Chapter 10 #2
Then Beth turned to me, and I breathed in the hint of her perfume mixed with the natural scent of her skin. Simply wonderful. I resisted the urge to kiss and caress her neck right then and there and pulled the zipper up the last four inches of her beautiful back.
"Ready?" I asked as she turned around and I could see her cheeks glowing red too, and offered her my arm to take.
"Ready," she said, linking her arm with mine.
"Then let's go," I said, turning around once more. "And thanks for watching the place, Veronica. You have a great little boy."
Veronica just nodded, and it seemed to me that Beth was in a hurry to get out of the shop, and not just me, because I didn't want to run into Jake.
"Did you happen to get the red dress I sent you...?" I asked as I held the passenger door of my car open for her.
"I did. Too big," she said with a smile.
"Then my assistant must have gotten the size wrong," I quickly invented, offering her my hand and feeling little sparks shoot up my arm as our fingers touched and she got in.
"No problem. It was nice of you. But I have other dresses," she replied, giving me a smile.
As I closed the door, I made a mental note to listen more to his recommendations next time, but even more, I thought about the woman in my car who wasn't making a big deal out of it at all.
The stereotypical woman I usually took out would have called me screaming and cried into the phone, "Size 6? Do you think I'm a fat slut?"
Beth wasn't one of those women, she was...
Yeah, what exactly was she to me?
This was all supposed to be just a means to an end. For a new store location. But somehow, I knew it was going to get a lot more complicated.
******
"That was really delicious. Thank you," Beth said, giving the waiter a friendly smile as he cleared the empty plates from our main course.
"Dessert?" he asked, to which Beth and I both said yes at the same time, then looked at each other and smiled, which pretty much described the course of the evening: nice company, good conversation, and lots of laughter, and more than once it had felt like harmless flirting.
Damn, I thought if I got to know her better, I could focus on business again.
But it was even worse than a year ago. An invisible force seemed to emanate from Beth, pulling me deeper under her spell the longer we talked.
I learned how she had taken over the flower shop and actually felt a little shabby, because I was learning so much and she even talked about the ARS Group, my company, and the takeover offers, and I said nothing, because I didn't want to ruin the moment and destroy the harmony.
"I'll bring you the menu," the waiter said, but neither of us gave him another glance. Instead, we looked at each other for a long time, as if we couldn't get enough of the other's eyes.
Damn, I have to pull myself together, change the subject, and somehow stay on task.
We were sitting here in a cozy corner of one of the best Italian restaurants in the city, and the way Beth ate her linguine was poetry in motion.
Add to that the gentle scent in the restaurant, which somehow smelled like a mix of sea air and an old town, so you could imagine you were actually sitting in a small alley somewhere in Italy.
The soft Italian music in the background only reinforced this impression, and I was more than tempted to take her hand next to her glass right here and now, pull her over to me, and tell her that I want to pick up exactly where we left off last year. But I can't. I have to stay on task.
"Your friend. That Veronica," I began, as a good topic came to mind, at which point Beth's expression changed, and she looked almost a little startled. "Is she raising her son alone? Does she have a husband?"
Beth looked at me for a moment with a blank expression, as if she were carefully weighing her words. But then she gave a crooked grin and tilted her head slightly to the side. "Why do you ask? Do you want to ask her to dinner too and compare?"
"For God's sake," I said and instinctively reached for her hand across the table.
Only when I was holding it did I realize what I was doing, but I noticed that Beth didn't pull her hand back and just looked at me.
"I just wanted to ask a question about your friend.
" I paused again and looked directly into her eyes.
"I only want to go out with you," I whispered afterward, adding, "And I don't think I'm very good with kids anyway. "
I don't know what I'd done, but it looked as though Beth was close to tears, because she pulled her hand back and dabbed her left eye with a clean napkin.
"Did I say something wrong? I didn't mean that I don't want kids, I just don't have any experience with them and..." I said, trying to fix whatever it was I had triggered in her.
"It's okay, it was just a watery eye. Happens to me sometimes. Don't worry," Beth said, forcing a thin smile. "Somehow, I'm not in the mood for dessert anymore. Can we maybe just go?"
"Whatever you want," I said, but my feeling that I'd said something wrong only grew stronger. Beth nodded again to confirm her wish, pushed her chair back, and we stood up.
We walked silently past the bar, where I paid the bill with my credit card. The valet brought our car around and handed me the key.
Just as Beth had opened the door and was about to get in, I gathered my courage and placed my hand on her shoulder.
"Hey," I said, as she paused and we looked at each other.
"If I said something inappropriate, please forgive me. I was just trying to be nice and I thought if Veronica is a single mom, that must be damn hard and..."
There it was again, that glassy look and the feeling that I was making it even worse, and yet she smiled. "Already forgotten," she said.
"But I haven't forgotten," I whispered and threw all my resolutions to take it slow overboard. "I haven't forgotten last year. Not for a second. And I regret that it ended."
Beth's cheeks flushed as my face moved closer to hers. This time she didn't pull back. Not even when our lips met, which felt like the fulfillment of a long-held wish I didn't even know I had.
Our tongues played with each other. I stepped closer to her, wanting to feel her body against mine, and gently pressed her against my car, not wanting this to stop.
But it did stop.
Quite abruptly, in fact.
Because suddenly I felt a hand between us. Beth's hand.
She gently but firmly pushed me away, and when she looked at me, there was that glassy look from before again. What was wrong with her? Hadn't I given her the feeling, with words and actions, that everything was okay?
"I'm sorry, Alex. It was a wonderful evening. But I'm taking a taxi home," she explained and turned to leave.
Helpless and stunned, I stood there for a few seconds, processing her words. Never had anything so strange happened to me. First she lets herself be kissed, and then she leaves me hanging?
"Beth. Wait, I..." I began as she got into the taxi behind my car.
"I'm sorry," Beth said and gave a curt smile as she closed the door and the taxi then started to move. I watched the taillights and didn't understand the world anymore.
Until just now, I thought everything was going perfectly.
Now, however, I didn't know whether I should drive after her, text her, or forget her.
What had gone wrong?