A/N: Very special thanks to RandomCitizen, ajsmiles, CeliaSingsSongs, Guest, TLGRIMN, Afreakbynature, Rockabella Suzy, Mad Hatter Massacre, Obscured Angel, the-goblet-of-deduction, DD, S, PurgatoryNymphe, KizuNii, xxDreamWalkerxx, Juliana Brandagamba, TheFeyRa, Lora, and Clancy1018 for your reviews. Hope you enjoy this update!
The Curious Misunderstanding
Chapter Five
/
It had turned into a warm afternoon, and as such Russell Square was decently abustle with people; there were the usual walkers, those passing by and those meandering, enjoying the weather and effects of spring. People doing yoga and Tai Chi did so on the grass, in patches of shade off to the side, away from prying eyes. I walked past the centre of the park, past the children playing in the fountain and the folks sitting to talk or eat their lunches on the benches; I kept my head up towards the cafe - which didn't look overly busy, despite the brightness of the day. My heart was already pounding as I came along the walk, on the lookout for a sharply dressed man.
It wasn't difficult in the least to spot him almost instantly: he sat alone at a table by the flower bushes, looking entirely relaxed with one leg crossed over the other, holding out the newspaper in front of him. I swallowed as I approached him, quickly running my fingers through my hair, trying to keep the crazy happy grin off my face. He was dressed to perfection, as usual, in a primly cut dark suit, and he wore stylish sunglasses to shield the sun off his chocolate eyes.
The way he sat and how he looked, it was like the rest of the park was totally deserted. No one else could grab attention like he did in that moment, so elegantly unmoving, so focused with his paper, so unassuming and still, like a statue, and though it wasn't difficult to gauge why women at the other tables were glancing at him, it made me feel like a queen when he looked up, smiled at me, and stood to receive me.
"Hullo," he said, folding his newspaper without breaking eye-contact, smiling.
"Hi," I breathed, anxiously holding onto my purse, trying not to appear as nervous as I was. "Thank you for meeting me, I know you must be really busy."
He smiled his coy little smile. "You'd be surprised how very un-busy I've been these days. Keeping a low profile since the incident."
I smiled at him sympathetically; I could see that whole thing have fazed him. "How are you?"
His smile became grand once more, and even though he was wearing sunglasses, I swear I could see his eyes sparkle. "Feeling more and more like myself each day."
I nodded, very happy to hear it, and I gave him a quick once over. "Well, you look wonderful."
"As do you," he said, without missing a beat.
I took that opportunity to sit down at the table so he wouldn't see the blush in my cheeks; across from me, Jim did the same, and as soon as I had smoothed out my skirt and set my purse down on the ground next to me, I was surprised by the sudden appearance of a waiter from out of the coffee shop, carrying two paper cups and setting them down in front of us. I looked up at him as he nodded to Jim and then hurried away back inside, and I looked down at the paper cup and then at Jim, expectedly.
"I took a chance on double espresso," he said, gesturing to the cup.
I couldn't help the smile on my face all of a sudden. I picked up the cup and let the scent of the espresso waft up through the lid, cradling it between my hands as though it was the most thoughtful gift anyone had ever given me. "Thank you," I said. "You didn't have to do that."
"Well, I sensed during our phone call yesterday..." he said, reaching for his own cup of coffee and taking it between both hands, his eyes never leaving me. "That you were in need of a good coffee and a chat."
I sat there and blinked at him for a moment, feeling the frown settle on my lips; how on earth had he guessed that? Then again, it probably wasn't that hard to deduce, given how I'd fumbled through the phone call with him the day before. I kept my head down as I removed the lip from my coffee cup and let the smell waft into my face, so rich and smooth that I could have cried. I suddenly felt so embarrassed, and I wasn't really sure why.
Jim picked up on it immediately; he tilted his head slightly and frowned. "Nola?"
I cradled my coffee between my hands, looking down at it, and then finally up at him. "I hope you won't be upset," I said, nervously. "You said I could call you if I needed anything, and these days I just..."
I couldn't figure out why it was suddenly so difficult to articulate what I was feeling or how I was feeling; I had been so focused on seeing him and being in his company that I hadn't even thought about what I would tell him.
Jim stood up from his seat, so suddenly that I thought he was going to storm off in an angry huff, but as I looked up at him, he took his coffee in one hand and held out the other for me to take. "Why don't we walk?"
My heart quieted in my chest and I breathed a sigh of relief, happy that he wasn't annoyed; I quickly grabbed my purse off the ground and took hold of my coffee and graciously took his hand, allowing him to help me to my feet, and as soon as I was standing I realized I was close enough to him to get a whiff of his expensive cologne, making me weak in the knees, and I slipped my hand out of his for fear that I would start shaking. I smiled nervously as he led the way, slowly meandering away from the cafe, onto the walkway but at a leisurely pace, unlike all the other park patrons. Jim walked at my side with one hand in his pocket, and it took every ounce of will power in my being not to just look at him as we went. Surely the man was aware of his magnetism; every other woman in the park was eying him either slyly or blatantly, and I took great but silent pride that I was his companion at that moment.
"Now then," he said lowly, so that we would not be overheard, and he leaned so close it was as if he meant to whisper it into my ear; it made a shiver go up my spine. "What's troubling you?"
I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly, sipping my coffee and taking in the sight of the park around me. "It's my thesis."
"Ah, I wondered," he said with a lilt of recognition in his voice, which surprised me. When I looked at him, he gave me a sweet little smile. "You were so reluctant to discuss it at breakfast, I sensed that perhaps it was not going as well as you would have hoped."
I laughed a little, unable to help it; that was an understatement and a half. "I failed my defense," I said, and I felt as though there was a sudden weight off my chest, like confessing it to a man who was practically a stranger was all I needed to get past it. "And my supervisor left to go on holiday so soon after that I didn't have a chance to talk to him about it."
We paused for a moment to let a pair of screeching children go past us; as we resumed, Jim glanced over at me. "What do you suppose happened?"
I shrugged, because truth be told I wasn't really sure what had happened; so many times I thought back to that moment in the classroom when I stood in front of my panel, but I couldn't recall very well what had actually transpired. Granted, getting pissed almost immediately following the defense probably didn't help matters. "I don't know," I told him, shaking my head a little. "I just...I froze. I stumbled over my answers, I missed the point of the questions. I just...just failed it," I looked over at him and managed a tiny smile. "It was the day I found you on the sidewalk."
He made an affirmative sound in his throat, but didn't say anything; I had the sense he was waiting for me to finish completely. But what more was there to tell? That my supervisor had likely been so ashamed that he ran off to Crete before we could even make sense of what happened? That my Dad, the only other confidant I had in the city, was so busy helping to run the country that I felt guilty plaguing him with my own problems?
I looked over at Jim and smiled gently. "I'm so sorry, this must be so boring...it just feels comforting to tell someone."
"Of course," he said, as though he too had experiencing with professing ills to someone he didn't know very well. "What are you going to do?"
I drank from my coffee and licked my lips. "I'm going to revise things an try again in a few months," I said, and then I sighed heavily. "It's just that failed defense, it'll haunt my record for the rest of my life."
We approached an empty bench, and Jim held out his hand to motion for us to sit, so we did; I crossed my legs and looked at the fountain in front of us, at the children playing and laughing, and I hugged myself for comfort.
"Is there anything I can do?" Jim asked, his voice low and as smooth as dark chocolate infused with the espresso on my tongue.
I was tempted to tell him that he could read anything to me - anything, even the most mundane political report available - with that deep Dublin drawl, and I would be happy for the rest of my life. But I swallowed it down and smiled at him instead. "Talking with you is all I wanted," I told him, truthfully. "Just something new...someone new."
He returned with a smile of his own, one that drew my attention to the pinkness of his lips before I tore my gaze away and took a sip of my coffee. Jim shifted and sat back in his seat. "Well," he said. "I'm very happy I could help. Though I certainly hope you'll let me know if there's anything more I can do."
I shrugged as I sipped my coffee, trying to hide the blush on my face. The idea that he wanted me to keep him abreast of my school woes made my heart flutter; it definitely felt like an invitation for further conversation. "Well," I mused, completely off the top of my head. "You could break into the university and erase all the marks from my file."
I looked at him to give him a smile, just to show that I was teasing, only to be met with a lovely little smile of his own; he bowed his chin just slightly, looking down at his coffee cup between his fingers. "I'm sorry," he said, with a sweet tone of mock disappointment. "I'm afraid if I were any good with technology outside of working my mobile, I may be of some further help. Alas..."
I grinned, completely unable to help it; my heart fluttered, and as my eye was drawn to his coffee cup in-between his lovely hands, I had to seriously withhold from reaching over and taking his hand in mine. It was then that I felt awash with such a strange sense of calm, of relief and realization; I felt so at ease with him, and I wanted to know everything about him, absolutely everything. I could have sat there for hours on end just asking him question after question: what was he like as a child? Did he have any siblings? What was he interested in as a teenager? What did his flat look like? Where did he buy his clothes?
"I'm pleased you could meet me here," he said, changing the subject, and looking out over the park; he spoke of it as though Russell Square was a spot he cherished, like a favourite place from childhood. "Now that spring is here, I'm trying to make an effort to spend more time out of doors, smell the flowers and all that. I don't know why, but I've always loved this particular spot."
I looked over at him and noticed the telltale pull of gratefulness in his smile, and it made me frown a little bit. I guessed that the near-death experience he had experienced had allowed him to gain some perspective on things, maybe some things he took for granted every day, like having a spot of fairly peaceful green space in an otherwise bustling, booming metropolis that tried to kill him by pushing him out a window.
"Does it remind you of home?" I asked in a faraway voice, sneakily trying to get on the subject so that I could hear more about him.
He shrugged his shoulders and sat back, crossing one leg over the other. "I suppose in a way it does, yes," he said. "When I was little, our house sat on the back of a park where I would play as a boy."
I withheld a smile, trying to imagine him as a tiny little boy running around in a spot of green, chasing the birds and playing soccer and getting into all sorts of mischief.
"Granted I haven't been home in a very long time," he said with an air of reluctance. "I imagine things have changed quite a bit."
I wanted to ask why he hadn't been back, but there was something about his voice and his choice of words and the soft look on his face that warned me that perhaps he had left under circumstances that were not as forgiving as he would have hoped. I kept my mouth shut, reminding myself to mind my own business, to a degree, and that he would tell me more about it if he chose to.
He looked over at me, as though puzzled by my silence, and eased me a smile. "Have you ever been to Ireland?"
I thought back to the many times, during my childhood, where my Dad made trips to Dublin for business, and even though I would have liked to have gone with him at least once or twice, I was just as delighted to spend some time alone at home with my mother. It was suddenly embarrassing that I was in my late twenties and hadn't been to Ireland, despite how close it was.
"I'm afraid not," I said, shaking my head and giving him a sheepish smile. "Although I would really like to some day."
"Hmm," he mused in his throat, and he turned towards me so that his shoulders were almost square with him. "Perhaps at a future time, when all your studies are good and done."
I felt my heart leap up into my throat, and I couldn't help but think of the implication behind those words. Surely he wasn't suggesting it, but it felt so certain that he was suggesting we go to Ireland when I was finally finished with my thesis, he and I.
"Perhaps," I agreed, trying to keep the glee out of my voice and the redness out of my cheeks. I was suddenly overcome with the idea of traveling to Dublin with Jim, walking the streets and listening to his every word as he showed me where he grew up, where he spent his school days, what he did for work and leisure as a teenager. I would take his arm and hang on his every word, every single word, as he showed me around the city. It sounded like an absolute dream come true.
We quieted for a moment as we sat there, and I noticed that Jim, poised and elegant and unmoving as he was, continued to draw eyes from all over the park, so much so that I began to feel slightly self-conscious. Although I didn't dare want to leave his charming company, I knew that I had work to do, and he probably did as well, and he was probably a busy man, regardless of his claims that he was taking things easy, and I was taking up a lot of his time simply to listen to him speak.
I cleared my throat and uncrossed my legs. "Well, I should be off," I told him, and watched his expression falter a little, as though he was worried something he said had offended me. But I gave him the sweetest smile I could muster, more thankful than I could tell him for agreeing to see me, for allowing me to unload my worries about my project. "I've taken up a lot of your time; you probably have places to go, people to see..."
He did take that moment to check the time on his watch, and he made an unhappy noise in his throat. "Yes, I do suppose I should be getting along," he said, and then he sighed heavily. "There never are enough hours in the day."
I smiled as we stood from the bench, and I was just about to thank him for a lovely afternoon when he took his mobile from his coat pocket and made a quick text message. "I'll call for Sebastian, he's nearby," he said.
I was taken aback, and about to tell him that I actually didn't live far and I'd be able to make my own way home, but then I thought about sitting in the backseat of the car next to him, and everything in my head told me to shut up and simply smile and nod. I suppressed a smile as Jim turned towards me with a little smile. "Well, shall we?"
Having disposed of our empty coffee cups in a nearby bin, we walked side by side through Russell Square towards Russell Hotel, and before we could reach the sidewalk, I could see Sebastian's sleek black car pull up to the curb and stop. I blushed when Jim opened the back door and gestured for me to get inside, and as soon as I slid into the far leather seat, I could see Sebastian peering at me through the rearview mirror. "Hello Sebastian," I said.
"Ms. Kross," he said, tipping his head just slightly but not smiling.
Jim sat down in the seat next to me and closed the door, and then Sebastian pulled the car into late afternoon Tuesday traffic. I stared out the window at the people we passed by, biting into my lower lip to keep from grinning like a fool. I could feel the heat from Jim's body and I could smell his deep rich scent, and it just made me want to twitch and giggle like a little girl. I was suddenly disappointed that I didn't live further away from Russell Square so that I might sit next to him in the car for a prolonged amount of time. I was anxious for a moment to give Sebastian directions to my flat, like I was so used to in a taxi, but then I remembered that Sebastian knew where I lived, and it was so obvious that we were headed there.
I thought of something to say so that we might have a bit of conversation during this, the last leg of an enchanting albeit short afternoon out with Jim, but I felt so comfortable sitting in the leather seat, feeling Jim's radiating presence next to me, and I enjoyed the near silence of the car on the road and just the overall feeling of complete ease, that suddenly there didn't seem to be need of conversation, or any sound, really - and Jim too seemed comfortable enough that we could just enjoy the ride without ruining it with small talk. Though for the duration of the rather short trip from Russell Square to my flat - merely seven minutes away by car - I longed to lean over and rest my head against Jim's shoulder so that I might close my eyes and breathe in his deep rich smell and simply delight that he was there, prolong the moment. And I felt more than a little disappointed when Sebastian turned the corner onto my street.
The car pulled up in front of my flat and slowed to a stop; Jim opened the door to let himself out and waited for me. I caught Sebastian glancing at me in the rearview mirror and I smiled at him as I slid along the seat. "Thank you for the ride, Sebastian."
He nodded, still unsmiling. "You're welcome."
I was met with Jim's waiting outstretched hand to help me out of the car, and as I took it, feeling his strong hand enclosed around mine, I rose out from the backseat up into his splendidly handsome face, like a princess royally greeted by her chocolate-eyed prince. If Ms. Penslivy was watching from her window, I imagined she'd be shrieking in delight.
"What a perfect spot," Jim said, looking up at the building through his sunglasses and then turning to me with a smile. "You live alone?"
"I do," I said, smiling, and looking up at the building fondly. "I have friends in town, but none of them are really nearby. I wanted to be close to the university."
He made an affirmative noise in his throat and looked up once more at the building, and then again over at me with a telling little smile on his lips. "You'll have to give me a tour sometime."
My heart skipped a beat, and had I been anywhere else, I might have fainted at the thought of having Jim inside my flat in a relatively social manner. "Absolutely," I said, without thinking, and then I felt my cheeks go hot from the suggestion. I cleared my throat awkwardly to change the subject. "Thank you again for seeing me today. I feel so much better."
"I'm very pleased to hear it," he said, lingering as though he expected me to invite him upstairs. "Although I meant it when I said to contact me if there's anything more I can do."
I didn't need reminding; I was sure the remainder of my day was going to be spent trying to think of what else he could do to help. A trip with him to a secluded tropical paradise would have sufficed perfectly. "I will, I promise."
I wanted to kiss him; oh god, how I just wanted to lean forward and kiss his cheek, just for being so nice to me at a time when I really needed it, but I wouldn't have dared done something so forward.
But obviously Jim didn't find the idea forward at all; with my hand still in his, he pulled me towards him every so slightly and stepped into me, closing the air between us, and before I could even make sense of what he was doing, I felt the ghost of his breath at my ear and the press of his lips on my cheek. I sucked in a breath as I felt the slightest of stubble on his cheek grazing mine, and I had only a quick second to react and press a kiss of my own to his cheek. Despite the fact that a kiss to the cheek was a pleasantry I was used to doing with so many people, I couldn't help the fluttery jumping of my heart in chest as I breathed in Jim's smell and relished being so close to him, feeling his pink lips on my skin, feeling the warmth of his body lull me into a feeling of such overwhelming comfort.
And just like that, it was over, and Jim pulled back with his usual sweet smile and a tip of his chin. "Goodbye Nola," he said, and I was at a loss for words. "I hope to hear from you again soon."
I grinned and nodded, though how I was able to form coherent words in that moment was completely beyond me. "Goodbye Jim."
Reluctantly I let his hand slip from mine and I went past him towards the door to my building, feeling his eyes on me and my heart thundering in my chest as I frantically sought my keys in my bag. I paused at the door when I heard the car door close behind me and I turned around to see them off; Jim peered at me from his window and raised a hand to wave, and with a lovesick heaviness in my chest but a delightful smile, I too waved to him for as long as I could before the car pulled away from the curb and disappeared down at the end of the street.
/
