Chapter 5
LAUREN, NEW YORK
Pizza-ready Noah:
Soft brown cord trousers
Soft brown cord jacket
Mustard yellow T-shirt
Mid-blue and brown thick, textured scarf
Vegan-strapped watch
To say that Lauren had made a big effort for tonight was putting it mildly.
She had pulled out all the stops. Her long dark hair, with its glamorous puffy fringe was washed, dried, and straightened to within an inch of its life.
Her understated make up made the most of her pale blue eyes, porcelain skin and cherry lips.
Her dress, a crushed silvery grey slip of a thing, was new.
But her black boots and her trusty denim jacket were old, comfortable favourites that she loved to wear.
She’d slung some simple chains around her neck and threaded her favourite slim, silver hoops through her ears.
One generous blast of the luscious perfume she’d got for her birthday and she was set for dinner in Greenwich village with Noah.
Noah, Noah… they had been together for just over four months now and Lauren was in a jumble of emotion about it.
She really liked him, no doubt about that.
She found him interesting, maybe even fascinating.
She also found him fun and intriguing. Of course he was handsome, almost everyone in this city was the ‘best version’ of themselves.
Their hair was expensively cut, their teeth straight and whitened to perfection, they worked out, ate ‘clean’ and dressed well.
So, Noah was no exception. Well, except to her, he was.
He was tall, olive-skinned, with dark, tightly curled hair, which he wore just above the shoulder.
He had one of those rangy frames, all shoulders and long legs, so his coats and scarves flapped around him, making him look a touch windswept and poetic.
Yes, she was really into him. When he held her, kissed her and looked deep into her eyes, she was fluttery and close to believing that maybe this could be love.
But… when they went out with friends, when they partied, then he was such a social butterfly and so attentive to all their female friends that she wondered if he cared for her as much as she cared for him.
And then there were the gaps – those aching days, even weeks, when he barely messaged, barely seemed to have time for her, made her heart ache but said he was too busy with work.
And he always swept her off her feet when he breezed back into her life again.
She’d seen other young couples up close – Elena and her boyfriend, Sye, for example – Sye was away for work a lot, but somehow, he never seemed to drive Elena into any kind of pit of despair the way Noah drove her.
Was it her? Lauren would wonder. Am I being too needy?
Obsessive? We’re both twenty-four… it’s still dating, waiting to see what will happen, taking it slowly.
I can’t rush in and declare undying love for the guy, he’ll run away.
So, Lauren was trying to rein it in, play it a lot cooler.
She didn’t rush to answer his messages. Sometimes, she even turned a meet-up or a party down.
Who am I? What do I want? These were the questions she was trying to answer for herself.
She didn’t want to be ‘that girl’, clinging to her phone, needing a message from Noah to make everything OK again.
But tonight sounded as if it was going to be different.
He’d sounded so upbeat, asking her to his favourite ‘cosy little place’, telling her he had ‘exciting news to share’, flattering her that ‘I want to tell you first’.
So, there was a new dress and careful hair and make up and now, she was approaching the restaurant and she knew he was already there, because he’d messaged a moment ago to tell her: ‘I’m in a booth near the back, best seats in the place.’
‘There you are!’ were his words of greeting and as the cheerful smile flashed over his face, she smiled too. They kissed hello and she liked the way he held onto her jacket and pulled her towards him, so that she was all caught up in his hair, skin and smell.
Earlier her room had been beautifully tidied, with fresh bedding and flowers in a glass on her bedside table because she wanted him to come to hers tonight.
She wasn’t going to let him argue that he needed to be up early, or on the other side of town, or whatever.
She wasn’t going to his boyish flat share; he was sleeping over at hers.
Just thinking of that gave her butterflies of excitement.
‘Hey, Lauren,’ he said, in his smooth, laid-back voice as they surfaced from their hello kiss. ‘Good to see you. You look beautiful.’
‘Hey, Noah, you too.’ She settled into the seat opposite his and they smiled a little goofily and took each other in. They hooked their legs around each other and held hands over the tabletop, her pale fingers contrasting against his darker ones.
‘I feel like it’s been ages,’ he said.
‘Yeah, almost two weeks.’ Not that she’d been counting, of course.
‘Wow… a lot has happened in two weeks. A lot…’
‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah. Right, look at the menu,’ he said, ‘then we’ll order, and I will tell you all about it.’
So, they looked, ordered and the waiter brought them big glasses of iced water and a diet root beer for Noah, which made Lauren shudder. She’d lived in New York on and off for three years now, but she still couldn’t understand root beer. It smelled the same as Germolene!
Noah began by reminding her of how he’d been searching for a different job because doing social media marketing for a major shoe retailer had never ‘aligned with his values’ and he was desperate to do something with ‘meaning’ and ‘purpose’, so he could show up for work every day ‘excited by what I’m going to do for the world’.
Which did, to be honest, all sound a little idealistic to Lauren, but she loved his enthusiasm and the way that he truly believed this was going to be possible.
Truly gorgeous-looking pizzas were set in front of them, which the waiter instructed them to ‘Enjoy!’
‘So…’ Noah began, cutting into his enthusiastically. ‘OK, I’m just going to take a bite before I tell you what’s happened.’
OK, Lauren thought as she was cutting into hers, but kind of steeling herself.
Whatever Noah’s big news was, it was obviously something to do with a new job.
Not anything exciting about them… or their social life…
or friends, or a holiday… or well, what was it that she had expected, really?
Maybe something about the two of them going on holiday together would have been very nice.
She would like to think that Noah wanted to go away with her, spend time with her, that they were going to plan something exciting…
together. Or, maybe it was that he was moving much closer to her part of town.
That would be amazing to hear – that he wanted to make it more convenient for them to spend time together.
It would be proof that he did actually want to spend more time with her.
‘I have a new job,’ he said, as soon as he’d swallowed down his mouthful of classic New York pizza. ‘And it is so exciting…’ His smile was bright, in fact, his whole face was lit up, eyes shining. He looked so happy about it, that Lauren couldn’t help smiling too.
‘That’s amazing, Noah,’ she said, mirroring his enthusiasm. ‘Tell me all about it.’
‘So… I’m going to be the head social media manager – like head, like in charge of all of the social media campaigns, all the output, the design, the look, the feel, everything—’
‘Wow, that’s going to be a lot… you are going to be very busy. Do you have a team?’
‘No, I am the boss, I am the team – it’s all going to be me, which is great because I can be in charge of every little thing and my inner control freak is going to love it.’
‘What’s the company?’ Lauren asked, wondering if they made vegan shoes, or biodegradable shoes, or maybe clothing you could cut up and compost or something equally useful and admirable.
Noah shook his head, making his wild hair bounce about in front of his face.
There was a little pause as he tackled another chunk of pizza, so she decided to embark on another mouthful herself.
She was properly hungry and the pizza was excellent.
‘Not a company,’ Noah continued once he’d chewed his mouthful down and could speak once again. ‘I’m going to be working for a non-profit – a zoological society.’
‘Oh my goodness, that’s pretty different from selling shoes.’
And she was genuinely pleased for him, because he was following his heart, following his dream…
but didn’t working for a non-profit usually mean very low pay?
And New York was super-expensive. He probably wouldn’t even be able to stay on at his flat share in Williamsburg… he would be moving even further out.
‘This organisation is amazing,’ he waved his hands expansively. ‘I mean they run a zoo, but it’s all about research, conservation and protecting habitats. I’m so proud to be working with them.’
‘Sounds so worthwhile,’ she agreed. ‘Do you like the people you’ll be working with?’
‘Oh, I love them!’ he replied and went on to explain at length what the three people he’d met so far were like and all about.
‘So, so on my wavelength, it’s incredible.
I just got this feeling as soon as I met them.
They were so pleased I’d had all this commercial media management training, of course.
But they could see that wasn’t my path, wasn’t in my soul.
’ He put his hand on his heart and Lauren found herself looking a little too long into his deep brown eyes and wishing that she occupied a little more space in his soul.
‘So… is the pay OK? I mean charities are not known for having lots of money,’ she ventured.