Chapter 1
5 Years Ago
I hate being late, but here I am rushing to get coffee before work. No matter what coffee store I seem to go in the line up is out the door or pretty close to it. I guess I'll just have to wait in line, I see my reflection in the crystal clean glass of the coffee shop door, my long chestnut hair falling straight and shining from the sun, my makeup is natural but my eyelashes long. I stand in line silently and scroll through the feed of my social media apps, and it's just pictures of my old friends in my old town. Being new in a city like New York is tougher than I ever imagined. And finally, it's my time to order,
"Can I get a large black coffee please?" I say as I watch the cashier punch my drink in on the computer system.
"Four dollars and twenty cents." the cashier says while looking down at the computer screen. I hand the young blonde a five-dollar bill and tell her to keep the change. I move to the left counter to wait for my coffee, while I wait I pick the lint off my black pencil skirt.
"Lorelai." the barista calls. I rush to grab my coffee before I'm late to work. I turn around in a quick movement and walk right into someone.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so so sorry!" I say as I try and grab as many napkins to help get the deep brown coffee stain out of this man's shirt. I start dabbing at the discoloration and the man grabs my hand gently.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't worry about it, I never caught your name." his blue eyes stared into mine, piercing my soul. I take a closer look at my victim and see that he's quite cute, sandy brown hair, blue eyes, muscular figure. I realize I have been staring and I haven't answered the man's question.
"Uh, Lorelai. What about you?" I stutter momentarily losing my train of thought. The man just smirks.
"The name is Jax, Jax Austin. And you know I think there's only one way that you can make it up to me." I smile down at my now stained shoes and peer up at him through my eyelashes.
"Jax I'll do anything, do you want me to pay your dry cleaning bill," I speak quickly. Jax just smiles.
"Go out with me." I let out a quick laugh and smile at him.
"You're serious?" he just nods "yes.", I giggle,
"Um, ya I guess. Sure why not." we exchange numbers, and I leave for work, practically running down the street to make it on time. I go right into the main office of my colleague, Marc and we talk about Jax and how perfect everything seemed to line up. I get a text that reads, "I really hope this is the cute coffee shop girl, and that she didn't give me a fake number:)". I just smile as I try to think of a response and write back, "Yes this is the coffee shop girl:)". My boss Leonard Brown walks in the room and starts talking, "Everyone please meet in conference room C in ten minutes. Without your cellphones, your clients can wait twenty minutes to be in contact with you.", I turn back to Marc and look at him and he smiles at me, "What has you so cheery this morning? Or is it still coffee store guy?" He asks with the raise of an eyebrow, I just laugh and say, "Maybe it's him or maybe I'm just happy to be at work this morning did you ever think of that?" I say with huge amounts of sass. He just laughed recognizing my original sass, then we headed to the meeting. After sitting in the meeting for what felt like an eternity we were released back to our work spaces with several new projects. I worked straight through until five o'clock, and around five-twenty I got a call from Jax, asking where I wanted to go for dinner. We decided on a small Mexican restaurant a few streets away from my place. I get back to my small apartment and instantly start thinking about all the things I have to do to get ready. I hopped in the shower and began my extensive checklist of things I needed to get done before dinner. After blow drying and straightening my hair, I apply light brown shades of eye shadow to my lids, and a pale pink color to my lips. I raked through the clothes in my closet looking for my baby blue cotton blouse, once I pulled it from the hanger, I slipped it over my head, over my mediocre sized chest and down to just about my waistline. I pull on my tight black ripped jeans and zip my tan ankle boots up. I head down the 16 stories of my building to the ground floor where I wave for a cab. As I'm on my way down to the restaurant, I shake my head in disbelief of about what I'm about to do - going on a date with a complete stranger. I arrive at the restaurant and scan the small room for the dirty blonde stranger from earlier that day. He waved me over to a small booth in the back of the restaurant. We chatted about his work in real estate and my work in marketing until the server brought over our chips and salsa. Once we both ordered margaritas, we started talking once again about families and our childhoods, he was shocked to hear I grew up in Canada. After the night full of laughter and smiling I agreed to go out with him again, and before I knew it, it had been over two years.
2 Years After the First Date
I hated working late, I always felt bad for Jax. He would be home hours before me and I would leave hours before he even woke up. But tonight my boss was in a good mood and decided to let everyone leave early, I can't wait to surprise Jax! I raced up the stairs of our building and nearly tripped over my feet because I was going so fast. I fumbled with the keys trying to unlock the door, once the lock gave way I pushed my way into the apartment, I instantly heard feminine laughter. My heart sank as I walked into the master bedroom and saw a blonde women half dressed laying on top of my bed. Tears welled in my eyes. Once he realized who was here he stopped laughing and made eye contact with me, his bright white smile faded. "Lore, I was going to tell you." he said as if that made a difference. Jax looked at the unnamed blonde and asked her to leave. I looked down at the bottle of wine that sat on my side of the bed, and then down at the small engagement ring he'd given me about a year ago. I waited for the blonde to leave before I began questioning him. She walked out of my apartment without saying a word to me or to Jax. I looked at him and struggled to begin questioning him. I took a deep breath and looked him in the eye as I asked, "When did this start?" he looked at me and didn't say anything. I just sighed and sat down on the bed, "Was it because of my work schedule?" I asked, he barely met my eyes, "Listen Lore, I don't think this is a great fit, we're not the same as we used to be." he said and looked away. I threw the ring in his direction and demanded, "Leave now, and never come back!" I became more and more angry the longer he was there. I walked back into the kitchen and just leaned against the solid white counter tops as he packed his things, he reached the door and turned around, "If you gave us a chance Lore, we could be great." I just ignored him and waited for him to leave. He walked out the door and I prayed I would never have to see him again
