Julius reaches for my hand. He squeezes it and doesn’t let go. “If I promise to go shopping with you later, can we do something else?”
I don’t know what else to do. “Um . . .”
Julius takes my hand in his and squeezes it. “Do you trust me?”
No, the hell I don’t.
“Okay, wrong choice of words.” He laughs. “Tell me this. Have you done much sight-seeing?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I stay mostly by our complex.”
He sighs. “I figured. Let me take you to my favorite place in the city.”
At this point, I have nothing to lose. It’s not like something is going to happen to me. Everyone knows I’m with him today. “Okay, show me.” My statement is open-ended, and by the surprised look in Julius’s eyes, he didn’t miss the subtle innuendo.
We walk to the parking garage, and thankfully, no one stops on our way out. I’m excited to see where we are going. When we arrive at my car, Julius holds his hand out. “What?”
“I should drive.”
“Why, because you’re a man?”
He chuckles. “Believe me, no. I am all for equal rights. I know where we’re going, and it’s easier for me to drive than give you directions. The one-way streets can really mess someone up.”
Ugh, I hate that he’s right. I dig in my purse and hand him my keys. My hand lingers in his palm for longer than necessary, but I don’t care. He’s watching me, and I, him. There’s an energy between us, one I felt when I first met him but also ignored. I’m not sure I want to ignore it anymore.
Julius walks me to the passenger side of my car and presses the fob to unlock the door like he’s done it a million times. I know it’s a fob, and most are standard, but I like that he’s so confident in what he’s doing. He waits until I’m settled and then closes the door and again goes around the front of the car so I can follow him. The sight of Julius in khaki pants is genuinely something to behold.
He gets behind the driver’s seat and asks me how to adjust it. “There’s a thingy on the side.”
“A thingy?”
I shrug. “I don’t know what else to call it.”
“Thingy, it is,” he says as he reaches down by the door. The seat slides back and he adjusts the seat one more time before pressing the push start button.
Julius pulls out of the parking lot and turns away from the downtown area. I don’t know why, but for some reason, I thought we’d head toward the stadium or the waterfront. He continues to drive on the side street. Multi-colored leaves hang from trees, creating shadows with the sun. It’s a beautiful day out. If I had paid attention to the forecast I delivered last night, I would’ve planned a picnic or something. Julius was right, shopping can wait.
We make idle chit chat during the thirty-minute drive. He asks me what I like best about my job, and I tell him that I’m fascinated with the weather. I pose the same question to him, and he tells me his career is fun, for the most part, but that he loves his teammates and the atmosphere around game day.
“Did you always want to be in the NFL?”
“Yeah, for sure,” he says as he maneuvers a turn. “My dad, brother, and I would watch football all the time, and my brother and I would always toss the ball back and forth. In high school, I was a standout player, in basketball too, but football got me to college for free, and then to the NFL.”
“Do you ever wonder what you’d be if you didn’t have sports?”
Julius thinks for a moment and then shakes his head. “Not really. It’s always been my life. What about you?”
“Oh, well, let’s see. I wanted to be a princess, of course. Thought about being a lawyer because I used to love being on the debate team.”
“How did you end up being a meteorologist?”
“My junior year of high school, I took a media class. We had our own television station, mostly for announcements and other important school things like the sports scores, weather, birthdays, and such. I worked the lunch gig and figured out I loved being in front of the camera.”
Our conversation ends when we pull into a parking lot. Julius puts my car into park and pushes the ignition button to turn the vehicle off.
“Where are we?”
“This is an observatory.” He gets out and rushes over to my side, opening the door for me. Julius extends his hand, waiting for me to take hold. I do. The gravel parking lot crunches under us until we reach a paved path. “This is my favorite place in the city.”
“I expected you to take us to the stadium.”