The Boy I Married [hold]

10 | Ambiance of Creativity

Brooke.

"Sorry about that. My husband called earlier and I missed it. I needed to talk to him."

Jacob shoed me off and sat down at the bar with his fifth cup of coffee for the night. Somehow midnight managed to swallow us in an ever so seeming loop of eternal thoughts and ideas. All the planning and remodeling sketches were blooming faster than we could keep up with. He and I decided it best to bask in the ambiance of creativity instead of halting our thoughts due to time.

"If I take another sip of coffee, I might quite literally melt from the inside out. My brain has had its share of coffee to hold me over to the next century," he says, ending with a dismissive chuckle then placing his cut on the table.

Silence engulfs us for a while almost as if we were both waiting for the other to speak about calling it a night. As much as I wanted to break the silence, I couldn't because truthfully I didn't want this to be over. Sketching designs and planning for the future of this business finally brought life back to me. For so long things just felt... grey.

"I don't want to hold you up or anything. How inconsiderate of me not to even consider your family. Your wife must be worried sick with you out this late. I apologize. We can continue this tomorrow if you'd like."

Jacob gives me a half smile before looking at the less than appealing coffee and bringing it close to his lips before taking in a sip. His expression changed and somehow so did the energy radiating off of him. He no longer exhumed creativity.

"I'm not married. Divorced actually," he sighs. In that moment, bourbon probably would have sustained him a lot more than the coffee had.

We remained silent for a moment. Jacob picked up on my distantness because he cleared his throw and grabbed a piece of paper from the stack in front of the both of us to turn the attention away from the conversation we had somehow found ourselves trapped in.

"I'm sorry. I didn't intend on making you uncomfortable. That was an extremely unprofessional comment to make and I apologize. Forgive me."

"No. No, I'm sorry. I should've put my foot in my mouth. I had no idea and I was the one that crossed the line first. You have absolutely nothing to apologize for," I reassured, pressing my palm on his biceps. he looks at me and softly nods. "You didn't make me uncomfortable."

Our eyes pause for a moment and silence are the two of us up for what felt like hours until he stood from the stool and made his way behind the bar. My eyes followed his every movement. He clicks the coffee machine off and grabs ahold of my empty mug before pushing it to the side.

"But maybe it is time to call it a night. How about we pick up where we left off tonight, tomorrow? We'll be well rested with fully recharged brains. You won't have to worry about my creativity running dry either. I have enough caffeine in my system to start a whole new world."

I gave a smile and started to gather all of the paperwork sprawled out on the bar. He watched me as I cleared the bar of our clutter and then walked from behind the bar again. All of my things had been gathered together in my hand. He leads me over to the door and followed close behind me until I made it to my care safety.

"You didn't have to walk me out."

"Yes I did. You never know who could be lurking in the shadows at this time of night. I'll wait until you're all strapped in and ready to go before heading back in. Just to make sure you're safe."

Not a moment before I was completely situated in my car did he move a single muscle. Jacob gave me a wave as he slowly started making his way back into the shop.

The roads were absolutely barren and going home was the furthest thing from my mind at this point. Sleep hadn't yet hit me and meaningless driving seemed a lot more appealing than heading home so I decided to drive my car around for a bit until I could feel the tiredness come over me.

The house was dark and not a single sound peeped. No one was so I assumed mom and dad decided to stay out extra late tonight and didn't think much of it. I went up and laid in the bed. It was way too late to even think about calling Justin so I charged my phone and let slumber take its hold of me.

»

When morning rolled around, Justin was the absolute first thing on my mind. Distance had a funny way of teasing you with the pole you longed for the most. Though nothing could compare to the husky sound of him in my ear first thing in the morning, I dialed his phone to see just exactly what he was up to.

Our phone call lasted all of twenty minutes. I caught him up on everything that had been happening at the coffee shop. Even that awkward moment Jacob and I had the night before. Justin denied it, but there was something completely off with him. Communication with each other was never lacking. Something I adored about us was our ability and comfort in talking about everything to each other. It wasn't hard to sense his want to talk but instead he held his tongue until the meaningless chatter ended in the conversation being over.

After readying myself for what was supposed to be a day of relaxation, I got a call from Jacob explaining that we needed to talk so I headed down to Balzac's to see him.

"I know it's completely last minute and today was supposed to be our day off, but a friend of a friend got in contact with these very well known contractors who will be in the area sometime soon and I really think we should book them. It's well within our budget, and their yelp reviews are basically screaming with only positivity."

A gentle huff escaped my lungs and i plopped down on the barstool.

"You made me drive all the way over here for that? You could've just called. Or texted," I groaned.

Jacob laughs and pours me a cup of coffee.

"I called you over because I wasn't sure if we were going to have to get in contact with your husband to convince him to let us go on with the renovations while they're in town."

"Have you gotten credible information about the contractors and everything? My husband will be okay with it."