"Jack, we've been over this." There were tears in her eyes and in her voice.
"I know we have Ellie, but I just can't give up hope that you'll stay."
Her eyes narrowed, and her voice hardened. "Jack, you know this is the opportunity of a lifetime, the first step towards me achieving my life's dream."
He huffed, shaking his head and walking a couple of yards away before turning and walking back. He threw his hands up in the air.
"Oh right, how could I forget for one moment just how much being an investigative reporter means to you and just how little I do." As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he had gone too far, hitting below the belt. His mouth opened, his eyes widened, his expression comically remorseful.
Ellie gasped, throwing Jack a hurt look, tears welling again, then turned and ran out of the room.
Jack stared after her, but didn't follow; he would probably end up saying something to make the situation worse. He hung his head dejectedly. Why did they always end up hurting each other so much? He loved Ellie, more than he had ever thought it possible to love another person; yet their path had never been an easy one, not even when they first met.
&&&&&
"'If set A is all even numbers and set B is all prime numbers, what number is included in both sets?' Oh come on, you call this a math problem? Just how thick is Bray anyway?" Jack muttered to himself as he reviewed the material he was going to be tutoring on this afternoon. "Using Pythagorean's Theorem solve for a when the sides of –oomph!"
The breath left his body as he collided with another body, falling forward onto him, "Watch the hands!" er, her.
"Sorry." Jack placed his hands on either side of her body, pushing himself to an upright position next to her. She also sat up, pushing her long blond hair out of her face and staring in the direction she had originally been headed.
She turned back to face him, pointing that way. "You idiot; why don't you look where you're going? I'm never going to catch up to him now!"
Jack looked where she was pointing He quirked a dark brow at her. "Ram? What do you want with him? I wouldn't say that you were his type."
"As if! Not every girl who wants to talk to a guy wants to for romantic or sexual reasons you know. And how do you know Ram Montgomery? I wouldn't think he'd hang out with someone like you." She gave him a scornful look.
"You're right, Ram and I could never possibly be friends. I'm so sorry to have bumped into you—" he gave her a questioning look.
"Ellie."
"Right, so sorry to bump into you, Ellie." He began gathering up his things and hers, handing hers to her. "I assure you it won't happen again." He stood up, dusting off his pants and pulling her to her feet. He turned to walk away.
"Wait!" He gave her another questioning look over his shoulder. "You didn't tell me your name."
"Jack." He started to walk away again.
"Jack, how do you know Ram Montgomery?"
He stopped and turned to face her. "He's only one of my best friends, that's how. Why are you so interested in him?" She gave him a pointed look. "Oh right. I didn't peg you for a fencing groupie." He raised his brows at her.
She threw him an annoyed look. "I'm no groupie. I work for the campus paper, you know The Tarheel Gazette? I wanted to interview him."
"Ram doesn't like to do interviews." His tone was suspicious.
"I was hoping he would do this one." She looked off in the direction the Ram had taken, but he was long gone. "Figures. Look, I gotta go." She turned to leave.
He grabbed her shoulder, spinning her around. "Ellie, wait."
"What?"
He grinned at her. "What would you do for another chance at that interview?"
"Certainly not anything like what you're thinking, you perv!" She glared and stomped off.
He went after her, grabbing her shoulder again. "I wasn't talking about anything like that; I meant a date or something. Coffee? A donut?"
She raised an eyebrow at him. "If I have coffee with you, you'll get me an interview with Ram Montgomery?"
Jack nodded, grinning again. The he held up his first two fingers. "Scout's honor."
Ellie rolled her eyes, but relented. "Fine. If you get me an interview with Ram. I will have one, got that? one coffee with you."
"Looks like this is my lucky day. One interview coming up. I just need your phone number—what? I have to call you to schedule a time and our date."
"A coffee. And I'll call you. Give me your number."
He laughed. "I knew it was just a matter of time before you would want my number."
"Don't push it, Jack."
He laughed again, giving her his number.
And so it began.
&&&&&
Ellie wiped the tears away from her eyes impatiently. She hated crying, but it seemed like that was all she did of late. Why couldn't Jack understand? This was hurting her as much as it was hurting him, but she had to go to New York. Lord knows she wasn't going to get a third chance. Was she doing the right thing? If she was really in love, wouldn't she want to stay with Jack over everything else? "I need an outside opinion." She picked up the phone, dialing quickly, from long habit. "Salene? Can you meet me at Ebony's Palace? I need a friend and some chocolate."
"Thanks for coming, Sal. I just needed to talk to someone who wasn't family about this."
Salene's expression was concerned and she squeezed Ellie's hand briefly. "Alice still saying 'career first, love later'?"
Ellie nodded. "And Gel keeps saying that she would never let so a prime catch as Jack get away; that he wouldn't wait a year for me to come back."
The maroon-haired girl rolled her eyes, before taking a sip from her cup of coffee. "Women's Lib is totally lost on that girl."
Ellie smiled, but almost before you saw it, the smile was gone and once again, she looked miserable.
"Are you sure you won't have another opportunity to do this internship in New York?" Salene inquired.
"Positive. This is already my second chance. I was given an offer freshman year, right after my interview with Ram ended up winning that Sports Illustrated contest, but I didn't take it because our relationship was so new, I didn't think it could have stood the separation. But now I love Jack and he loves me and a year isn't going to change my feelings. Especially if we call each other and write and see each other during breaks—" She looked at her friend helplessly.
Salene looked back, meeting her eyes. "Sounds to me like you've already made your decision; you're just trying to come to terms with it."
Ellie dropped her head to the table. "I have, I am, it's just—"
"Jack."
"Yes, Jack."
Salene sighed. "Men. You can't live 'em, and you can't—"
"'Accidentally' run them over with your car a time or two." Ellie lifted her head. "At least that's what Alice says whenever Ryan gets on her nerves."
Both girls looked at each other and laughed.
"Gosh, it feels like it's been so long since I last laughed. I needed this more than I thought." Ellie took a drink of her coffee, then looked around. "Now where's that waitress? Some of Ebony's famous 'Death by Chocolate' cake sounds about perfect right now. Calories don't count when you need a pick-me-up, right?"
"It's an irrefutable law of the universe." Salene laughed, and Ellie joined in, the pair making quite an attractive picture as they continued to talk and enjoy themselves.
The two girls had caught the attention of a lone diner sitting not too far away at the counter. He had been observing the girls and listening to their conversation since they had come in, completely unnoticed by them. When the girls shifted from talking of heavier things to a more light-hearted fair, he pulled out his cell phone, pressing a button.
"Hey, Jack; it's Mega. I have to talk to you ASAP. Can you meet me at Denny's in fifteen? Great. See you there."
Mega snapped his phone closed and pulling out his wallet, threw a few bills on the counter, before walking out of the café.
&&&&&
"This is the second offer she's received to do an internship in New York? She turned the first one down right after we started going out? Oh God, I've been such an ass!" Jack banged his forehead repeatedly on the table.
"Stop that. We've all made asses of ourselves at one point or another. It's part of being in love."
Jack lifted his head just enough to see Mega when he looked up. "When have you ever acted like an a.ss with Trudy?"
Mega snorted. "Too many times to count, but we're not talking about me, we're talking about you and Ellie. What are you going to do now?"
Jack sat upright, turning sideways and lifting his leg onto the bench, draping an arm over his bent knee. "What can I do? She's going to New York. I can't stop her; and even if I could, I woudn't. Who am I to take this chance away from her?"
"The man who loves her?"
The younger boy turned and glared at his friend. "Mega, quit with the games. If you have a point, then make it, because I am so not in the mood."
The bespectacled boy put his elbows on the table, leaning forward. "Jack, you're supposed to be one of the biggest minds on campus. Surely you can think of something you can do. This is the woman you love after all. You do love her, right?"
"Of course I do! I love her with all my heart and it's breaking into a million pieces because she's leaving to go to New York and—" He stopped talking. His eyes opened wide, as if he'd just made a great discovery. "She's going to New York!"
"You just said that."
Jack stood up, grinning broadly. "You don't understand. She's going to New York. New York!"
Mega pulled off his glasses, cleaning the lenses with the hem of his shirt. "Yes, and?"
"I'll tell you later, right now I gotta go!" Jack hurried from the table, almost bumping into their waitress. He gripped the woman by the arms, saying excitedly "She's going to New York!" before letting her go and running out of the restaurant.
She came over to the table smiling. "Your friend seems very happy now, not at all like when he came in."
Mega nodded. "He certainly does. I just wish I knew why."
&&&&&
"Flight 1024, Charlotte Douglas to JFK International now boarding, flight 1024, Charlotte Douglass to JFK International now boarding."
"That's my flight. I guess I better get going now." Ellie stood up, as did Salene and her boyfriend. "Thanks, Pride for helping me with my luggage." She gave the dark-haired boy a hug. Then she stood in front of Salene. "And thank you Sal, for everything." Her eyes moistened and the hugged her friend tightly.
Salene spoke softly next to Ellie's ear. "He still hasn't called you?"
Ellie pulled away, shaking her head. She pulled a tissue from her purse, dabbing at her eyes. "I knew he was upset, but I didn't think he would just stop talking to me." She blew her nose. "Look at me, I'm such a mess."
Her friend grabbed her hand, squeezing it. "No you're not. And it'll be okay. You'll see. If I get my hands on his scrawny little—"
"Now you sound like Alice." Ellie laughed and hiccupped at the same time.
"Great minds think alike."
"Final boarding, flight 1024, final boarding, flight 1024."
"I have to go." Ellie gave Salene another quick hug, then turned and walked quickly to the boarding gate, showing the attendant her boarding pass She turned and waved one last time to Salene and Pride, then headed down the walkway to the plane.
She checked her pass, and found her seat. She had the middle of three next to the window. Great, she thought, sitting down. Now someone's going to have to go past me to get to their seat. She sighed. Whatever. She buckled up her seatbelt, pulled her iPod out of her bag and put on her headphones, closing her eyes as "She Will Be Loved" began to play. Halfway through the second verse, a hand shook her shoulder. She opened her eyes, pulling off one earpiece. She looked at her seatmate and froze.
"Jack! What are you doing here?"
He grinned at her broadly. "Going to New York, silly. Unless this plane is going to Miami? I've always wanted to check out South Beach."
Ellie found her voice. "Quit playing, Jack. What are you doing on this flight? You're not supposed to be here. You should leave before you get in trouble." She hissed, seeing a flight attendant approach.
The attendant touched Jack on his shoulder. "Sir you're going to have to take your seat. We'll be taking off very soon."
"Okay, thank you." Jack sat in the aisle seat, fastening up the seatbelt.
"Jack, unfasten that this instant!"
He gave Ellie a confused look. "Why? The plane's about to take off."
"Exactly! That's why you need to leave now." She said through gritted teeth.
"Ellie, what's the matter? I thought you would be happy that I was going to New York with you." He frowned.
"You're what? Since when? How? What?"
"I'm going to New York with you. I'll be doing an internship with GE. That's what I've been doing the last couple of days, making the arrangements. It will satisfy my practical credit requirements and I get to be with you."
"Oh Jack." Tears began to stream from Ellie's eyes.
"Don't cry. I thought this would make you happy." He looked helpless and confused all at the same time.
Ellie laughed. "I am happy, Jack. You've made me so happy!" She threw her arms around his neck. "I love you." She whispered in his ear.
He pulled back slightly, just far enough to look her in the eyes. "I love you, too." He leaned forward, slanting his head. Her eyes closed as she pushed her lips forward to meet his. Their lips met and he pulled her tight, as if he was trying to make their bodies one.
They didn't see and probably wouldn't have cared about the looks and smiles they were getting from the passengers around them. They didn't even notice when the plane lifted off the ground taking them on their way. They were together and they were in love. That's all wanted or needed.