Offices and Orchards (A New Adult Sweet Romance)

Chapter 8

Sun rays sneaking in through the blinds of the bedroom window landed on Autumn's face. It was a phenomenon she had not experienced in awhile, and it woke her with a start. Rather than jumping out of bed to check the time, she just laid back into her sheets and stared at the ceiling. Harvey McIntosh popped into her head. No! She forced his face out of her mind. You can't be thinking about him. But she couldn't help recalling the previous day's events. Could someone like him really like her? Amber seemed much more his type: outgoing, confident, and she had such a good body too. He was such a good-looking confident guy. Most girls would be interested in him. No, he could never like someone like her. Not after she had become who she was today, after that fateful September day in 2001.
After a few minutes, Autumn finally got up to check the time on her clock radio, shocked to see it was already 11am, and realizing that she was going to be late for her meeting with Harvey. My meeting with Harvey? My date with Harvey? Appointment? What was it? And Harvey? Is that what I'm calling him now?
She got dressed quickly. Her answering machine flashed red, Amber must have called. I didn't even hear the phone ring? The messages will have to wait. 
She arrived at work fifteen minutes late, and when Harvey was not in the building's lobby, she went upstairs to his desk, finding him with his head down, and surrounded by printouts of spreadsheets.
"Good morning sunshine," he said when he saw her, looking like a strawberry blond angel, her messier-than-usual hair bouncing over her shoulders. The night's rest seemed to have done her good, but the scowl remained. Not too good, Harvey figured.
"What are you doing here?" She replied, ignoring his comment. There is no way I look like sunshine. He was teasing her again. It seemed that things were back to normal with them.
"I work here?" He tried sarcasm as a joke.
"Today?" As usual, she was not impressed- he could tell by the way she scrunched up her forehead, her mouth crunching to the side.
"All weekdays, in general." He stretched his arms over his head.
"You didn't sleep in?"She was full of suspicion.
"I did sleep in, until 7am at least," Hadn't he, the night before, just been saying how exhausted he was and how he was looking forward to a break. He couldn't be that tired if he had still come in to work as usual. He must have been saying things he thought she wanted to hear. To get her to soften up to him. Or something. What he was doing didn't make sense.
"What is it you always say about you working hard, Barnett?" It hit her. This was another one of Harvey's tactics to be awarded the Australia project: the rat! He had definitely told her to have a nice long sleep the night before, knowing full well that he had been intending to come in to work. Calculating. No doubt he made it known to Chan too. "The apprentice seems to have become the master," he was cheerful, probably revelling in his triumph. "By the way, you might be interested to know that the Carter meeting went very well today. There are some minor changes to be made, but Chan said he would take care of those." So he had sat in on the Carter meeting to suck up to Chan and everyone else. Unbelievable. Just when I thought we might move forward. Guess last night was a fraud.
"We did good Barnett! Congratulations on finishing orientation! You ready to go?" Be cool, Harvey. This is your first date with the girl. Is that what it was? A date? Not really. At least try to be cool, maybe you can finally ask her out for real if today goes well.
They left the office immediately, entering the elevator in an awkward silence. "I'll drive," he offered, and pressed the parking garage level. Doesn't even ask me what I would like to do.
He led the way to a white SUV, probably something his parents had bought him. "Let me," Harvey stepped around Autumn to open the car door for her. "Such a gentleman," she said ironically. "Only because there's food promised." The comment actually made Autumn snigger- she too could be won over with food.
"We should have walked. Summer is fading." she said when they pulled out of the parking lot into the sun. Gone was the chemistry they had shared the night before, it seemed to Harvey. Back was grumpy,  guarded, complainy Autumn.
"I thought it would be more gentlemanly to drive." gentlemanly? He was probably just trying to show off his car. "We'll walk next time. Have you been through the village yet? Since you've been in town?" Harvey had learned the night before that Autumn hadn't spent any time in Harvest Hills before this internship.
"Might take a look around this weekend." she said noncommittally.
"Would you like take a quick look around now, while we're in the car?" Harvey tried to hide the hope in his voice.
"Won't hurt if we're a few more minutes late, will it?" Well, that was as happy a response as Harvey had ever gotten from her. Maybe if I want to spend time with this girl, it'll have to be away from work. Now, you've got her all to yourself for a little while, he thought, don't mess this up.
The Heritage District known as the Village, like the Business District, ran along the Lake Golden's waterfront, with its main street running perpendicular to the lake, forming a sideways T, if you were looking at a map. A small section of Main Street was pedestrian only, they passed that in the car. "Oh! I drove past here on my way into town. I remember feeling like I had stepped back in time!" Her voice was joyful, excited but soft. .
"That's the original Harvest Hills village- the first settlers in the area. I know exactly what you mean about it being a different age. I've been here for a long time now, and I still get that feeling. Something about the lampposts and flower boxes I think. Have you seen the whole heritage district?"
"Not really. just came through on my way into town. I remember liking the gazebo- good spot for ice cream on a hot summer's day. But I've already missed that for this year."
"Ok, let's start a bit further out, at the cemetery," he took a right hand turn in the car on the last CBD street. He went a handful of blocks east, along Maple Street, and then took another left and a left again. Autumn saw Maple Grove cemetery.
It was early September now, so there were some very faint hints of the upcoming changing of the seasons, and soon, the glorious hot long summer days would change into the muted in-betweenness of Fall. Currently, the first of the leaves had started to show a very slight orange tint, but at least you still have to search for it to see it, Autumn thought to herself bitterly, recalling that the best time of the year had been spent in an office this time around. Thankfully though, it was still too early for fall foliage and the trees were proudly hanging onto their greenery.
"I knew it would be gorgeous around here in the summer!" She gasped. There were stone walls all around the cemetery, and she noticed they continued down the small residential streets as well. She remembered seeing a few on the drive into Harvest Hills from Brighton back at the end of July.
"You think it's nice now, wait until you see it after the leaves have turned!"
"Not the first time I've heard that. But I doubt I'll like it more than now." Why did everyone keep telling her what she would like?
"You'll see," Harvey said, as if he knew what she liked better than he did. Still a know it all. "I don't know too much about the heritage of the area specifically, but the stone walls were built in the early 1800's due to increased farming at the time. They marked the boundaries of people's properties of course, but their primary purpose was to contain livestock. Granite is the most common type of rock that was used."
"don't know too much, huh?" Trying to pretend he didn't know anything but giving a full length historical tour of the area. Just like him. but for some reason it was a different vibe outside of work. Here it felt more like it was sharing, at work he always seemed to be informing.
"I'd definitely like to learn more," he replied.
Near the cemetery was a white church with a towering steeple. "Look at the old church! I'll have to come back to take some photos before the fall."
"do the opposite and wait for the fall. I'm telling you, You've never seen foliage until you've seen Harvest Hills in October."
"Oh yes! The foliage! It's beautiful when the leaves die," She smiled at him. Harvey couldn't help but let  out a snortand a giggle. This girl was sarcastic.
"Well, yes, despite me just realizing that I appreciate the leaves the most just before they are about to fall to their death, let me continue. The area we're heading into now, it's the one with all the historic homes in it. You'll notice the white picket fences now, instead of stone ones, which were also used to delineate domestic boundaries,"
Autumn leaned back in her seat and listened to her guide, noticing that the style of the iron or wooden fencing was generally mirrored by whatever decor was on the house, a grander home boasted a more elaborate fence with very intricate designs. Some houses had potted flowers on their porch, doorstep and elsewhere in the front yard. They came in a wide range of colors, from bright yellow, to rust, to burgundy, to purple to lilac. "Lots of flower pots everywhere,"
"Potted chrysanthemums. Hardy plants which do well in the colder temperatures to come.This is your typical New England village here, you know?"
"Hardly! A typical New England village has a beach and a lighthouse and lobster restaurants!"
"Oh yeah I forgot, you're from Maine."
"Yeah, this scenery definitely has its own charm, but I don't know if I could love anything or anywhere more than the seaside. Oh look! Some people have already started putting pumpkins out! We do that too!" A variety of pumpkins and gourds were mixed with pots of chrysanthemums on the front door steps of a couple of the stunning country houses. Harvey glanced over at his colleague, suppressing a smile. She looked so sweet when she wasn't worrying about, whatever it was she worried about.
"I'm sure we'd find a lot in common if we wanted to," Harvey said, and Autumn was unsure if he meant about New England villages or the two of them as people. She did not risk asking the question, a bit afraid of finding out they were not so different after all.
"For instance, you like coffee right?"
"As of recently I drink it."
"What about baked goods to go along with your coffee?"
"Now you're talking my language. Love."
Harvey pointed. "Well, there's my favourite bakery! Truffles. Best coffee and desserts in town. One of my favourite things to do as a kid was to get a hot chocolate and walk down to the lake from here and play in the falling leaves blowing in the wind. Geez, it's probably still one of my favourite things to do, I just don't get round to it very often."  She smiled at the mental image of McIntosh playing in the leaves in his suit. They continued down the Main Street and turned towards Park Bar. "We'll have to finish the historical tour another day, Barnett, we have some celebrating to do now!"
Autumn jumped to attention, as if a small town trance had just broken. She'd been so caught up by the beauty of the area that she had completely forgotten why they were out driving together, and why they were doing so.
"Oh! Of course, yes! And thank you for the tour." He glanced at her with eyebrows raised- he was surprised st the sincerity in her voice. She really sounded like she meant it.
"It was absolutely my pleasure." And he realised that he meant it as well.