His words make me smile. It’s still kind of mind-blowing how he’s able to tell exactly what I need in any particular moment. Whether it’s space or silence or a hug, it’s like he can see inside my brain and determine how best to soothe me. If this is what having a boyfriend is all about, I’ve been missing out.
But something tells me Jack is not your average boyfriend.
ME:Thanks, babe. I’m probably going to be out for a couple more hours, but I’ll let you know when I’m heading home.
JACK:Sounds good. You’re killing it, sweet pea.
ME:Thanks, Jackpot.
ME:And yes I know, I’ve used that one before. Can I help it if I feel like I won the boyfriend lotto, aka the Jackpot?
JACK:Shit. That was sappy as hell.
ME:This is what you’ve done to me.
JACK:I like it.
ME:
I tuck my phone back in my purse so I’m not tempted to spend the rest of the day exchanging flirtatious texts with Jack. Instead, I read over all my documents and spreadsheets again, before compiling them in a file and emailing them over to Nick. I find him on G-chat so I won’t be tempted by my phone.
ME:Hey. I just sent you a whole file of shit. Can you look at it and tell me what you think?
NICK:Is this about the storefront?
ME:Good god, are there no secrets among us anymore?
NICK:Gem told us the other night and Jack mentioned it this morning.
ME:Jack mentioned it? How so? What did he say? Is he trying to finagle something?
NICK:Oh my god, chill. He just said you guys found a cool space last night but that you seemed really against him giving you the money.
ME:I’m not taking his money.
NICK:If you wanna throw away $200k from a man who is clearly beyond when it comes to you, not my place to try and change your mind.
ME:See, the way you phrased that makes it seem like you want to change my mind.
NICK:I’d take his money.
ME:That’s because you’ve always had money and you don’t know what a serious power imbalance it’d create in our relationship.
NICK:Yeah yeah. It’s free money.
ME:It’s not free.
ME:I really like him, Nicky. I don’t want to fuck this up.
NICK:I don’t want you to fuck this up either.
ME:Thanks for the vote of confidence. Can you look everything over please?
NICK:Yeah, give me an hour.
I spend the hour doing more research. All right, much of said research happens on Pinterest, but it still counts. Trying to find the cutest DIY ways to spruce up the shop is a 100 percent productive use of my time.
My phone chirps almost exactly sixty minutes after our conversation.
