She jumped anyways, but when she turned her eyes toward me, she looked relieved to see me. “Do you go around sneaking up on women like that? You’re lucky I’m slow when I’m tired.”
I tried to look contrite, but a smile happened anyway. My lips had a mind of their own when it came to Julia. “Sorry about that. This car makes no noise.”
Davidson’s arranged for whatever we needed while on a project and usually went for something that would “reflect well” on the brand. So I was driving a black Tesla sedan.
Julia was still squinting at me and my vehicle when I gestured toward her phone. “I can give you a ride if you want to cancel your Lyft.”
She looked at her phone again and then at the street—pursing her mouth as she considered her choices. I didn’t take it personally, but was surprised at how much I wanted her to say yes. Her brows stayed furrowed for a second and finally with an eye roll, she relaxed. She was wearing a shade of lipstick almost the color of red wine. I imagined her mouth half-open as I crushed our lips together and I had to breathe through my mouth to get myself together. There was something that happened to me whenever Julia Ortiz was around I was having a hard time even naming. But the last thing a woman like her needed was me and my baggage.
Right now though, she looked tired and ready to go home, and I could do that for her. I clicked to unlock the passenger door and leaned over to open it, suspecting that if I got out to open the car door for her she’d send me on my way.
“Hop in.” I needed to dial down the eager beaverness by like a thousand percent.
She looked around, like she still wasn’t sure any of this was a good idea, but after a moment, she nodded. “All right. Thank you.” She tapped something on her phone, then came around and got in the car.
As soon as she had her seat belt on, she pushed her back against the seat and let out a long exhale. I turned to her and caught a glimpse of a little bit of white lace peeking from that crop top, which was probably going to star in every one of my fantasies after this.
She closed her eyes for just a second and took a deep breath in and out. Like she was letting go of the whole day. When she opened them, she almost seemed surprised to see me.
“Where to?”
She pointed left as I turned on the car. “45 Orchard Street, Los Sauces apartments.”
I nodded as I put in the info in the GPS and when the address came up, I made a sound of surprise.
“What?”
I shook my head and tried once again to chill out. “Oh, nothing, we just live really close. I’m in a building like two streets over. The Lofts.”
She widened her eyes and then dipped her chin, her mouth in an expression I’d seen many a time from some of the girls I grew up with. It was a mix between “show-off” and “good for you.”
From my peripheral vision, I saw her lift a shoulder as I maneuvered us out of the parking lot and onto the dark street. I knew where I was going, so I muted the directions and talked to Julia.
“Thanks again for letting me crash your party. It was good to be around other New Yorkers. I just missed the energy that people from the city have, you know?”
I caught a surprised look on her face, like she didn’t expect me to admit I’d had a good time, but when she spoke she was friendly. “I totally get that. Tonight was the first time since I’ve been here that I felt like I might actually be able to stay long term.” I could tell there was a lot more to that than she was saying, but I didn’t push her to explain.
Instead I did something I never ever did—I talked about myself. “I never really left New York until after I finished grad school and started working as a consultant. It’s hard to explain to people who haven’t lived there just how different it is to everywhere else.” I meant to stop talking, but again my mouth started before I could stop it. “I’ve only been here a few weeks, but I like it. It feels manageable in a way New York never felt to me. I love the city, but sometimes I felt like it was carrying me and not the other way around. Here I feel likeIset the pace.” I turned to look at her and found she was watching me like I’d totally thrown her off. “Sorry, I’m not making sense.”
She started to speak and then paused, like she wasn’t sure if she should say what she was thinking. But as I drove, I caught a glimpse of a smile.
“You’re making total sense. It does feel more manageable. I can slow down or speed up; in New York I always felt like I was trying to catch up to someone, you know?”
I grunted in answer, feeling the truth of that statement all the way down to my toes. “How didyoufind yourself this far from Corona?”
I regretted asking almost as soon as the words came out of my mouth. Seeing Julia sad was much worse than seeing her mad—and that was the kind of information that would only complicate things for me.
She didn’t answer my question right away, and I figured she had better sense than me. But right when we were coming up to the turn to her apartment she spoke into the eerily silent car. “I made a string of bad choices that left me dumped, holding a two-year lease for an apartment and a car payment a week after I started my dream job.” Her tone was harsh, but not bitter, determined. I could hear in her voice she was used to being judged about this. Like the asshole who left her hanging wasn’t the one who should be ashamed of themselves.
“So this person asked you to trust them and move across the country and then left you here holding a lease?” I had no right to be enraged on behalf of this woman, but I could’ve slain dragons to keep seeing the smile that suddenly appeared on her face.
She grinned shyly, obviously noticing my pissiness, and when she spoke again she sounded like the Julia who could get my blood boiling in two seconds flat. “It was a he. And yes, he did.”
What kind of dipshit could ever leave a woman like this?
“I hope that fucker knows not to show his face in Queens.”
That laugh, the head thrown back as she looked at me with a mixture of shock and glee, puffed up my chest. This was better than when I graduated from business school, better than the moment I was finally able to get my sister out of my parents’ house. Julia Ortiz could become a very dangerous addiction for me.
