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I’d had a long day and it still wasn’t over. Mrs. Glass had me running errands like a personal assistant all day. That meant I was trying to keep up with the dozens of projects I’d taken on while waiting in line for coffee, picking up fabric samples, and trying to jog three blocks in heels when I couldn’t get a ride after lunch. To top it off, I had to be ready for a meeting tonight with several very important international clients.
Oh, my mother had also texted me. She never texted, but she had texted me just after lunch to ask when Travis and I would have her over for dinner at our place.
All this, and somehow I felt just a touch of my stress melting away in the presence of Travis. It was hard to think about anything around the damn man. He had an aura of invincibility that was admittedly contagious. On days like today, I probably would’ve killed for just a few minutes of the confidence he had. You could see from looking at him that he didn’t need anybody’s approval. Travis lived for his own reasons and acted on his own motivations. It sounded simple, but I didn’t think I’d ever met someone who so clearly lived so free.
Of course it was all far too easy-going for me and I wouldn’t want that life. But it was fascinating to watch him—like some exotic, foreign creature that got to live in a different reality than the rest of us. In his reality, everything always worked out for the best, so what was the point of stressing?
Ugh. It simultaneously made me want to glue my eyes to his every move and punch him in the neck.
“So where are we going?” I asked. I was careful not to let any emotion into my voice. The man was like a bloodhound when I betrayed anything close to amusement. He missed nothing. On one hand, it was flattering for someone to pay such close attention to me—as if every minute twitch of my muscles was prime-time TV in his eyes. On the other hand, it was annoying feeling so seen. It made me want to open up and shut down at the same time.
“Do you like surprises?” he asked. He was leaning against the wall of the elevator when it dinged. He gestured for me to go first when the doors opened.
I headed into the lobby, and he caught up beside me, keeping pace easily. “No. I don’t.”
“Well, you do like elephants, right?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“The sort of question a man asks when he has arranged for a personal elephant feeding and cleaning session for a date.”
I stopped. “Do I look like I’m dressed for an elephant feeding?”
“Thought of that. I’ve got ponchos in the car.”
“Ponchos?”
I assumed he must be joking, but when we headed outside, he went to the trunk of a ridiculously small electric vehicle by the curb. It was one of those cars that looked like it could fit in the bed of a normal sized truck.
“What is that?” I asked.
“Compact, practical, and definitely not extravagant like a helicopter.” He added that last bit with a frustratingly adorable little smirk. He was clearly proud of himself. And no, I did not just think of his smirk as adorable. Infuriating was a more appropriate word.
“This is your car?” I asked. “Why did I picture you driving something more obnoxious?”
“Oh, I do,” he said. “But I picked this baby up for our date.” He struggled with something, gave the back of the car a couple slaps, then smiled. “There it is.” He pressed a button and the trunk popped open. He lifted a pair of ponchos. One was transparent and hot pink, the other was dark green. “You get to pick the color,” he said.
Travis smoothed the pink poncho down over his chest half an hour later when we’d arrived and stepped out of the car. “You know, I have to admit I thought you were going to go for the pink one. But green looks good on you.”
I turned my back so he wouldn’t see me smile. I wanted to be annoyed by every part of this situation. Instead, I kept finding myself amazed at what an oddly interesting person Travis was. I came from a world of serious, hard-headed, relentlessly goal-oriented people. In my circles, it was completely normal to have no real friends. The common wisdom was that friends dragged you down and drained your focus.
And then this man appeared out of thin air like an extraterrestrial. His supernaturally easy-going personality was like a puzzle I needed to solve. How could someone live in the same world I do and appear so completely stress-free?
Maybe it was drugs… I fought an urge to step closer and give him a sniff. Except the only scents I’d detected so far from Travis were of the alluring, make you want to take your clothes off, kind. He was just that kind of man. The kind you could glimpse on the street and instantly decide to hate or envy, because you knew they were living life on easy mode. I bet nobody ever checked to see if his coupons were expired.
