He led her to the formal dining room where the table was set for a romantic dinner for two. Scented candles, soft music and fresh flowers added to the romantic ambiance.
“It’s lovely,” she said as she casually fingered one of the two gold rimed plates. “I presume that by the two place settings, I’m the only guest for this evening’s celebratory festivities?”
“I assumed you figured that one out.”
“It wasn’t exactly hard to do. So what is all this?”
“It’s my way of saying thank you, for your help and also, I wanted to talk to you about our arrangement.”
“An amendment to the deal?”
“Yeah, something like that.” He poured champagne into her crystal flute then into his own. He sat down at the head of the table and looked across to her.
Backlit by the glow of candles she was an angel. He reached over and stroked the side of her face. “You are so beautiful.” His voice was tender, loving and filled with raw emotion.
Juliet looked away. The intensity of his gaze caused a chill to flutter through her again. Her heart opened up completely and for the first time in her life, she realized that there was no escaping it, and no doubt about it, she had fallen in love.
Juliet purposely swayed their dinner conversation to center on him, his youth, his career, and his dreams. When it shifted to her, she evaded all of his questions and directed them back to him. She didn’t want tonight to be about her. She wanted to know everything there was to know about him, his likes, his dislikes, his desires and his fantasies.
She decided that if tonight would be their last night together then she as going to make it one for the memory books. “Tell me about your fantasies.”
He nearly choked on his champagne. “What?”
“Your fantasies, you must have them.”
“You never cease to amaze me,” he said as he placed his flute down. He tossed his napkin on the table and stood up.
“You’re stalling.”
“I have a better idea,” he said as he pulled her to face him flush against his body. “Tell me about yours.”
He dipped his mouth to hers but the emotions welled deep inside of him gave him pause. He pulled back, reached up and stroked her face gently. “I need to kiss you.”
“Need, or want?” she asked.
“Need as in I have no choice, need as in the air I breathe. I need to breathe, I need to kiss you.”
Juliet opened her mouth to speak but the kiss came.
Long and soft, sweet and moving, with all the tenderness he felt, he kissed her. With gentle strokes and tiny loving caresses he held her close. In still repose they melted into each other’s arms. In sweet submission she gave what he beseeched and he surrendered what she implored, in a perfect union of one, they stood swimming in the feel of each other.
“Are you trying to seduce me?” she asked as his lips traced tender kisses on her neck and shoulders.
“Um-hum,” he hummed as he closed his eyes feeling the pleasures of her body.
“Then I need to warn you, this might be dangerous.”
“Um-hum,” he hummed.
“Once we go down this road there may not be any turning back.”
“Um-hum,” he hummed.
“Are you getting serious?”
“Um-hum,” he hummed as he opened his eyes and looked up to see her reaction. In truth, he was well past serious.
Juliet backed up seeing the emotion in his eyes reflecting what she felt inside. She stepped away from his embrace. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. I’d better go.”
“Don’t go, stay with me. I told you that I wanted to talk about our deal. You did your part,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out a check and handed it to her. “Here, our deal is complete.”
She took the check. Looked at it then and placed it on the table. “You broke the deal, all bets are off.”
“Yes, I did,” he said knowing exactly what she meant. “But so did you.”
“I told you I don’t do the love thing,” she told him.
“Love wasn’t supposed to be part of the deal. It just happened.”
She shook her head no. “I gotta get out of here.”
“Juliet!”
She stopped.
“I don’t know what love is. I’ve never felt it for anyone other than my family. But if what I feel for you is love and what I see reflected in your eyes is love, then we owe it to ourselves to see this through.”
“Regardless of how I feel about you J.T., this has to be over. I’m not the ‘til death do us part kind. You’ll only wind up hurt.”
“Let me worry about that.”
“No, not this time,” she reached up and stroked his face tenderly, “I love you too much to hurt you.”
There, she said it.
“Juliet.”
“No J.T.,” she said, “not even if you offered me the world. Goodbye.”
Chapter Nineteen
It wasn’t like he didn’t know it or see it coming. Eventually it would end. That was how he’d always set it up. That was the deal. Unfortunately, for the first time he’d gotten emotionally involved. J.T. tossed his pen on the desk and walked away. Who was he kidding he’d been emotional about Juliet since the first moment he saw her enter the lobby of the hotel ten months ago.
It was pure luck that they were all out of rooms and that they shared the last one. He remembered as they walked up to the hotel. They reached for the door at the same time. He held it for her. She nodded politely, walked in and went straight to the line at the front desk.
He waited in line behind her, on the phone yet watching every move she made. The curve of her suit and the sway of her hips held his attention longer than he expected. He definitely liked what he saw.
J.T. reached over and pressed a button on the keyboard. If she wanted the world he’d give it to her. A few keystrokes later he looked at the Tiffany screen and chose the perfect gift. Several key strokes after that he cleared the screen then sat back in his chair satisfied with his accomplishment as he picked up the phone on the second ring.
“I think it worked,” Trey began finally back from his business trip. “I think your preemptive strike did it. Mamma Lou was so stunned when she saw Juliet the other night I thought she was going to pass out. You my man are my hero. And that stunt you pulled by not arriving to the house until late was a stroke of pure brilliance.” J.T. nodded mutely as his cousin continued. “How on earth did you come up with that? You strung them along waiting for you and your guest all night. It was absolutely brilliant.”
“Thanks,” J.T. said as he repeatedly clicked his pen on the desk. The success of his plan was inevitable. Juliet was going to be out of his life again, this time of his own doing.
“You are genius. You actually stopped Mamma Lou before she even got started. That has to be some kind of record.”
“You’re giving me too much credit Trey,” J.T. noted.
“Now you’re being modest.” A silence drifted in through the connection. “Are you okay man, you sound different?”
J.T. took a deep breath. “No, yeah, I’m fine, just distracted by a program code,” he lied while looking at four blank screens on his desk that had gone into sleep mode. “I’ve been so busy with Juliet that I’ve let a few things slip.”
“So is it over?”
“Not quite, to tell you the truth I’m not completely convinced that Mamma Lou’s matchmaking plans are officially over. But it seems that for the time being, she’s turned her attention in another direction.”
“Speaking of which, have you given her the line yet?”
J.T., still absently focused on Juliet resigned himself that what he was about to do was for the best. “Who, what line?”
“Juliet, the,
my work comes first
, line.”
“No, not yet, I’m stopping by her place later. I’ll tell her then.”
“Well my brother, welcome back to the bachelor life.”
“I’m back, count on it,” he said hopefully, to assure himself of his resolve. But his assertion left an empty feeling nonetheless.
“Great, let’s celebrate. I just got an invitation to a fundraiser on Capitol Hill tomorrow night. I understand that there’ll be dozens of single women in attendance.”
J.T. moaned inwardly. The last thing he wanted right now was to be in a room filled with marriage-minded women. Not when all he could think about was Juliet.
“Sounds great,” he finally commented.
Juliet put on her dark sunglasses, slung her bag over her shoulder and walked to the front entrance. She was exhausted, but a strenuous rehearsal was exactly what she needed to get back on course. Thankfully she didn’t have another performance for a few days.
Just as she waved goodbye to the receptionist she was called back to the desk. She walked over questioning. “You have a package,” the receptionist said, as she handed the clipboard to her. “Perfect timing, it needs your signature.”
Juliet took the clipboard and signed her name. As she handed it to the express deliveryman he handed her a small taped box. Looking at it oddly, Juliet took the box and read the return name on the top. She hadn’t ordered anything in months.
“Aren’t you gonna open it?” the receptionist asked.
“Later,” she dropped the small box in her bag, placed it back on her shoulder and continued on her way.
Her first stop was to the children’s dance workshop she sponsored and taught at the local recreation center. It had been a while since she was here and as soon as she stepped through the doors she felt the warmth and comfort of home surrounding her. She climbed the steps to the main level as a buzz of excitement grew.
“Juliet is here, Juliet’s back, Juliet’s here,” the young girls excitedly whispered then called out louder as the wave of enthusiasm continued. Juliet smiled and joked fondly with them. Like a celebrity coming home, she was welcomed with open arms.
Some of the younger girls ran up to her and grabbed her around the waist hugging tenderly. The excitedly all talked at the same time telling her of their latest success on point or at the barre. Soon the mob of excited little faces energized her. It felt good to be back.
“Ladies, Ladies,” Juliet began, “you’re going to be late for your classes and remember a ballerina is never late.”
As the young ones obediently hurried off the older teens, most who had been the program years and were like younger sisters to her, hurried over. They’d been to her house and watched her perform on stage as well as toured the backstage areas of the Cultural Center.
With a collective awe, the girls hurried off to their classes as Juliet changed into her workout gear in preparation to teach her next class.
Afterwards, she picked up her dry cleaning, stopped at the grocery store, then to the post office to get her mail. It wasn’t until she was at home and tossed her bag on the bed and the package tumbled out did she even remember she had it.
She dropped across the bed, grabbed the box and began peeling the mailing tape away. She opened the box, removed the packing tissue and reached inside and pulled out a ball.
Her mouth dropped open. It was stunning. She held it in her hand and slowly turned the heavy sphere over and around. It was a jeweled incrusted lapis replica of the world; every country, every ocean, perfectly represented in mother of pearl, ruby, sapphire and emerald shavings. Juliet smiled then laughed aloud at the odd gift. She literally held the world in her hand.