Page 37 of Save Me a Seat

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Jane sat at her desk staring at her computer, knowing that if anyone walked by it would look like she was working, but she knew nothing of the sort was happening. She couldn’t believe that Molly had had the audacity to cast her aside. But what bothered her most was that she felt a sense of jealousy, which she knew was stupid, but she couldn’t help it. The way Molly looked at Austin, joked with him, and touched him was over the top. And now it had been over two hours without a text or a call from either one of them. She had never been treated like this, ever, and her annoyance was building. Part of her job was dealing with tricky requests, but this was too much.

As she refreshed her computer screen for the hundredth time, just trying to do something to keep herself busy, she couldn’t stop thinking about Austin. She knew that Molly had arrived yesterday, so they had most likely spent the night together, which made her stomach turn. And then seeing Austin this morning in his navy three-piece suit with a white shirt and gray tie, he just looked like a GQ model. As much as she’d known he was out of her league in high school, and most likely still was, because he seemed to go for the rich-girl type, she couldn’t deny the fact that he had been blessed by the Gods in terms of his gene pool.

“Hey!” a voice shouted from the doorway, shaking her out of her daydream. Jane looked up and instantly went hot from head to toe seeing Austin standing there, sans Molly. “You OK?

“Yeah,” Jane answered, trying to make it look like she hadn’t been startled out of her daydream about him. “You guys done with the tasting? I completely lost track of time,” she lied.

“Yes, we just finished up and she’s on the phone with Kat right now,” Austin answered. “So I thought I would come to grab you.”

“Oh, good,” Jane said, hoping she didn’t sound too relieved to know they were done. “How did everything go? Did she like the choices I put together?” Jane asked, looking at her notes, trying to appear indifferent.

“She loved everything!” Austin answered. “If I’m not mistaken, I think she’s going to suggest that Kat and Mike go along with everything you suggested.”

“Everything?” Jane looked over at Austin and, as their eyes locked, she felt a strange flutter in her stomach. “That’s a huge amount of food for a small wedding.”

“I don’t know,” Austin said, putting his hands up in the air. “That’s what she said.” He looked over at Jane’s desk to see all of her notes neatly piled in front of her. “Do you have time to come down now and go through everything? Apparently, Molly needs to change her flight. She’s leaving around 2 pm now, so we don’t have much time left with her.”

“Yeah,” Jane said, standing up as she grabbed her folder and notes again. “I cleared my schedule for her today, so yes… I’ll come down.”

“Listen,” Austin said slowly, hoping that Jane knew he didn’t have anything to do with Molly’s rude behavior. “I’m sorry she didn’t want you to stay during the tasting. I didn’t realize things would go down like that,” he explained. “I tried my best to get you to stay, but I didn’t seem able to convince you.”

Jane looked over at Austin, trying her best to sound casually cool, “It was clear she wanted you to herself,” she shrugged with a forced smile. “It’s no big deal, I’m used to big personalities and their strange requests.”

“You calling me a strange request?” Austin joked.

Jane laughed and looked over at him, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Well,” Austin went on, “I wanted to make sure you knew I didn’t have anything to do with that. Personally, I was pissed, but I felt like I was between a rock and hard place. I know, as a client, she is important to us.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that, though,” Jane replied, knowing that it had been very clear that Austin felt uncomfortable when it was all going down earlier. “I admit to feeling sidelined by your friend, but I’m glad she let one of us stay.” Jane winked at Austin to show she was joking.

“What’s that wink for?” Austin laughed, looking over at Jane with a playful look, liking this side of her. He knew she took work seriously because she cared about it, but he also sensed that there was much more to Jane Jones than most people around here knew about.

“Oh, you know,” Jane chuckled back.

“What?” Austin asked, knowing exactly what Jane meant, but was wondering if she would say it.

“Well, let’s just put it this way. It was nice for the two of you to have a little date today at The Oxford,” Jane laughed back, having fun with the fact that she could tease Austin a bit.

“Oh, now it was a date?” Austin laughed. “I see.”

“Maybe not for you,” Jane said, eyeing him, “but I can’t speak for her.”

“We’re just friends,” Austin stated, as he shook his head with a grin. “She knows that.”

“Well…that’s what all the girls say,” Jane replied, with another laugh and shoulder shrug.

“What’s this laughter I hear going on in here?” A booming male voice echoed from the doorway.

Jane’s stomach tightened quickly, realizing it was Mr. Drew. He stood there in the doorway. She normally kept things very professional at work, and she was instantly worried that he wouldn’t be too happy to hear her joking around with Austin about a client.

“Jane’s just giving me some grief,” Austin laughed, looking over at his father.

“Oh, yeah,” Mr. Drew responded. “Anything I can help you with?” Mr. Drew asked, looking over at Jane.

Jane didn’t know Mr. Drew in any other way than as her boss, whom she liked to impress, so she was pleasantly surprised to see him join in so quickly at his own son’s expense. “Oh, I think I’ve got it covered,” she shot back quickly. “He’s fun to wind up.”

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