Charlie Foxtrot (Book 2 of Love is War Series)

Chapter 7

“Auden! Hey Auden! Can I speak to you after work today?”

She looked up, startled, as Jim started to leave the atrium after his lunch. He’d taken his early since he had a 12 o’clock meeting. f**k time zones, he thought to himself. If the assholes on the West Coast want a 9 AM sharp conference call next time, I’m going to tell them I’m getting my nuts waxed or something else inappropriate and shocking.

Instead of focusing on the meeting starting in a few minutes, he strode up to Auden, who was wearing one of her new skirts and blouse. He had heard her conversing with one of the other ladies in the office first thing that morning. He couldn’t remember the name of the girl she was speaking with, but he was certain it was either Denise or Deanna. She was a new hire, though he hadn’t given her a tour of the building or set her up with her orientation. She’d started when he was visiting his sister, so he’d only heard about her earlier in the week.

“Yeah, sure. What’s up?” She went from looking startled to just puzzled, but he could tell that she was worried. It was common with new employees when you said you wanted to speak with them about something. They automatically assumed they’d f****d something up by accident.

“Nothing bad, I promise.” He crossed his heart as if punctuating his statement. “I…it actually doesn’t have anything to do with work, honestly. Oh, it’s still nothing bad, but I do want your opinion on something. Will directly after work today be okay? We can get coffee or something at Leo’s down the block. My treat.” He smiled disarmingly, and she swore his straight white teeth held a mischievous twinkle like some old cartoon as they peeked out between his lips.

Ugh, she hated how she wanted to know what his mouth tasted like. While she stared, he looked down her, licking his lips. She gulped and blinked, trying to tear her gaze away and failing miserably. “Uh, sure. I don’t see why not. Does it have to do with Muse and Clay? My Aunt Mary?”

He blinked back and shook his head subtly. “Well, no, but I hope that that doesn’t matter. I promise, my intent is not bad—not at all. In fact, I could ask you now, but I’m jampacked with work the rest of the day. I’m going to be late to a meeting if I don’t get going soon. Is it okay if I collect you at your desk at 5 PM?”

He seemed anxious to get going, and she thought it was okay to be alone with him so long as it was only coffee or maybe at a juice bar. She nodded her head and made a shooing gesture with her hands. “Fine, fine. Get going with whatever you have to do. You’re as antsy as a cat at the prospect of going to the vet.”

“Cat?” He looked at her oddly.

“Well, yeah. My mom was a huge cat lover until about the time she needed to bring her Siamese, Sphinx, to the vet. Somehow that feline knew and would hide. Oftentimes he’d poop in her shoes with the nerves. It was gross, but my mom loved that cat something terrible. He passed away a few years ago but Mom couldn’t bear to get another. She has a bird now, so—” She shook her head at herself. “Sorry I’m rambling. You should get going. I’m going to have to hurry as it is to eat and then have time to grab a coffee. I’ll see you later, Mr. Lavezzo.”

“Jim,” he corrected as he started to walk away. “It’s always Jim. No one but my doctor calls me anything but Mr. Lavezzo, and that’s because he’s an older gentleman. Probably would have called Jesus Mr. Christ.”

She couldn’t help it and snorted before turning away with a smile. “Fine, Jim. I’ll see you later. 5ish or so.”

“See you then.”

Again, she was surprised that he hadn’t hit on her once. It was unusual because she had seen him flirting unabashedly with one of the older females earlier in the day. It was intriguing, because he’d see him flirt with a guy too the week she had started working at CBC. It seemed to be a habit with him, but with her he completely abstained. Maybe she was too new to be comfortable with it, or maybe he was afraid of her Aunt Mary and Clay, who might have cussed him out if he made their working situation awkward.

Whatever the reason for the special treatment was, she was intrigued by it, and started to wonder more often than she should about what the meeting this afternoon could be about.

And she wondered all day, driving her to distraction at times.

Then she pondered as to why she was bothering to think about it at all, though it didn’t help her from thinking about him a lot that afternoon—not one bit.

***

Taking a sip of her smoothie outside the juice bar, Auden waited for Jim to come back from inside. He’d been so busy today that a bathroom break was considered less of a necessity and more or a privilege, and one he hadn’t been able to partake of in much today. With all the coffee he’d drunk in between meetings or over Zoom, he was surprised his bladder hadn’t exploded. The morning hadn’t been too bad, but the flurry of activity in the afternoon had almost been too much. He wished Clay would get back to Tampa. Doing his job and that of the CEO’s was almost too much, but everyone else had had their own business to attend to, and he was being given a house of his own by his best friend and employer. While he would enjoy the privacy of living on his own, he would miss having Mary or Clay just a shout away. He figured this was for the best though, because he was certain that Clay would not want to wait to have children.

It was like his best friend had done a complete 180 over the last year. He liked it, because his friend was less of a curmudgeon and more affable. Happier. He looked forward to his future instead of just enduring the present. It was a good look on Clay, and he often found himself smiling when he saw him and his wife together and filled with joy.

He walked back out and sat down on the café chair. No one else was around, everyone deciding to grab their juice smoothies on the go and heading home. He has chosen the orange and pineapple smoothie, whereas Auden had chosen one of the berry concoctions, a medium purple in color. She sipped at it daintily with her legs crossed as she waited for him.

She was a sight, he had to admit. All curious, wide green eyes and dark, almost black hair. In the sun it held the hint of red, so he assumed it meant the color was just a very deep brown. It looked silken to the touch, and he didn’t exactly know how many times he’d wanted to stroke it away from her face when they were standing in line to order their drinks. He’d stuffed his hands in his pockets until he needed to pay for their smoothies, not trusting himself or his instincts.

His stay on the Atlantic Ocean side of Florida had not been as diverting as he’d hoped. He’d seen some gorgeous females he would have liked to get to know intimately, but they all seemed to lack something when he tried to dive deeper. He didn’t know what it was, at first, so today he was going to get to the bottom of his suspicions.

“How was your trip? Enjoyable?” Auden asked after swallowing a cold sip.

“It…was interesting, to say the least.” He sat down and scooting his chair closer. They were alone in the back, and no one inside could have seen past the rolling blinds the store put in place there for when the sun started to sink into the sea. It gave them a modicum of privacy to chat, though you could still see people twenty feet away walking to their car from the shop. A couple had just passed by when she asked, but they paid no attention to them.

“I guess interesting is better than humdrum. You had a birthday to attend, you said. How was that?”

“It was for my niece,” he explained. She’s still little so she probably wouldn’t remember her old Uncle Jim not attending in a couple of years, but my sister is a pro at guilt-tripping you into believing that something like this would scar her child for decades to come.” He sighed. “To be honest, I’d completely forgotten about it with the holidays and her emailing me the invite. I hate email. It reminds me of work where I have to check it, so I avoid when possible.”

“Did she have fun at her birthday at least, even if her uncle is a forgetful old boomer?”

He smirked and looked over at her. “She had the time of her life, I think. What toddler wouldn’t with a bounce castle and whatever weird kiddie games they played?”

“What games?” If she was putting off the topic of focal point of their conversation, he didn’t know, but he answered her all the same.

“I can’t remember. Something about a flag and a prize, another one about a treasure hunt of some kind. My sister hid prizes all over the house and yard.” He shook his head. “I’ll bet the place was trashed. I left after the presents and the cake though so I wouldn’t be in the way. Hid in my hotel for a bit, drinking and thinking.”

“Saucy,” she quipped. “Drinking alone is the sign of a madman, some say.”

“Possibly. I mean, we’re all a little mad in our own way, aren’t we? Life, emotions—all inexplicable to the logic of the mind. You ever heard of pareidolia?”

She shook her head looking curious. “No, what is it?”

“I—it’s when you see something that isn’t there. You know how you sometimes see scenes or faces in the clouds? That’s a kind of pareidolia. Humans have a tendency to see specific objects or faces in an ambiguous or random pattern. It’s kind of like doing a Rorschach inkblot test. You might see the voluptuous figure of a woman where another person sees a butterfly or an animal. It’s not unusual to attach significance to an object that way. In fact, sometimes we do it without noticing. I think we try to find significance in everything, because the idea of things just being nothing is too damn disparaging. It’s why women might read too deeply into what a man says when he’s just spouting off whatever nonsense comes to his head and why men might read too much into a gesture of a woman with a small touch. The sexes are very different creatures, but they still have a tendency toward one thing.”

“Oh, and what’s that?” She sat up straighter, nearly forgetting about her drink until her grip on it slid further down. She dipped her head to take a sip as Jim continued to speak.

“Well, we both read too deeply into things, overthink, but women are more likely to do that with words than actions, and men are more likely to with actions than words. If you touch a man’s arm, they might see it as a s****l or romantic interest in them, whereas many of the women I know will absolutely freak out if their guy says something they perceive as leading and think the worst.”

Auden nodded, but was still confused. She didn’t know why he was talking about pareidolia at all. Quirking her head at him, she leaned in. “Was this what you wanted to talk about? The mysteries of the mind that can perceive what is significant to you? Not gonna lie, but this is kind of a strange conversation. I don’t see the significance in it. What did you want my opinion on exactly, Jim?”

He sighed, closing his eyes slowly. “I can understand your confusion. I guess closer to the point would be, have you ever met someone and seen another person instead? Like they reminded you so much of that other individual you were almost unable to differentiate between the two? It’s awkward and highly uncomfortable and yet you can’t stop thinking about it? I…that happened to me when I was at a club north of Miami last week. It drove me nuts so badly that I couldn’t get it out of my head. I knew then I had to do something about it, and I didn’t really know what that was until this morning.” He moved in closer, bringing his chair within a foot of hers. Auden didn’t move. “I have to do something, just once I think, in order to get it out of my head. “

He leaned in, closing the distance between them before cupping her face in one hand and kissing her deep.