Page 22 of Meet You Half Way
“That’s one way of looking at it.”
“It’s the only way of looking at it,” he pressed. “Was Dante disappointed in any of your work?”
“Well, no,” I shifted in my seat. “If anything, he’s been overly supportive even when I’ve messed up.”
“As he should be,” Jamie returned in a way which brooked no arguments. “Do you like working in architecture?”
I laughed, the sound edged with bitterness. “No. I wanted to throw my life into modelling but my parents didn’t think it was a legitimate career path. Especially for a man. Dante’s a family friend and he needed an assistant. He’s been training me up since I left high school.”
“Since high school, huh? You know I never actually asked how old you are before.”
“I’m twenty-two.”
“Ah. Younger than I thought,” Jamie mulled.
“Why? It’s not like you’re ancient. How old are you?”
“I’m twenty-seven.”
“So what? Five years is nothing.”
Our coffees arrived at the table and I took the moment to steady myself. I often found myself being drawn into Jamie, almost like being lulled into a net. I wasn’t in the mood for beingtrapped there but I wasn’t entirely sure how to keep myself free of him. I took a sip of my coffee, relishing the bitter taste.
“Can I ask you a question?” Jamie asked. I shrugged a shoulder and he continued. “Why did you agree to meet up with me today?”
“Honestly, probably for the same reason as you,” I admitted, deciding on truth. “I don’t have a solid reason either but I guess I was having a shit day too.”
“Why?” he asked, leaning forward on his elbows as though he actually cared.
I just shrugged again and looked away. “No reason specifically. Same reason as always.”
“Hmm,” he mulled, leaning back in his seat and looking at me contemplatively. I felt a little unsettled under his gaze, the way he watched me, like he could see underneath the façade I had perfected.
“Before you say anything, no I don’t want to talk about it,” I added.
“That’s okay. You don’t owe me anything.”
Well. That was refreshing and something I really appreciated about Jamie. He always came across like that, a kind ear and a warm pair of arms but he wasn’t pushy and I liked that about him.
And maybe it was because of that, or maybe it was because I just really liked looking at his biceps, but we sat there in that booth on an unusual Thursday morning, neither of us completely sure why we had agreed to meet for this coffee but which was actually turning out to be really quite nice. It was nice because I didn’t feel like Jamie expected anything of me, just some kind of human interaction without any expectation of where this might lead. Because let’s face it, we both knew I had purposely opted for a morning meet up in order to minimise therisk of this being anything more than two guys simply sharing a coffee.
But the longer I sat there across from this really nice guy with those amazing biceps and his pretty blue eyes and that fuckingdimple, I started to wonder if I’d made an error of judgement. There was just something about Jamie and I couldn’t for the life of me put my finger on it.
It was only when I glanced down at my phone that I realised an entire hour had flown by and I actually felt some kind of …regret.
“I’m going to have to get back to work,” I eventually said, noting the way Jamie’s face fell at that news too.
“Yeah. I’ve kept you long enough,” he agreed.
“Do you have work today?”
“No. Mandatory day off after, well, after what happened yesterday,” he told me.
“That’s fair.”
“Maybe. Sometimes I think it would be better if I just went in to the base like a normal day. Give me less time to stew.”
Jamie stood and I followed his lead, tensing when I felt him move to touch my lower back. He must have thought better of it though because the touch never came and I walked out of the café feeling slightly bad that he had seen me flinch.
