“I still don’t get where shopping comes into all of this?”
“It’s part of my routine. Once a week, I go into Meyers and work with a personal shopper on the new items they’ve received. They fit me for my wardrobe, find things they think I’ll look good in, and then I usually meet Peyton for lunch before I go to the station to work.”
Julius reaches for my hand. He squeezes it and doesn’t let go. “If I promise to go shopping with you later, can we do something else?”
I don’t know what else to do. “Um . . .”
Julius takes my hand in his and squeezes it. “Do you trust me?”
No, the hell I don’t.
“Okay, wrong choice of words.” He laughs. “Tell me this. Have you done much sight-seeing?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I stay mostly by our complex.”
He sighs. “I figured. Let me take you to my favorite place in the city.”
At this point, I have nothing to lose. It’s not like something is going to happen to me. Everyone knows I’m with him today. “Okay, show me.” My statement is open-ended, and by the surprised look in Julius’s eyes, he didn’t miss the subtle innuendo.
We walk to the parking garage, and thankfully, no one stops on our way out. I’m excited to see where we are going. When we arrive at my car, Julius holds his hand out. “What?”
“I should drive.”
“Why, because you’re a man?”
He chuckles. “Believe me, no. I am all for equal rights. I know where we’re going, and it’s easier for me to drive than give you directions. The one-way streets can really mess someone up.”
Ugh, I hate that he’s right. I dig in my purse and hand him my keys. My hand lingers in his palm for longer than necessary, but I don’t care. He’s watching me, and I, him. There’s an energy between us, one I felt when I first met him but also ignored. I’m not sure I want to ignore it anymore.
Julius walks me to the passenger side of my car and presses the fob to unlock the door like he’s done it a million times. I know it’s a fob, and most are standard, but I like that he’s so confident in what he’s doing. He waits until I’m settled and then closes the door and again goes around the front of the car so I can follow him. The sight of Julius in khaki pants is genuinely something to behold.
He gets behind the driver’s seat and asks me how to adjust it. “There’s a thingy on the side.”
“A thingy?”
I shrug. “I don’t know what else to call it.”
“Thingy, it is,” he says as he reaches down by the door. The seat slides back and he adjusts the seat one more time before pressing the push start button.
Julius pulls out of the parking lot and turns away from the downtown area. I don’t know why, but for some reason, I thought we’d head toward the stadium or the waterfront. He continues to drive on the side street. Multi-colored leaves hang from trees, creating shadows with the sun. It’s a beautiful day out. If I had paid attention to the forecast I delivered last night, I would’ve planned a picnic or something. Julius was right, shopping can wait.
We make idle chit chat during the thirty-minute drive. He asks me what I like best about my job, and I tell him that I’m fascinated with the weather. I pose the same question to him, and he tells me his career is fun, for the most part, but that he loves his teammates and the atmosphere around game day.
“Did you always want to be in the NFL?”
“Yeah, for sure,” he says as he maneuvers a turn. “My dad, brother, and I would watch football all the time, and my brother and I would always toss the ball back and forth. In high school, I was a standout player, in basketball too, but football got me to college for free, and then to the NFL.”
“Do you ever wonder what you’d be if you didn’t have sports?”
Julius thinks for a moment and then shakes his head. “Not really. It’s always been my life. What about you?”
“Oh, well, let’s see. I wanted to be a princess, of course. Thought about being a lawyer because I used to love being on the debate team.”
“How did you end up being a meteorologist?”
“My junior year of high school, I took a media class. We had our own television station, mostly for announcements and other important school things like the sports scores, weather, birthdays, and such. I worked the lunch gig and figured out I loved being in front of the camera.”
Our conversation ends when we pull into a parking lot. Julius puts my car into park and pushes the ignition button to turn the vehicle off.
“Where are we?”
“This is an observatory.” He gets out and rushes over to my side, opening the door for me. Julius extends his hand, waiting for me to take hold. I do. The gravel parking lot crunches under us until we reach a paved path. “This is my favorite place in the city.”
“I expected you to take us to the stadium.”
He looks at me oddly and then shakes his head. “I come here when I need to think.”
When we get to the ticket booth, Julius leans down and has a hushed conversation with the clerk. I step back and let Julius conduct his business. Every few seconds, Julius looks over his shoulder and smiles at me. As I stand there, waiting for him, it dawns on me that this is precisely where I want to be right now.
Sixteen
Julius
I’m a fool for ever thinking such asinine things about Autumn. Not once today has she been the person I tried to make her out to be. I feel as though I need to apologize repeatedly for everything I said and did to her, especially making her feel like less of a person. I only hope she can forget the guy she met and like the real me because I like her a lot, even though I shouldn’t.
I love that Autumn isn’t from Portland. It gives me an excuse to see her again because I’m officially dubbing myself her tour guide. I’m going to show her everything I can when our schedules allow for it. I can’t wait to take her to the beach. First, we’ll go to Seaside, and then we’ll drive south to Lincoln City or north to Astoria. I hope she’s a fan of Goonies so I can show her the house where they filmed the movie. It’s a bold assumption to think she even likes the beach. The mountains might be more her thing, although if I remember correctly from one of my numerous eavesdropping conversations, she’s not a huge fan of the cold. Either way, I am looking forward to getting to know her more and am thankful she bid on me. Even though I know she did it out of spite. Whatever she would’ve had me do today, I would’ve taken the punishment like a champ because I deserve it after the way I treated her.
Throughout the drive to the observatory, I watch her as she takes in the scenery. She loves the old houses and how they’re strategically built on a hill, and how the landscaping is mainly made up of roses and other perennials that have held onto their petals into the fall. Every so often, I have the urge to reach over and take her hand. I’ve done it a couple of times today and love the way her hand feels in mine. Except, I shouldn’t feel this way. My heart should be cold and dead inside after the things Elena has done. It should also feel a pang of longing for my wife, and it doesn’t. My heart jumps with excitement when I think about Autumn. It has since the night I met her on the balcony, and the rapid beating I feel when I’m with her—I can’t ignore. I don’t even want to, but a part of me is leery of pursuing anything. What if Autumn has an issue with the fact that I haven’t filed for divorce yet? I might if I was in her shoes. Maybe this is the push I need to get the paperwork filed, and the process started. My future could be sitting next to me, and if I don’t act accordingly, I could lose her. Something deep down tells me I don’t want to lose Autumn.