“No. You can’t put weight on your left leg. You’re gonna make it worse.”
“I can. I’ve been walking with your help. Jack, I can.”
“With the speed we were going, you’d reach your coffee shop at noon. What’s the problem? I’m doing all the work here, and I thought you were in a hurry to get there.”
“Jack,” she growled, her eyes shooting daggers at me. I kept my eyes forward and continued walking. “Jack, I’m warning you, you’re not going to carry me all the way to the coffee shop.”
“I’m not? If you say so, I’m sure it must be true.”
“Everyone is staring at us,” she whispered.
“We’ve only passed two people.”
“And both of them were looking at us like we were crazy. I’m not gonna be in your arms while we’re crossing 5th Avenue with all those people around. Everyone will look at us. The traffic! And Madison Avenue!”
“You will.”
“I’m really regretting calling you right now.”
“I couldn’t tell.”
I was enjoying it too much.
When trying to push off of me so she could get down didn’t work, she gently slapped my shoulder with her injured hand and then winced.
I clenched my jaw so I wouldn’t smile. “Stop squirming. You’re not the only one who likes to get to work on time.”
“Fine, have it your way. You’ll put me down once we exit the park.” Since we were almost out of it anyway, a lot more people started to pass us, some of them snickering, some of them giving us disapproving looks. I ignored them, but Rose wasn’t exactly good at that.
“Hi,” she shouted to a stranger walking by and staring at her. “I just hurt my leg, that’s why he’s carrying me. He’s my husband. Everything is good.” The woman just shook her head and quickened her steps. “Jack,” she groaned, her voice muffled by her face being buried in my neck. “They think we’re crazy. I’ll never be able to walk through here again.”
I hiked her up and, with a surprisingly satisfying squeak, she held tighter on my neck. That was fun.
“If you don’t want them to think you’re crazy, I’d suggest stop shouting at them. And you aren’t going to walk through here again anyway, so stop complaining.”
She lifted her head off my chest. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’ll talk to Raymond. He’ll come earlier and take you across then he’ll come back and take me to work. It was stupid of you to walk through the park while it was barely light out. You’re lucky you didn’t break your leg or get mugged.”
I could feel her eyes on me, but I didn’t look at her.
“I have pepper spray in my bag. And I don’t need a driver. I’m not the kind of person who has a driver. No offense to Raymond—I like him, and he’s a nice guy—but I’m not like you.”
Finally, we made it out onto 5th, where there were a lot more people. “Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn’t noticed.”
“I’ve been taking care of myself all my life, Jack,” she said softly.
“I know and you’ve done an amazing job. Just because you can take care of yourself, you’re not supposed to let anyone else help you? I’m sorry for committing this atrocity against you.”
“You’re insane.”
“I think we covered that the first day we met. No need to rehash it all over again.”
“You’re also unbelievable, do you know that?” she asked softer.
“I can imagine,” I murmured, a little distracted. Standing next to a group of people, I waited for the light to change.
“He is my husband,” Rose announced to the group. “I fell.”
There were some snickers from the school girls on our left when I hiked her up again and Rose squeaked.
As we made it across, she started up again, and I sighed.
“We’re almost there—”
“You can hold on for a few more minutes then.”
“Jack.”
“Rose. You know some women would find this romantic.”
“I’m not some women.”
“You’re telling me,” I grunted.
Luckily, there was silence after that until we reached the front door of her beautiful coffee shop. I gently put her down under the roses and handed her bag to her. Keeping her gaze averted, she searched for a key and opened the door. I could see the light in the kitchen from where we were standing, meaning the guy, the part-time worker, was already there. With jerky movements, she unlocked the door and walked in.
“Let’s take a look at your knees while I—”
Before I could finish my sentence and follow her in, she slammed the door in my face and reset the alarm. As I stared after her, she didn’t even look back. Still limping, she disappeared into the kitchen.
Shocked and absurdly amused, I stood there looking into the empty coffee shop for another ten seconds. Then, turning around, my hands in my pockets, I walked for a block or two. I eventually hailed a cab and headed home so I could get to work myself. I wasn’t sure what to feel about the smile that stayed on my face the entire morning.
Later, I walked into my office and greeted Cynthia.
“Good morning, Jack.”
I leaned against the edge of my desk. “Good morning. Any changes in my schedule for today?”
Her forehead creased, and she looked down at her tablet. “No, no changes.”
“Then I need you to clear everything between…” I checked my watch, trying to decide what time would be better. “Eleven-thirty and two-thirty. A few hours would be enough, I think.”
“Enough for what?”
“I have something I need to take care of.”
“Jack, I can’t clear those time slots.”
“Why not?”
“Did you forget? You have the negotiations with Morrison and Gadd.”
“The documents with the necessary changes are ready?”
“An associate is on it, and it’ll be done in time for the meeting.”
“Get them from him.”
“But—”
“I’ll get it done quicker. Get it for me.”
“Done.”
“Good, and push the negotiations to two. The other side, Gadd, didn’t want to meet up that early anyway, so let them know first.” I got up and moved to sit behind my desk.
“And Morrison? What am I supposed to tell him?” she asked.
I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. “Did you read his email? The one he sent this morning?”
She nodded.
“Well, tell him we need to do more research on the new company he wants to invest twenty million in. I want to get both the negotiations and the new investment deal taken care of today. He won’t mind the delay if we have everything ready.”
“Okay. What about the rest of your schedule? We’ll need to push everything back. You have a five PM call with Gilbert—you can’t miss that today.”
“Fine. I’ll leave the office at eleven. I can get through my ten-thirty call by then, and I’ll come back around one-thirty for the meeting so push it to then instead. That way I’ll be done with Morrison and Gadd by the time I need to be on the phone with Gilbert. If everything goes as planned, we’ll have Gadd sign the final papers at the end of the meeting and I’ll be ready for the call with Gilbert. I’ll stay late and catch up, don’t worry.”