All the Waters of the Earth

Chapter 5: That's Part of the Reason

The following evening, after dinner, dishes, and Rob's bed time, I heard the knock, opened my front door, and Jake stood there, in a dark blue business suit, paired with a sober, red and blue, diagonal striped tie, holding a bottle of wine. Since it was past his newly usual seven or eight o'clock visit time, I had dressed for bed in a white tank top, with no bra, and cute, pink, plaid pajama short shorts. I hadn't wanted to admit that I was waiting around for him, so I had gone about my night as usual.

Though I still had my makeup on.

The night before, after swimming and making out in the pool, we somehow tore apart from each other, and ended up back in our separate homes, in our separate beds. I don't know what he did in his bed, but I sure know what I did in mine.

Tonight, he was outside my door yet again, rumpled and tired, but he was smiling, leaning against the door jamb, his coat swinging. And I felt a thrill pulse through me, yet again, that he was taking the time to see me, even when he was so busy. As much as this excited me, however, I felt the need to be cautious. I still didn't know him that well and I was wary to invest too much in pleasing a guy. Looking up at him, his eyes raked up and down my scantily dressed body and he shook his head a little bit and blinked.

"I have a lot of clients who bring me samples as gifts," he said in his low voice, "but this one I thought you would like." And he handed me a bottle of Santa Barbara chardonnay.

"Thank you," I said, happily cradling the wine.

"I was thinking that you could chill it and we could drink it tomorrow night," he continued. "I should be able to get out of the office a little earlier tomorrow. By earlier, I mean earlier than," he looked at his watch, "nine forty-five."

"That sounds great—" I started and his fucking phone sounded.

He let out a breath, pulled his phone out of his pocket, looked at it, and muttered, "fuck." He gave me a half-grin. "I have to take this, but I'll see you tomorrow. I'm sorry." Leaning in, he brushed his lips against mine and they felt soft and warm, and then he kissed the tip of my nose and closed the door behind himself. I heard him answer the phone as he crossed the way over to his unit and unlock the door.

What was I doing?

Did I want to be second place to a phone call? No. I didn't want to be some sort of available booty call of convenience for a guy with no time for me.

But even though he was such a workaholic businessman, I still felt strongly attracted to him, and I think he felt the same way. Otherwise, why would he even make the attempt?

Alarm bells rang in my head, because I did not want my self-esteem hinging on whether a man thought I was worthwhile. I knew I was worthwhile. I wasn't going to sit around all day and wait for him to come when he thought that it was the time to see me.

That said, he was just so goddamned handsome and so sweet and playful when he wasn't working, it was hard not to. I felt really, really, really, pulled to him.

And apparently I was just sitting around waiting for him to come to me, under the circumstances.

I guess the thing to do was to proceed with caution. I had my eyes wide open. I know that if a man is into you, he makes time for you no matter what he does and no matter how busy he is.

The thing was, Jake seemed to be trying to make time for me, despite the fact that he was phenomenally busy.

So I didn't know how to take this. I decided to sleep on it.

The following morning, no brilliant conclusion had come to me overnight. I decided to proceed with caution, not get overly attached to responses or attention from Jake, and have fun and see what happened.