buy yourself one. My treat,â he says with a laugh. âIs Kate with you for your fancy lunch?â
âNope. Turns out she had other plans.â
âSo do you, if you can manage it,â he says cheerfully. âCan you meet me in an hour? Iâm taking your advice and working hard to be more relaxed.â
I laugh. âWhat do you have in mind?â
âA little surprise.â
He tells me where to meet him and ten minutes later Iâm in a cab, zipping down the FDR Drive. I look appreciatively at the cityscape, glowing in the sunshine, and suddenly hardy seems to be looming everywhere. When did that happen? Once something hits your radar screen, it seems to pop up all over. Iâm pretty sure the family didnât acquire fifty new buildings since lunchtime. Especially since Owenâs tied up at the moment.
Owen. So Kateâs got a new guy. Good. Sheâs the most gorgeous woman I know but itâs been a long stretch between boyfriends. If this works out maybe we can have a double weddingâsince I donât seem to be doing anything about planning one on my own. But I donât care what Kate says, no way that fancy pastry chef Sylvia Weinstock is making us one of her famous eight-layered confections. Unless she jumps out of the wedding cake, Iâm not spending the twelve hundred dollars.
Still, Iâm getting ahead of myself. Owen seems interesting. But does he deserve Kate? Is he good enough? Nice enough? I need more details. I start dialing Kateâs number, but then snap my cell phone closed. Occurs to me that she might not be done with . . . lunch. And I know she wasnât having a Caesar salad.
I arrive at Wall Street in record time, and Bradfordâs waiting in front of a large, corporate-looking building. I see him before he sees me and feel my heart skip a beat. The tall athletic body, curly dark hair and sparkling green eyes get me every time. And that dimple in his right cheekâthat God surely put there so he could get away with anythingâmakes me melt. With the rush of anticipation I still feel every time I see him, I bound over to give him a hug.
âYou look great,â he says. He gives me a big kiss and flashes the dimple. Melting, part two. Will I still feel this way once weâve been married twenty years? Itâs a risk Iâm willing to take.
He takes my hand and gives it a squeeze as we walk toward the elevator. What are we doing at this Wall Street enclave, anyway? Maybe itâs Take Your Fiancée to Work Day. Well, I donât care. Whatever Bradford has in mind, Iâm game.
When we reach the twenty-third floor, Iâm half expecting to see rows of cubicles and computer screens, but instead the door opens into a jungle with a huge cascading waterfall, a thicket of towering elephant-eared plants and the whooshing, hooting and chirping sounds of a rain forest. If this is an office, the workers must swing through trees.
A barefoot woman in a leopard-skin miniskirt bounces toward us with miniature martini glasses filled with a brown, bark-colored liquid.
âPomegranate cocktails!â she says cheerily. âFilled with antioxidantsâprotects you against cancer, and just as important, every sip makes you look younger!â
Bradford chugs his down immediately but I eye the murky potion more warily. What is this with pomegranate juice? A month ago, Iâd never heard of Pom and now itâs the Fruit of the Month. Whatever happened to the purported healing powers of grapefruit, blueberries and cranberries? And given the rising cost of health care, shouldnât we all just stick with apples, which at least keep doctors away?
The leopard-clad woman of the forest takes a gulp of the drink herself. âBy the way, Iâm Jane,â she says. As if I couldnât have guessed. I look around the room for Tarzan, but he must be off getting his diptheria shot because heâs nowhere in sight.
We
Deandre Dean, Calvin King Rivers