Chapter 24
24
MAGNOLIA
1 New Message: Jack
Where’s one place you’ve always wanted to travel but haven’t made it to yet?
I picked up my phone and smiled as I read the message. I’d just gotten home from my Wednesday morning Pilates and brunch date with Margaret and was about to take a shower.
It’d been two weeks since I’d seen him but not for lack of trying. While it seemed he was more than happy to start texting me first now—which was a welcome improvement to how things were prior to New Year’s Eve—he still turned me down any time I offered to meet up with him.
The morning after he took me places I’d never been before, he drove me home and walked me to my door. I tried to tell him I could walk myself but he responded by telling me to be quiet and stop arguing. Too bad for him because arguing was my specialty. Arguing was like a second language in my family and how we communicated best.
Honestly, there’s a lot of places I would like to go but haven’t been. My family has this weird thing about staying close to home.
I got that impression when you mentioned not telling your mom about that night when you could have been on an episode of Girls Gone Wild.
I raised my brow at the reference, shocked that such a tailored man like Kolbi would have experience with a show where drunk college girls flash their boobs to the camera for free drinks.
I’m sorry, did Mr. “I wear $500 suits” just imply that he knows and has seen Girls Gone Wild? Arguably the trashiest show on TV?
I grew up with three best friends. We saw stuff, found stuff on the internet. You know.
You can blame your friends all you want but I will never forget that you watched Girls Gone Wild.
Must you always be so difficult?
Yes because I think it turns you on
I smirked at my phone and waited for his response.
Just answer my question.
I rolled my eyes at the screen. Okay I guess we aren’t being flirty.
I’ve always wanted to go to Aspen, Colorado. All the photos I’ve seen are stunning and I think it would be fun to get all dressed up and look cute on the slopes.
You want to ‘look cute’ on the slopes? Do you even ski?
God no. I’d rather be eaten alive by an alligator than go flying down a mountain on a pair of toothpicks. But all the photos I’ve seen are stunning and I’ve always wanted to go.
I see. Have you ever seen snow? It rarely ever snows here in the lowcountry.
The question made me realize how little we actually know of one another. Beyond what we had shared in stolen moments or what I had heard about him from my family, I knew as much about him that he knows of me. Which is practically nothing.
Have I seen snow? HA.
I lived in a perpetual winter for four years when I went to school in New Hampshire.
That’s right, Dartmouth.
How did you know I went to Dartmouth?
I scanned my memory trying to think if I had told him that at some point. I don’t think I had.
It’s in your file.
My brows raised.
My file?
Yes, your file. You and your parents all have one. We do a complete run up on our clients and their families to make sure we are aware of any threats that might come up.
Dartmouth, graduated with honors with a double major in economics and political science. Your parents must be so proud.
They were. So much so that they rewarded me with my own place downtown. Four years of appeasing them ended up working out in my favor for once.
You didn’t want to study economics or political science?
Not even a little. I wanted to study psychology or neuroscience. Maybe anthropology. I’m fascinated by what makes people tick.
And why didn’t you?
Because my parents pay for my entire life and in order for that to keep happening, I need to do what makes them happy.
What about what makes you happy?
I gnawed on the inside of my lip and felt a stirring in my gut. What about what makes me happy? Without even realizing it, he had just pointed out the thing that I feared the most.
That one day I would wake up and realize I had only ever lived my life for other people. That I lived for everyone else’s happiness except my own and then it would be too late for me to be happy just for myself. I stared at my phone and felt a warmness grow in my cheeks that I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
You make me happy, Jack.
You make me happy too, flower.