Chapter Thirteen.
The crackers had been too salty and way too dry. Jack had only eaten one cracker when he said that he had had enough of them. Kate had raised her eyebrow to him, frowning him with the corner of her eye amused. She found the dry snack surprisingly good and couldn't understand why he was being so picky. She had been able to eat two more crackers until he had wanted to do other things with her.
He had taken her by the hand and walked the stairs up to his bedroom with her. They had spent the rest of the night there and when the morning sun had risen, she woke up next to him, they shared breakfast, he kissed her and she had left his apartment.
All this took a place a month ago. During that month Kate had met with him three times.
When Jack and Kate got together they always followed pretty much the same pattern. First they would meet in the coffee shop, eat something and talk. Annie was almost always behind the counter when they were there. She gave loving frowns to them that Kate usually didn't even notice but if he saw her, he gave her a little nod with his head to which she answered back by smiling.
After that they would go either to his place or to the nearby motel depending on whether was Sarah home or not. From those rendezvous that they had shared, Sarah had only been home once.
"I told you she's not home that much," he said on their fourth time together after the dry cracker night.
Kate didn't like to talk about Sarah and most of the time he tried to avoid that topic also but occasionally he brought it up like he was doing now.
She shifted her eyes to the cupcake to make him stop talking. At first she hadn't wanted to eat anything but when he insisted that it would be his pleasure to buy something for her, she had agreed.
She started nipping it with her fork but when eventually she took a bite from it and was surprised by how good it was. Kate closed her eyes and let the chocolate chips from the muffin melt into her mouth. He saw her enjoying look and smiled. Opening her eyes, she found him glancing at her.
"This is so good! How did you know to pick this one?" she asked looking at him.
"I've been here probably hundred times more than you have. Lets just say that I've had more than enough time to test-drive all their offerings."
Kate's lips curled up and she ended up staring his face a moment longer that it would've been necessary. Eventually she moved her gaze to the cupcake. Chocolate chip banana. He sure had hit the gold mine when he had bought that kind of one to her.
"Do you want to share this? I feel bad just enjoying this by myself," she said frowning at him again.
He hadn't expected that someone actually considered sharing that kind of piece of heaven. The coffee in that place might've sucked and tasted like the ink from yesterday's newspaper had been in it but their bakery products were undoubtedly New York's finest cream.
"Sure, I would love to have some of that," he said gesturing to the plate with his head.
Kate took a better grip from her fork so she would be able to slice the cupcake into two different pieces with it. Jack stopped her hand by grabbing her by the wrist when he saw that she was going to slice half of it to him.
"I don't need that much. Just a little bite of it will do just fine. I bought it for you so you could eat it. I've had way too many of these anyway."
She nodded cutting a small piece from the cupcake and bringing the fork towards him. He was holding his mouth open like a little baby. She giggled and placed the fork to his lips. He took the piece of muffin from it, chewed and swallowed. It tasted just like it always had tasted. But the company was definitely better compared to whom or actually what he usually shared his muffin with. The choice between car magazines that were at least three months old and a brown-haired puppy-eyed girl wasn't exactly the trickiest thing to make.
Jack watched how she continued eating and when she was done how she put the fork carefully on the plate and drained the rest of her coffee.
"What have you planned for this time?" she asked.
Kate knew that Sarah wasn't home at the moment and was expecting that they would go to his place but when Jack didn't answer her question right away she started suspecting that he could've had planned to do something different.
"I thought that we could maybe go to the Central Park and spent time there. It would be nice to just be close to you without actually having to do anything. What do you say?" he eventually spoke out.
Kate hadn't done something like just hanging around since she had been a child so she was getting excited about his idea. Then a thought came to her mind.
"What if somebody sees us?" she asked worryingly.
He brought his left palm up to his hair combing it thru once with his fingers, then looking at her eyes comfortingly.
"This is NY, Kate. Pretty many people will see us. Even at this very moment quite many could just turn their heads and look us. But to repeat myself, this is NY. People don't care who they have seen. So I don't think we have to worry about that," he said still frowning at her face.
Kate's expression softened and she stood up from her chair. As she started walking towards the door Jack sneaked behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned her back against his chest but continued her pacing.
They looked stupid walking together like that and she knew it but didn't let it bother her.
The exit door squeaked and when they were outside Jack withdrew himself slightly away from her so he could wave his hand to get a cab for them.
"Do we really need a cab to get there? It's just a few blocks away from where we are. We could walk," she said turning her head around so she could look at him.
"I was thinking that you might not have the energy to walk but if you do, the walking suits me fine."
It took a half an hour for them to arrive to the park.
"Lets go there," he said pointing the spot on the grass under a big oak tree with his finger. "It should be distant enough to avoid people's stares."
The place was nice, just perfectly away from everybody. She smiled and took the hand that he was thrusting into her direction into her own palm.
As they reached the place, Jack took a blanket out from his bag, spread it on the grass and sat down. He patted the free spot next to him and Kate joined him.
He had realised to take the blanket with him but the thought of bringing some food hadn't crossed his mind and now he regretted it. Though she seemed to be happy with this. She had one of those looks in her eyes that little kids get when they see the gate to an amusement park.
She turned to face him and smiled.
"I'm sorry that I didn't bring anything else," he said and leaned his back against the tree.
"It's OK. I kind of like it this way."
This was the first time anyone had wanted to just be with her with no strings attached. Every time somebody had done something nice to her, they had expected to get something in return.
She dragged her body closer to him and after he had readjusted his position, she was able to sit next to him and rest her back against him. She felt his chest go up and down in the same pace that he exhaled and inhaled beneath her. After a while he brought his arms to go around her upper body and squeezing them tighter against her making her body relax and come closer to him.
He closed his eyes and relaxed his body taking in the essence of her being so close to him.
Kate caressed his hands that were resting on her tummy with her palms and looked around her.
The park was rather empty from people and rough-looking. It was a very hot day and because there hadn't been any rains in a while, the grass and the leaves had started to turn a bit brownish and yellowish from all the dryness. The glamour of NY, she thought sarcastically. But even if the nature wasn't wearing its most gorgeous summer outfits, the park managed to look beautiful in the setting evening sun. Or at least the purple sky was pleasant to the eye.
"Jack…" she murmured.
He was startled by her voice and making a few tired groans he opened his eyes.
She turned her face so he could see one side of it. Her eyes were fixed to the grass.
"What are we going to do? I mean how long can we keep this thing as a secret to Sarah?"
Jack closed his eyes again. He didn't like to talk nor think about Sarah when he was with her but her knew that this conversation was inevitable.
Tightening his grip to her he finally talked.
"I have been thinking about that a lot lately," he started and tried to swallow the lump that had formed into his throat. "I've put little facts together. The thing is that I'm not happy with her. She has never been there when I would've needed her. But since you came back into my life, there hasn't been a need for her inside of me."
She had turned her whole body around and was now completely face-to-face with him.
"What are you saying?" she asked quietly and Jack saw her eyes starting to glister a bit.
He cupped her face between his palms, making her look into his eyes.
"I just need to know that you will be there for me if I do leave her," he said to her ear.
She couldn't believe his words. They made her heart feel like it was expanding inside of her. Kate rested her palms to his chest and brought her face close to him.
"I promise, I will be there," she whispered and started kissing him.
He smiled against her lips. When he tasted something salty, Jack knew that the moisture in her eyes had formed into a tear.
He walked her home. She lived quite near the Central Park so the escort wasn't very long but he enjoyed it anyway.
Her apartment was in a rather cramped block of flats. She had explained that it was kind of crappy but pretty much the only place in NY where the landlord didn't ask many questions from the tenants.
They were standing in front of the entrance door and he was staring at her.
"So I…" she started but Jack interrupted her by bringing his mouth to her lips and pushing her against the wall gently.
She raised her hands to stroke his neck as he parted her lips with his tongue. Kate deepened the kiss by opening her mouth wider and leaned more against the wall.
Eventually he broke the kiss by pulling his face back slightly.
"Well, I couldn't see that one coming," she giggled and caressed his cheek with her nose and was breathing warm air against his face.
"I've just been wanting to do that all evening. Had to get it out of my system before you went in."
She raised her eyes to glare at him as she smiled.
"So I guess I'll see you next Friday?"
"You got yourself a date, girl," he answered.
"For the last time, I'm not your girl," she laughed.
"You can say that all you want but we both know how it really is," he said and gave her a brief kiss as they said good nights to one another.
Jack started walking away but after pacing a while, he turned to look back. She was still standing there by the door and waved to him when she saw him looking back.
After giving a wave back to her, he continued walking and closed his eyes. It would've been so cool if I hadn't looked back, he thought and disappeared from her sight.