Chapter 8:
"What?" What is that? I groan. It's my phone. I look down to see Claire's still asleep. I gingerly reach into my pocket and pull out my phone.
"Hello?" I whisper, not wanting to wake up Claire.
"Owen, it's Phillip. What's up, man?" This dude is always happy. Even relatively early in the morning.
"Hey, Phil. You woke me up, man." I rub my eyes.
"Woke you up? Brother, it's 3pm. Have you been partying till the am?" he laughs.
Holy shit! 3pm?!
"Wait, give me a sec." I, very gently, move Claire off my chest and onto a pillow. I wait for a few seconds to see if I've interrupted her sleep. Nothing, sound asleep. I walk to the bathroom, close the door and sit on the edge of the tub.
"Okay. I can talk now."
"Why couldn't you talk? Did you have company?" In my mind's eye I can see him wiggling his eyebrows at me.
"Yes, but not in the way that you think. Claire had a headache and we both fell asleep. Thank God you called, man. We have an interview with a reporter down at the lobby in an hour. We didn't even think to set the alarm clock."
"Well, I'll make this quick then. I already have a menu thought out; I just emailed it to you. I need you to approve it and find out if she's allergic to anything. I don't want to be responsible for the demise of your other half, you know. I feel it would ruin our friendship."
I laugh. "Don't worry, man. I'll check it out tonight and I'll let you know right away. Thanks again for doing this, buddy. You know you are my one true love, right?"
"Oh honey, I knew it from the moment you lent me your Crayola box. Okay, man. I'll leave you to keep sleeping with your lady. Set the alarm clock, for God's sake. You wouldn't want to miss the interview, super star."
"Okay, Phil. Talk to you later. Bye."
"Bye, brother."
I hang up and look at myself in the mirror. Well, I definitely look well rested. I look at the time. 3:08pm. Okay, I should let Claire know the time. So she can start waking up and take her time with it.
I stand up, wash my face and go sit on the bed next to Claire.
I put my hand on her shoulder and shake her slightly. "Claire, wake up."
She groans, but doesn't move. I give it another go. "Wake up, Claire. Don't make me tickle you." My hands are slowly approaching her sides.
"Don't you dare." she grabs my hands. Good, she's awake now.
"You don't have to get up yet, but definitely start waking up, cause Claire Dallas, it's 3:10pm."
Her right hand goes to lift the sleeping mask up. She looks groggy, obviously, but that 'don't shit with me' look is as clear as day. "What?"
I pull my cellphone out of my pocket, unblock it and show it to her. "See? 3:11pm now."
"Oh my God. I can't believe we slept like… 7 hours!"
"You certainly needed the rest. How are you feeling?"
She sits up on the bed. I copy her movements and look at her. "Good. I feel good. I think I'm still going to take a couple of advil just in case, but I feel pretty good. Thank you."
I grab her hand and give it a squeeze. "Hey, my pleasure. I'm just glad you're feeling better. Imagine me doing the interview alone? Can you imagine the things I would probably say? Nope, I would probably lead Masrani Global to bankruptcy."
"I think you underestimate your ability to charm people. You got my attention. And it wasn't because of your ability to plan a first date."
I grab my chest and grunt dramatically. "Ah, that hurt. You know what, you are going to be so blown away by our second date, you're going to beg for my forgiveness for calling me a terrible date planner."
"You keep saying our second date is going to be amazing. What is it that you're planning exactly? You got me wondering, now."
I cross my arms and smile at her cockily. "Now you'll just have to wait until that day. Which is in 11 days. So, you know… be prepared for awesomeness." I do jazz fingers.
She gives me a no-nonsense look. "Fine, I'll wait. But the day before you've got to tell me where we're going, cause I need to know what to wear."
"Woman, you could wear a brown paper bag and you would still look amazing."
Charm: on.
"Okay, Casanova. Save it for the actual date. Now though, let's start getting ready. I'm just going to change this blouse, because it's all wrinkled now. You should do the same." She stands up from the bed and walks to the walking closet.
"I should change my blouse too?"
"Ha ha, very funny. Go, we don't want to rush."
I decide to see if I can fluster Claire. I was wearing a Polo sweater over my shirt. No one will be the wiser if I'm not wearing a shirt under it.
I stand up from the bed and take off my shirt. I hear Claire moving coat hangers, so I lie on the bed, grab my phone and star checking my emails.
There's an intake of breath and I'm doing my best to not laugh out loud.
"What are you doing?" she's has a violet coloured blouse on her hand.
"What? I don't have that many shirts, so I figured I'll just take this one off and wear my sweater instead. What's the big deal?"
She's dying! This is so awesome!
"You are lying on my bed topless." She's trying to look away, but it's like her brain wants her to do something and her eyes another.
"Are you kidding me?! You have a six pack, that's ridiculous!"
"Ms. Dearing, are you checking me out? You can come and count my muscles if you want." I put my arms behind my head and tighten the stomach muscles.
"Stop doing that, Owen! We're going to be late."
"Late? What are you planning to do to me exactly?"
I can't keep it in any longer. I start laughing, really hard. She's looking at me incredulous. After a minute, she starts laughing with me.
By the time we've stopped, my stomach muscles are hurting from all the laughing. Claire and I look at each other and laugh one more time.
"You're unbelievable. How would you feel if I did that? Laying on your bed topless?" her hand is holding her side.
I become very serious. "Don't toy with me woman. I'm not that strong."
She's looking at me like a temptress, seducing me. "So, if I changed my blouse right here, right now, you wouldn't be able to stay put on that bed?" Her hands are reaching for the buttons of her blouse.
"Don't. Please don't." I sit up straight.
"What? I'm just going to change my blouse. Nothing else." She starts unbuttoning her blouse, painfully slow.
"Claire, I'm serious. I'm not strong enough." I run a hand through my face.
She starts walking tentatively towards me, biting down on her bottom lip, she leans close to my ear and says "Good, cause I'm not going to." she kisses me on the cheek and laughs her way to the bathroom.
I grunt and drop my head on the pillow. "You're killing me, Claire!" I shout. I hear her laugh.
When she comes back from the bathroom she looks impeccable and ready to go. I am too. She grabs her purse, I grab my phone and wallet and we are out the door to have that interview.
The interview lasts 1 hour. The journalist, his name was Oliver Koenig, was very professional and very straight to the point, which I liked. He asked us the basics, at least 6 questions out of the 45 pre approved ones I practiced with Claire, the rest were mainly about our work and our involvement. I felt comfortable and secure answering all of the questions. Claire as always was very professional and responded every question flawlessly.
Oliver told us we could expect the interview to be published on Wednesday. He thanked us for our time and left.
"That went well, huh?" Claire said excited.
"Yeah, that wasn't that bad. Can we expect all interviews to be like that?"
"I don't know. It really depends on the journalist. Some can be real jerks. But at least we started on the right foot."
"Yeah, that's good. Want to go grab some late lunch? Pizza maybe. We have to eat pizza, it would be a crime not to."
She shakes her head. Probably wondering if there's ever a time I don't think of food. The answer is no. I always think of food, it's my happy place.
"Okay, let's go eat pizza."
I grab her hand, kiss the back of it and we are off to eat some New York pizza!