Beautiful Together (29 page)

30

After I packed my backpack on Thursday night, I hung out with Arielle. Elise's current boyfriend was back in town, and they were out on a date.

"I met this really cute, really cool guy the other night," she said suddenly. "He's like a musician and stuff. I can't believe I forgot to tell you."

"Really?" I asked. "You mean you
slept
with him?" I felt a little cruel after saying it, but she didn't seem to notice.

"No, actually!" she contested. "I met him at this bar, and we talked a lot. And then we went back to his place, but we didn't have sex. He said he wanted to wait. But we made out a lot, and he's probably the best kisser I've ever been with in my life."

"That's cute," I said. "That he wanted to wait. And that he was so clear about it."

"Yeah, I mean, usually guys just chase me into their beds and we do our thing and move on. But this guy really surprised me. Caught me totally off guard. Normally I would have been mad, but I wasn't."

"So you're gonna see him again?"

"Absolutely. I've been, well...
thinking
about him, if you can believe it. Not just in a dirty way either. We're hanging out on Saturday night."

I laughed hard. "You're ridiculous, Arielle. And I love that about you."

"Well, maybe I'm ready for a change too. I never thought I'd see you date again. Times are changing."

"Yeah." I sat there on the couch, staring at the dirty, pale walls in the apartment, the apartment we had shared together for years. The apartment in which we eschewed all serious responsibility and remained eternally young in spirit while our bodies slowly grew older.

Now, Elise had graduated and had a boyfriend, I was basically dating my former best friend, and Arielle was mysteriously talking about
actually dating a guy
.

Hell was freezing over, and that meant the future held some interesting things.

"Are you excited about this weekend?" Arielle asked.

"I am. And I don't know what's going to happen when I get there."

"Don't think too hard about it. At the very least, you deserve a good time. So do whatever you want and don't regret it."

"That's easier said than done," I added.

"Well, just do it," she said, adding no clarification whatsoever. "So how do
you
feel about this whole thing?" she asked. "Do you think it's weird that he said he loves you?"

I swallowed, a bit unnerved by the question. "No, not weird," I said. "I don't really know. I felt a lot of strong things really quickly."

"So maybe you just want to date for now then? Not be too serious? Have fun?"

"I guess I'm... open to more," I said. I wasn't even sure what I meant, but Arielle didn't dig any deeper.

"Cool," she said. "Go for it, dude."

We both went to bed pretty early, but it took me a long time to fall asleep. I was so giddy, so unbelievably excited to see Jesse again. I tried not to have any expectations other than that
maybe
I'd know what the hell was going on after the weekend.

No guarantees, though.

I awoke on Friday morning sleep-deprived, yet full of energy. I got to work early for once, and Vijay was thrilled.

"It's going to be a busy day," he said proudly as I walked in. "I paid for an ad on a pizza box and they were just printed last night. It's going to be perfect."

"Whatever you say, Vijay." I was in such a good mood. And when I felt that good, I could deal with anything. "Just don't forget that I'm leaving early." I put my backpack in the stock room and sat down at the computer.

"You should go buy us coffee now," he said, handing me a ten-dollar bill. "You won't have any time later."

"Of course," I added with a smile. I snatched up the money and headed out into the day. It was chilly, but once again, I was impervious to
everything
.

I got the drinks and returned about ten minutes later. The shop was still empty.

"They'll start coming in any time now," Vijay said with gentle optimism.

"Who orders pizza at ten in the morning, though? I think we'll have to wait even longer."

"Plenty of people do," he complained, but it was clear he knew I was right.

I laughed and shook my head.

***

By the end of my shortened day, it was clear that Vijay's prediction wasn't coming true. In fact, it had been even slower than usual for a Friday.

"What a waste of money!" he shouted. "Those assholes ripped me off."

"You need to give it time," I said reassuringly. "Do
you
look at ads on pizza boxes?"

"I don't eat pizza," he said.

"Well, maybe you should start," I said. "So you can better understand your customers."

"I guess we'll just wait," he mumbled.

"I'm gonna head out," I said, pointing at the clock. "Boston awaits me."

"Sure, sure," he said. "Have a great time." He sat down at the computer after I stood up, and immediately started tapping away on the keyboard.

"Bye, Vijay!" I called as I walked out the front door. As usual, he was too focused to respond.

I headed straight into the subway, and about ten minutes later, I was at the bus stop. When I saw the bus pulling up, everything became real. I was going to Boston.

I settled into my seat and got comfortable. As an added bonus, the bus had Wi-Fi—
and
it was actually working. However, I didn't feel like using my computer, so instead I read a self-help book Arielle had recommended.

It was all about
pursuing your passions
,
achieving your goals
, and
staying positive,
and although it was pretty tacky—it was mostly cheesy anecdotes about how the author had conquered difficult situations in her own life using her own ingenuity—it definitely helped as I searched for my real purpose.

When I was about fifteen minutes away from the scheduled arrival time, I texted Jesse to let him know I was close.

Him: Cool! I'll be waiting for you at the stop! :)

After that, I couldn't read anymore, so I put the book away and tried to relax. I stared out the window, watching as we headed into Boston, the Charles River on one side, the city and parks on the other. It was beautiful, albeit a lot smaller than I was anticipating.

Most cities seemed small when you lived in NYC.

The sun was low in the sky as we arrived, and it gave everything a beautiful orange-crimson glow. When we finally navigated through what appeared to be a series of rather challenging streets—I hated driving in NYC and it looked like I'd hate driving in Boston as well—we pulled up at the stop.

I stared out the window, scanning for Jesse, but I didn't see him. We were also a couple of minutes early, though.

After the doors opened, I grabbed my backpack and headed out. I looked around, but I didn't see him. There were some benches, and I walked toward them so I could sit while I waited. But right as I went to sit down, I heard an excited voice behind me.

"Naomi!" I turned around, and there he was, standing there near the bus in a pair of goofy-yet-cool aviator sunglasses, that familiar black jacket, and another tight pair of jeans. He was freshly shaven and looked younger without the stubble. And he'd gotten a haircut. It was trimmed short, yet still perfectly messy, like I'd already had my hands in it...

I almost didn't recognize him.

"Jesse!" I hugged him tightly.

"God, you're beautiful," he remarked.

I leaned forward and kissed him, a fiery kiss filled with longing and desire. When it broke, I looked closely at his face. "I think I like the stubble better."

"Really? I thought it was making me look old."

"Well, without it, you look really young."

He shot me a wry smile. "Isn't that the point?"

"I want the stubble back right now, Jesse Evans," I said sternly. "I'm not trying to rob the cradle here."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, laughing. We both paused.

"I'm so glad to see you," I said. "I couldn't stop thinking about you after London."

"But it hasn't even been two weeks," he joked.

I playfully punched his arm. "Yeah, but I didn't know what was gonna happen."

He leaned toward me. "Well, I
knew
you'd come if I invited you. It was easy. Anyhow, let's get going. We'll have plenty of time to chat later. Are you hungry?"

"I'm starving."

"Is Thai food okay?"

I smiled as my stomach audibly growled. "Absolutely."

We hopped on the subway and headed to his "favorite restaurant in the whole world." It was pretty incredible Thai food, and there was some serious kick. I had to keep blowing my nose from all of the heat.

"How are you not crying right now?" I asked at one point.

"I can handle spicy food. Is that such a crime?"

I laughed. It felt so good to be out on a date again, just the two of us. Yeah, I loved going out with my friends. But it wasn't the same. Compared to my usual routines, going on a date was really
settled
.

This felt so fresh and new, even though we had been best friends before. It was true though—things had definitely changed.

After dinner, we went out for ice cream. Once again, it was his "favorite place in the whole world." I made fun of him for repeating that phrase so much, but after I took a bite of my hot fudge brownie sundae, I realized how right he was.

When our gluttony spree was over, we headed back to Jesse's house. It was a short subway trip away, just barely outside of the city.

He held my hand the whole time, occasionally gazing over at me with eyes full of want. I liked the feeling of connection.

It reminded me of our night together in London.

"I don't know who'll be home," he said as we approached the front. It was a huge, two-story blue house with no front yard and a small driveway with an old Honda Accord parked in it.

"Finally got rid of that old red truck, huh?" I asked with a smile.

Jesse started laughing. "Yeah, it broke down in the middle of nowhere the summer after graduation. I had it towed to a junkyard. It got me through all of high school, though."

I smiled. "So how many people do you live with?"

"Five right now, all people in the company. I mean, we'll probably move out soon now that money is finally starting to trickle in. Already picked out an office space. The trip to London proved how badly we need it. But living together has definitely helped streamline everything for the launch."

We got to the front porch and stopped.

"You guys don't fight or anything?" I asked quietly.

"I didn't say
that
," he said. "But we get along better than most people since serious money is at stake in every social interaction."

Suddenly, he pressed me up against the door and kissed me hard, the aggression turning me on. "God, I want you, Naomi," he growled in my ear.

When he backed off, I had to catch my breath, my heart pounding with excitement. My mind plunged into the gutter.

His lips curled into a dirty smile. "All right, let's go in." He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair.

He unlocked the front door and led me inside. There was music blaring from around the corner, pulsing up-tempo dance music.

"We do most of our group work in the dining room," he said, pointing in the direction of the music. "Sorry about the mess. Typical start-up company."

He was right about the
mess
—in the dining room were three guys typing away at computers, the floor littered with pizza boxes, Chinese food boxes, fast food bags, energy drink cans, and styrofoam coffee cups.

I was a little surprised there weren't overweight rats living comfortably at their feet.

There were individual desks arranged next to long tables. Computer towers sat on the floor, the mess of wires so thick you almost couldn't see through it. Three computers were currently unattended.

"We clean it once a month," he said. "Religiously."

"That's a relief," I said. "I would hate to see it if you didn't."

We approached the work area. Jesse called out to his partners. "Hey, guys, this is my old friend Naomi. She'll be here this weekend." I had wondered what title he'd give me in front of them, but
old friend
seemed to be just fine since I knew that the details of
us
weren't clear.

One of them nodded, a tall, skinny guy with almost garishly red hair. I semi-recognized two of them from Duck and Waffle. They all seemed incredibly transfixed by their work, the most stereotypical
coder
types I'd ever seen in my life, typing on autopilot like they were machines instead of men.