Marriage For One

As we made it across, she started up again, and I sighed.

“We’re almost there—”

“You can hold on for a few more minutes then.”

“Jack.”

“Rose. You know some women would find this romantic.”

“I’m not some women.”

“You’re telling me,” I grunted.

Luckily, there was silence after that until we reached the front door of her beautiful coffee shop. I gently put her down under the roses and handed her bag to her. Keeping her gaze averted, she searched for a key and opened the door. I could see the light in the kitchen from where we were standing, meaning the guy, the part-time worker, was already there. With jerky movements, she unlocked the door and walked in.

“Let’s take a look at your knees while I—”

Before I could finish my sentence and follow her in, she slammed the door in my face and reset the alarm. As I stared after her, she didn’t even look back. Still limping, she disappeared into the kitchen.

Shocked and absurdly amused, I stood there looking into the empty coffee shop for another ten seconds. Then, turning around, my hands in my pockets, I walked for a block or two. I eventually hailed a cab and headed home so I could get to work myself. I wasn’t sure what to feel about the smile that stayed on my face the entire morning.

Later, I walked into my office and greeted Cynthia.

“Good morning, Jack.”

I leaned against the edge of my desk. “Good morning. Any changes in my schedule for today?”

Her forehead creased, and she looked down at her tablet. “No, no changes.”

“Then I need you to clear everything between…” I checked my watch, trying to decide what time would be better. “Eleven-thirty and two-thirty. A few hours would be enough, I think.”

“Enough for what?”

“I have something I need to take care of.”

“Jack, I can’t clear those time slots.”

“Why not?”

“Did you forget? You have the negotiations with Morrison and Gadd.”

“The documents with the necessary changes are ready?”

“An associate is on it, and it’ll be done in time for the meeting.”

“Get them from him.”

“But—”

“I’ll get it done quicker. Get it for me.”

“Done.”

“Good, and push the negotiations to two. The other side, Gadd, didn’t want to meet up that early anyway, so let them know first.” I got up and moved to sit behind my desk.

“And Morrison? What am I supposed to tell him?” she asked.

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. “Did you read his email? The one he sent this morning?”

She nodded.

“Well, tell him we need to do more research on the new company he wants to invest twenty million in. I want to get both the negotiations and the new investment deal taken care of today. He won’t mind the delay if we have everything ready.”

“Okay. What about the rest of your schedule? We’ll need to push everything back. You have a five PM call with Gilbert—you can’t miss that today.”

“Fine. I’ll leave the office at eleven. I can get through my ten-thirty call by then, and I’ll come back around one-thirty for the meeting so push it to then instead. That way I’ll be done with Morrison and Gadd by the time I need to be on the phone with Gilbert. If everything goes as planned, we’ll have Gadd sign the final papers at the end of the meeting and I’ll be ready for the call with Gilbert. I’ll stay late and catch up, don’t worry.”

“Okay, I can work with that. Where did you say you were going again?”

“I didn’t say. Close the door, please, and don’t forget to bring me those documents.”

When I lifted my head up from my laptop, Cynthia was already gone.

An hour later, when I was going through the documents, making sure everything was ready for the meeting, Samantha appeared at my door. I glanced at Cynthia’s desk, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Wanting to get it over with, I was the one who engaged her. “What do you want, Samantha? I need to go over these before I leave.”

She shrugged and took my question as an invitation to walk in and sit across from me. “Something is not right with you—or maybe I should say something has changed.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’ve been leaving early.”

“And that’s your business because…?”

“You’re the last one to leave here, every day.”

“And now I’m not.” I put down the papers in my hands. “What do you want?”

She lifted her hands in surrender, her red lips curving up. “Nothing. I’m just making conversation and sharing my observations.”

“What gave you the impression that I would be interested in your observations? I’m not going to explain myself to you. Do you need something from me?”

“Not really. I had a little free time so I’m just chatting with you. How is your lovely wife?”

If it had been someone else sitting across from me, they would’ve tucked their tail between their legs and left already, but Samantha wasn’t like other people. She had never been scared of me, and I thought maybe it was time to change that.