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Chapter Six
Jackson would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about Oleander since their last interaction. She filled up a lot of the empty spaces in his head. During a boring meeting, Jackson sketched her in his notebook and stared at it for days. What was so special about her?
His friends said it was because she rejected him. Jackson thought it was because she was the first woman he was able to have a normal conversation with in a really long time. And yes, she was captivatingly beautiful. Outside the men’s room, at the bar—she’d made him stop and stare. And even though she’d rejected him pretty publicly and a little harshly, Jackson couldn’t stop thinking about her.
However, he was glad for Saturday to distract him from all thoughts of Oleander—because he spent six busy hours at the dojo. Karate had been an escape from the age of 12. When he was being bullied in school, his stepmother had helped him find himself. And it happened through karate. Like a lot of people who watchedKarate Kidgrowing up—the original one with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, of course—Jackson wanted to be a karate kid too. Mindy took him down to the dojo near their house, signed him up. Every alternate day after that, Jackson trained and strengthened himself, and got smarter when dealing with bullies.
Now he was older and not afraid of bullies, he figured it made sense to help other kids out. When he moved to Wildes with his boys, Jackson looked for a dojo first. And he was surprised to find one between work and his apartment. It was a small dojo, with two instructors and mostly teenage kids. But when Jackson joined and slowly worked his way up to becoming a sensei, they started bringing in younger kids. And at the dojo, everybody was safe. Much like it was when he was a kid.
Every weekend, Jackson worked with different groups of kids to help them strengthen every part of their body. His first day as a sensei, Jackson had been so nervous. He didn’t look like he could teach anyone karate, but when the kids walked into the dojo, he knew he was going to make a difference in their lives. All of them were small, skinny and helpless, just like he’d been as a kid. They looked scared, hunched in on themselves and didn’t make eye contact. Traumatized was the only word that came to mind, because it was exactly how he felt when he’d first started karate.
For him, karate had never been about fighting back or hurting those who hurt him. It was about giving him the confidence to look his bullies in the eyes and show them he wasn’t afraid. Fighting back did nothing good in the long term, but if you stood up to your demons and you showed them you weren’t afraid, they backed off.
That Saturday,like every other, he left his apartment early to go sit at Better Latte Than Never, a coffee shop close to the dojo before class. With hisgipacked into his duffle bag, Jackson pulled off his cap as he walked through the doors of the coffee shop. At this time of day, the place was relatively empty, a few tables were occupied and the low buzz of conversation and soft music soothed his overworked brain.
The baristas were already working on his order, so once he paid and waited for it to be ready, he looked around the coffee shop and found a familiar face. Jackson turned away quickly, pressing his eyes shut like he was imagining her being there. When he looked again, Oleander was sitting in his favorite spot, with a large cup and a book open in her lap.
The sight of her took his breath away.
He was still staring at her when his name was called. Oleander lifted her head and their eyes met. She smiled and Jackson felt his heart leap out of his chest. Instead of smiling back, he slapped his free hand over his chest, as if that would stop his heart from running away. The action made her laugh and the guy at the counter said his name again. Jackson finally found the strength to smile back as Oleander pushed out the chair across from her.
Okay, you can do this. She’s just another woman,nothingto get nervous about. With his coffee in hand, Jackson moved towards Oleander’s table and carefully set everything down.
“Hi,” he mumbled as he finally dropped into the chair across from her. “I thought you didn’t drink coffee?”
“I don’t. This is the best hot chocolate in all of Wildes.”
Jackson peered over the table to look in her cup and smiled, “Hot chocolate, I’ll keep it in mind.”
Oleander smiled and he felt iteverywhere. This was a different woman from the one he’d spoken with that night. And he liked this version better, a million times better.
“What are you doing here anyway?”
Jackson shrugged and lifted his coffee to his lips, “Drinking coffee, like most people in here.”
“Hilarious,” she deadpanned. “You know what I mean.”
“I teach at a karate dojo a few blocks from away every Saturday, so I come in here before my sessions.”
“Karate?”
Jackson nodded, smiling as he took another sip of his coffee, “I know I don’t look like a martial artist, but it’s mostly karate for self-defense and conditioning your body. It also improves mental strength.”
“Karate can do all of that?”
“Oh yeah, karate is so much more than just kicking people around and being Jackie Chan all the time.”
“Shut up.” Oleander looked so amused. She closed her book and dropped it off the table. He leaned back, slightly concerned about where the book went when she spoke up. “I have a giant bag under the table that holds my whole life.”
“Like Mary Poppins.”
Oleander nodded and gestured at him. “Hold on, we’re still talking about this karate thing.”
“Right, okay, so…” Jackson sat up straighter, excited that someone wanted to know about his other life, and smiled across at Oleander. “Karate is about strength conditioning, it’s about building muscle and power, but it’s also really good for mental health. Much like yoga, you have to be one with yourself, one with your mind and focus on inner peace and all of that.”
“Wow.”
Jackson found Oleander staring at him and he blushed, realizing he’d blabbered on about karate. He so rarely got to talk about what he did or liked, so it felt nice to have someone be interested.
