the spotlight from me, as she rubbed between my legs to say hello.
“And who’s this?” he asked, stooping down and holding a hand out to her.
“Mia,” I replied, backing toward the wall at the far end of the corridor. If I could just slip my hands up, crouch down a little, and pull this zipper up, I would be ready to go. But I had to do it without him noticing.
“She’s beautiful,” he remarked, as she butted her head into his hand.
“She really is,” I agreed. I squirmed my hands behind me, but, just as I got a grip on the zipper, he glanced up. I froze to the spot, hoping I didn’t look too crazy.
“You okay?” he asked me, frowning. I was about six feet away from him, and I guessed it must have looked like I had just backed off out of nowhere.
I nodded quickly. “I’m fine,” I assured him. “Just...”
I trailed off. Hell. I had no idea what to say. Luckily, Mia cut in with a little chirrup, and he glanced down at her again. There, I had a chance! I pulled up the zipper, shifted the dress into place, and quickly put on a smile.
“I’m ready to go when you are,” I announced. I could already tell how awkward I had been, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had just decided he wanted to cancel the whole thing right then and there.
But, instead, he grinned at me as he straightened up.
“Great,” he replied. “You look lovely, by the way.”
“Thanks,” I murmured. How long had it been since I had been out with someone like this? Even though I had laid down the law and made it clear this was about nothing more than the book fair, I couldn’t help but remember how it had felt to have his fingers brush against mine. How it had felt to have his skin touch mine, if only for a second.
He held the door for me, and I locked up, taking several tries to get the key into the lock, of course, because my hands were shaking so much. Did he notice that? If he did, he was kind enough not to say anything about it. I would have been so mortified if he had spotted how I was acting right now. Wherever he was from, I doubted the girls acted this weird when he was taking them out to dinner.
He opened the car door for me, a perfect gentleman, and I slipped in to the passenger seat, shooting one last look at my comfort zone, my home, vanishing as we pulled away. I forced myself to take a long inhale and exhale, reminding myself what I was here for.
I tugged at the skirt of my dress, hoping I had worn the right thing. Because, tonight, it felt like I couldn’t do anything right.