***The next morning***
Jennifer was at her desk, working on an article. She was deep in thought, which often happened. She was known in the journalism world as a powerhouse-her claim to fame was copious amounts of research. Jennifer Edwards left no stone unturned when it came to writing an article. She didn't always report on everything she found out, but she always found out as much as she could, and she always made sure to report the most positive aspect, not something negative just for publicity. If it was all negative, then she only reported the facts.
She was at her desk researching her newest subject, an organization that was born out of something tragic in order to offer something beautiful, when she heard her name being called.
"Jennifer, there's a delivery for you".
She looked up and saw Michelle, the intern bringing some flowers to her desk.
"Oh, they are gorgeous". It was a square vase filled with beautiful sunflowers, lilies, and carnations.
She dug for the card, and opened it up.
"Thank you for a lovely evening. Hope you are having a great day-Jonathan Hart".
'How sweet of him'.
She realized then, that she had no way of contacting him.
"Michelle, would you do me a favor? I'm swamped with this research-if you get a minute, would you see if you can find a phone number for a Jonathan Hart?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Thank you".
She got back to her research, and about 20 minutes later, Michelle came and brought her a piece of paper.
"I found this number for him in New York, and this number for him in Los Angeles".
"Thank you, so much!"
She took the paper and immediately called the New York number.
"Hart Industries, Jonathan Hart's office, how may I help you?"
"Hi, this is Jennifer Edwards, may I please speak to Jonathan Hart?"
"What is this regarding?"
"It's personal".
"One moment".
She held on, listening to the hold music for what seemed like forever till he picked up.
"Hello, this is Jonathan Hart".
"Jonathan, hi. It's Jennifer. I just wanted to say thank you for the beautiful flowers you sent".
"You're welcome. Glad you got them. How is your research coming?"
"Very well, actually. This article is probably going to be a little sad, but hopefully the majority of it will be happy."
"Well, I look forward to reading it".
"You are very kind. Well, I better get back to work, I don't want to keep you, I just wanted to thank you for the flowers".
"You're welcome. Have a good day, Jennifer".
"Thanks, you too".
They hung up, and Jennifer got back to work.
Jonathan tried to get back to work, but kept thinking of her.
If he could, he would take her to dinner, and then somewhere so they could dance the night away. His favorite part about the night before was their dance. She fit in his arms like a glove, and it was a glove he never wanted to take off.
His phone rang then, and he picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Jonathan, hi. It's Stanley. Listen, Mixon Electronics is threatening to pull out of the merger unless you are here to meet with them in person and answer their questions. I told them several times that you would be more than willing to talk with them on the phone, but they are insisting on an in-person meeting".
"Ok, thanks Stanley. Set up the meeting with them for day after tomorrow. I will fly back tonight, and prepare myself tomorrow."
"Got it, Mr. Hart".
They hung up, and he called his pilot.
"Jack, I need to get back to Los Angeles tonight".
***Jennifer***
Jennifer packed up her things at the end of the day, and went to the breakroom. She found a vase under the counter, and washed it out and then brought it to her desk.
She divided the flowers in half and put half in the vase on her desk, and took the other half home.
She was walking home thinking of Jonathan and how much she enjoyed dancing with him. She had danced with many men, but never liked that. Everyone else was awkward and tense, compared to him.
She thought back to how her relationships with others had ended, mostly because she got sick of the way they treated her.
'I bet if Jonathan had been one of them, it wouldn't have ended that way'.
She kept walking. 'Get a grip, Jennifer. It would never work, he lives in Los Angeles', she told herself.
She walked into her apartment and put the flowers down, and immediately headed to take a long hot bath. She lit some candles, turned on some soft music, poured herself a bottle of wine, and sank into the bath. She soaked for about an hour, and then got out and put her pajamas on.
She ordered a salad to be delivered from her favorite place, and turned on an old black and white movie. In the movie, the male lead reached his hand out to the female lead and they started to dance. They floated across the dance floor, as if instead of being two people, they were simply one.
'I should have asked him to dinner or something. I really screwed this up'.
Jennifer looked at the clock. It was after 7. Surely, he had eaten by now.
She decided to call him tomorrow and ask him to dinner. It was the least she could do, after all, seeing as how he had paid for her drinks, and her cab and sent her flowers and rescued her from Alex.
She had a smile on her face as she went to bed that night thinking about seeing him again.
***The next day***
Jennifer got to work early. She preferred to work where it was quiet, and if she got there early, then everyone would see that she was working when they came in, and hopefully not bother her.
As soon as she got to the office, she called the number she had used to call Jonathan the day before.
"Hello, Hart Industries, how may I direct your call?"
"Jonathan Hart please".
"I'm sorry miss, he has returned to California. Would you like the number of the California office?"
"No that's alright. When do you expect him back in New York?"
"At this time, he has no definite return date".
"I see. Well, thank you".
She hung up.
'How could I have been so stupid? He told me in the cab he was only here on business. I had to know that he would leave the city and go back home at some point'.
She shook it off and got back to work, trying not to think about him.
***Jonathan***
Jonathan arrived at his office, and got to work on the paperwork he had been avoiding. He had a meeting in an hour with Hunter Abbott, his executive who attended board meetings when Jonathan couldn't.
Jonathan worked steadily till his meeting with Hunter, and then took a much needed mental break.
Hunter knocked on the door right on time.
"Hi, come on in. How was last night's meeting?"
"Great. Everyone had very positive things to say. Nothing new to report, really, except the board did have one request. They want you to do an interview and get some good press going".
"I don't usually do interviews, Hunter. Everything gets so slanted".
"I explained that to them, and they agreed to let you pick the interviewer. It doesn't have to be a big in-depth, fancy interview, they just want to highlight some of your better qualities so that other companies will want to do business with us, and the employees will get that family feeling from working here".
"You can tell them that I am taking the idea under advisement. In the meantime, I wanted to let you know that I am preparing for the future. Well, mainly, my future. If for any reason that I have to be gone for a long time, I want you to be in charge. I will call and let you know if that's going to happen".
"Thank you, I appreciate that".
They ended the meeting then, and Jonathan got back to his paperwork.
He worked straight through lunch, and was about to leave the office at 5 when his phone rang.
"Hello, this is Jonathan Hart".
"Jonathan, hi. This is Joseph Monticello, the CEO of Placidco. We are having an inspection at our New York plant next week, and if we don't pass, they are going to shut us down. Any chance you can come out for that, and help us?"
"Certainly. When is your inspection?"
"Wednesday morning, 10 a.m.".
"Ok. I will fly out Tuesday, and stay through the weekend".
"Great, see you then".
He hung up, and went to his secretary's desk and added the trip to the calendar.
He was headed to the elevator, and had another thought. He quickly turned around and went back to his office, made a phone call, and then left again.
***The next day***
Jennifer was just getting to work and noticed that she had a message on her desk. "Call Dr. Watkins".
She called her doctor's office as she sat down.
"Hi, Dr. Watkins, this is Jennifer Edwards".
"Hi, Jennifer. I got your test results back, and I would like to discuss the results with you. Can you come in to see me next Thursday? I'll be out of town till then. It's nothing serious, but I want to explain it in person".
"Sure. What time Thursday?"
"How about 1 p.m.?"
"Sounds great. See you then".
She hung up and put the appointment on her calendar, and then got back to work.
She was working on the final draft of her article that afternoon when Michelle brought her another delivery.
This time it was a gorgeous crystal vase, with white carnations, purple calla lilies, and pink Dahlias.
She dug for the card and opened it.
"Will be in town next Tuesday night, late, through Sunday afternoon. Care to have dinner? Please call me at 213.555.8524.-Jonathan".
She looked at the clock. It was 3 p.m. in New York, which meant it was 1 p.m. in California.
She grabbed the phone and called him.
"Hello?"
"Jonathan? It's Jennifer".
"Hi, I was hoping you would call me today".
"I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time".
"You didn't. This is my private office number. The only other person who knows this number is Max, my houseman".
"Well, I feel special then. I would love to have dinner with you, Jonathan. But, you paid the tab for my drinks last week, plus the cab, plus you rescued me from that man, so this one is my treat".
"I'm intrigued. Where would you like to go?"
"I will make us reservations at Yakitori's. You'll love it".
"I'm sure I will".
"The flowers are beautiful. Thank you so much".
"Not half as beautiful as you are."
"You're too kind."
"Jennifer, I will be flying in Tuesday night. I have an apartment in New York that I stay in when I'm there. Let me give you the number just in case something happens."
"Ok, I'm ready."
"It's 718.827.4224".
"Got it. And let me give you my number, for the same reason. It's 718.289.3468".
"Perfect. Well, I won't keep you, I know you are busy. I look forward to our dinner next week".
"You can call me anytime, Jonathan. I'm looking forward to it as well".
"Bye Jennifer. Have a good day".
"Bye. You too".
She hung up, and couldn't wipe the smile off her face for anything.
She turned in her final draft, and clocked out early.
She called Meredith.
"Hey, any chance you can get away? I am in desperate need of a pedicure".
"I was just about to walk out the door. Meet you at the Nail spa in 20?"
"Perfect. See you then".
***The Nail Spa***
Jennifer walked in and picked her color, and then told the manicurist that she was meeting a friend and they were both getting mani's and pedi's.
They started their chairs, and Meredith walked in a few minutes later.
She picked her color and then came and sat by Jennifer.
"Hey girly."
"Hey yourself".
"So, tell me about the other night?"
"What's to tell?"
"Jennifer, I saw Mr. Yummypants leave the bar and go after you when you left. What happened?"
"Well, he hailed me a cab, and we shared it. He had them drop me at my building first. He was a perfect gentleman. The next morning, he sent me some beautiful flowers, and a sweet card that said he enjoyed meeting me. Then yesterday, I called him and was going to ask him to dinner. However, he wasn't there. His secretary said he had returned to Los Angeles. So then I felt foolish because in the cab he had told me that he was only in town on business, which naturally means he doesn't live here. However, today, I got more flowers. And this time, the card had his phone number on it. So, I called him and he said he will be in town next week, and wanted to know if I would have dinner with him. And this time he gave me his phone number, just in case".
"Go girl!"
"I figure a dinner, maybe two, and if nothing else, we can part as friends".
"Or you can do the wild thing and become bi-coastal lovers".
Jennifer cracked up.
"So, what happened with you and Brandon?"
"Well, we went back to his place, and things were getting hot and heavy, and he passed out. Just passed out on me, right in the middle. So, I got up, and put my clothes on, and left him a note that I left since he couldn't stay awake. He called me yesterday morning, and took me to lunch as an apology. We are going out tomorrow night. He's actually very intelligent. He works as a mortgage broker, has a nice apartment. Seems to make a decent living. Just drank too much the other night, I guess".
Jennifer had picked a soft purple for her toes, and clear for her fingers.
They both asked for the extra-long foot massage and hot towel.
Jennifer told her all about the article that she had just written.
"So, there's this husband and wife. They are young newlyweds-mid-to late 20's. They have only been married a few years, when they have their first child. He comes a few weeks early, but he's otherwise healthy, so they thought. So, to set the scene, they are in their hospital room, middle of the night after he was born, and he's in the nursery. A doctor comes in, introduces himself, and says "I'm almost positive your son won't make it".
"Oh, how horrible".
"Turns out he had an issue with his lungs, and had to be moved to another hospital. They agreed, of course, and the dad went with him. The mom followed hours later, after she had been discharged. So, he's in this special hospital for children, and it's a good hospital. Top specialists, top equipment, all of it. So, they start to treat him, and basically, they get in this loop where if we do A to treat b, it causes C. So we do D to treat it and it causes E. So, we remove everything and it causes all of that plus F".
"Oh, no. What did they do?"
"Well, they treated everything with gusto, until he was 4 months old. And then, they started seeing signs that his body couldn't do it anymore, and they decided to stop all heroic measures, and just enjoy the time they had left. So, here they are, hours from losing their first child, their only child. And they look around their hospital room. And they think about what they needed that wasn't there, and they decide to start an organization that will give all of that to other families in the same situation they are in. So, they start fundraising, they start having benefits. They start buying blankets for the babies and baskets and a wagon, and recliners. They put new recliners in the room where the nursing moms go to pump or nurse. They give each family a basket that has quarters for the vending machines, blankets for the babies, water bottles, socks, things like that. They have even managed to overhaul a specific area of the hospital for the brothers and sisters to go play. If their child was still alive, he wouldn't be ten years old yet. But in the time since he passed away and the organization started, they have had 3 more children, plus the dad graduated with his Masters, and the organization has grown exponentially. They provide literally whatever the family needs, whether it's paying a light bill, paying for grief counseling, paying for a hotel room if they are out of town. If they find out that your kid is having surgery, they will come and sit with you while you wait on your child. They are simply just two parents, who wanted their son's legacy to live on, and they wanted to give back to the hospital that cared for him, and in turn, they have blessed 100's more families in the process".
"That is absolutely beautiful". Meredith wiped her tears away.
"Yeah, they are really great people".
"When does it come out?"
"Monday. They have a fundraiser next weekend, so hopefully people will feel led to help them out".
They moved to the drying station then.
"So, how is your case going?"
"Not well, I'm afraid. The mob boss is still threatening us. We are hoping that he will get sentenced to prison so he will leave us alone".
They paid for their mani/pedi's and then Meredith went home to finish some work for the next day, while Jennifer picked up sushi and then went home.
She walked in and heard the phone ringing.
"Hello?", she said breathlessly.
"Hi, it's me. Jonathan".