How to Bake the Perfect Apple Pie (21 page)

“Maybe he’ll just show up again?” Brianna shrugs her shoulders.

“It’s possible but I’m not banking on it.” I swallow the last of my wine. The bottle is empty and I’m too tired to consider chatting anymore. I need to get home. I promised Brianna I wouldn’t cry in a public place and my eyes are about to release a flood of tears. I wish Brianna was right and Jack would show up. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think if anything was going to happen, he would have tried to make physical contact with me while I was still at my parents’ house instead of going completely off the radar. My heart is aching. Maybe I’ve crossed too many wires and made my barriers too high. Maybe Jack is letting me go.

Chapter Sixteen

Knock. Knock. Knock. I glance at the clock on my computer. I’ve got less than an hour to close out of this work week. Fortunately, everyone on my team took to task with their points and our numbers have seem an improvement overall. Not our best week, but better than last and we can only hope to build upon that. I’ve got a meeting scheduled for Monday morning with everyone and Javier sent me a message today, advising me that I was off his hot-seat radar for the moment, but not to “get comfortable”.

I open the door to my office. Leena is standing before me in her usual work cardigan, a fuzzy brown sweater she wears all year round. She has some sort of coldness issue… Maybe it’s due to her frozen heart.

“Hi Leena, what’s up?”

“We need to talk.” Leena pushes her way into the office and flops down in the chair in front of my desk.

I force myself not to roll my eyes. “Please come in,” I say, a little sarcastically. I can’t imagine what I would
need
to talk to Leena about, but I sit down at my desk despite this.

I raise an eyebrow at her, giving her the cue to spill. She is the one who called this quasi-meeting.

“So, listen, I’m only telling you this because I consider you a friend.” She pats down her auburn bob. “People are talking about you.”

She waits for my response. I’m silent. I’m not going to react to this comment. We work in an office with lots of women and men are known to be gossipy as well, so if someone is gossiping about me, I wouldn’t be completely surprised.

“Well, anyways, people are saying that you and Trent are dating.”

I jerk my head back and let out a laugh. “Um no, definitely not.”

“I didn’t think you would…because you two wouldn’t make a good couple…you know?” She shrugs a shoulder at me. I’m not sure what she means by this but honestly I don’t care.

“That being said…if you were interested or even a little bit dating him…I just want to caution you not to, because you’re in a management role now and well…you know how things can get out of proportion with office chatter.”

“Clearly, considering
this
is the rumor that’s floating round. All right, well thanks for letting me know.” I stand up.

“Yeah, like I said I consider you a friend, so I wanted you to know.”

“Right, well thanks.” I nod and make my way around my desk.

Leena finally takes the cue and stands. She places her hand on the doorknob. “And one more thing, be careful in the elevators… There is a security camera.” She strides out of my office without another word.

I close the door and lean against it. I bang my head against the laminated wood. Great. So somehow people have seen the footage of Trent coming on to me. Except I don’t know what angle they saw or how they viewed it. It should be obvious I was in the corner and he was leaning down towards me. I roll my eyes.

At my desk, I send out the last of my emails and close a few of my customer files that I have been working on. It’s Friday and I am ready to jet. Brianna and I are supposed to go out tonight. But I’m not sure if I’m up for it. I kind of want to watch a bunch of sappy movies and sit with my bowl of popcorn, a bottle of wine, and drift off into a sea of unaffected bliss with no worries and no regrets, no what-ifs, and why hasn’ts, or will-he-show-ups. No, I don’t want any of that.

I lock my computer and grab my purse. I scurry down the hallway. It’s empty, which is normal as it’s almost five on Friday. Most people try and leave early to skip the traffic and begin their weekends. I hit the down arrow on the elevator and it immediately dings open.

I step in and so does Trent.
Great.

“Hey Lauren, how was your week?” Trent stares down at me.

“Good, the team’s numbers were much better.” I nod.

He hits the close button on the door. I step forward. I’m not going to wait for him to press it. He doesn’t move out of my way and I reach for the button.

“You look much happier.” Trent inspects my face.

I crinkle my eyebrows and step back. The elevator is moving down and it will only be a few more moments in this small box and I will be off to begin my own weekend.

“I guess having great numbers can do that to a person.” I shrug.

“No, on Monday you seemed really sad, but now here in the elevator
with me
, you seem so much more…what’s the word?” Trent taps his finger over his lip.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Trent, but you do know there are cameras in the elevator, right?” I nod to the black circles on the top of the ceiling.

Trent laughs. “Ah, you don’t want an audience. Gotcha.” Trent motions a hand gun at me and backs up.

I roll my eyes. I do want an audience as far as he’s concerned. Being without a witness to these types of situations would not be a good thing. I shudder.

The door opens and I stride to my car. The click of my heels is not the only sound in my wake. Trent’s footsteps are behind me. I stop and stare at him. “What are you doing?”

“I thought you wanted me to follow you so we could be alone away from the cameras.” Trent motions to the cameras in the parking garage. I’m thankful they exist as well.

“No, Trent, I don’t want you to follow me. I’ve got to go.” I charge forward to my car, hop in, and immediately lock the doors. I back out of the garage and am thrilled not to see Trent in my rearview mirror. How many times do I have to tell him I’m not interested? I roll my eyes. At the stoplight I pull out my phone. Zero messages from Jack. And one from Brianna.

“Let’s meet at Pier 95. It’s a gorgeous night!”

Brianna couldn’t be more right, the sky is a nice shade of blue, which reminds me of Jack’s eyes. I swallow. It’s just after five and the sun has not set. It is a gorgeous night. I scan my outfit. I’ve got on a coral blouse, grey pencil skirt, and my brown peep-hole heels. This can definitely be an after-five ensemble.

I type back, “See you in ten.”

Honk. Honk. I glare in my rearview mirror. “Okay, people…geez.” I let my foot off the brake pedal and move forward an inch. Five o’clock traffic. I can’t believe the impatience of the people behind me as if moving forward was so important they needed to honk at me.

It’s stop and go until I hit a side street and make my way towards the water. Pier 95 is one of the top fusion places on the water. They have a mix of Indian and Thai food that is to die for. My stomach rumbles. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of their veggie samosas with chili sauce. Brianna is probably already sitting at the bar enjoying one of their ever-changing martinis.

After I park my car in a pricey, but hopefully safe garage, I stride down the sidewalk until I step onto the dock and do my best not to get one of my heels stuck in between the slats on the pier. I did this once and fell face first into the wood. I’d had zero to drink and it was extremely embarrassing. I cut my knee open. I don’t know why I was embarrassed by the blood gushing out of my leg, but I was. It was as if I had done something wrong or was causing a problem for others around me, by burdening them with the gruesome sight of my injury.

I shake my head and focus on each step. Not going to relive that one. I make my way across the wood until I cross the entrance of Pier 95. The lights are not as dim as a lounge; they haven’t tamed the lighting for nighttime just yet. I scan the crowd for Brianna. She is not hard to miss in any crowd. She has one of those non-girl-next-door faces and a body to match. I’m surprised she was never a model. She always scoffed at the idea when I mentioned it to her, as if the thought had never crossed her mind. I roll my eyes.

The place is packed. I peek my head in between different groups in search of her jet-black locks. After I’ve circled the room, I reach for my phone and text her.

“Are you here?”

“Go out the side door and walk towards the back, the far balcony.”

Okay, this is odd. She never wants to be far from the crowd.
Whatever.
I follow her instructions and make it to the back balcony, which has only one table. One table and one patron, and it’s not Brianna.

“Jack?”

Jack stands up and strides towards me. He wraps his arms around me and kisses my head. “I’ve never missed anyone this much in my entire adult life.” He leans down and our lips meet. And I’m falling. Falling into his arms and back into his heart. A wave of emotions is swirling around me.
Happiness, lust, love, and fear.
I pull back.

“Did you set this up with Brianna?” I search his face as if I can read the answers from his eyes.

Jack pulls my chin up. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure after Saturday if you would see me again, so I asked her if she could get you here.”

“Why didn’t you just call or text?”

“Lauren, you seemed unwavering on Saturday. You rushed off into your parents’ house. Then you didn’t show up to Vintage Estates on Sunday.” He runs his hand through his hair. “I didn’t know what to think. I was confused as to why you would want to throw everything away.” He shakes his head. “And then I talked to Corinne and she made some good points.”

I tense. I somewhat appreciate if Corinne helped to bring Jack here, but I still am not excited about the idea of them chatting about me.

“What points did she make?”

Jack sighs. “I’m sorry. I should have clued into how much setting the date means to you.” He leads me to the table and we sit down. “I just thought I could take care of the business side of things first and then join you here.”

I shake my head. “But don’t you think you should have communicated this with me?”

“Lauren, like I said on the boat…I haven’t had to run anything by anyone, ever. This is new to me.”

“It’s new to me too, but the difference between us is that I
want
to share details of my life with you and you don’t seem to feel the same way.” I swallow hard.

“That’s not true. I do want to share with you. I just didn’t want to share things with you that I wasn’t sure would work out. I didn’t want to get your hopes up.” Jack presses his lips together. “There aren’t many things in life that I have ever failed at.”

I roll my eyes. “That’s a bit arrogant.”

“It might be, but it’s true and the problem is I don’t want you to witness me failing at anything.”

I slump my shoulders. “Jack, I understand you have insecurities about failing, everyone does, but if we are to be in a relationship or even a marriage for that matter, you have to be willing to open yourself up completely to me.” I roll my lips together. “And I to you. Otherwise, this isn’t going to work.”

“You’re right and I’ve done a lot of thinking this week. I should have let you in on all of my plans. Do you want to hear them now?”

I smile and nod. It’s all I’ve been wanting since I said yes to his proposal—that extra level of closeness, knowing the answers to the questions.

“Okay, so I’ve started the process of hiring another person who can take over the majority of my role at Vintage Estates. And I’m almost ready to open a branch of my architecture firm here in Baltimore.”

I blink several times. “So you are really looking into moving here…permanently?” I can’t believe this. This seems so surreal. Jack is here and he’s telling me he’s about to move here to be with me. I swallow. I want to crash into his arms. And run my hands through his hair.

“Yes, Lauren, we can’t live apart forever.” He squeezes my hand. “That was never the plan. It’s just taken longer than I thought to get us together.”

I laugh.

A waiter walks up to our table.

Before he can speak, Jack does. “A bottle of Duval-Leroy, please.”

The waiter nods and heads back inside.

“I thought you didn’t want to leave Vintage Estates?”

“I didn’t want to leave Vintage Estates in a bad place, but running the business was only supposed to be temporary for me. If you had wanted to run it with me, then I would have considered it.” Jack stops talking.

The waiter returns, pops the cork, and offers the bottle to Jack to smell. He nods. The waiter pours me a glass of bubbly and then another for Jack. He exits our private moment.

Jack clinks my glass. “Lauren, these bubbles are a promise of what is yet to come. Give me until the Fourth of July and then we’ll pick a wedding date
together
. Everything will be tied up on my end by then.”

I laugh. “So the bubbles are supposed to be symbolic of the fireworks exploding?”

“No, the bubbles are symbolic of my love for you… Every time I’m without you I feel like my heart is going to explode from how much I miss you.”

I bite the inside of my cheek. “Jack, I love you but if we’re going to make this work you can’t shut me out in future. And I can’t shut you out either. I’m sorry, I should have told you how much setting a date meant to me and how much it bothered me that Corinne was getting to spend time with you when I wasn’t. Promise, if we are stressed or worried about something, we have to tell each other.”

“I will. I promise.”

“I don’t want our relationship or marriage to be like a business. I want to be your equal and privy to everything.”

Jack eyes his glass. “Lauren, you are my equal, you are my everything, but you have to be willing to let me surprise you from time to time.”

“Surprises are one thing…but you can’t keep big things from me. Like you were planning on moving here. We never talked about it. But it’s a big decision that involves me too. You have to talk to me. We have to talk about things.” I take a sip from my champagne.