Page 15 of Kiss and Makeup
“Just everyone I know, I mean. How are your parents doing, by the way? Your dad is still CEO of Cruise Media, right?”
What had I said to get Kristen flustered? She already knew my dad was still CEO of Cruise Media. I’d explained my predicament to her weeks ago, and Kristen’s sharp mind didn’t just forget things. Still, I respected her change of subject. “Yeah. He loves the company and he’s proud of the direction he’s taken it since Grandpa passed.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I’d lost count of the number of people who had told me that, but from her, I didn’t mind the sympathy. She knew how close we had been. “Remember when he bought us tickets to see that play? Neither of us were interested or wanted to go, but he insisted. And we ended up enjoying it.”
I’d also lost count of the number of people who had immediately changed the subject to something less difficult than a family death. They didn’t realize that I liked to remember him and think about the impact he had in my life. “He liked for me to try new things. And he always told me to find a girl who wasn’t afraid to try them with me.” Realizing that could be taken as suggestive, I added, “So, what about you? Head of marketing at a company like BeautyBee? That’s impressive.”
“It took me two other jobs to get there. I got one with a marketing company, then one at a law firm for a while. On the marketing side of things, nothing to do with actual law. I liked my job at the law firm, but the firm was pretty small, so there was nowhere for me to move up in the company. That’s when I took this job at BeautyBee.”
“Are you happy with it?” I asked. Kristen had wanted three things coming out of college: to succeed as a woman executive, to enjoy her job, and to actually use the degree into which she had spent so much time and effort.
“Yeah,” she said slowly. “I am. It’s not all deadlines and company-on-the-line moments. And there’s so much opportunity with BeautyBee.”
“What can I get you?” an overly cheerful voice asked. I willed her interruption, her pencil poised over her notepad, and her fake cheer across the room, but she clearly missed the look I sent her that was sharper than that pencil in her hand.
“I’ll just take a personal sized Florentine pizza.” I folded the menu closed and handed it to her. Kristen did order a panini, and the waitress thanked us for doing absolutely nothing, then disappeared into the back of the restaurant somewhere.
Now that the conversation had reached a lull, I sat sipping at my water, staring at the table and waiting for Kristen to bring up the next set of shoots for the ad campaign. Actually, it was taking her a long time to say anything at all.
I glanced up to say something, but changed tack when I spotted the set of her brows as her eyes flicked across the screen of her phone. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, sorry. Just a friend of mine.” She set the phone down, but face up and close at hand. A gust of cold air heralded the arrival of a family of five, and I caught the little shiver Kristen gave before she crossed her arms.
“I can ask for a booth further from the door,” I offered. That hardly noticeable set of her lips meant something bothered her, and I wished I could lean across the table and kiss it right off her face. But that wouldn’t be welcome… just like staring at her large, firm breasts hugged tightly by her sweater and supported by her crossed arms wouldn’t be.
“No, it’s okay. It’s already warm again.” She glanced significantly upward at the vent in the ceiling above our table. Light from the sleek, hanging fixtures glinted streaks through her glasses and played across the hint of pink flushing her cheeks.
If I could just reach across the table and touch her, take her face gently into my hands and rub my thumbs across those soft cheeks, I would know why they were so pink and irresistible. Was the blush from the cold? Makeup? Her closeness to me?
I couldn’t do it anymore. Why were we here? To catch up? We did that. To talk business? If that was all Kristen wanted to do, she would have brought it up already.
Time to take a chance.
“Hey.”
My voice was softer than I intended, and for a second her eyes went to the blinking light on her phone and I thought she hadn’t heard me at all. But then she glanced up, her eyes soft and a little cautious, and I knew she had.
“I missed you.”
She looked so different from usual. Nervous, hesitant, her fingernails scraping at the edge of the table. “I….”
My heart raced. My breathing accelerated. Had she missed me too? During those years we’d been apart, had I been on her mind?
The ringing of her phone was the only answer to my questions. “Sorry, I have to take this.” She pressed the phone to her ear, but she didn’t speak until she was far away enough to be out of earshot.
Was there a word for cockblock of the heart?
“Is everything….” My voice trailed away as Kristen grabbed her purse and coat.
“I have to go, sorry.”
She didn’t wait for me to ask a question or even say goodbye. “Wait!” I jogged after her. What had I done? “What’s wrong? Can I drive you somewhere?”
“No. I just have to go take care of something. I can’t explain right now.”
Then she was gone, vanished into the lamp-lit streets.
