“Well, I did learn a lot about you,” he says, a small smirk on his face.
“Yes, all good things,” I say, oozing sarcasm.
“You’re definitely cute when you’re freaking out,” he says, grinning.
I feel myself blush instantly. “Well, at least I have that going for me.”
He studies my face with his eyes, smiling. “So give me your real pitch, then,” he says.
“Uh,” I say, looking around the room. I don’t think I’ve ever had to explain myself in thirty seconds. Of course, I’ve never gone to the top of a building, met a stranger on an elevator, and then had coffee with said stranger. So there are a lot of firsts for me today.
“Do you want me to go first?” he asks.
I motion with my hand, giving him the go-ahead.
“Okay, here goes.” He rubs his hands together. “Jay Sanders—which we’ve already established—I’m from Riverside, California—”
“California?” I cut him off. I would not have pegged him for a Californian.
He gives me a stern but mostly joking look. At least I think he’s joking. “The point of an elevator pitch is that there are no interruptions.”
“Right. Sorry. Go on.” I motion with my hand again.
“Okay, so Jay Sanders, from Riverside, California. I’m twenty-seven, and I come from one of those blended California-style families that are all the rage right now. Six siblings, two sets of parents. I own my own IT consulting firm, which has just started to take off and is the reason I’m traveling this weekend. For fun I like the odd comic book, and you can still sometimes find me on my skateboard—I do some of my best thinking there,” he adds as an aside. “I don’t particularly like talking about politics or religion, even though I have thoughts and beliefs in both. If another guy asks me my favorite movie, I’ll tell him it’sStar Wars, which I do like, but my honest favorite isMean Girls.”
“Mean Girls? Really?” I scrunch my face. “Like with Lindsay Lohan? Oh, sorry,” I say, realizing I just interrupted him again. But how could I not.Mean Girls?
“Yes,” he says with a half smile, “Mean Girls. I don’t admit that often. You should feel privileged.”
“I’m not sure you should admit it at all,” I say.
He laughs, a nice, hearty laugh. One that makes his fantastic smile seem to reach beyond his eyes.
“You’re funny,” he says, and I blush again. Dang it. “Okay, now you go.” He gestures a hand toward me.
“Um, okay,” I say, feeling uneasiness quiver in my stomach. “I’m Liza Parker—actually Eliza, but only my mom calls me that, and only when she’s mad at me. I’m twenty-four, and I have one sister and two parents. I’m temporarily working at a paper mill where my dad is floor manager while I look for a job that I actually like.” He chuckles at that. “For fun I like to read books.”
Wow, my pitch was totally boring. And short. I’ve led the most pathetic life. I couldn’t even add to my list that I’d been to the top of the Empire State Building and looked over. Which most would consider a pretty uneventful thing.
“You forgot to say where you live,” Jay says.
“I already told you where I live. Three hours north of here,” I say.
“Yes, but you never said what city.”
“Glens Falls. Have you heard of it?”
“No,” he says.
“That’s why I didn’t say the name of my town. No one ever has.”
He studies my face. Those eyes have the strangest effect on me.
“Okay, so now that we know each other better, what do you think about my plan?” he asks, tapping his finger on the table, anticipating my answer.
“I don’t know,” I say once more. “I mean, how do we know it’ll even work?”
“We don’t. It’s all about taking chances and just ... seeing.” There he goes with the taking chances thing. Elena would probably really like Jay since they seem to have the same line of thinking, especially when it comes to me. Of course, Elena had years to know my neurosis. Jay is only newly privy to my brand of crazy.
