She let out a soft sigh and cut her sandwich into smaller pieces before lifting one. “Are you comfortable with me getting ideas from Jeremiah and discussing them with him? I think I’m starting to get a picture of what you’d be happy with in an end product, but it would be useful if I had a contact person to bounce ideas off of.”
I hesitated for a moment. Jeremiah knew I had feelings for Larisa, and knowing him, he would probably try to meddle, but at the end of the day, I trusted him. “Sure. Go for it. I’m excited to see what you guys come up with.”
She took down his number at the bottom of the page, underneath the notes she’d made while we’d been looking at all the pictures. Then she set down her pen and brought a piece of sandwich to her lips. While we ate, she asked a few more questions about my favorite and most hated colors, how I felt about memorabilia, and a few other “getting to know you” type questions.
While I was happy to answer them, it kind of sucked that she only wanted the information for professional reasons. Because of that, I couldn’t even ask her any personal questions in return, even though it would’ve been nice to get to know her better as well.
I stuck to my resolve about keeping things strictly business, though. When the time was right, I’d have another opportunity to find out about her, but this wasn’t it.
At the end of our meeting, I dug the house keys out of my pocket and put them down on the table, pushing them across to her. “These were only in the lockbox before because I hadn’t been out there yet after the transfer took place. Since the house is in my name now, it didn’t seem like a smart idea to leave them there.”
A confused frown tugged at her manicured eyebrows. “Okay, I agree, but why are you giving them to me?”
When she didn’t take them, I nudged them even closer to her. “Just in case you need to go back to get more pictures or if you want to get a better feel for the place. You’re welcome to go there any time. I won’t be there, since I’m still living in my apartment and I don’t even know if I’ll ever move out there for good. So you really don’t need to call ahead first before you go.”
Her brows shot up, but she finally took the keys and slid them into her purse, seeming flustered. “Thank you. That’s very helpful, but are you sure you’re comfortable with me coming and going from there as I please without you even knowing about it?”
“I trust you,” I said, locking my gaze on hers firmly for the first time since the day she ran off on me. A familiar chemistry passed between us as we stared at each other, but I ignored it and didn’t let it linger. “I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Call me if you need anything else from me. I’ll always be available to talk to you, Larisa.”
I meant it, too. I’d fucked up with her, but I was hellbent on making it right. These last couple of days, I’d been wondering if the connection I felt with her really had been as strong as Jeremiah had asked me about that night. Now that I’d seen her again, I knew I hadn’t been imagining things.
There was just something about her I couldn’t shake and hadn’t ever felt before. It was there, it was real, and I fully intended on convincing her to give me a chance to explore it.