Chapter 16
Running through Central Park in the morning only reminds me of Rayne. I thought a run might clear my head and distract me. But I am not that lucky.
Watching the sunrise over the treetops only reminds me of the painting I made for her, then the paint on my back and the images of us playing like kids are
invading my mind, and how every part of my body was burning to kiss her right there a few days ago.
She is still out of the office while she gets everything situated in her house. I miss seeing her around the office, but I am glad I will not have to address
what happened for a couple more days?
I just wish I could stop thinking about her. When I close my eyes, I see her. When I laugh, I hear her. When I dream all I see is her.
There aren’t many people I can be myself around. Everyone seems like they need something from me, or they expect me to act a certain way. The night in
Rayne’s house was the most fun I have had in ages, and all we did was paint a wall.
My phone rings, interrupting the music playing in my headphones. I stop running and answer it, looking around for a place to catch my breath.
“Hello, this is Leonard,” I answer.
“Leonard, it’s Dad. How’s everything going?” He sounds exhausted and gruff.
I walk over to a bench and have a seat, wiping sweat from my forehead. “Dad, how’s the treatment? You sound tired,” I manage to say.
“I’ve been better but feeling like crap is all a part of it,” he replies. Right after speaking, he goes into a coughing fit on the other end which feels like a knife
in my heart. Just a few days ago, I was in LA grieving my mother’s death, so hearing my dad like this is killing me.
“Are you alright? Call a nurse or something, Dad,” I say with a concerned voice.
“It’s fine, the chemo just has me under the weather is all,” he brushes me off. “Listen, I’m calling because I need to talk to you about the business.”
“You shouldn’t be worrying about that right now, I’ve got it all under control,” I sternly reply.
“I know you do. But I was speaking to Jeff Keating. He’s one of our first international affiliates, I think you’ve met him a few times,” he rambles. “But his
daughter is going to be in town, and I think you should meet with her. She’s a single lady and quite the looker.”
“Dad, come on,” I interject. I know he wanted me to find someone, but it’s been a little over a month since he left the business. How could he expect me to
find someone in that brief time?
“I’m not saying you have to marry her but show her around town. Maybe take her to a movie or something,” he argues.
Once again, my mind wanders to Rayne. Maybe I have found someone? The idea of taking another woman out and Rayne finding out and being hurt was
unsettling, and it was the last thing I wanted to do. But I can’t actually date Rayne because she is my employee.
“Okay,” I concede. “I’ll take her out but please don’t get your hopes up.”
We say our goodbyes and I stand up, regretting sitting down without cooling off. Before I walk away from the bench completely, I notice a flyer for a play.
An off-Broadway production of Barefoot in the Park is holding auditions for a play scheduled in a couple of months.
Without thinking much about it, I pull one of the information sheets and stick it in my pocket. Rayne might want to see it.
I stretch for a minute, trying to limber back up after resting and jog back to my penthouse. Mick is in the kitchen making breakfast and he waves at me
when I walk in. He has been out of the country photographing wild animals in Australia for a week and he must have come back this morning.
“When did you get in?” I ask him, kicking off my sneakers and grabbing some cold water from the fridge.
“About an hour ago,” he answered, turning to face me. “Australia was amazing.” He starts telling me about all the things he saw and the animals he got to photograph.
“Did you know that sharks are color blind?” I ask him after he describes a scuba diving excursion he went on with his team.
He shakes his head no and laughs at me. “That can’t be true. Where did you hear that?”
I wrinkle my forehead for a minute, trying to remember where I heard the fact. I watch Animal Planet from time to time, so it must have been from there. I
laugh to myself when I finally realize where I heard it. Charlee told me.
“National Geographic, I think,” I answer Mick, not wanting to tell him I repeated the fun fact of a four-year-old.
I go to my room and find the slip for the audition and put it in my wallet, so I know I won’t lose it. When I see Rayne at the office tomorrow, I will give it to her.
I spend most of the day looking over documents that had been sent to me for a meeting I have scheduled for the next day. I must have read the same
passages over fifteen times because the only thing on my mind was Rayne. I can’t go on like this. I have to talk to her.
The next day I get dressed, making sure to look as nice as possible and leave for work. When I arrive, Rayne is already at her desk, and Charlee is there
with her. Charlee is sitting calmly in one of the chairs in the waiting room with an ocean creature coloring book.
“Leonard,” Rayne says as soon as she sees me. She stands from her desk and walks with me to my office. “I’m so sorry, but her daycare had a flu outbreak
and they had to close. My mom couldn’t watch her, so I had no choice.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I assure her. “It’ll be fine. I have a Zoom meeting later so she’ll just have to be quiet during that, but otherwise, it shouldn’t even matter.”
She lets out a deep breath and smiles before walking away. I don’t mind Charlee being around. She seemed to take a liking to me at Rayne’s house the last
time I saw them, so maybe it could be a way to bridge the gap between Rayne and me over what happened when we almost kissed.
When my meeting is over, I leave my office to sit with them in the waiting room. Charlee comes to sit with me and show me all of the pages she has
colored since being there and I make a point to marvel over each one.
“Did you know that jellyfish are older than dinosaurs?” she asks me.
“Really? Where did you learn that?” I reply. I should probably fact-check my animal facts from now on if I am going to be getting them from a child.
She excitedly runs over to the corner of the waiting room where she has put all of her belongings. She picks up a children’s book called Oh, Ocean and flips
through the pages to find the one with the jellyfish pictures. The facts on the pages explain that the jellyfish species were around during the dinosaur age, but I
don’t correct her.
“Wow Charlee, you’re so smart. Do you think I could borrow this to learn more about the ocean?”
She thinks for a moment but nods her head. “I like to share,” she finally says, looking back at her mother for approval.
Rayne and I share a laugh before Charlee goes back to coloring.
“How was your weekend?” Rayne asks me, breaking the silence between us.
“It was good, pretty relaxing,” I reply. “Did you get a lot done at the house?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty much all done now. You should see it sometime.”
I nod my head and smile at her, wondering if that meant that she wanted to pretend that last time didn’t happen, or if everything might have just been in
my head and it didn’t matter much at all.
“Oh, I wanted to give you this,” I start saying while I dig in my pocket for my wallet. “I saw it in the park yesterday. I think you should audition.”
She looks over the slip for the Barefoot in the Park audition and shakes her head.
“I can’t, I gave up acting,” she hands the slip back to me, but I refuse to take it.
“What is an audition going to hurt?” I argue, hoping she will give in and agree.
“There’s just too much going on for me to work on that right now,” she replies.
“Have you seen the movie?” I ask her and she shakes her head. “The movie is hilarious. It’s about a misfit couple doing everything they can to stay together
even though countless events are forcing them apart. It’s romantic and funny. The characters are all great.”
“You’re a real film buff, aren’t you?” she asks me, turning the attention off of herself.
“I am, but I also love the theater and think that you should audition.”
She sighs and rolls her eyes at me. “Fine,” she concedes. “I’ll audition. I doubt anything will come of it anyway.”