He privately shed just as many tears as Jayda did while watchingStraw: “So that’s what that meant when that principal was waving at her with that strange look on her face!”
He loved both movies. As long as they didn’t delve any deeper into their own relationship, such as it was, they both felt unburdened enough to enjoy themselves.
And then they checked outSaturday Night Live.
At least Harrison checked it out. Jayda fell asleep before the guest could scream “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” It had been an enormously long day.
After she fell asleep, Harrison spent less time watching TV and almost all of that time watching Jayda. He wasfascinated with her. Feelings he felt for her were so unusually strong to him that he couldn’t fathom how they came to be. He just had to look at her that day in front of his building to feel something for her. But he still couldn’t get pass the why.
He never believed any of that nonsense about how everybody had a “person” and there was somebody special for everybody. He didn’t believe any of that shit. But was he wrong all this time? Was his disbelief based on the fact that he never came close to having somebody that special in his life? Was his disbelief only because it had never happened to him before? Until he met Jayda?
He couldn’t answer any of that. But the more he stared at her angelic face, the more he knew he could never turn his back on her. He felt an awesome responsibility for her. He knew, deep down, that he had to look out for her for the rest of her life no matter what became of them.
That was why he called his security chief and ordered him to make sure that hit-and-run in that alley with Jayda wasn’t targeted like he believed his hit and run had been. Especially when she said the driver of that car opened the car door. “Try to find those young guys that play basketball back there,” he said. “They may show up on some CCTV footage. They may have seen more than Miss Robinson saw. And since they saved her life, give them each ten thousand dollars cash if you can track them down.”
“Yes, sir.”
He made clear he wanted answers on both incidents. “Or somebody’s getting fired,” he said. He also ordered his chief to assign a clandestine security detail to follow Jayda, once she was released from the hospital, until he called it off. He wasn’t taking any chances.
He had many enemies, including many startup owners that blamed him when their companies didn’t catch fire, ormany bankrupt business owners that hated when he was able to buy their struggling companies for pennies on the dollar and sell those same companies, after turning them around, for millions in profits. It wasn’t unexpected for him to have a target on his back. But did Jayda have enemies? Who would put a target on her back?
Harrison felt it was his duty to find out.
Because he felt more than just a sense of responsibility for her. He felt as if she’d already taken over a part of his heart that he thought he would never give away. But as if he had been robbed in plain sight, she already owned it.
He watched her for hours on end. She still captivated him. Until even he couldn’t hold back the drain any longer. And he fell asleep too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The next day, when the doctor gave her the all-clear, Harrison took her home in his limousine. They sat in the back seat without saying a word. It was that intense.
For Harrison it was all about the emotions she pulled out of him as if she was pulling a rabbit out of her hat. He assumed, deep down, that it had to be love, but he’d never experienced it before to be certain. But it was something different alright. And as much as it was drawing him closer to her, it was repelling him at the same time. Love was no joke to Harrison. Love could lift up, but it could cut down too. And it was the cut down that worried him.
He saw what love did to his parents when they divorced and took up with all of those different lovers and love affairs they ran through. Love nearly destroyed them both. He didn’t want that in his tidy, orderly life. Why would he want that kind of upheaval in his life?
But there he was. Right smack in the middle of something he said he’d never participate in. And he was still trying with all he had to understand why did it suddenly come into his world.
When they arrived at Jayda’s apartment and Vincent opened the door for them, Harrison walked her into the small lobby and up to her apartment. Her landlord, who was in the lobby, stopped what he was doing and stared at them as they walked up. Jayda wanted to say something smart, likelook at me now, you bastardbut she knew there was nothing to see there. She was willing to admit her love for Harrison, but sheknew he wasn’t ready to admit his love for her. If he had any love for her!
But seeing her landlord stare at them as if he just knew Jayda was above her class; as if he could tell money had walked into the building and he was wondering how did Jayda the Loser get her hands on any?
But Jayda wasn’t thinking about her landlord. She was thinking about Harrison and how was she going to deal with her own feelings.
And when he gave her a hug when they got to her apartment door, they both closed their eyes tightly and held on far longer than any simple hug would have required. And when they pulled back, they didn’t stop holding onto each other. Their foreheads even touched and they remained there for several seconds, as if they both were processing very strong emotions.
But they finally pulled apart. “I’ll see you on Thursday,” Harrison said, and then he left.
When he looked back at Jayda, she smiled and then went into her apartment. She leaned against the door. He had a date last night. Yet he stayed all night with her. But was it care and concern for her, or was it pity for her and an obligation to his investment in her? She didn’t know which it was, and that wasn’t a good place to be. But this upcoming week, she felt, would tell her all she needed to know. Would he check on her between now and Thursday? Will they get together again? Or would he avoid her like the plague? This coming week, she believed, would say a lot.
But as Harrison made it back downstairs, he was just as torn as she was. First he made sure the security detail assigned to her was in place, which it was, and then, as Vincent held his limo door open, he got inside.
But he was nowhere near the self-assured image they saw. Harrison was thrown. He left Jayda’s apartment as convinced asshe was that they had made yet another major connection too. But was it the wrong connection?
They were going down the love connection road as sure as he was sitting there, when this was supposed to be a business access road. He had to get back on track. He wasn’t ready to lose himself in somebody else and then fall to pieces if it didn’t work out. He knew business. He knew nothing about love. This was a business thing, not a love thing. And he was bound and determined to keep it that way.
An easy fix. If his heart wasn’t in it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
