Chapter 12
"Why don't you move in with me?"
That was what Frank said to Jane as they lay together in his bed the following Sunday morning when she told him that Sarah would be moving out at the beginning of March.
Jane pressed her lips together and shook her head. "I'm going to find a new flatmate. I think it'll work out if I start advertising now."
Frank started nuzzling her neck and intentionally deepened his voice. "I'll be your new flatmate. You know what a good time you had time when you stayed here with me."
Oh, how hard it was to resist him when he laid on the allure this way! But Jane managed to take a deep breath and sidle away a bit. "It's not the same."
He gazed at her with his sexiest smile. "Why not? It was great, being here together. You said so yourself."
"I know, but..." Jane chewed her lip. "You're gone a lot."
His hands had drifted over to her body again and he was now caressing her in ways that sent shivers down her spine. "You said you don't mind being alone."
"It's not the same," she repeated. The idea of moving in with Frank was So. Damn. Tempting! But somehow Jane knew it would be the wrong choice to make.
Frank sat up and ran his fingers through his hair. He sighed, apparently concluding that seduction wasn't working. "Why are you so against this?"
Jane was silent for a moment, trying to figure that out herself. "It's too soon."
"I disagree. Surely you know how serious I am about you. I've never felt this way about anyone." There were no longer any indications of humor or charm in his voice.
She stared into his eyes, her heart thumping wildly, unsure how to respond. She knew that this was Frank at his most honest, and she couldn't help but be moved by what he had just said.
After a few moments, she brushed her lips against his. "Please don't think this means I don't love you."
"Okay..." he said, and waited for her to go on.
"It's just..." What was she trying to say? She didn't know, she just knew that moving in with him didn't feel right.
"Surely you know how serious I am about you. I've never felt this way about anyone," she heard in her head again. Oh shit. He meant it, she knew, but what did that mean? Because she had never felt this way about anyone, either, but the idea of trying to take their relationship to some next level—the kind that living together would represent—made her want to run away screaming. It's too soon, it's too soon! her mind was shouting at her.
It wasn't just the idea of living together she was resisting, it was also living here, in Frank's flat. Unreal was how she had felt when she returned home, but now she knew that her life, her work, her flat—that was reality. Reality was not having doormen and housekeepers and valet service that did your drycleaning and purchased and delivered your groceries. Reality was getting around via the underground, slogging her clothing to the laundry, and working with Sarah to scrape together enough for their council tax. Staying for five days in Frank's flat had been a dream, but she couldn't imagine returning to this luxury high-rise building every evening after spending her days trying to serve in Hackney or Barking or Islington.
Frank's eyes were still searching hers, and she felt herself melting a little. She didn't want to hurt him and she really did love him. So she said, "Will you give me some time to think about it? We have two and a half months to make a decision." She would open herself up to the possibility that she might change her mind.
"Two and a half months? March the first is less than a month and a half away."
"Yes, but no matter what, I'm staying in my flat until at least the end of March. Too much is happening before then, like my presentation at work and the marathon. And Sarah will be trying to finish up her term before the wedding. I don't want her to be any more stressed out than she has to be. If I'm still in our flat, I can help her move and she'll know it's okay if she doesn't get everything out all at once."
Frank held up his hands in resignation. "Okay then. Go ahead and think about it." He rose from the bed and started to get dressed. Apparently, the romantic mood they'd been in earlier was completely dead.
Not wanting to leave things this way, Jane stood up and walked over to him. Reaching up to put her arms around his neck, she kissed him deeply. "I really do love you, Frank."
It worked. He smiled. "I know you do. Let's get something to eat right now. You can tell me all about your presentation." His grin deepened as he slid his hands down her back to squeeze her still-bare butt. "We'll come back to this later."
Continuing to try to keep their relationship low-key and private, they left his flat separately and met up a short while later at a café one stop away on the Tube. While they ate breakfast, Jane described the project she would present to the Lancaster-Beckworth trustees. When she finished, Frank looked at her in wonder. "Wowww," he said. "Jane, that's pretty amazing! How'd you get interested in water like this?"
"Growing up in California," she said, and he nodded in understanding. "But even more from my time in Sierra Leone. We saw so many children dealing with illnesses caused by contaminated water, and I learned that only about half the country had access to safe drinking sources."
"Ow, that's rough."
"What's really wild is that I was there during rainy season, and quickly realized that it didn't matter. Even when water is plentiful, that doesn't mean it's potable. They don't really have the means to capture, store or purify water during the rainy season, so there's little clean water to help the people make it through the dry season later."
"So it doesn't matter whether you have too much water or not enough...?"
"Exactly. All the water in the world doesn't matter if it's not managed right, or people don't have access to it, or it's not clean and safe for drinking."
Frank touched his nose and pointed at her.
"You do that a lot," she observed.
"What?"
"This gesture." She imitated the touch nose/point motion. "It's like your way of saying, 'Good point.' I think it's cute. "
He grinned and did it again, and then stared at her with a goofy smile on his face.
"What?" she finally asked.
"You blow my mind sometimes. Just your desire to make a difference."
She shrugged. "Somebody has to care. People in our home state are already starting to deal with not having enough water. How can we ignore that?"
Frank waggled his head. "Now you're making me feel like I should be doing something to help the world."
"What you're doing to help Betty and her family is pretty cool. I was impressed."
He laughed. "I know. I could tell by the look on your face. I knew I was going to get some later that day."
Jane giggled and threw her napkin at him.
Still grinning, he caught the napkin and said, "I mean it. With Betty, that's just one family. I can do more, and I'm going to start someday. You've inspired me."
She smiled sweetly at him. "There's no better time than the present, Mr. Churchill."
"Okay, challenge on."
Little did she know at the time that Frank would take up that challenge less than a week later. She gave piano lessons on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, so she found herself at the community centre on January the 25th. Having met Frank two weeks earlier, her students were giggly and teasing, asking whether her boyfriend would be coming again. She had to repeatedly remind them to focus on their music.
The centre was only open for limited services on Saturdays: a food bank, a youth group meeting, and Jane's lessons. In addition to Jane, the other adults in the building were Natalyia, who ran the food bank, along with a few volunteers; Hamid, who led the youth group; and Osei, the security guard. Being situated close to the lobby, Jane heard a commotion late in the morning, along with what sounded like Osei arguing with someone.
Angelica, her current student, was easily distracted by the noise. Jane tried to return her attention to the musical score sheet, hoping that nothing was happening that would put any of the kids in the building at risk. A short while later, Osei called out her name and asked her to join him in the lobby. "Stay put," she told Angelica.
Two men in brown uniforms stood in the lobby. Jane could see a large truck double parked just outside the front door. "What is it?" she asked Osei.
"They said they have a big delivery for you. I told them we can't accept deliveries on Saturday." Osei rubbed his beard, looking frustrated.
"This is for me?" She turned to the men. "I didn't order anything. I don't have permission to order anything for this centre."
"You're Jane Fairfax?" said one of the uniformed men.
"Yes, but—"
"Then this delivery is for you."
"What is it?"
"Instruments," the other man said.
"Instruments?" she echoed.
"That's right," said the first man, reading from a sheet of paper. "We have two keyboards, two drum sets, four guitars, and let's see, two each of tubas, flutes, clarinets and saxophones."
Jane gaped at the men. "I didn't order this, and as I said, I don't have permission to place an order here anyway."
"AND," Osei repeated, "we can't accept deliveries on Saturdays. One of the programme administrators needs to sign for it, and they won't be back until Monday."
The first delivery man looked annoyed. "Well, what do you want us to do? Our job is to drop this off."
"Take it back to where you got it from," snapped Osei.
"We're not allowed to do that." The second man gestured at Jane. "Your name's on it. You need to be the one responsible for it."
"But I didn't order this!" Who in the world had ordered a bunch of instruments in her name? No sooner did she ask herself the question than she knew the answer: Frank.
She pulled out her mobile and called him. "He-lloooo," he answered in a sing-song tone. She could already hear the excitement in his voice.
She exhaled heavily. "Frank, did you just order a bunch of instruments for the community centre?"
"YES!" he shouted. "Isn't it great?"
"Why did you do this?"
"Before they had one keyboard and one Jane. You're able to teach all of what, eight kids? Didn't you say, 'everyone can do something'? Now, a bunch of kids in the neighbourhood can learn music, and maybe other people like Roger can teach them!"
Jane had to take several deep breaths to keep from hyperventilating. "You have to send the instruments back. An administrator would have to approve this delivery, and they're not here until Monday. And even if they were here now, there's no place to store all this stuff! Why the hell would you do this without talking to me first?!"
"We did talk about it. Last week, when I said I wanted to do something to help, you said, 'what better time than the present?'"
She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. "It would have been nice to have known about this specific thing you wanted to do before you did it!"
"I thought it was a good idea."
"Well, it wasn't!"
Frank was quiet for some time after that, giving Jane a moment to look around her. Osei, the delivery men, and now Angelica and her mother who had recently arrived were all staring at her. Wishing she could sink into a hole, she mumbled an apology to her audience and went back to her call.
"Frank," she said quietly, "I know you had good intentions, but this wasn't well-thought out. And right now we can't accept these instruments. Can you send them back to wherever they were purchased?"
"What if the centre decides to keep them?" His voice sounded a little whiny.
"I doubt they will, since they don't have the storage space."
"What if they find the space?"
She blew out her breath. "That's up to the programme director and administrators on Monday. In the meantime, we need to get these instruments out of here right now. What do you suggest?"
He was silent again, and then said softly, "There are some storage areas in my building. I'll have the truck re-directed here. Will you put the delivery person on the phone?"
"Thank you," she said, feeling greatly relieved. She handed her mobile to one of the two uniformed men, who took instructions from Frank. He handed the mobile back when he was done, and the two delivery men soon departed.
Osei, Angelica, and her mother Carlota were still looking at Jane, who knew, from the way her face was burning, that her cheeks would have looked completely scarlet had her skin been lighter. "I'm very sorry," she said.
Osei smiled gently. "It worked out. Was that the bloke who came here two weeks ago?"
She nodded.
"Looks like he wanted to do something special for you."
Jane gritted her teeth again. Carlota laughed. "Men don't always have good sense."
Jane attempted to smile. She and Frank were going to have to have a serious talk when she saw him later.