9. Moving On
9
Moving On
One Sunday morning, Nikki, Bella, and I had just finished a yoga class and were headed to brunch. “I found you the perfect date,” Nikki said.
“Huh?” I narrowed my eyes at her.
“We may have sorta kinda hacked your professional Tinder account and pretended to be you.” Bella looked down with a tiny hint of guilt but not enough to keep the sly smile off her face. To my shock and horror, they had scheduled me a date tomorrow night.
While at brunch, they showed me his profile and eventually twisted my arm into going.
“This is him. Isn’t he handsome?” Nikki asked with an encouraging smile.
“And rich,” Bella added. “He’s the freaking CEO of an oil and gas company, whatever that means.” Bella rubbed her thumb over her other four fingers, the universal sign for “he’s loaded.”
Nikki raised her eyebrows at me. “He sounds important.”
“Fine, I’ll go just to get you two to stop bothering me.”
* * *
I rubbed my face nervously as I waited. We were supposed to meet at the Melting Pot at six on Monday night. I glanced at my phone and silenced it so I wouldn’t be interrupted by clients a million times. As I finished, I looked up right at someone. “You must be Jane.”
“I am. You must be John.” I was pleasantly surprised.
John was tall with perfect dark hair and a face like a model who looked like he just stepped out of a photo shoot with Fortune .
His name was John Smith and he owned a company called Westco Oil and Gas. His name may have been boring but he was anything but boring and average. I quickly learned this while waiting to be seated.
John put his hand on my lower back as we followed the hostess through the dark, quirky restaurant, around a corner to a very private table for two. Out of the way, a single candle was already lit.
John ordered us a bottle of champagne; we had come in separate rideshares. Turned out he had just returned from Dubai for a business trip. “Do you like to travel?” he asked.
“Sure.” I smiled. “Who doesn’t?” I thought about my last trip to New York. “But I currently don’t make a lot of time for it.”
“No time like the present.” He smiled.
I considered his words. True, tomorrow is not guaranteed. No one knew that better than I did. “I should travel more. There’s nothing really stopping me.”
“That’s the spirit. Do you have a current passport?”
I did for a trip Mike and I had taken to Mexico two years ago. “I do. ”
“Good.” John seemed happy. “You never know when you might be invited on an impromptu adventure.” He grinned genuinely at me. I was impressed with how well Bella and Nikki had done with my dating match. John was very charming, for sure. And it wasn’t lost on me that if I was his girlfriend, those impromptu trips would certainly be on the agenda.
“So, I have to confess something.” I laughed at the thought of it. “My friends hacked my account and scheduled this date for me.” I shook my head. “They did a pretty good job, I must say.”
I smiled, and his eyes twinkled as he listened to every word. “That’s hilarious. I’m impressed with their matchmaking skills.” He beamed. “I’ll be sure to thank them later.” He winked.
“It was after a pretty harsh breakup,” I added. “An important piece of the equation you should probably be aware of.”
“Okay, well, thanks for telling me. You know what’s weird?” he said. “I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before, but I just can’t put my finger on it.”
“Maybe one of those community advertising magazines. I have a ton of ads in those,” I explained, forgetting that he probably saw me on Entertainment Tonight as Theo’s ex-girlfriend.
The evening was nice. It couldn’t have been a better, more normal first date. John seemed genuinely interested in me just the way I was, crazy friends, breakup, and all.
He was interested in my current adventure of buying and fixing up my little fourplex. “I want to come see it some time.” He flirted, the alcohol relaxing us both. “If you show me yours, I’ll show you mine.” I knew his little saying had more meaning behind it. “We have oil fields all over the world. Just name a country.” It was playful and fun. He was handsome and kind, and there was no reason not to like him. But he wasn’t Theo .
Of course, the food was amazing, but the company wasn’t bad either. After dinner, we caught an Uber to the art museum where there happened to be a Monet exhibit in town for a few months.
“Monet is one of my favorite artists.” I casually mentioned.
“Interesting. Mine too.” John gazed down at me, raising his eyebrows. “You would love this little piece I have at my cabin in Aspen. I’ll have to show it to you some time.” I felt a little woozy at the mention of a cabin in Aspen, bad memories coming to the forefront of my mind before I pushed them back into hiding. He noticed. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I shook it off. We finished up, and it ended up being a nice night. John was a real gentleman. He was interesting and very good-looking. We said goodbye, he left me a chaste kiss on the cheek, and he thanked me for a great night. Sure, we weren’t ripping each other’s clothes off, but it was good. He said he would call, and I expected he would. I genuinely wanted him to.
I got home and walked into the dark condo and straight to the back deck. The city lights and the beautiful night delighted me. I took a deep breath of fresh air as I soaked in the evening. The mountains glowed in the moonlight behind the city.
After ten peaceful minutes, I instinctively pulled my cell phone out of my pocket to check emails and noticed I had missed two calls from Theo. He had left a message the second time. “Hey, where are you? I need to talk ASAP. Call me before my concert starts, please, 7:00 p.m. Pacific time.” I looked at my clock. It was way past 10:00 p.m. Mountain time. I couldn’t believe it was so late already. The night had flown by. I’d have to call Theo tomorrow; I was not staying awake until his concert in California was over .
The next morning, I had a spring in my step and a cup of coffee in hand. I was walking into my office when my phone buzzed. I ran my fingers though my hair, ready for the day to begin, and I sat my black coffee on the desk to answer. “Good morning, this is Jane with Colorado Brokers Club.”
“Where were you yesterday?” Theo asked. I was surprised to hear his voice this early in the morning the day after a concert and with the two-hour time difference. He was up early.
I didn’t answer him. I just said, “What’s up, Theo?” I was concerned as to why he was calling so urgently at this hour.
“Amy had an ultrasound yesterday. It’s a boy, Jane, can you believe it?”
“That’s great, Theo.” I said before he had a chance to continue. Where was this conversation going? I had finally moved on. Even if it was simply going on a first date, it was a step in the right direction. Now he calls… My heart raced, and I knew I wasn’t over him.
“But the doctors are concerned that there is something wrong with his brain. It was enlarged in the ultrasound pictures, possibly hydrocephalus.”
“Oh my god, Theo. Is that where there’s water on the brain? And then they have to drain it?” My voice automatically rose to a squeaky high, and a scared stammer exited as I spoke.
“Yes, that’s it.” He continued, “They haven’t diagnosed him yet, but Amy is going in for a MRI scan soon.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
“They just have to run those tests on him and Amy to see what’s going on. Jane, I’m freaking out. Can you fly out? I’m really worried. I just need someone to talk to. I don’t have another concert until the weekend. Maybe you could come to the beach house and help me design the nursery and come up with a game plan for the rest of the remodel. Remember? Like we talked about?” He seemed sincere and sort of desperate. The worry in his voice escalated. First the fear of being a father and now the fear of losing the baby, or at least the worry for its health. Poor Theo. I wanted to reach through the phone and wrap him in my arms.
My heart raced, and my mind was reeling. Could I? Yes, I would make it happen. The pit of my stomach tingled at the thought of seeing Theo. “Of course, Theo!”
“Oh, thank god. I’ll send the jet as soon as we get off the phone so it’ll be waiting for you in Denver when you are ready. Thanks, Jane. I appreciate that.”
“Sure, no problem.” I had just mentioned last night that I wanted to travel more. However, this wasn’t what I had in mind. My head was spinning thinking of all the arrangements I’d have to work out before I left. I just needed to make sure my clients were covered this week then go home and pack.
“Oh man, you don’t know how much this means to me, Jane. I’m looking forward to seeing you.” Theo added, “I can’t wait to show you the ultrasound pictures.”
What am I doing ? Was it weird he wanted to show me ultrasound photos of the kid he was having with his ex-wife?
Lost in thought, I heard him speak again. “Where did you say you were again last night? I didn’t catch that earlier.”
“Um, well, Bella and Nikki set me up on a date.” I tried to explain casually, like it was no big deal.
Theo was silent. Finally, he spoke. “Really? Who with?”
“What do you mean? Like, you want his name? It was with some guy,” I said. “I don’t think it’s really any of your business.” I told him, feeling somewhere between annoyed and anxious.
“Yeah, a name would be great,” Theo replied seriously .
“Are you serious? You want his name?”
“Yes, I’m one hundred percent serious,” he replied.
Frustrated, I finally responded. “Fine. His name is John Smith.”
“What kind of name is that? Do you know how many John Smiths there are on Google?”
“Oh jeez, Theo, don’t google him.”
“How am I supposed to find him? What’s he do?”
“Is this really happening? I don’t know, he owns an oil and gas company called Westco.”
Silence again. Thirty seconds later, he spoke up. “Shit, Jane. I’m not okay with this! He freaking owns half of Texas and Colorado, and he looks like he’s twenty.”
“Did you really just google him?”
“Maybe,” he admitted.
“You have no right to be jealous.”
Theo was quiet while he thought about it. “Okay truce?” He asked, “Can you forgive me? Will you still come to California?”
“Yes, I’ll text when I leave.” Stupid Jane, what are you doing?