First Sight (39 page)

“Yeah, probably so,” I said softly, gently caressing the back of his neck with my fingertips.
  I ran my fingers through the short hair on the back of his head, longing to keep him close to me.

“So, I should probably put you down then?” he asked,
a
gleam in his brown eyes
as he smiled.

“Probably so,” I agreed
, my lips curving into a smile
as well
at t
he intimate moment
we had shared
.

I
unwrapped
my legs
and he gently lowered me to the ground
, his hands
staying firmly planted on
my waist.
  Travis backed away
slightly,
so that I was no longer
crushed
between him and the wall, and bent down to give me a gentle kiss.
  He took my hand, and in a sweet gesture, pressed his lips
to it
.  I flushed
with pleasure
and
marveled that
our
passionate
kissing moments earlier had turned into a
tender
moment
between us
.
  There
were
so many different
layers
to our relationship now
—first colleagues, then
good
friends,
and
now love interests and perhaps much more.
  I met his gaze, and for a moment neither of us said a word.
 
I almost didn’t want to move, afraid that it would some
how
break the spell.
  “I guess I
should
see who called,” I
finally
said,
reluctantly
turning to walk into the living room to get my phone.

“Tell them I’m not happy with their timing,” Travis joked.

I glanced back over my shoulder and grinned at him.
  “Me either.”

I pulled my phone out of my purse
and saw a missed call from Jennifer.  That was unusual; she r
arel
y called me on the weekends and certainly not on a Sunday morning.  I listened to my message and discovered that she needed me to come into the office for a couple of hours that afternoon.  With the deadline fast approaching, she’d been reading proofs over the weekend
and
was having trouble accessing some of the files she needed.  I sighed.  “Jennifer,” I
mouthed to Travis as I finished listening to the message.

His brow furrowed.  “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, she’s
in the office
and can’t get into the files she needs.  I have a feeling she’s just looking in the wrong place, but I’m going to have to go in.”

“Do you need me to come
,
too?”

“No, it shouldn’t take long.
 
T
he copy hasn’t even been finalized yet
; it’s not like we’re doing the final proof.
  I
just
wish she would wait until it
’
s complete, but she always likes to read
through everything
and the
n
have us proof
the final
mock-up
.  Anyway, I better go home and change so I can go in.”

“You’re going to drive to Arlington and then back into DC?”

“I guess,” I said with a shrug.  “I don’t really want to wear
yoga
pants
and a camisole to the office.”

He frowned
sympathetically, but I didn’t really have another choice.  “I’m glad you stayed over,” he said sincerely.  “I had a great time yesterday—well, this morning, too.”  He smiled at me, and I flushed, not sure if he was referring to breakfast together, our make-out session a few moments ago, or both.  I didn’t want to leave him and go into the office, but I didn’t really have any other options.

“I had a good time, too.  Dinner Friday, the picnic yesterday—everything was perfect.”  I smiled happily at all the time we’d spent together during the past few days.  Despite all that we’d done over the past few months, this weekend topped it all.

“I’ll walk you down to your car,” Travis said, his voice deep.

I went back into his room to grab my gym bag and collected my purse and phone from the coffee table.  “Here, I
’ll get
it,” Travis said, taking my gym bag from me and slinging it over his shoulder.  My mind flashed back to him carrying my bag at the retreat, and I thought how different things were between us now.  Travis took my hand as we walked out of his apartment together, and we headed to the parking garage beneath
his
building.  He stowed my bag in the trunk for me and the
n
leaned down to give me a quick kiss goodbye.  “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” he said, his voice gentle.

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow
,” I said, feeling sad all over again that I had to leave him
. 
“
Bye
,
Travis.”

“Bye,” he said softly.  He gently brushed my cheek with his
hand before turning to leave.

I got into my car and
after turning on the engine,
slowly
backed out of the space.  As I started to pull away I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw Travis still standing there in the stairwell, waiting to see that I got off safely.  My heart swelled, and I smiled to myself,
content
that things were finally working out between Travis and me
.

I spent a couple of hours
at the office Sunday afternoon helping Jennifer.  It turned out
that
someone had accidentally moved some of the files to a new folder on our shared drive, but I was able to easily do a search for them and retrieve what was needed. 
She thanked me for coming in on my weekend, and
after spending more time than I wanted
to
at work,
i
t felt like I was returning to the office all too soon o
n Monday morning
.
But r
ather than feeling
completely sad about
the end of a
great weekend
,
I felt a
giddy anxiety at the thought of seeing Travis. 
I’d talked to him briefly
last night when I’d gotten home
,
and he
’d
said that he missed me,
but that
wasn’t
nearly the same as
standing right in front of him
, looking into his eyes, or having him pull me into his arms.

Marissa saw me beaming
as I walked in and immediately asked about my date with Travis. 
I’d never gotten around to calling her back, but she’d sent me a text saying s
he’d gone away for the weekend to visit her parents
. 
H
er mouth dropped open as I told her
about
not only dinner on Friday
with Travis
, but also our picnic
on
Saturday and how I ended up staying
the night
at
hi
s apartment.

“That’s so sweet,” she gushed after I finished describing falling asleep in his arms.

“
Shhh
!”
I said, looking at her pointedly.

“Oh, no one is here yet,” she said with a
dismissive
wave of her hand.  “I’m glad things worked out for you though.  You two really are so perfect for each other.”

“
You think so?” I asked happily
.

“
Definitely!
  Y
ou always looked like you were h
aving such a good time together
even back when you were just friends.  I mean last week was a little weird, but aside from that….”

“It is strange how he was so furious at me all last week and now we’re suddenly together.”  I looked out the window, my eyes wandering down to the street below, and I remembered our encounter on Friday morning—how upset I was when I saw him, and how a few seconds later he was pulling me into his arms.  I thought I didn’t even want to be friends with him anymore that morning, and then once he’d held me, I never wanted him to let go.

“I know, right?  After that meeting on Thursday I didn’t even think you two would ever speak again.”  She giggled a little.  “It would have made working on our team a bit awkward.”

“Seriously,” I agreed.

“But the rest of time you guys were so perfect.  It’s like you were meant to be together.”

“Maybe so,” I said with a grin.

“Ugh, why do they keep emailing me?” Marissa suddenly asked, glancing at her computer screen.

“Who?”

“The
w
eb developers.
  I swear they can’t get any of my edits right.  I’m going to call them.  Apparently sending an email
with my changes
does
n’
t work.”

I shrugged and headed back over to my desk.  Grabbing the lunch I’d set on top of it, I walked down to the break room to stash it in the fridge.  Travis was already in there, adjusting stuff on the shelves to make room for his own lunch.  “Hey,” he said, his face lighting up when he saw
it was
me.

“Hey yourself,” I said smiling, suddenly feeling a little shy.
  He had on a light
blue polo shirt and khakis
and
looked tanner than usual, maybe from our afternoon in the sun on Saturday.  His hair had been freshly gelled, and
as he glanced over at me,
his dark eyes burned into
mine
.
 
It felt so different to be back at work with him.  The last time I’d seen him we’d been kissing in his living room.  Well, I guess
the very last time I’d seen him
he
’
d walked me to my car.  Still, we were alone
then
, not in the break room that
our entire
office
shared
.

I watched as
he lifted
an entire case of water someone had stuck in the
fridge
, the strong muscles on his arms tens
ing as he moved it to the top.
 
“Don’t know why that was in there,”
he
said,
his voice deep. 
He
reached out and
took my lunch
, setting
it
in
the fridge since he was already standing there
.  As he turned
back around
to face me, I felt a
tiny
flutter in my heart
at his closeness
. 
I could smell the faint scent of
his soap
and aftershave and practically feel the warmth radiating off his skin. 
He
reached out and gently brushed my cheek with
his
hand.  “It’s good to see you,” he murmured softly.

“Hi guys,” Jeff said, suddenly walking into the break room.  I jumped a foot in the air, backing away from Travis. 
“Everything okay,
Maddy
?”
Jeff asked, looking concerned.

“Sure,
I’m
fine,” I replied, feeling slightly embarrassed.  Travis nonchalantly glanced between Jeff and me, seeming
as calm and collected as usual
.

“So how was your weekend, man?  Get to that baseball game?”
Jeff asked.

I raised my eyebrows in Travis’s direction.  He’d invited me to spend Saturday with him but hadn’t mentioned he’d already had other plans.

“No,” Travis replied, a slow smile spreading over his face.  “Something else came up.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Jeff said.

I smiled and caught Travis’s eye.  “Yeah, that’s definitely too bad,” I agreed.

Travis laughed, and
Jeff looked a little puzzled
. 
I had to bite my lip from saying anything more.  Travis
glanced down at his watch.
 
“I’ve got a meeting in a few minutes. 
I’ll
have to catch up with you both later
.
”
 
He met my gaze, and I kn
e
w he didn’t want to say anything else in way of goodbye while Jeff was standing right there. 
Jeff and I chatted for a few more minutes before I headed back to my own office. 
Sitting down at my desk
, I finally turned on my
computer
.
Marissa was muttering to herself and frantically typing something on her keyboard, so
I pulled up my
email
to check it before getting to work.  I
was surprised to see a note from Travis already in my inbox. 
Although I had just seen him
,
I
felt strangely excited
to see his name there amongst all the others
listed on my computer screen.