Entry 6: 1970s

Chapter 6: 1970s

To escape Sarah Beth, I made the conscious choice to have a one, maximum two-hour dinner with the man I was ready to leave my work, my house my life here in New York City for. That was when I thought he was just going to take me to a café or a nice deli or even a small bistro. Little did I know we would end up in a private area of a fine-dining restaurant at the heart of the city. The waiter gave us our menu and left us to decide for our meals, giving me the opportunity to look around the place without looking like a total fish out of water.

“This place is nice, how’d we even get in without prior reservations?”

“The owner is familiar with me, it’s my mother’s favorite restaurant, I always make sure to treat her here whenever my parents are in the city” he explained opening the menu. Warm butterflies invaded my stomach once again at the thought, insolent little critters. Glaring at him will get me no where so I decided to glance at the menu and gasped at the prices, ridiculous considering the salary given to us secretaries, to us women.

“Isn’t this a bit too much? The food here are expensive I can’t afford this” I leaned to whisper yell at him, he looked at me and smiled.

“Nonsense, we’re celebrating, it’s my treat” he countered as he looked back over the menu.

“I feel a bit underdressed” I grit my teeth as I tried to nit pick the deficiencies of what I was wearing for this type of establishment. Zander sighed and folded his menu back on the table to look at me.

“Trust me, you look fantastic” he looked at me with a smile and twinkle in my eye.

If there ever there was a death for me, that would be him. I feel the heat rush to my face, and I raised the menu to cover my face as fast as I can, my face maybe covered, but I was certain I heard him chuckle.

The waiter came and collected our food order for the evening, the woman smiling a little too sweetly at Zander. But who can blame her? Sitting before her is the prime example of a man, noble to boot, the only man ever known to capture the heart of an immortal being.

“Would you be having your usual wine with that?” the waitress asked.

“Yes, please thank you”

“You come here often that staff is familiar with your wine preference?” I asked handing the menu to the waitress as she leaves to prepare our meals.

“Me and my parents come here as much as we can, and more times than not we get ourselves a bottle of wine from Sienna, Italy” Zander ordered and that piqued my interest. The bountiful winery fields of Sienna bring back a lot of memories, memories I am especially fond of.

“Why that particular city?” I asked.

“I’ve always been fond of the vineyards of Sienna, how they enrich their soils and how they make their wine with so much passion. Every bottle feels like you’re-“

“Taking a sip of their love”

Taking a sip of your love…

A lone tear escaped my eye as the words left his mouth in the exact same way it did last time. I turned my face to the side and wiped the tears and inconspicuous as I can, but the action was not lost in Zander’s eyes, giving me the handkerchief from his breast pocket.

“I’m sorry, it was just beautiful” I reasoned taking the handkerchief to wipe the tears that threatened to follow the first.

“No need to. In an ideal world, no one should ever have to apologize for feeling the way they do” Zander reached out a hand to hold my free hand in his.

“Thank you” I squeezed his hand back, but the moment was lost when out appetizers arrived, and I quickly retreated my hand before the nosey waitress notices and gets the idea to play with my food as retribution.

“May I ask you a question?”

“Depends, if I have the capacity to answer them” he smiled cheekily.

“Why me? I don’t take you for an unsuspecting man, I am sure you are aware of the long line of eligible women waiting to get a chance to work with you, why would you choose me, not only do I have the lease experience in working in the publication industry, but seniority also speaking there are others who have worked with our company for far longer” like Sarah Beth.

“Remember my last assignment, you know the one I left on your desk by mistake?”

“Yes,”

“I’ve read it, and you didn’t arrange them correctly, no” Zander paused to think.

“You didn’t arrange them as I have compiled them, you arranged them correctly. I’ve been struggling with how to arrange the article for a while, with so much information and so much narrative I couldn’t quite get them into an order where it would have the most impact, coherently.” Zander paused once again this time to take a sip from his wine.

“Just like that, just by rearranging the sequence of the papers, you have influenced the article giving it the impact it needed, the impact to get the message across the county effectively”

“You’re very zealous about this, journalism”

“It’s information the public needs, it’s keeping the public informed on topics and things they need to know, and its information collected through evidence and careful observation. It’s telling the truth the hundreds and thousands of people everyday”

The evening continued swimmingly for the rest of the night, there was always the ease of comfort and safety in his presence, a sense of belonging, a sense of home. Zander went on and on about the articles he has written, and his favorite ones and the once that stayed with him. Even if he does not want them to. His last article about a serial killer in the west coast was one of them.

“I am sorry I didn’t mean to bore you with tales of my work, I feel bad, asking you to celebrate then talking about work, allow me to rectify that, with a toast” He filled both our wine glasses and raised his.

“Here is to us, to working together, and to changing your mind” I laughed at his persistence, but nevertheless obliged him with a clink of my own glass against his.

“So, partner, now that we’re officially working together, why don’t you tell me more about yourself, everything I have learned about you was from the whispers I have got from the office from Sarah Beth” he changed the subject.

“All good things I hope,” considering the source.

“Well, she told me you were from London, and from that accent, that’s all what I am ready to believe in from what she shared” Zander implied.

“And the rest?”

“I take things how I see them, not how it was said to me”

“Well, I am from London, before working at our company I was a receptionist at-“ I began but Zander stopped me with a hand wiping his mouth with his napkin before speaking.

“Tell me the things about yourself that I won’t see in your curriculum vitae”

“Like what are your likes, what are your opinions with the current political issue, what you do for fun, what peeves you the most, what’s your favorite time of the day”

“Mr. Zander if you don’t mind me saying isn’t that a bit too personal”

“I want to get to know you personally”

“I just met you”

“Then get to know me, what do you want to know” he held out his arms, leaning back on his chair in a more relaxed manner. For me it was never a question of is he worth the risk, he was always and forever will be worthy of everything and anything I can offer, rather it is the question of whether what I can give him worth putting him through that much risk. Every time I lose him, it feels like a part of me is lost forever, no matter how many times I find him.

One last time

“Mr. Zander are you trying to seduce me?” I put my cutlery down to give him my undivided attention.

“Call me Jay, is it working?” he said with a smile, charming with a hint of mischief in his eyes.

“Not at all, I prefer something more substantial” I countered with a smirk.

“Well, it looks like a have a year to change your mind, and we will be working very, very closely and please call me Jay”

“Zander,” I countered.

“I’ll take what I can get… for now”

As dinner ended a good three hours later, as promised, he paid for everything and escorted me out of my chair and the establishment. Though it was still raining, the drizzle was a lot more travel friendly than it was earlier this day.

“Thank you, Zander, for the meal and for the…company” I turned to face him as we stood outside the door waiting for the valet to bring his car around.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, because hopefully it’s a first of many more”

“So, I’ll see you in the office tomorrow?” I bid my farewell as his car pulled up in front of us.

“It’s raining Laura, let me take you home”

“The dinner was quite enough hospitality for a day, thank you”

“Please, I insist, if my mother heard that I let you go home alone in this rain, she will fly straight to New York to give me a piece of her mind” I folded and decided that it would be easier to oblige him one more time than to insist my own argument.

The ride was silent except for the sound of Zander’s mix tape and the pitter patter of the rain against the window. When he pulled up to the front of my apartment, he cut the music off and looked to me.

“Laura, before you leave, I want to tell you something”

“I want you to know, that my intentions with you are sincere, I do really like you and I would really love spend more time with you. But you must know that I did not ask you to work with me to get closer, I asked you to work with me because I really do believe that you have something amazing in you.”

“Thank you, for telling me” I squeezed his hand one last time before exiting the car. I rushed across the wet pavement and to the door in my heels. When I opened the door, I looked back one last time, and there he was leaning across the seat, waiting for me to enter the door. I smiled and waved a small goodbye before I entered and closed the door behind me.