Moments of Julian (9 page)

“
How are finals going, by
the way?” I ask.

“
I finished my last one a
week ago.” I come out of the closet, suitcase in hand, to see him
lying on his back staring up at the ceiling. “I think my brain has
melted from all the studying. Words feel a bit like mush right
now.”

I pull the handle up, cross one ankle
across the other, and lean on it. “I’m proud of you, you know.
You’ve taken these last few weeks seriously. Have you made a
decision yet?”

Kale rolls onto his side and props his
head up with his hand. His expression is serious at first, but then
a smile starts to curl on his face. “I told Calvin I’m starting
full-time Monday.”

Normally, a part of me would cringe at
his declaration that he’s done with school for the foreseeable
future, but I’m just glad to see someone else look happy for a
change. I want to steal a little bit of that and hold onto it for
just a little while.

“
I’m happy for you,” I
admit.

Kale climbs to his feet and presses a
kiss to my forehead. “Thanks, Sage.”

“
Now go get dressed so you
can take me to the airport!”

I check the bag with my clothes, but
there is no way I am letting a bag with seven thousand dollars
worth of designer shoes out of my sight. The flight attendants
carefully stash it and my briefcase into the overhead compartment.
I just have to settle back into the oversized, plush first class
seat and wait for takeoff.

My brain wouldn’t shut off last night,
running through all the possible outcomes of this Toronto deal over
and over. I’d done my research on Katherine Valchez and thought I
had a pretty good feel for how to approach her, but you can never
really read a person until you’re standing face to face with
them.

And then as soon as I finally started
to drift off to sleep somewhere around three in the morning, I had
nightmares about missing my flight, about not being able to get a
taxi, about not being able to find Katherine’s building.

I was back to being wide awake again
by five.

Grateful for the four hours of quiet
ahead of me, I lean my seat back and close my eyes.

I don’t mean to fall asleep, but
within three minutes, I am out cold.

“
Ladies and gentlemen, we
are starting our final descent into St. Paul,” a voice echoes. “The
captain has turned on the seatbelt sign and we ask that you remain
in your seats for the rest of the flight.”

I blink the sleep out of my eyes and
turn toward the window. There isn’t much to see. Heavy clouds cover
most of the view, but every so often there is a patch that breaks
and reveals city.

“
Can I get you anything
else before I have to sit down, Mr. Dohring?”

My neck nearly cracks, I whip my head
to the other side so fast.

“
No, I’m fine,
thanks.”

There, sitting one row up from me in
the aisle seat, is Julian.

“
How about you, Miss
McCain? I hope you slept well.”

My eyes dart up to the flight
attendant just as Julian looks back at me. My eyes flick back and
forth and I’m pretty sure my mouth is hanging open in
confusion.

“
Uh,” I start to recover.
“No, I’m fine, thank you.”

The flight attendant smiles pleasantly
and moves to the front of the plane.

My brows furrow and my eyes focus on
Julian. No words are coming right now and I’m half wondering if I
am still sleeping.

Why in the world would Julian be on
this plane?

“
You look confused,”
Julian says, this time without his signature smile.

“
I’m on my way to Canada.
You have been absent for two weeks. So yeah, I’m a little lost as
to why you’re on this plane,” I say, my voice flat.

“
What a coincidence,”
Julian says. “I am taking a four day getaway trip to
Toronto.”

I scowl at Julian for a full thirty
seconds before I say anything. “Are you stalking me? And I’m asking
this somewhat seriously.”

Julian looks uncomfortable and I’m
pretty sure it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him look that
way.

“
After all the craziness
I’ve been going through the last couple weeks, I just wanted to get
away for a few days. I needed a serious brain break. I called your
work last night to see if maybe you wanted to go do something
before I left, but Gretchen said you’d already gone home for the
night to get ready to leave.” Julian keeps his voice low, but not
quite low enough to keep the nosey woman in the aisle across from
me from looking our way every once in a while. “I bribed her into
telling me where you were going and on what flight.”

“
I’ll be sure to fire her
as soon as I get cell service again,” I say. Everything in me is
bristling.

“
Don’t,” he says with a
shake of his head. “Trust me, it took some serious coercion. I
think the poor thing is desperate to see you enjoying
yourself.”

“
So, you
are
stalking me?” I
ignore his previous statement.

“
Yeah,” he says, that
smile finally returning to his face. “I guess I am a little
bit.”

“
Hmm,” I say as I fold my
arms across my chest and look out the window.

Due to the loudness of the plane and
the too close proximity of the ears of our fellow passengers,
Julian and I don’t say another word as the plane finishes its
descent and touches down in St. Paul. As soon as the seatbelt sign
turns off when we roll into the terminal, everyone erupts from
their seats and start grabbing baggage from overhead.

I too climb out and reach up for my
bag. During the flight, it shifted and it’s turned and jammed
itself in the compartment. I jerk it, but it doesn’t
budge.

“
Here,” Julian says,
suddenly directly behind me. I feel his thigh brush against my rear
end as he steps forward. My shoulder meets his chest as he leans
over me and I am enveloped in his scent. He gives my bag two solid
tugs and it comes free.

I don’t reach for it, knowing he is
going insist on carrying it anyway. He retrieves his own duffle bag
and we wait silently and crowded up to each other to get off the
plane.

Thankfully the benefit of first class
puts us at the front of the plane and it only takes a minute for
the crew to let us off. The pilot has come out to watch everyone
disembark and winks at me as I walk by.

Julian and I walk side by side up the
ramp and into the airport. Neither of us says a word, but every
nerve ending in my body is aware of every cell of his.

The airport is fairly quiet, being an
afternoon on a Wednesday, not one of the highest travel days.
Julian slings his bag over one shoulder and wheels my bag behind
him. He glances over to me as we walk down the tarmac toward the
connection screens. I bite my lower lip to try and suppress the
smile that wants to spring onto my lips.

“
Gate B12,” Julian reads
off the screen. “Other end of the airport. You hungry?”

Actually, I’m starving. I was too on
edge to eat much last night and I completely forgot about food this
morning. I nod.

“
Map says there’s a café
this way,” he says, nodding his head toward the end of the airport
we need to be heading. “We’ve got an hour before the connecting
flight.”

Silently, we once again set off toward
the café.

“
Hey,” Julian greets the
worker at the register. “I’ll have the turkey club and an orange
juice. And she’ll have…”

I didn’t expect Julian to combine our
orders so it takes me off guard when he turns to me. “Uh, I’ll have
the tuna salad and a water.”

“
That all for you?” the
worker asks and Julian pays him. Another employee hands me a tray
with our order.

“
Where you want to sit?” I
ask him.

He’s already crossing the hall toward
where there is a table looking out over the runway. I set the tray
down and Julian parks our bags next to the chairs.

I’m hungry enough and Julian already
knows I’m no real lady, so I take a bite before either of us gets
the chance to say anything. Julian smiles and unscrews the lid of
his juice.

“
My brother is the king of
OJ,” I say, nodding my head toward his drink. “He goes through a
gallon almost every other day.”

“
And the mystery of Sage
McCain becomes slightly less shrouded,” Julian says before taking a
bite of his own sandwich. “She has a brother.”

I realize my mistake in never
revealing anything personal, but at the moment I am not too
concerned. “Three of them, actually.”

“
You’re lucky,” Julian
says.

“
You don’t have any
siblings I take it?” I ask as I unscrew the lid of my
water.

Julian shakes his head. This would be
another of those moments to share personal information. But neither
of us goes there for the moment.

“
So, this trip is for
business,” Julian says. “You’re an important employee with her very
own assistant. Must be a big deal.” He takes another huge bite of
his sandwich and then folds his arms on the table.

“
It is actually,” I reply,
my heart skipping a beat in nervousness at thinking about it again.
“If I can close this deal it will be worth millions extra for my
company.”

“
Millions doesn’t seem
like a whole lot to a company like Digit,” he
scrutinizes.

“
A month,” I clarify with
a smile.

Julian does look impressed and his
eyebrows rise before he downs more of his orange juice.

“
This will be the biggest
international deal we’ve done, as of yet, if I can close this,” I
say as I swallow more of my sandwich.

“
So your boss is going to
be very unhappy with you if you don’t close it.”

“
I hadn’t even considered
it a possibility,” I say with a coy smile.

Julian smiles too, his head cocked to
one side just slightly. “I love your confidence, Sage.
It’s…refreshing.”

“
Thank you. It’s
refreshing to meet a man who appreciates it.”

“
Hmm,” he mumbles, his
lips forming into a thin line. “Shall we make our way to the
gate?”

“
That’s probably wise,” I
say as I wad up the wrapper to my sandwich and let it roll onto the
tray. I keep the rest of my water, tucking it into my briefcase,
and toss the rest into the trash. Taking up our bags again, Julian
leads me toward gate B12.

They load the plane within the next
few minutes and Julian and I hand our tickets to the attendant for
them to be scanned. We make our way down the ramp and into the
plane.

I glance down at my ticket for my seat
number and slide into it. Julian stashes our bags above head and
looks down at his ticket. With a smile, he looks back down at
me.

“
This is your seat, isn’t
it?” I ask, indicating the seat next to me.

“
Well, how about that?” he
says as he lowers himself into it.

“
You did this on purpose,
didn’t you?” I accuse him, even though I’m fighting a
smile.

“
Actually,” he says,
leaning toward me. “I was on standby for both these flights. I
booked them so last minute the airline wasn’t sure they’d be able
to get me on. This is pure luck.”

Some guys are difficult to tell when
they are joking and when they are telling the truth. Despite
Julian’s teasing nature, I am sure he’s telling me the
truth.

The attendants finish loading the
plane and for fifteen minutes it is chaotic and noisy and the air
grows stuffy and filled with too many people smells. Julian leans
slightly toward me to avoid getting his shoulder abused, and I
don’t mind that his other one is brushing mine.

The attendants roll through the
standard flight safety spiel and then we are taking off. In three
hours we will touch down in Toronto.

“
How have the last few
dance classes gone?” Julian asks after the attendants have taken
our drink orders. “Are you enjoying the rumba?”

“
Things have been fine,” I
say, tearing my eyes away from the window to look at Julian. “Beth
has been having a hard time with the men since you disappeared on
us. They aren’t getting it very quickly.”

“
How about you?” he asks.
“Are you?”

Truth is that I am doing average, no
better or worse than anyone else. “Getting to wear shoes finally
helps.”

“
Hmm,” he mutters. “I look
forward to seeing you in your beloved shoes.”

I pull the inflight magazine from the
pocket in front of me and open it to a random page. I have no
intention of reading it, but I need something to keep my hands and
eyes busy.

There is something about the rumba
that is incredibly sexy and intimate. The moves are controlled and
precise and Beth insisted one of the keys to the dance is eye
contact. It’s hard to do when you’re staring down Frank who is
fifty-six years old and always smells of pickles and
smoke.