Jameson (Face-Off 4)

The driver pulls into the large, open lot and swings around toward the side entrance. I pluck a twenty-dollar bill from my wallet and hand it over, thanking him as I exit the car. In that short amount of time, I get another message from Jamie.

Jamie: Can you come to me? We can order takeout and play video games. It’s a working lunch, though. Are you down with that?

Excited by the idea of seeing where Jamie works, I type out a quick response, telling him to send me the address, and shove the phone into my pocket, as I step inside the building.

Jamie’s office reminds me of the one Tom Hanks had in the movie Big from the 80’s. While it’s large and fully furnished, with a perfect view of the city, it’s also full of toys, gadgets, and more electronics than I can even count.

“Sorry about the mess,” Jamie says, with his hand on my back as he guides me into the room and shuts the door. “I don’t usually have company, and when I do, it’s just one of the guys on my team. Some of them are responsible for all this. I guess I’ll take credit for the other half.”

Taking inventory of the space, I see at least four laptops, five computer monitors, six hard drives, and that’s just some of what’s on his desk. Covered with boxes of computer equipment, the couch by the window is useless to us. Thank God for the one across from it, or we would be eating on the floor.

“It smells good in here.” I tip my nose in the air to get a better whiff of the savory herbs floating through the room. “What did you order for us?”

He shrugs and steers me toward the couch that’s almost free of clutter. “I wasn’t sure what to get you since we’ve only eaten one meal together, so I had my secretary run down to Tony Luke’s

for us to get the same thing we ordered the other day.”

Jamie lifts the scattered copies of PC Magazine and Wired from the sofa and throws them onto the large coffee table.

“I’m surprised you have time to read those with how much you work,” I say, taking a seat on the dark leather cushion.

He plops down next to me and leans forward to hand me my sandwich wrapped in paper, before settling in to peel back the wrapper on his cheesesteak. “I flip through them on occasion when I’m feeling uninspired and need some motivation. Sometimes, seeing new technology or reading the latest success story helps me get my shit together. This job isn’t like most. If I run out of creativity or get stuck on a line of code, I’m the person everyone will look to in order to fix it.”

“I know what that’s like to some extent,” I say, chewing a bite of the sausage and peppers sandwich.

A bit of sauce slides out from the corner of my mouth and down my face. Our food is greasy and not the easiest to eat on my lap. Focused on his food, Jamie takes two bites at a time, making sounds as he swallows it down. He acts as though it’s the first meal he’s had in days.

If he’s worked as much as he says, then it might be possible. Jamie and I are kindred spirits, cut from the same cloth. I have gone whole days where I had forgotten to eat because I was so busy running around the building, worrying my ass off about an event going well.

Glancing in his direction, I can’t stop staring at the dimple in his cheek. Every time I’m around him, I can’t help myself. I have to stick my finger inside the tiny crevice, which causes Jamie to turn his head. He smiles, or at least attempts to, because he has a mouth full of food.

Finished in record timing, he crumples up the paper and drops it onto the wooden table in front of us. He removes my finger from his face and takes my hand in his.

“I missed you this week,” he says, softly. “I’m really sorry about having to cancel on you so much. I swear I’m not normally this unreliable. Once we get this game off to the client, I will have a lot more free time.”

“What happened to beta testing? I could be part of the team still if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course. Yeah, that would be great, actually. I wasn’t sure if you were only using that as an excuse to come over to my apartment or not, but I honestly didn’t care why you’d wanted to test the game.”

“I offered because I like you but also because it sounded like fun. For most of my childhood, I had to find ways to entertain myself. Video games, sports, and comic books were always something to keep me busy.”

“You like comic books, too?” Jamie’s face lights up with excitement. “I think you just got about ten times hotter in my book.”

“Only ten?” I open my mouth wide in mock surprise, my gesture quickly turning into a smile. “That should earn me at least twenty.”

“Comic books,” he mutters under his breath. “You might be even cooler than Charlie, but don’t tell her that. She likes to think she’s the coolest girl I’ve ever known. How did you get into comics?”

Wiping my mouth with a napkin, I set my sandwich on the table and clean myself up before I speak. “I guess it kinda happened on its own. I was always around the sons of other hockey players, waiting on our dads to finish games or practices, and it’s not like they were carrying around Barbie’s in their pockets. One of the guys on my father’s team had a son who was obsessed with Marvel Comics. I didn’t have much to do, and at that point, I was old enough to read, so we’d sit in the locker room together and read, or go up in the stands and watch them skate as we traded books back and forth. It was weird but fun.”

“You’re officially the coolest girl I know,” he announces with a smile. “Charlie is now number two.”

Without even realizing he’s doing it, Jamie clamps his hand down on my bare knee, drawing my attention away from his face. He catches on to my sudden change, brought on by thoughts of him touching me once more.

“I didn’t mean to—” Jamie says, but I interrupt his train of thought by pressing my index finger to his lips.

Locking onto him, I say, “It’s okay. I want you to.”

Peeling my finger from his lips, I cup my hand over his, tracing circles on his smooth skin. We sit there for a few minutes without speaking, just enjoying each other’s company. Why hasn’t he made a move? It could have something to do with being in his office with a ton of people on the other side of the door. It’s about time Jamie has a little fun. And I can be bad when I want to be.