Chapter 8 – Breathe (Pt. 2)

His friends Jamie-Lynn and Joanna had shown up about five minutes later. Adeline was still trying to get over her embarrassment as he was introducing them. She didn't want him to think that's what she was thinking about at the moment. How humiliating! But how many different ways could you take it when someone told you that you needed an orgasm – especially if you didn't know it was a drink!

He had gotten his laugh at her expense and quickly moved on when the two women showed up, leading right into introducing them with a smile on his face.

“You're Lance's new assistant, right?” Joanna had said to her, Jamie-Lynn close at her side.

“Unfortunately,” Adeline responded, shaking both of the women's hands.

Both of them laughed.

“You sound like Stephanie,” Jamie said.

“We're cut from the same cloth,” she said. “Good thing, I don't know if anybody else could stand him this long.”

“I feel ganged up on already,” Lance said. “Guess that's the price I pay for hanging around the hen house.”

Joanna pursed her lips and shoved her pointer finger into Lance's face as he laughed.

“You better watch it tonight,” she said. “You're outnumbered and we have Adeline on our side this time, mister.”

“Crap,” he said flatly, less than intimidated by her tiny finger. “I better buy the first round of drinks then.”

They started to walk away from the bar when Jamie turned to Adeline.

“It always has to be the cock that starts trouble in the hen house,” she said.

After two hours, Adeline had finally settled into comfort with the group – due in part to the three rounds of drinks they had all consumed. She preferred it when Joanna and Jamie were buying the drinks, because they had so far made the best choices of drinks for her. She felt so out of place, not knowing her way around good party drinks. She had only ever drank a few beers in her day, which she wasn't crazy about, and sipped some champagne at a couple of events. Occasionally she would have a glass of wine at the end of a long day with Marc, but as far as most of these fruity mixed drinks were concerned, she was clueless.

Joanna had just finished showing Adeline a few of the pictures from her phone when Jamie looked at everyone's almost empty glasses.

“We're getting too close to empty for comfort,” she said.

“I guess it's my turn,” Adeline said. She was thankful her dress had small, discreet pockets that she had shoved a few bills and her brand new New York ID in before she left, because she had left her purse at home.

“You're my guest,” Lance said. “Let me get them.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it's no problem.” He smiled, then scooted away from her to leave the booth. Before he stood, he brushed her arm with his hand lightly. “I'll be right back.”

The three girls watched him walk towards the bar.

“Wow,” Joanna said after he was out of earshot. “He's usually the first to remind someone that they're not carrying their fair share of the bill.”

“And he's not hesitant to do it either,” Jamie-Lynn said. “It's amazing what you've done to him, Addy.”

She smiled.

“I doubt it had anything to do with me. He's not afraid to remind me that I'm not his favorite person.”

“Yeah, and I'm the Pope,” Joanna said with a smile.

“That must make me the Dali Llama,” Jamie responded. “Don't let him make you believe that, sweetie. We both see the way he looks at you, the way he acts around you--”

“The way he acts around other people since he's been around you,” Joanna interrupted.

“How does he look at me?” Adeline questioned with a chuckle.

Jamie paused.

“Like Mackenzie has risen from the dead in front of him.”

Adeline laughed out loud. “I think the two of you are mistaken. I mean, we can barely get along as it is now.”

“Honey, he hasn't looked at anyone like he used to look at Mackenzie,” Joanna said. “That is, not until you came along.”

Joanna and Jamie exchanged a look and a smile with each other.

“What was that look for?” Adeline asked, smiling herself.

The two of them kept looking only at each other.

“You really think so?” Joanna said to Jamie.

“I do,” Jamie responded.

Joanna's eyes raised affirmatively.

“It has been a while, he's had time...”

Maybe it was the alcohol – in fact it was almost definitely the alcohol – but suddenly Adeline felt daring enough to speak up.

“You two better tell me what's going on, or I'll be the only one in the room who doesn't know!”

Joanna gave Jamie one final look before she turned to Adeline.

“He's falling in love with you,” she said.

Adeline's natural reaction was to laugh.

“Now I know you're mistaken. There's no way he's falling for me – he just stopped treating me like the garbage under his feet. My first week, he had me filling up his gas tank every day and picking up things that had already been dry cleaned so he didn't have to see me. He calls me princess on a regular basis. He hired a stripper to ambush me half-naked.”

“Not Lance's finest moments,” Jamie said. “But you have to peel back a layer and see what's underneath that.”

“Oh yeah? And tell me, what's underneath that?”

“You know he adored Stephanie,” Jamie said. “But he called her princess and much worse all the time. It's a term of endearment, not as insult – as much as he tries to make it one. The first week after Mackenzie left, he shut her out of his apartment completely and wouldn't come out or let her inside. The week after that, she was the only one he would let in. It was weeks before he got back to his normal life.”

“I didn't see him for two months,” Joanna said. “I normally see him every couple of weeks. I tried to convince him to come to dinner, or we could order into his apartment, but I got nothing. Sometimes he wouldn't even answer the phone.”

“Sometimes he still doesn't,” Jamie responded. “Talking about Mackenzie is off-limits. He has a hard time letting in me, Joanna, and Joey, his best friends – the fact that he invited you to dinner that night is amazing. Hell, the fact that he's letting you in at all is a miracle.”

“I had no idea,” Adeline said quietly. “He never talks about it.”

“No, he wouldn't. The subject's still too fresh. He's too bitter.”

“I tell him all the time he reminds me of the little old man in the rocking chair on the porch, all that's missing is him yelling at kids to get off his lawn,” Joanna said.

“I don't think he wants to be like this,” Jamie said. “But I don't think he can help it. He's in so much pain and he won't talk about it. Can you imagine losing someone you love and keeping it bottled inside like that?”

Adeline exhaled a breath. In fact, she did. She was suddenly glad that she wasn't the only one keeping secrets.

As the girls finished talking, he came back and sat at the table, a tray full of drinks.

“Some crazy pink concoction for the ladies, beer for me,” he said as he looked at Adeline. “I'm slowing down in case I need to drive tonight. Speaking of, it's almost 1:15 and our deal was 1:30, so we'll finish these drinks and leave, okay?”

“Dance with me.”

She blurted it out so quickly that not only did it surprise everyone at the table, but it surprised her as well.

“Are you drunk?” he said with a smile.

“No. Dance with me,” she responded.

For the first time, she saw him caught completely off-guard. He looked from her briefly over to Jamie-Lynn and Joanna, who were almost as shocked as he was.

“Okay,” he said. “Let's go.”

As he led her to the dance floor, she had no idea what compelled her to ask him to dance with her. If she didn't have the alcohol pulsing through her blood stream, she would have stopped and yanked him back to the table to finish her drink and retreat home quickly.

Halfway to the floor, the lighthearted dance-pop song that had been playing ended, and the first notes of a slow song started. A few couples left as the two of them found a place among the stragglers.

He immediately pulled her in, keeping a bit of space between them.

“You're sure you want to dance to this song?” he said.

“Isn't that why we're out here?” she asked.

“Yeah, but I assumed maybe it was too...slow,” he said with a grin.

“It is called a slow song, after all,” she said, returning the grin.

She knew what he meant – she hadn't accounted for a slow song either. All the other couples on the floor held hands tightly and stared each other in the eyes, while the men held their women close to them as if they never wanted to let them go. It increased the tension between them, especially for her.

When he didn't respond, she grabbed his other hand and lightly laced her fingers through it, making sure to keep the distance between them reasonable.

“You dragged me to this club,” she said, placing her other arm on his shoulder. “Now you have to at least dance with me.”

After a few hesitant moments, they became more comfortable, and by the second verse they had a slow rhythm down. They moved smoothly together, calmly silent.

“So you like my friends?” he asked her to break the silence.

“Love them,” she responded, moving with him in small circles. “I could see myself becoming good friends with them.”

“I saw the three of you having a chat while I was getting the drinks. What was that all about?”

She smiled knowingly. “Nothing. Not important at all. Just the hens clucking, you know.”

He smiled, remembering his remark from earlier.

“I'm glad you like them. They're two of my best friends – very special to me. It wouldn't be good if you couldn't get along with them. I know it doesn't seem like it sometimes, but I think you're a great person, Ad.”

She winced hearing the nickname.

“Why don't you want me to call you that?” he asked, noticing her facial expression change.

She swallowed deeply before looking him in the eyes.

“My daddy used to call me Ad.”

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I keep hitting that sore spot. I don't mean to.”

“It's okay. It takes me off-guard, that's all. Nobody calls me that anymore. Stephanie knows that's what my dad used to call me, so she stays away from it. Everybody else calls me Addy.”

“If it helps, you can call me James,” he said. “Or Lansten, that's worse. I hate that nickname.”

“I don't hate you that much,” she said with a smile.

When he smiled back, she relaxed.

“If you want,” she said hesitantly, “you can call me Ad.”

As they danced, they were now like any of the other couples on the dance floor – they looked each other in the eyes and without knowing, they had started dancing closer to each other.

But when the last notes of the song faded and the next song started, he tightened his grip on her hand and suddenly twirled her in front of him. It took her by surprise and by the time he pulled her back into him, she was laughing.

“It was getting too serious,” he said.

“It's getting stuffy in here, too,” she responded. “Let's go for a walk.”

They left the dance floor, letting other people fill in the spot they had taken up. She went outside to get a breath of fresh air while he grabbed their coats from the booth and said goodbye to his friends.

She leaned her back against the cold brick while she waited for him, letting the air cool off her skin. She closed her eyes and tried to sort out what she was feeling. She hadn't let anyone in like that in years. She felt...confused. Dizzy – and not from the alcohol. She felt like she could breathe, like an elephant had lifted off her chest.

He was falling in love with her?

She couldn't help but think of the first night they met, when Stephanie took them to dinner. The way he had shaken her hand and walked off callously. How he hadn't held the door open for her, and she nearly ran into it head-first. Neither of them wanted to look across the table at each other, much less talk to each other.

“Are you okay?”

She opened her eyes to see him standing there, holding her coat out to her, looking at her curiously.

“You're grinning from ear to ear,” he said. “Are you sure you're not drunk? You had quite a bit tonight.”

She tried to search for something to say, but words failed her. All she could do was smile, hide her face away from him with her hand, and let out a satisfied sigh before she walked away.

He followed behind her, hands in his coat pockets, quickly catching up. They walked silently for the first few blocks.

“I'm glad you came tonight,” he finally said.

“I had fun. I didn't think I would, but I did.”

“I knew you would, if you loosened up a little.”

“What's that supposed to mean, anyway?” she asked.

“I don't know if you've noticed, but you're a little...uptight.”

She smiled. If he'd said it a week ago, she would have taken offense at it. Not tonight – but that didn't mean she couldn't have some fun.

“I can't figure out whether you're like the bully in first grade who picks on the other little girls because he thinks they're cute, or whether you're truly just a jackass.”

She was amused that he seemed surprised.

“Why are you constantly calling me a jackass?”

“You're sarcastic, mean, rude, co-dependent, self-centered, a little manipulative...should I go on?”

“Please do...but after I make sure you know that you're obsessive-compulsive, emotional, violent, annoying, and a little boring.”

“Boring!” she scoffed. “You've known me all of a month and you know nothing of my personal life and what I do to have fun. And how am I annoying?”

“You're so frustratingly put-together,” he said. “It drives me crazy. I think if you woke up in the morning and your hair didn't lay in a straight line, you'd cut it all off.”

“I like organization in my life.”

“And that's what makes you obsessive-compulsive,” he said. “Life is not organized. We have absolutely no control over it. You have no capability of letting go and having a little fun.”

“Like I said, you know nothing of my life outside of this job and the time I spend working with you. Work is a time for professionalism and organization, and days off are a time for having fun.”

“Hmmm,” he said with a smile. “Let me count the days off you've taken in the past month for you. Oh wait...that's right, you haven't taken any.”

“I am dedicated to my job and to working for you. I hardly think that's a crime.”

“Booooooring,” he mocked.

“I'm dying to know what makes you the authority on fun.”

“I'm spontaneous,” he said proudly. “And that's something you know nothing about. In fact, I don't think you know the definition of the word.”

She shoved her hands in her coat pockets.

“I'm plenty spontaneous. A few nights ago, after I got home from babysitting you all day, I poured myself a glass of Chardonnay. Then, instead of catching up on my DVR shows like I normally do, I spontaneously called an old high school friend that I hadn't talked to in years and bitched about how much I hate my boss. After I got off the phone, I spontaneously poured myself a second glass and taped a picture of you to my bulletin board and threw darts at your face.”

“Wow, free spirit,” he said with a smile. “I totally stand corrected. That wasn't too sarcastic of me, was it?”

Adeline sighed. “I am spontaneous, damn it. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean I'm not.”

He suddenly stopped on the sidewalk and turned to her.

“Okay princess,” he said. “You want to prove you're spontaneous? Do something right now that I would never expect you to do.”

“Something you would never expect me to do?”

“Never in a million years,” he said. “Leave me speechless.”

She smiled at him, and suddenly grabbed the collar of his coat, pulled him toward her, and before either of them could take a last breath, their lips were against each other in a deep kiss.

She reached her hand around his neck and pulled him closer to her, and in response he grabbed her waist and pulled it towards him.

When she pulled away from him a few seconds later, she looked up at him with a grin.

“Is that spontaneous enough for you?”

His eyes were wide with shock.

“Wow,” he said.

“Well,” she said, “I guess I win that one.”

She put her hands back in her pockets and walked away, but he hung back, still in shock.

“Wait,” he called after her. “What the hell was that, Adeline? You're going to call me all those things and tell me you hate me, then kiss me and walk away from me with no explanation?”

She turned, but continued to walk backwards away from him.

“My apartment is less than a block away,” she yelled. “I'm going home. I'll see you in the morning. I'm sure you'll figure it out by then.”

He watched her smile and push away a strand of hair that the wind had blown in her face, then turn the corner of the street and disappear from him.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and sighed to himself, watching his breath in the air. He was getting ready to turn and walk back to the club so he could go home. Then he realized it.

“Damn it,” he said. “She was my ride.”