Chapter 7
Chapter seven
WILL: I’d love to ask you out sometime in the next week but my schedule is completely stacked.
I’m heading out of town this afternoon but I’ve got a little time before my flight.
I know it’s last minute but since our offices are so close any chance you’re free and I could convince you to meet me by the lake for a few minutes? I’ll bring coffee.
Naomi’s office didn’t have any windows but the words on her screen made sunlight and birds and rainbows explode in her office. She read it again, then one more time for good measure and then closed it and pulled up her group text chain.
NAOMI: Will texted! He said he wants to meet for coffee right now since he’s got a little time before he leaves town this afternoon!
She added a few screaming face emojis for good measure.
BECCA: After less than twenty-four hours? This boy is THIRSTY.
ABBY: He likes you in spite of us!
RILEY: I’ve been very clear about not being roped into the ‘us’ part of that disaster.
BECCA: What’s your lip gloss situation?
ABBY: Where are you meeting him?
NAOMI: I don’t know, I haven’t texted back yet.
RILEY: What are you doing? Text him!
NAOMI: What do I say?
ABBY: Say yes!
RILEY: Yes!
BECCA: Tell him you’re not wearing underwear
Naomi texted back yes, leaving out Becca’s suggestion.
Twenty minutes later, she was seated, coffee in hand, beside Will on one of the wide, weathered stone steps that led down to the edge of Lake Michigan.
The surface beneath her was warm from the midday sun, radiating a steady heat that anchored her against the lake breeze swirling around them.
The water stretched out endlessly in front of them, shimmering under the sunlight in restless, glittering waves and behind them, the city hummed faintly, like a conversation happening in the next room.
Maybe because it had happened so fast or because there was something about Will that was different, but whatever the reason, she didn’t feel nervous being here with him.
She had barely known him a week, and this was only the third time she’d been with him, but sitting with him and talking about their day felt as natural as if they had been doing it for years.
“Let me see if I’ve got this right,” Will said, pausing to take a sip of his coffee as if he needed to caffeinate before making his attempt at summing up the situation.
“Becca, that’s Abby’s sister, decided to spy on us.
And then Abby wanted to stop her, so she came to the restaurant but she was worried I’d recognize her, so she decided to wear a giant hat.
And your friend Riley was told not to come but did anyway, and Abby tripped trying to drag them from the restaurant and landed on Freya? ”
Naomi put a hand over her face. “That … about sums it up.”
Naomi had spotted Becca first at the Bella Luna.
Mostly because Becca was smiling and waving at her.
She only saw Abby when one corner of the hat lifted up enough for Naomi to see a flash of Abby’s face before the brim dropped back down.
But that one-second look at Abby’s horrified face told her everything she needed to know.
Becca, proud puppeteer of this meeting between her and Will, was crashing her date and Abby was babysitting—clearly, painfully, against her will.
The only thing that had amazed Naomi about the whole thing was that Riley was nowhere to be seen.
But she had assumed there was a one-hundred-percent chance that they would be making an appearance at some point. Which they had.
The rest of her guesses had been confirmed immediately after Will had stepped out of the door of the restaurant.
“Sooo,” Riley had said to her, holding the “oh” until it sounded like they were going to break out into song. “I should probably get going.”
She had looked at her friends with a blank stare. She knew the logical thing was to be upset with them.
But she wasn’t.
It had been bizarrely comforting to see their familiar faces and to know that she wasn’t taking this momentous leap on her own. And she knew none of them had had anything but the best of intentions—except maybe Becca, and even then, she was coming from her own version of a good place. Kind of.
And, just as importantly, despite the—and she was being generous here—hiccup, it had been a perfect date.
The second Will had said hi to her all the noise in her head, the nerves and the doubts, the fears and futurizing, evaporated like dew on a warm summer morning.
An hour together, as short as it was, had been enough to know that there was more to this than a little flirting and some butterflies.
There was something there, something she wanted to explore.
And when he leaned in to whisper goodbye and kissed her cheek before he left?
The feeling of his body so close to hers, the heat of his breath on her neck, the sensation of his lips to her skin—she thought her knees were going to buckle right there, leaving her a lifeless doll on the floor.
Even though her friends, truly in spite of themselves, had not ruined her date and she wasn’t feeling angry, she had decided that it didn’t mean she couldn’t string them along for a little bit and get a few drinks from them.
She pointed at the table where Abby and Becca had been sitting.
“Nice try. You all get to sit down and tell me exactly what the hell just happened.”
Abby was instantly at her side. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. It’s not what you think. I was trying to prevent a scene—not cause one. I didn’t even want to be here. Becca made me.”
“I did no such thing,” Becca said as they all sat down.
“She was going to come, so I had to come to stop her. And then Riley showed up.”
“Oh, no you don’t. Don’t drag me into this,” Riley said. “Which, lest we forget, is literally what you did. You tried to drag me out of the restaurant. Which is what caused you to fall on Freya, by the way.”
Naomi couldn’t stop the singular laugh that escaped. “You seriously fell on her?”
Abby dropped her head onto the table. “Can you please accept my apology and my purchase of any alcoholic beverage of your choice?”
“I can,” she had said. “But then I’m going to need you to start at the beginning.”
Her friends had relayed the details to her, which she had now relayed to Will.
“That explains everything up to the point where Abby and Freya started fighting,” Will said.
It hadn’t started this way, but somewhere during their conversation, the small space between them had disappeared.
Naomi didn't even notice it happening, but suddenly she was aware of the warmth of his body, the gentle pressure of his arm, and the way his scent teased her senses, a subtle blend of spice and earthiness that made her feel lightheaded. She found herself having to work to focus on what he was saying. “What is with those two? Freya won’t talk about it, but I guess that means nothing since Freya generally won’t talk about anything outside of work. ”
“I don’t think I’m going to say anything that’s going to clear up your confusion. Those two have been like that since the first day of high school. I don’t know what it is that sets them off.”
“Huh,” came the mystified reply. “I don’t know about Abby, but with Freya, it’s totally out of character. I’m completely baffled by it.”
“Ehhh.” Naomi laughed. “I wouldn’t say it’s completely out of character for Abby as much as it is a more amped up version of her character.”
“I only met her briefly when she wasn’t yelling at Freya, but I can see that.”
The way he said that sobered her up.
“You got quiet over there.”
“Oh, it got me thinking, is all,” she said.
Her heart began to flutter in her chest, pounding out a nervous rhythm that seemed to match the racing thoughts in her mind.
“Are you okay with the fact that your boss is … allergic to my best friend? Is that going to affect your job? I would understand if it did. If you didn’t want to …
” She trailed off, unable to finish saying what he might not want to do.
As if saying it out loud might make them true.
Now it was his turn to be quiet. She held her breath, waiting.
Finally, he answered, “I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Freya loves me, but I know she cares about me.
I also know she’s not one to beat around the bush.
If she has a problem, she’ll say it, so if she had an issue with us, she would have said something already.
” Us. The heavy thudding of her heart became quick skips.
Did he see a future for us? “But I could ask the same of you. Are you okay with the fact that your best friend is, well, as you say, allergic to my boss? Is that going to cause issues between you two?”
She didn’t need to pause to answer because she’d already asked Abby, and she could repeat back what she had been told. “Abby wants me to be happy. High school is a long way behind us—it might take a few tries, but she’s an adult and will get her bearings.”
“Good,” Will said. He didn’t look at her as he said this, but he reached over and took her hand, his fingers intertwining with hers and sending shivers down her spine. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Because I really, really want to keep seeing you.”
Naomi’s heart bounced like a skipping stone tossed onto a lake, and she squeezed his hand back. “I really want to keep seeing you, too.”
“I’d love to do something soon, but I’m gone until Friday and then this weekend is my parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary.”
“Wow! Fifty years. I can’t imagine.” At least I can’t imagine fifty years with my ex. She wondered, briefly, if she should add that last part and get the Simon thing out of the way once and for all.
“My folks aren’t perfect, but the older I get, the more respect I have for them.” He ran his thumb along the back of her hand as he spoke. “They really worked hard at finding ways to stay connected through the good times and the bad. It’s definitely something I aspire to.”
“Yeah …” she said, chewing on her bottom lip, the indulgent feeling of his touch tempered by her thoughts. Could a man whose parents had a storybook marriage for fifty years begin to understand why she couldn’t make it five years? Or would he see her differently after she told him?
“And while I know our first date was pretty exciting, I feel like going up to Indiana for the weekend to celebrate my parents’ anniversary might be a bit much for a second date.
Besides …” He stopped, and when he started speaking again, his voice had taken on a richer quality that made her anxious thoughts grow hazy and indistinct, like watercolors bleeding together on wet paper.
“I’d like to finally get to spend some time alone with you that is more than getting a cup of coffee for a few minutes. ”
She looked up at him, the space between them nearly gone. “I’d really like that,” she said, not sure if she was referring more to spending time with him or his lips, which were now only inches from hers.
Will's hand, still wrapped around hers, gave a gentle tug, drawing her closer.
Naomi's body responded instinctively, her head tilting up, her lips parting slightly as she met him halfway.
For a moment, they hovered there, the promise and uncertainties of a first kiss hanging between the millimeters that separated them.
Then, in a movement so gentle it felt like a whisper, Will's lips brushed against hers.
Naomi's eyes fluttered closed as she let herself get lost in the sensation, her lips parting to invite him deeper.
The world around them dissolved, leaving only the gentle pressure of his lips and the soft caress of his hand on her back, pushing the thoughts of Simon out of her head like a bulldozer shoveling away debris.
She didn’t need to burden him with a past she wasn’t sure he even wanted to be associated with. What came next for them was still unknown, a cloudless sky full of possibilities. She didn’t need to bring on the rain clouds and lightning just yet.