“Hello?” she answered.
“Hey there, beautiful,” I said, smiling at the sound of her voice.
“Why hello there,” she said with a giggle. “How are you?”
“I’m fantastic,” I replied with a smile. “And you?”
“Good,” she said. “Wishing I was with you, but still good.”
“Nah, you would find this place really boring.” I laughed. “So, I just wanted to make sure that we were still on for Saturday night’s dinner and a movie back at my place.”
“Of course, we are,” she chirped. “And I’m so stoked to watch a movie with you. It’s like my favorite thing to do.”
“I don’t know,” I teased. “I’m pretty sure something else might have surpassed that now.”
I smiled at the nervous giggle that I heard on the other end of the line. She was shy about her sexuality, and that was to be expected since she just started having sex. There was a long, silent pause, and my cheeks grew warm thinking about how she tasted.
“Anyway,” I said, clearing my throat. “We’re going to watch the heck out of some superhero movies on Saturday. I’m just glad that you’re a fan. It’s like my new favorite thing about you.”
“New favorite?”
“Sure, there is something new on a regular basis, which is amazing,” I said. “You’re full of surprises at every turn.”
“I’m glad that I can be there to keep you on your toes then,” she said with a giggle. “But I have to go. Lots to do. I’ll text you later, okay?”
“Sounds good to me,” I said with a smile.
When we hung up with each other, I sat there at my desk, replaying the conversation in my mind. She was more excited to have movie night at my place than any of the expensive restaurants or adventures that we had planned together. And the fact that we were watching superhero movies set her off even more. Her giggle was contagious, and I couldn’t help but smile and laugh when she got that excited. She was the first girl that I had ever been able to impress with such a small gesture, and I loved that about her. She wasn’t high maintenance at all, and it was obvious she was not interested in my money, either.
I set the phone down on the table and leaned back in my chair, a smile moving across my face as I thought about how awkward Reese could actually be. It made me laugh, and in fact, it made me laugh out loud right there in my chair. Her weird personality and shy tendencies were extremely adorable, and were what made up the charm that followed her around. She was a normal girl, and our inability to function like everyone else in social situations was so similar. She just didn’t hide it as well as I did. I actually didn’t think I would ever find a girl that was so like me, who could understand what it was like to feel out of place in the simplest of situations yet excited in the ones that no one else around us would be excited about. I couldn’t even start to imagine asking one of the girls I had dated to come over after dinner to watch superhero movies. They would have laughed in my face and told me I was cute, but I needed to grow up. Not with Reese, though. I could actually be myself with her, and she wasn’t thrown off by my quirks.
I shook my head and looked down at my work, realizing that I had just spent twenty minutes of my day laughing at how adorable someone’s awkwardness was and then pining over her. What in the world was happening to me? I couldn’t focus to save my life. I thought about this girl more than my own business, and everything that was important before suddenly wasn’t so important anymore. I had turned into the guy that I hated, obsessed with the little things, and finding a woman the most important part of his day. Now that I was in that position, though, it didn’t seem so hard to understand anymore.
I took a deep breath and scooted my chair forward, pulling out the files I needed to work on and forcing myself to focus. It was fine that I had all of a sudden become so smitten with Reese, but I still needed to make sure that I was functioning. No more outbursts from me, no sir. I put the pen to the paper and started writing, a smirk inching over my face and a chuckle rising in my throat. It was useless to try and suppress it. T
his girl had changed my world.
Chapter 14
Reese
It was Friday again, and I woke up feeling refreshed, excited, and ready to get to work so I could have my weekend worry free. I had spent the evening texting with Blaine, laughing about our mutual love for comic book heroes but arguing desperately about which of the new movies was the best. We had come up with categories to put them all in, and I had told him we might have to break up when he said Deadpool was not funny at all. It was weird having someone like him to laugh and argue with on a playful level. Most men, especially extremely rich and important ones like Blaine, had no time for what my father called, “childish antics.” I personally didn’t care if they were childish. They were things that I liked, and I had finally found a man that shared in my passions.
I took a shower and brushed my teeth, pulling my hair up into a messy bun on top of my head and then securing the pieces with bobby pins. I put on a little bit of makeup so that I felt alive and headed out to the kitchen where the coffee was brewing. I didn’t have time that morning to linger since I had fallen into a daydream in the shower thinking about Blaine and wasted my morning breakfast time. No big deal. I just grabbed a granola bar, poured a to-go coffee, and headed out the door with my bag across my chest.
I was really glad that I didn’t put our office in the middle of downtown Philly, though the business would have probably been better. I hated driving in city traffic, but where we were located, I could skirt the city and make it to work within ten minutes. When I got there, to my surprise, Leena’s car was already parked out front. She was never there before me. I grabbed my bag and made my way in through the side door, smiling as a floppy-eared puppy came running down the hallway to greet me.
“Well, hello there,” I said, bending down and picking him up. “I see you Macgyvered your way out of the cage again, silly little dude.”
“There he is,” Leena said, laughing and walking over to take the puppy. “I have been chasing him around since I got here.”
“You’re early,” I said, looking over at her.
“Yeah, I didn’t sleep much, so I decided to just get up and come into work,” she explained.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” she chirped. “I was with this guy, Sonny, who has rocked the hell out of my world for a week straight now.”