***Hart Industries***
Jennifer and Jonathan didn't have any more time to talk about it, because their meeting was starting.
Jennifer went and sat down next to him at the conference table, and they had their calendars out. They had three back to back meetings scheduled for the day.
The first one was pretty normal, and the flow of conversation was great. They were talking about 3 different mergers, and she had to give her legal perspective on what should be included and what shouldn't.
The second meeting was longer, but Jonathan ordered lunch for everyone from a little deli, and that made it more bearable. He allowed everyone to place their own order and just paid the bill, so everyone was eating a lunch they enjoyed.
The third meeting was the hardest. It was long, boring, and endless. She was doodling on her legal pad, and he saw it.
She started making a to-do-list.
Tonight: laundry, go over merger briefs, hang pictures in living room, make grocery list.
Jonathan leaned over and wrote "date with Jonathan".
She looked at him and smiled.
She wrote back- Tonight?
He nodded.
He wrote back 'Pick you up at 7. Dinner, dancing, and whatever else we can get in to".
She drew a heart next to it, and smiled at him.
Their meeting finally ended, and she stayed behind to clean up the conference room.
He waited till they were alone in the room, and came up behind her.
"Here let me help you".
He took the containers from her hands and they carried them to the breakroom together.
When they got to the breakroom, he looked at her.
"I was serious, you know. Tonight, 7 p.m."
"I was hoping you were".
She couldn't really explain it, but she had been so scared to date him, because of her past. However, once she said yes, she couldn't get to the date fast enough. And she didn't care about work, and she wasn't letting herself think about the possible negative aspects. She just wanted to spend as much time with him as she could.
She managed to distract herself for the rest of the afternoon, and was about to leave at 4:30 when he texted her.
"Reservations are set. See you at 7".
She smiled as she headed to the parking garage.
***Jennifer's apartment***
She arrived home at 5, and took a long bubble bath. Afterwards, she was trying to figure out what to wear. She finally settled on a teal, one shoulder cocktail dress and nude heels. She put her hair half up, and curled it. Her makeup was flawless, and she even broke out her most expensive perfume.
She made herself a drink to steady her nerves, and was waiting for him when he arrived at 7.
After he rang the doorbell, she opened the door to find him standing there with a bouquet of flowers.
"HI. Come on in!".
She took the flowers from him, and put them in some water.
She grabbed her purse, and after she locked the door, they walked to the car. He opened the door for her, and helped her into the car.
He was driving the Mercedes tonight.
"I made us reservations at La Scala".
"Perfect".
***La Scala***
They pulled up to La Scala and parked. He came around and opened the door for her and helped her out.
They were given his customary table, by the window, overlooking the bay.
The waiter lit the candles for them, and he ordered her a double vodka martini, straight up, no olives, with a twist.
"You've been paying attention".
"Every detail".
After a nice dinner, they were just about to leave when the house band started playing.
"Would you care to dance?"
"I would love to".
He took her hand and led her to the dance floor, and they shared a very intimate dance. They ended up dancing for at least an hour.
Their waiter came over and asked them if they were done with the table.
"Yes, thank you".
The band was taking a break, so they decided to leave.
As they were headed to the car, they heard the click of a gun barrel.
"Give me your wallets and jewelry, and nobody will get hurt".
Jennifer froze. She had been mugged a few times in New York.
She was handing over her purse when Jonathan knocked it out of her hand, and turned and knocked the gun out of the mugger's hand and tackled him to the ground.
Jennifer ran and got the manager to call the police and came back to find Jonathan sitting on the guy.
There was a police cruiser driving by and she flagged it down. After they took over, she and Jonathan were asked to sit at a table and give their statements.
She was sitting there with him, staring at the bay.
She had a flashback to when she lived in New York.
She and Bradford Kellington, III were walking down the street after dinner. They took the alley that led to the entrance of his apartment building. As they were about to go up the steps, someone appeared and put a gun to their heads and demanded money and jewelry. Bradford tossed his wallet at them and ran down the alley. The mugger took her purse, her watch, and the diamond earrings she had gotten for graduation. He grabbed her inappropriately, told her he would come back for more, and took off.
She dealt with the police herself, and then went to look for Bradford. She found him in a bar 3 blocks away, working on a 5th of scotch.
That was when she gave him the ultimatum- man up and take care of me and stop being so selfish, or we are done. 2 weeks later, it was over.
She snapped back to reality and realized that Jonathan had protected her and could have lost his life doing so. She was so used to guys running from her, she hadn't realized how fast this one was running to her.
After the police let them go, he walked her to the car and opened the door for her, and helped her in.
He got in the car and they started headed towards the city, away from La Scala.
"Jennifer, this restaurant is one of my favorites, and I hope that tonight's events don't make you not want to come back here".
"No worries"
She leaned back against the seat.
"Where do you want to go now?"
"I thought we might go spend some time with Freeway. Are you up for that?"
She nodded her head excitedly.
"Do you want to go to your place and change first?"
"If you don't mind".
"I don't mind at all".
They pulled into her apartment, and went inside.
She ran to the bedroom to change while he hung out in the living room.
"Help yourself to anything in the fridge, I'll just be a minute", she called out.
She came back out of the bedroom wearing some black and pink palazzo pants, silver flip flops, and a soft black blouse. She had taken her hair down, and clipped it up.
"Ok, I'm ready".
"You look just as beautiful now as you did earlier".
She blushed. "Jonathan…"
"I'm serious".
They headed to the car and he opened the door for her again. She was really starting to love that part.
She was excited that they were going to see Freeway. That dog had stolen her heart.
He held her hand as they drove, and they had a nice, pleasant drive.
He pulled up to the house and parked, and helped her out.
They went inside the house and found Freeway sleeping in the baby pool that he had been living in.
She scooped him up and kissed all over him and he was licking her face.
She wrapped him in the towel again, and they sat on the couch.
He kept going from Jonathan's lap to hers, and they were laughing at how cute he was. She helped him set up his collapsible water bowl, and they ended up sitting on the floor playing with him and his toys.
Jonathan loved seeing her happy like this. She was in pure heaven playing with the dog.
"Take the toy to Daddy, so he can play too".
Freeway took the ball to Jonathan and dropped it in front of him. Jonathan threw the toy and Freeway took off after it.
"We need to take him to the Vet and get his shots".
"I will have Max take him this week."
She nodded.
"Where is Max?"
"He plays poker a lot. He probably has a game tonight, somewhere".
"I have never played poker, but always wanted to".
"Well, I will have to teach you sometime".
She smiled at him.
Freeway started getting tired, so they scooped him up and she gave him tons of kisses and put him back in the baby pool.
Jonathan came up behind her and took her hand. He led her back to the den, and over to the bar.
"How about we recreate my favorite part of the evening?"
"Ok".
He turned some music on, and they started dancing. They danced cheek to cheek for at least an hour.
She wrapped her arms around her neck and looked at him.
"Thank you for a wonderful evening, Jonathan".
"Thank you for making it so great".
They continued to dance slowly around the room, and she let him hold her close.
This was the best date she had been on in years.
"Well, I guess I better get you back home, don't want your boss to be mad at you in the morning".
"Yeah, he's a real slave driver".
He chuckled at her, and they headed to the car. She rested her head on his shoulder as they drove, and they held hands.
He parked outside her building, and helped her out of the car.
He walked her to the door and she let him come inside.
He even turned a light on for her.
"Thank you Jonathan for a wonderful evening".
She wrapped her arms around his neck, as he grabbed her waist.
"Well, the mugging wasn't planned, but the rest of it was just like I envisioned".
She laughed.
He stared into her eyes.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Anything".
"Are you still scared?"
"Nope".
"Good". He pulled her in for a kiss, and they kissed for about 3 minutes. It was the best kiss she had ever had, and they both felt this electricity run through them.
They broke the kiss and came up for air.
"How are we going to keep our hands off each other at the office?"
"We are just going to have to lock the office door a lot".
She chuckled a bit.
They kept kissing for several moments and then he left.
***Hart Industries***
The first few days after their date were a little hard, because Jennifer had a hard time keeping her hands off him. They had several romantic moments with the door closed in his office, and so far, nobody was the wiser.
She was feeling like she needed to be employed elsewhere though, so that nobody in the office could say she had an unfair advantage. She had been looking up job openings in both the legal field and the journalism field.
She accepted a trial run with a writing agency, and had to submit a human interest article. She decided to do it on people living with HIV. She had been given a deadline of 30 days from now, so she was running herself ragged doing that at night and working during the day and trying to spend time with Jonathan too. She finished her article after a week, and turned it in.
She was at the office one day, when she got a phone call from the writing agency.
"So, we wanted to tell you that you are hired as a freelance writer, and we are interested in making you a permanent part of our writing team. Also, there has been lots of interest in publishing your article that you submitted, so we submitted it to two different publications, and they both bid on it."
"How does that work?"
"Well, they finally reached a settlement, and one of them dropped the bidding, but expressed interest in your next article. And after we take out our fees, you get the rest of the settlement. So, we are sending a check over to you. How soon can you write us another article?"
"Well, I will need a few weeks. I am employed full time at the moment, and I am going to need time to transition out of that job and into this one".
They agreed on her doing one more article for them in the next month, and hung up.
She was very nervous about what she would say to Jonathan, but she knew he would understand.
She pulled her team together and delegated their current cases to them, so the transition would be smooth.
The courier arrived with her check. She signed for it, opened it and found that it was for $200,000.00
Her jaw dropped open. She immediately ran to Jonathan's office, and composed herself along the way.
She went in his office and closed the door.
"Hi darling, how are you?"
"I have to tell you something."
They sat on the couch.
"So the writing agency called and they loved my article, and they submitted it to two publications, and they got into a bidding war over my article, and they sent me this check, minus the publication fees. And they want me to work for them full time, writing". She showed him the check.
"That's great!"
"And the thing is, I want to. I am kind of bored with the law, and I have all of these ideas about what I want to write about next. But, I can't do that and work here too".
"It's ok, babe."
"I just don't want you to be mad at me for quitting".
"Mad at you? I'm proud of you for going after what you want and what makes you happy. And we are still going to see each other, you know that".
She nodded.
"I pulled my team together and delegated the cases to them, so the transition should be smooth. I can finish out the rest of the week here, and then pack up my office".
"We don't really have anything big going on this week, why don't we just pack you up now?"
"You're sure?"
He nodded.
"You know this isn't about you and me, right?"
"I know it's not. I am so proud of you for finding your passion again. And I tell you what, we will pack your office tonight, and then go have a nice dinner to celebrate".
"Deal". She kissed him and then headed back to her office.
She grabbed some boxes from the supply closet and packed up her personal items. She needed Jonathan's help with getting a painting off the wall and carrying the boxes, but the rest of it she could do herself.
She sat down and ordered a computer and all the accessories to be delivered to her house, and she decided to go look at a desk to put in her house tomorrow.
She was seriously giddy with excitement.
Jonathan helped her get the painting off the wall and loaded up the dolly and helped her take the boxes to her car.
"You wanna follow me to my house?"
"Sure".
He kissed her and then got in his car.
***Jennifer's apartment***
She pulled up and parked, and he parked next to her.
He carried the boxes in for her, and even helped her rearrange the furniture some to make way for a desk.
She had decided she wanted to make her second bedroom an office, but she wanted a desk in the den to work at too.
She quickly changed clothes and they headed out for dinner.
***The Whisper***
They went to a restaurant called The Whisper. It was known for its great food and piano bar.
They were given an intimate booth for two, and he ordered them some champagne.
They ate and danced and had a very good time.
He had ordered them a dessert to share, and as they were eating, he took her hand in his.
"I am so proud of you, babe. You amaze me every day, and this was no different. You were an amazing asset to my team, and I am really going to miss having you at the office, but I am so proud of you for going after what you want and hitting a homerun the first time out. I can't wait to share many more memories like this with you, so Jennifer Sophia Edwards, will you marry me?"
He let go of her hand, and pulled a ring out of his pocket.
"When did you-?"
"A couple days ago. I knew it as soon as I saw it, and I was just waiting for the right time".
"Jonathan, it's gorgeous!". It was a 4 solitaire, cushion cut, halo set engagement in white gold.
"Well?"
"You're crazy….we just started dating".
"I'm crazy about you".
"You don't think you'll get sick of me?"
"Not a chance. Now come on baby, what'dya say?"
She nodded.
"Yes".
He slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her.
They went and danced once more and then headed back to her place.
He came inside, and she poured him a cocktail.
"What are we going to tell my family?"
"That we decided to go for it, because we are in love".
She kissed him.
"Next weekend, wanna go somewhere with me?"
"Where?"
"San Francisco. There's a little bed and breakfast I am thinking of buying".
"Ok. But only if we can go somewhere else first".
"Where?"
She took his hand and led him to the bedroom.