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She wasn’t sure what she expected, but she didn’t expect Sandra to be a man.
And not that man.
Because it wasn’t Sandra standing there at the closed door at all.
It was Jesse.
Sydney was sure as shit glad for that ergonomic chair at the moment, because if she wasn’t sitting down, she’d have been on the floor.
“What- uh- Jesse… what’s- what’s going on?” She was amazed she had the capacity to even form language at the moment, her shock was so great. “What are you doing here?” She wasn’t sure whose eyes were bigger. Hers probably looked like two baseballs sticking out of her head.
He stood there, his face a mask, giving nothing away, but then he smiled softly, and that smile did things to her chest that she couldn’t even begin to describe. It felt like she was caving in or being crushed, but it wasn’t a bad feeling despite the panic that crawled up her throat at the same time, nearly choking her.
Jesse walked over casually and pulled out a chair across from her. He sunk down into it and spread out a big black object that she hadn’t even seen tucked under his arm.
A photo album.
“What- seriously… what are you doing here?”
That shadow of a smile turned into a full-on grin. He looked so happy, so beautiful, so freaking… so freaking Jesse, that she nearly smiled. Or laughed. Or cried. She wasn’t actually sure which emotion was going to come out, so she did her best to blink hard against her burning eyes and keep her face from giving any of it away.
“Well…” he folded his hands on the smooth white quartz tabletop. “I guess that I’m here because your mom called me.”
“What? My mom?” Again, she was glad for the chair she was seated in, because that was shock number two, and it wasn’t even actually nine in the morning yet.
“Yup. She got my number from my parents. She said she was pretty sure that you and I should be together.”
“No, she did not say that!” Her voice came out as baffled sounding as she was.
Jesse nodded emphatically. He was dressed in black slacks and a black dress shirt that made him look good enough to eat, literally, knock down and lick from head to toe, but she purposely did not try and think about any of those things. Or how her bone-dry mouth was suddenly salivating.
“She did actually. She said a lot of other stuff that I happen to agree with. Things that make perfect sense.”
“What? What things? What did she say?”
He kept right on grinning like she hadn’t even spoken. “That’s not important at the moment. What is important is this.” He indicated a huge black book in front of him and she finally clued in on the fact that it was a photo album. Who used those anymore?
His hand, a hand she knew and loved, flipped open the cover to the first page, to reveal them together in diapers, each holding a cake beater, icing smeared all over their faces. She remembered that one. God, she loved that photo. They couldn’t have been more than two.
“Here’s us. At two.”
“How did you get these?”
“Your mom. My mom. They got together and helped me with it.”
“What?”
“Don’t ask questions. Just look.”
She ignored his smug tone for the moment and watched as his hands deftly flipped through the photos. There was photo after photo, some aged, some warped, some crinkled and worn, like they’d been handled too many times over the years. Them in a paddling pool in their bathing suits, them on the trampoline, the trampoline again with the sprinkler underneath, them eating popsicles, wearing snowsuits, skating at the rink, birthdays, her sports events, his math and science competitions. The photos went on and on. She watched them as they changed, getting older as he turned the pages. The last pages held pictures from their grad and a few from college. They stopped there and Jesse closed the album with a gentle thud.
“So?” Sydney blinked, not quite sure what the heck was going on? Why was Jesse even there? With a photo album? It wasn’t like she didn’t remember those things. It was a sweet gesture, but she was supposed to be at a job interview so… seriously. What the hell? “Seriously, Jesse, you’re going to have to help me out here. I’m not quite sure why you’re sitting here when I’m supposed to be having an interview or what this is.” She waved a hand over the album.
“Okay. I get that you’re confused. First of all, this is my company you’re interviewing for. We decided to branch off from underwear into shoes. It’s been in the works for a long time. Our HR department put out the hiring ads for the Houston office that we’re opening, a few weeks ago and your mom saw one. She called me. We came up with this together. I can’t take credit for all of it.”
