Haze, Andrea Wolfe [english novels for beginners txt] 📗

And it wasn't even Christmas. I excitedly opened it:

Last night was terrific. Can we do it again Friday?

-Jack

My mind was blown. When had there been time for him to do this? I looked at the front one last time and enjoyed a final chuckle. He actually put his name this time, so I'd really have to make sure no one saw it.

I hid the card under some random papers and tried to get to work, the events of last night still cooking my brain inside my skull like those anti-drug commercials they used to show on TV all the time. This is your brain on infatuation. Any questions?

I shot Jack a quick text:

Me: Thanks for the card! It must have cost you a fortune.

Him: It was sitting here in a drawer. Lucky find, huh?

Me: If I could hang it on the wall here, I would! ;)

"Any word from Jack Teller about the Lexy Brown deal?" Sam was standing behind me at the desk, straightening out his shirt as he talked. I immediately dropped my cell phone to my lap. What was I doing? Trying to hide it? He had clearly witnessed my texting.

"He hasn't—" I stopped before I said anything else. What was this, an interrogation? Was he trying to trick me or something? "I haven't heard anything," I said. "Is Lexy Brown the artist?" He had never mentioned her name to me, only referred to her as the artist. If I acted like I knew who she was, I might be putting myself in a bad place.

"Yeah, Lexy's the one." He paused and looked off into the distance. "I sure hope we hear something soon. As you know, I—and this company—really need this deal."

"I'm not even in charge of it," I pleaded. I felt like I could defend myself without raising too many red flags. I didn't have to play entirely dumb. "You just had me sit in for the meeting!"

"True," he said. "Just keep me posted if you hear anything. Information moves quick in this business. If Jack stops by and I'm not here, I want to be the first to know about it."

"Okay, Sam." I sounded flustered, understandably, given his tone and approach. Was it possible that he knew about Jack and me? The thought made my heart beat uncontrollably, almost as much as my memories from last night did—but in a very different way. I had expected him to scold me about texting on the clock; he didn't.

Weird.

He briskly walked back to his office. When he disappeared from view, I sunk back in my chair and let out an enormous sigh. Everything had been strange since that meeting with Jack, that incident of random chance that led to last night and the nights that would follow just like it. I didn't think I was ready for a committed relationship, but I wasn't about to draw any lines just yet, especially with my job possibly dangling from a thread.

Could I actually lose my job over something like this? The more I thought about it, the more I realized I wasn't thinking clearly—but did I really want that? To think clearly? This felt like heaven, like a place I'd never been before. Sure, I'd had good moments in my previous relationships, but they hadn't compared to these in the least—and this was only the beginning.

How could I take sides in a situation like this?

Well, it didn't matter one way or another. I had no influence on Jack's decision, and he had made that very clear. I would just have to keep us quiet for now.

***

I worked extra hard that day and the next, trying to be a model employee for Sam. Even if he had his suspicions about my activities outside of work—nothing that he could prove, of course—I wasn't going to give him anything that he could use against me on the job.

God, I couldn't wait until Friday's end. I wanted to see Jack so bad, to spend some quality time with the man. I didn't even know what we were doing, yet I was satisfied with that vagueness. When five o'clock finally rolled around, I was already flying out of the office.

"Don't have too much fun this weekend, Ms. Jacobs," Sam said. He gave me a weak smile, but it was a smile nevertheless.

"Same to you, Sam."

I headed home, fighting the heavy subway foot traffic as everyone made a mad dash to start the weekend. We were packed like sardines in that subway car. I really hoped we didn't crash, especially not with the car mere inches from overflowing.

The trip turned out just fine.

My phone buzzed in my purse after I got out of the subway. I left it, wanting to save the excitement until I got back into my apartment. But then my ringtone went off and I realized I definitely wanted to take the call.

"Guess what we're doing tonight?" It was Jack. He hadn't even greeted me. Just straight to business.

"Jack! Thanks for saying hi first."

"Guess?"

"We're going to Florida!"

"Shut up. I'm taking you to your very first Broadway show!"

"How do you know it's my first?" I asked.

"Effie! Are you kidding me? Even if you have been to one, you've never experienced it from the best seats in the house."

"Fine, I lied. But can we eat first? I'm famished." All jokes aside, my heart fluttered in my chest. This was going to be something special. My grumbling stomach was trying to steal the show, however.

"We'll have a nice, fancy meal before the show. It's Once. You know it, right?"

I had actually heard of it—and I wanted to see it on top of that!—so this would be great. "Yeah! That's so cool. I don't really know what to say."

"Don't say a damn thing. Just get dressed. Wear that dress you wore to that stupid investor event. It'll be more fun this time. I'll be there to pick you up in forty-five minutes."

I hung up with him and just smiled, realizing how nice