Worse still, I was the sucker pretty much opening the door and inviting her to shit all over me again. I had plenty to lose, including my pride. Again. If anyone should have hesitations it should have been? On a whim, I decided to mentally wipe the slate clean. I didn’t want this to end the way our coffee meeting had, and negative thoughts weren’t helping matters any. Instead of dwelling on the past, I was going to play this like a first date.
“So, tell me about yourself. How long have you lived in NYC? How did you get into your current role?” Why not start with the basics? It had been twelve years, and in actual fact, I knew almost nothing about her, apart from the ancient history we shared.
She looked at me incredulously, narrowing her eyes suspiciously as though trying to work out my ploy.
“There’s no angle, Melissa, no need to be suspicious. It’s been a long time, and I really just want to get to know you a little again.”
She blinked rapidly, still saying nothing. In fact, she looked as though she might be about to get up and leave. If she had, I’m sure we’d have been in the running for the award for the world’s shortest date.
“Shall I go first? I grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is a pretty dull place except for being famous for once having been home to the Liberty Bell. I’m an only child, and my dad wasn’t on the scene, so it was just my mom and I when I was growing up. She was a great mom, but it was a pretty lonely life. She worked a whole heap, so there weren’t a lot of opportunities for us to spend quality time together, or even really hang out at all. I understood that she was working to give the two of us a better life, but it didn’t mean I always liked it.”
I paused, glancing sideways at Melissa. She had slipped the neutral mask back on again, and appeared to be starting off into the middle distance, not connecting with the words I was speaking. I didn’t buy it for a moment, though. I knew she was taking everything in.
“At the end of high school, I couldn’t get out of that place fast enough. I was popular at school and got good grades, and for as long as I can remember, leaving Allentown had always been a priority for me. Not that I really had anything against it per se, but it just wasn’t where I wanted or needed to be. I honestly couldn’t wait to flip the whole place the bird, and move on with the next chapter of my life. When I received a government assistance package to Yale, I did just that.” Mel narrowed her eyes, almost imperceptibly, still obviously trying to work out where I was going with all of this.
“Once I got over…I mean going into my second year of Yale was a revelation, like a breath of fresh air. They say a change is as good as a rest, but for me, the change was as good as a revolution. I felt like I could be myself there one hundred percent of the time, not just some of the time. Between classes, varsity football, and working three part time jobs to make ends meet, I was exhausted, but happy.” I would flop into bed after a twnty-hour day sometimes, but still feel lucky to be there, to be doing what I wanted to be doing. To be alive.
“It was at Yale that I met Raine, Nate and Dillon, and we’ve been tight ever since. After we graduated and went into our separate careers, we all realized pretty quickly that we hated working for other people, answering to clueless morons, and working to line the pockets of faceless fat cats. We knew that we were just marking time, planning and working toward setting up our own agency, which we did, eventually, five years ago calling it BR&ND. Your turn.”
She looked like a deer in headlights of an oncoming tank. This was going to be interesting. She drew a deep ragged breath, hesitating as though still weighing up whether to speak, and if so, what to say. Another breath. I was on the verge of stepping in—picking up my story from where I left off, but a small voice in my mind told me not to, just to sit tight and give her time. I was glad I’d obeyed the voice, as moments later, she began to speak.
“I’m hard-pressed to point to any one town or city on the map and say I grew up there. Most of my childhood is a blur of moving from one place to another—the archetypal army brat, and then some. Even by army standards, the number of times we moved was dizzying. Needless to say, I didn’t feel like I had roots or a connection to a place until Allentown. Truthfully, when I arrived there I felt at home for the first time I could remember.” She looked so wistful, almost as though she’d go back to those times if she could. Seeing her that like that took my breath away.
“Sadly, Allentown wasn’t to be my forever home, and after graduating high school, I moved to the outskirts of Chicago, for yet another fresh start. This wasn’t like all the other moves though, as I was in control this time, choosing both the place, and how long I got to stay.” Chicago. Really?
“But that was all that was ‘easy’ about my time there. I had cut all ties with my family, for various reasons, which meant I wasn’t able to take up the place I had at Colombia. Instead, I started working in retail, to make ends meet. My first, and as it was to turn out, kind of only job was at a toy store—a Beyner store to be exact, and the rest as they say, was history.”
I was loving just watching her as she spoke. Myriad of emotions played out across her face to emphasize each point, but I don’t even think she realized, which was interesting, because I was learning a hell a lot more from her face than I was from her words.
“I worked my way through the ranks of store management. Then when an opportunity came up in marketing here six years ago, I took it. After a number of sideways moves and promotions, I became Marketing Director a little over two years ago.”
She paused looking at me defiantly as if to say “See, you’re not the only one who can spill their guts. What’s your next move?”
In total contradiction to my usual MO, I actually didn’t have a next move. I normally planned several steps ahead, but Melissa had a funny way of disarming me. I hadn’t expected her to be so forthcoming, so now I had all that information, I didn’t know what to do with it as I quickly and quietly digested it.
With impeccable timing, our server approached the table with our wine in hand. She brought me the bottle to inspect, and while I normally would have nodded and asked her just to pour the glasses, I instead allowed her to pour me a soupçon to taste and made a big song and dance of doing so to buy me some time, inwardly groaning at my own lame theatrics. When I couldn’t drag it out any longer, I angled my body toward Melissa’s again, at the same time pressing the button to lower the privacy screen to our booth.
Beck
I had been both cunning and selfish in my choice of lunch venue. I wanted Melissa, and the gnawing feeling at the pit of my stomach wasn’t going away of its own accord. If fact, if anything, it was getting stronger with every conversation, every lust-fueled encounter. Though she wanted me too, she was determined to resist what was going on between us with every fiber of her maddeningly stubborn being.
Most importantly, Ayami was the ultimate secret weapon. Discovered one day, when the four of us had stumbled upon it by chance, we quickly realized its potential in our romantic endeavors, and would use it when we needed to go the extra mile to woo a particularly special woman.
This occurrence was pretty rare. So much so that for me, Melissa was the first, and most likely only, woman I had ever brought there. There had obviously been a good reason to save the experience for a rainy day.