“No wonder she’s ticked off at you,” Perry said.
Without effort, his mind reached back to the night he’d tried to warm Vivi up to going with him. Before he’d known it was an issue.
They were cuddled up on a porch swing behind the sorority house. It was late, past curfew, and he’d recently discovered how very much he liked holding hands with her. The sensation of her silky smooth fingers gliding through his. Back and forth. He liked watching the action too, noting the difference in size, shape, and tone of her olive skin. Her slender fingers always looked so delicate next to his.
Why don’t you want to go? he’d asked her that night. Music rang from their shared headphones, one in his ear, one in hers. A silly love song he hadn’t liked until Viv came along.
“Because they don’t mean anything.” Viv recited one of her proverbs in Italian—he loved when she did that. This time it was the not-all-that-glitters-is-gold one. “They’re all for show,” she continued. “Who’s wearing what. Who they’re with. How much he spent and how much weight she lost to fit into the dress.”
He loved watching Viv’s face when she got talking. She had this pent-up passion that would send her into rants about one injustice or the next.
And those eyes, always filled with such life. They were reflective—uniquely so. He loved that too, the way they’d reflect any hint of light within miles. That night they mirrored the houselights as she listened to his response.
“We don’t have to make it for show,” he’d assured. “It can just be about us.”
“And your friends,” she’d pointed out.
“Yours can come too.”
“Duke?” Perry’s voice sounded foreign in the midst of his memories. They didn’t belong in the same place. Perry was in the present, and the image in his mind, a moment that was ten years old, was like a ghost from his past. One that had haunted him ever since.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Umm…it sounds like you have company.”
Duke’s face scrunched up. “What do you m—” But then he heard it—the soft sound of a woman clearing her throat.
A fresh scent wafted through the air. The same floral fragrance he noticed when Viv stepped onto the jet. Duke’s pulse sped as he spun to look over his shoulder.
Vivi stood before the retracting door. It had already closed behind her; is that what Perry heard through the line? Hehadbeen on the jet himself dozens of times.
“Hi,” Duke blurted, the feelings from his memory still warm in his mind. In one swift move, he reached over to place the baseball on its stand.
“Sorry to disrupt,” she said. “I just…you said I could order something to eat, and I wondered if you’d like to join me.”
Duke stood to his feet and cleared his throat. “Uh, yes. Of course. That’d be great.”
The slightest hint of a grin pulled at her lips. “Great. I usually start off the interview process over a meal. May as well keep up the tradition.”
That’s right. This was for the interview, of course. He glanced at his watch to see it was past eight p.m. “Sorry it’s such a late one.”
“No problem. I wasn’t hungry when I arrived.”
“Good,” Duke said. “I’ll go ahead and ring Tiff.” He pulled in a deep breath of that floral scent as he neared Viv, motioning to the door as it retracted. “After you.”
“Thank you.” But she paused before stepping through and nodded toward the chaise lounge. “Are you just going to leave Perry hanging?”
Duke’s eyes widened as he realized he’d left his phone there with Perry still on the line.
“Thank you, Veritå, for having the common courtesy that Duke lacks in your presence,” Perry came through the line.
“Ah, shush,” Duke said as he snatched the phone and took him off speaker. He brought it to his ear then. “I’ll call you back.”
“Hey, wait,” Perry came.
Viv had proceeded through the doorway and was already halfway to the dining area by now. Duke trailed slowly behind. “What?”
His interest grew in the quiet pause. His irritation too.
