CHAPTER TWO
Olivia and Noah were rounding the corner down the street from their usual park. Noah had befriended a boy of around the same age at the park last week, and he begged to go back to the same park every day in hopes that he'd cross paths with his new buddy. The closer to the park they got, the tighter Noah pulled on his mother's arm. Once they made their way to the park, Noah examined the play ground for his friend.
"I don't see him, mamma," the boy pouted.
"Honey will run into him sometime."
"You promise?" Olivia hesitated, not necessarily wanting to guarantee Noah something when she couldn't certify that it could happen, but his face was too downtrodden not too, "yes love, I promise." She grabbed her son's hand again and walked towards the sandboxes - Noah's favorite place at the park.
"Look, sweet boy, someone is playing in the sandboxes, why don't you go play with them?" Olivia suggested.
"Okay, mommy!" Noah yelled as he ran towards the sandboxes.
Olivia, feeling that Noah was reasonably placated for not finding his usual park buddy, sat down on one of the near by benches. She watched her son play, his new companion a young girl similar to Noah's age. The park was, unfortunately, kind of busy for a Sunday afternoon; the sandboxes were the only place that was swamped with children. Olivia looked over to see how Noah was doing; the two younger ones seemed to be getting along, they shared the toys without fighting which was a miracle in itself. Noah pointed at her and waved; she waved back. The young girl similarly looked at a well-dressed man sitting on one of the benches opposite her, he looked up from his phone and smiled. Olivia assumed that he was the young girl's father, but something intrigued her about him. He was far too well-dressed for a day at the park, all the way down to his perfectly shiny shoes. He looked absurdly serious in comparison to the jungle gym behind him. He frustrated her and Olivia didn't know why. It could be that the way that he sat - perfectly straight with his legs crossed - conveyed arrogance. Or it could be that the way his eyes stayed glued to his phone could have told her he was far more interested in what was on that screen than the little girl making sand castles in front of him. Or it could be, if Olivia was truthful to herself, the reason this man she didn't know got on her nerves so much was because even though she disliked his apparent self-importance and disregard for his daughter, she couldn't help but continuously trace her eyes around his body, following the lines of his fitted dress shirt down to the metallic sheen of his belt buckle. She shivered, and Olivia found herself unconsciously biting the inside of her lip. This reaction is what made her the most uncomfortable; Olivia didn't like to feel so easily swayed. She looked a little bit longer, almost daring to venture a bit further south when the man started to take his suit jacket off, and Olivia had to use all of her self-control not to allow her jaw to hit the ground. He was muscular, in an unassuming way, and she knew she had to pry her eyes away from him now to reduce further embarrassment.
Olivia looked down at her phone, anxious for any distraction. She settled on going over the emails she replied to this morning - something monotonous - just taxing enough so she could stop picturing her hands running along the path of his body that her eyes took earlier. After checking a couple of emails she looked up to see how her son was getting along, what she saw was something she'd never expected. The well-dressed, uptight, arrogant, no-good father, was in the sand pit with the children - sleeves rolled up, suit jacket discarded on the bench - and was animatedly explaining how to make the perfect sand castle. She could hear Noah laughing from where she was seated, and if she hadn't been so surprised by how poorly she read him - you would think that a seasoned cop wouldn't misread someone's character so completely - she probably wouldn't still be glued to her place on the park bench.
Her phone buzzed from inside her suit pocket, pulling it out she looked at the number and grimaced - it was Fin, which could only mean one thing. With one more resigned look at her son, she took the phone call.
As Rafael and Luciana entered the park, he could see her surveying the scene. He knew she liked the jungle gym, but he saw her eyeing it with distaste - there were too many boys playing on it, and Luciana didn't get along with boys. He noticed her eyes dart quickly to the swings in the left corner; children surrounded it. For a second he thought his niece was going to brave it, but with a quick shake of her head she turned quickly and headed to probably the only place of solace in the whole park: the sandbox.
Rafael sat down on the bench closest to the sandbox, putting his briefcase carefully on the ground beside him. He settled in, loosening his cufflinks and taking out his phone to get some work done. Shortly after, Rafael spotted a mother and son walking into the park over the tip of his cell. The boy looked unsure, slightly cowering behind his mother's legs. They seemed to be looking for something, a father perhaps? Rafael bristled at the idea; he didn't understand why the thought had made him suddenly so uncomfortable. She could be married; it's none of his business he reminded himself. Somehow imagining her attached helped stop him from looking.
In between emails, he noticed the women he was trying to ignore and her son were walking closer. The woman was looking around the park, her eyes following the similar path of Luciana's earlier, the jungle gym, the swings and finally settling on the sandbox. He saw her bend down a little bit to speak to her son and then point directly at the sandbox where Luciana was playing by herself. He sat up a little straighter and recited a silent prayer for the boy not to want to play in the sandbox with Luciana - she liked playing alone. But of course, as soon as she pointed it out to the young boy he came running towards the sandbox. 'God, where did she get off!" Rafael thought to himself. 'She can see that Luciana wants to play alone, everyone can see that Luciana wants to play alone - she's in the only place where you can be alone in this whole freaking park for Christ's sake!' He watched as the boy clamored into Luciana's space, he saw her distance herself from him as much as the small sandbox would allow. He became tense and unconsciously started to fiddle with his cufflinks - a nervous habit he developed in the courtroom. He just wanted Luciana to have a fun day at the park before she had to go to school tomorrow, and he had a sneaking suspicion that their day was ruined. Looking up, he scanned to see where the mother of this boy had gone; this was her bright idea anyway. He found her sitting down on the bench across the other side of the sandbox, basically as far away as possible from the open bench next to him.
"Would you like to play with the purple shovel?" The boy's little voice snapped his attention away from the women sitting across from him. He was holding out the purple shovel to Luciana, his eyes hopeful and sincere. She leaned her hand out slowly, taking the offering and muttering a muted 'thank you.' Luciana looked back at him and smiled - he relaxed bit, breathed out a breath he didn't even know he was holding in.
He looked at the mystery women almost apologetically, feeling somewhat ashamed for judging the situation so prematurely. Rafael found that she was looking at him too, well not necessarily looking at him but instead her eyes were fixedly glued to his neck, then his chest and finally - Rafael traced the path of her gaze and landed on his belt. He smirked. The mystery woman on the park bench was all but drooling over him. Rafael took his suit jacket off slowly; he told himself it was because he was feeling warm, but it was honestly to get that surprised look on her face. Her eyes widened, and he swore that he saw the slightest blush creep up her neck - he chuckled, it was worth it. Rafael was about to roll his sleeves up to see if he could get that blush to not just be on her neck but spread across her whole face, but when he looked back over at her to see if she was still ogling him, he saw her frantically grabbing at her phone from her pocket.
"Rafi, it keeps falling!" Rafael heard his niece whine. He looked over just in time to see the sand castle that the two young children had worked on crumble thoroughly. Rafael quickly got up from the bench, rolled his sleeves up like he was planning to initially, a smirk spread across his face imagining how she would react to seeing him do this, and quickly bent down to help the kids with their sandcastle.
"Alright Fin. Don't worry, I understand, I'll be there soon." Olivia ended her phone call and looked over at her son, he looked like he was having fun and pulling him away from that was not going to be easy - she had the suspicion that she was going to be letting someone have ice cream before dinner tonight. Olivia got up from the park bench and started over towards her son; the movement seems to catch the attention of the mystery man. He looked up, and a look of surprise splashed across his face, as quickly as it appeared it was replaced with a smirk. Olivia only got half way to the sandbox before Noah turned around, he must have heard her coming, or perhaps he saw the mystery man's reaction and searched to find the focal point of his gaze.
"Mommy!" Noah jumped up and ran towards her, causing some of the sand to fly on to the man's presumably expensive suit.
"Hello baby" Olivia dropped to her sons level, dusting the dirt from his hair and dragging the back of her hand down his cheek. "Mommy has to go to work Noah. It's time to go." the toddler looked up at his mom with the picture perfect puppy dog face. His head tipped back, and his limbs sagged against his mother's arms. If Olivia didn't know her son better, she would think he was about to have a temper tantrum right here, on the concrete in the middle of the park.
"Say goodbye to your friend my love." Olivia pushed Noah in the direction of the sandbox and he, albeit unwillingly - dragging his legs on the ground, so they made that pathetic scrapping sound - headed back to the sand box and, in a hushed voice and a small wave said "goodbye" to his new friend.
Olivia made brief eye contact with the man that she'd been ogling the entire time, she gave a half smile, grabbed her sons hands and quickly turned and walked out of the park.
Rafael was busy teaching the children the art of sand castles when he heard the tell-tell sign of heels on pavement. He looked up and saw first the heeled boot in question, then extremely long legs, and finally landed on the women who had been playing cat and mouse with him all afternoon. Part of him started to panic, although he won his mini strip tease, the idea of actually talking to her made his mouth go dry. Rafael quickly recovered, replacing his uncertainty with a mask of arrogance - looking her up and down and displaying a satisfied smirk.
"Mommy!" The little boy took off running towards his mother, kicking back some dirt in doing so. Rafael was a little raddled, not necessarily liking dirt to be splattered on his expensive suits.
"Mommy has to go to work Noah; it's time to go." 'Work?', Rafael thought, 'What profession requires you to hurry into work at 2 pm on a Sunday?'. As the little boy went over to say goodbye to Luciana he could tell that she was disappointed, she enjoyed playing with him which surprised Rafael - given her track record. The women made eye contact with him for a split second, and he may have detected a small smile, although if he blinked he'd miss it. The boy walked away with his mother, and Rafael had the suspicion that he was a little disappointed too
Don't worry, in the next chapter; we'll get more than just glances. Please comment your thoughts about the story so far and give me some ideas about what you would like to see!