Chapter 15 Jonah
JONAH
After I’d received Lexi’s phone number, I couldn’t wait to call her.
But I forced myself to wait, needing to evaluate whether this was just a passing infatuation. I waited all day Thursday, and on Friday morning, at eleven a.m., after pacing my office for the better part of an hour, I finally gave in. I dialed the number she’d given me.
“Lexi.”
“Jonah?” There was surprise in her voice, and I could hear her lowering it, as though aware of her colleagues around her.
I tried to keep my emotions steady, but hearing her say my name sent something electric through me.
She’d come in to work that morning, though I’d nearly missed her arrival.
I’d been watching the main doors since eight-thirty, but she must have slipped in during the morning rush.
I only caught sight of her as she emerged from the left wing, where the company preschool and café were located, and made her way to the elevators.
The timing puzzled me. What business could she possibly have in that wing? She had no reason to visit the preschool, and the café there was barely more than a coffee cart.
“You don’t waste any time, do you?” she asked, her tone playful. “It’s only been one day and fourteen hours since I gave you my number.”
I felt the tips of my lips curve up at the realization that she’d been counting the hours as well. “Nope. And I wanted to make sure the massage helped.”
“It did. Thank you. That was... incredibly thoughtful.”
The relief in her voice made my chest tighten. “Good.” I paused, then took the leap.
“After I met you last Friday at Aurelius,” I said, “I planned to go back again. Every Friday until I met you again.”
“Oh?”
“I was hoping I’d see you there again,” I continued. I didn’t need attachments in my life. But I wanted to feel her touch on me again. I needed her.
“I would have liked it, too, but I wouldn’t have gone. Someone else would have been there.”
My voice was heated when I spoke. “No one else would make do.”
“That’s a bit much,” she said quietly. “But thank you for the compliment. You’ll get over it. Beautiful men like you don’t need to wait long before someone else shows up.”
“But even if I’d spent months waiting for you at Aurelius without running into you, I would have been only mildly disappointed, Lexi. But not devastated.”
“Why?” she asked, her voice betraying a fleeting vulnerability.
“Because I’m pretty sure I could scour the city for you.”
“Without my last name?” she asked. “I doubt you’d have found me.”
I didn’t laugh. “I’d have found you, Lexi. I’ve never failed to do anything I set out to do before. Until the day I met you again. It hurts to know how close you are to me at work, and that I can’t have you.”
Her breath hitched.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
She spoke without hesitation. “I’m overwhelmed, actually. In my past, there was so much that I wanted and couldn’t have. I’d made my peace with that. But you? God, how badly I wish we could have a night together again.”
“Then have dinner with me.”
“Jonah—”
“Not anywhere we’ll be seen together. Just... dinner. Tonight.”
She paused, and I could hear the doubt in her voice, when she spoke again. “Tonight?”
“Yes,” I paused. “Does tonight not work for you?”
“No, I’m free,” she said, sounding taken aback. “But I thought—”
I waited for her to complete that sentence, but after a moment’s hesitation, she seemed to change course.
“I already work for your company. This can only end badly, Jonah.”
I paused. “That night at the hotel, you were tender and soft, like you showed me something no one else could see. A few days ago, in my office, you were an angry, beautiful storm. The thing is, I like both. The soft you and the fiesty version of you. I know you’re worried about the complications at work.
How about a one-time thing that involves dinner? ”
“That’ll only make it worse,” she said, though I could hear the yearning in her voice.
I could bet it had been ages since someone had taken her out to dinner. Correction: ages since she’d allowed someone to take her out to dinner. I bet a lot of men had tried and she’d been her usual guarded self.
“Well, what if I promise to be a terrible date, and you’ll be really relieved at the end of the night to be done with me?”
“Are you ever capable of being bad at anything, Jonah Walkers?” she asked ruefully, even though she knew the answer.
I chuckled. “You’re right. I can’t be anything but the best. So, come on. What do you think about having dinner with the best date you could possibly find? Just once.”
She hesitated. “If you can promise me that this stays out of work,” she said before I could say anything. “We have to keep these two worlds separate.”
The weight of what she was asking hit me. There would be so much in my life I couldn’t share with her, so many places I couldn’t take her. But after a moment, I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. She was right.
“No one can find out about this,” I said finally.
She hummed in agreement. “I can’t lose my job over this.”
“And I can’t have the board find out about this while I’m still the interim CEO.”
“Are we really doing this?” she whispered.
“Too daunting for you?” I teased.
“Well, it’ll be just once, so you can’t screw it up too bad,” she teased back.