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“Are you sure you don’t want any?” she asked, wafting the coffee under his nose.
Brian shook his head and then walked around the Shell. Jessica couldn’t take watching him look over everything there.
“Earth to Brian, are you there?” she tried to joke.
As Brian looked at her and smiled, Jessica felt her heart skip a beat. She couldn’t believe how one simple gesture could make her feel so alive. The man was dangerous without even knowing it. She took a sip of her coffee, grateful for the warmth and the sense of comfort it provided. In that moment, she could see why women fell at his feet and why others whispered about him at the company. She couldn’t help but feel a warm flush as she looked into his eyes.
It was ridiculous how a smile could change a person’s face.
“I’m here, Jessica.” Then he cleared his throat and made for opening the door, as it was, to leave. Jessica smiled back and for once she actually felt as though they could be more than just co-workers, maybe even friends.
“You know, with all of this consideration and looking after my welfare, I might think we are friends.”
Brian looked back and Jessica had a hard time staying still while he kept eye contact with her. Then he walked back to her and leaned down and whispered, “Not even close.”
“I’ll see you when I get back, Jessica,” Brian said, leaving her more confused than ever.
* * *
As Brian stood on the deck, he hoped the pills would help him with the seasickness. He didn't really understand how he had wound up standing in the bow of a boat calledTheTempest.
He should be in a nice office on dry land crunching numbers. Instead, it turned out that the third board member that he needed to see, ownedTheTempest. He wasn't very fond of coming on land, and so that was how Brian found himself standing on a little piece of wood rocking in the middle of a very big ocean.
The only thing that seemed to keep his mind off of the precariousness of his situation was thinking about Jessica. If that wasn't going out of the frying pan and into the fire, he didn't know what was. He shouldn't even be thinking about Jessica. Brian smiled to himself. Not thinking about Jessica was a hard feat to do. She was just a walking ball of contradictions.
How could any modern-day woman possibly go to sleep in one of the primmest nightgowns he had ever seen off of a movie set? It had long sleeves. It went all the way down to her ankles. It even had pretty flower prints all over it. What woman wore that to bed? How bad off must he be when even seeing her dressed like that, he thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen?
He had to get his head straight if he was going to talk to this last board member. He couldn't imagine having to stay on this piece of wood for any longer than he absolutely needed to. Brian thought he really liked his French press, but after seeing Jessica, he knew he didn't love it as much as he thought he did. Keurigs were starting to look good now. Looking at Jessica's drink, the first cup of the day was like standing in the rays of the sun and being bathed in its heat without getting burned. It was pure joy. That Jessica was able to enjoy moments like that showed him how precious she was.
“How are you enjoying the wind?” Clay asked as he whacked Brian on the back. Brian would have tossed Clay over the side if he hadn’t had his hands so tightly on the railing. “Where could your thoughts be if not on this amazing scenery?”
“Someone doesn’t like the scenery?” one of the crew asked. It hurt Brian to look at him because the man was bow-legged and even when he was standing still it still looked like he was rocking back and forth.
“I crunch numbers for a living. The only water I watch is the harbor water to see when the ferry is coming in,” Brian growled.
Another crew member with a swatch of white hair on his head came by. “Ferries? We see ferries out here?”
Brian looked at the amassing crowd. “You all have got to be kidding me. I mean, if you are all down here, who is steering the boat?”
“She basically does what she wants to do and goes the way she wants to go anyway,” Bowlegs said, answering the rhetorical question with an answer that brought no comfort to Brian.
“Don’t be hard on the man. I think his thoughts are with our Jessica,” Clay announced with a wide grin.
“Our Jessica?” Brian said in a low voice.
“I think Clay is right, but we have to tell you. She’s ours,” White Swatch said.
“I don’t like this guy’s tone. You know my third ex-wife had that tone when she was about to kick me out of the house,” Bowlegs said. “Then, come to think of it, I think my first wife had the same tone, as well, before she threw my clothes out.”
Brian was about to take his hands off of the rail when Clay cut in.
“Okay guys let’s go easy on him. He’s not used to us playing.”
Brian nodded and then let out a deep breath.
“Brian here has just spent time with our Jessica and he’s having a hard time putting her into a number box,” Clay said.
“Ha! Good luck!” Bowlegs said.
