The Biggest Part of Me (8 page)

The music stopped but they stayed in each other’s arms.  Before Jane could let go, a familiar musical introduction started.  Jane was transported in time.  Suddenly she was a teenager in the arms of the cutest guy she knew.  Suddenly she was light and happy.  She looked into his eyes with a youthful expectation.  He looked at her showing no recognition.

              “Is something wrong?” he asked.

             
“No, nothing,” she lied.  She looked away downhearted, tears threatening to appear.             

             
Then feeling Jason’s eyes on her, she looked back into his face.  Slowly, a wide grin spread across his face.  She shyly smiled back.  Their eyes held each other as Jason brought her closer.    Jane’s pulse quickened.  He was so close she could feel his breath against her face, his solid body holding hers and swaying with the music.  They moved to the music, feeling every beat of the song.  

It was their song.  It was the song they had fallen in love to so many years ago.  They again looked at each other remembering all the times they had listened to this song, all the things they had done while listening to this song.  Jason’s hand softly traveled up and down Jane’s back feeling the soft skin around the thin straps of her dress, sending shivers down her spine.  Jason then pulled her even tighter to him and laid his head down against her head. 

Jane reached her arms around his neck.  She closed her eyes enjoying the feel of him, the earthy smell of his cologne, the sound of his breathing against her ear.

Before either of them realized what they were doing, Jane’s hands were in his hair and Jason’s hands held her hips.  They danced as one, carried away by the soft strains of the band playing.  There was no need for either to speak.  The moment was too powerful, too filled with emotion to ruin it with words.

As the song came to an end and another one started, Jason pulled back from Jane as if awakening from a dream.  They stood looking at each other as they both tried to regain their equilibrium.

“I’m sorry,” Jason blurted out.  “I let that get a little out of hand.”

“That’s okay,” Jane said nervously rubbing her hands against each other.  “What are the odds that they would play that song when we started dancing?”

Jason laughed.  “It probably had to do with the generous tip I gave them.  Although, I really didn’t expect to be dancing with you when they played it.”

“You asked them to play that?”  Jason nodded.  “Why?”

Shrugging, he said, “I thought you’d like it.  I thought it would be . . . nice to remember our friendship.”  Then, as if remembering that they weren’t two kids in love, his face turned hard as he said, “You didn’t think it was like fate or something that—“

“No,” Jane quickly replied turning a bright red.  Her heart was bruised.  How could he have thought it would be “nice” to remember their relationship?  It had been passionate, loving, mind blowing.  “Nice” was hardly the word.   “It was just . . I mean . .”  She gave up.  “I suppose it was ‘nice,’ thank you.”  Jane started to leave the dance floor saying, “It’s been a great evening but I think I’ll say goodnight.”

Frustrated by Jane’s response, Jason followed her saying, “Leaving so soon?  Surely you don’t have to go yet.”

“Yes, I do.  Besides, you should get back to your date.  Good night, Jay.”

Jason stood staring at her as she found Ed and headed for the door. 
Now, what happened here?  What did I do
? He had tried to do a nice thing—play an old song that Jane liked.  So sue him!  How was he going to work with her if she fell apart at something as trivial as an old song?

What had possessed him to have the band play that song anyway?  He should have known that any woman would overreact to it.  He hadn’t planned to be dancing when the song was played.  He had thought he would just lift a glass of wine to her and smile, as if to say, “To good times.”  He had no idea that he would be holding her in his arms, running his hands along her skin, enjoying the feel of her fingers in his hair.  He clamped his eyes shut as a string of curses ran through his mind.

Okay, he had to add two more caveats to their dealings.  No music from their past and definitely no dancing.

“Jase, darling.  You’re not paying any attention to me,” Dana pouted in what she thought was a striking pose.

“Sorry, honey.  Let’s go get another glass of champagne.”  Jason took her arm and led her to the drinks totally oblivious to the happy sounds of a party going on around him.

“Are you ready for lunch, Jane?” Ed asked as he stuck his head in Jane’s office.

“I’m just finishing up here.  Come on in.”  Jane was bent over her desk working on a copy writing draft.

Ed admired the intense look in her eyes, the total concentration as she finished her work.  Jane was working too hard. 
This Talbot Toy guy must be really hard to please
, Ed thought.  “So, how’s the CURTIS project going?”

“CARL,” Jane said without looking up.

“Oh yeah, that’s right.  How’s that big boss of theirs treating you?”

“What?”  Jane finished writing and stretched her arms over her head to release a few kinks.

Ed enjoyed the sight of her slim figure stretched taut.  He appreciatively looked her over.  “Just wondering.  You seem especially diligent with this project.”

“Well, of course.  This is a tremendous opportunity.  If I handle it right it could be a huge boost for my career,” Jane said as she rolled her head back and forth.

Ed took that as a cue for him to massage her shoulders.  His hands were hard and demanding as he attempted to ease the tension in Jane’s neck and shoulders.  “Is that all?  I mean, is it the work or the boss?” 

Jane froze.  “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Jane, I saw how uncomfortable you were at that Cuban restaurant.  I saw the two of you dancing at the club.  It certainly doesn’t seem like a typical business relationship.”

Hesitating for a moment, Jane sighed.  “Listen, Ed.  I probably should level with you.  Jason Collins and I grew up in Jacksonville together.  His family lived behind mine.  We grew up playing sports and going to school together.”

“Yes, you told me that you were childhood friends.  But it doesn’t explain why you were dancing so closely last Saturday.”

Jane was frustrated trying to explain herself.  “We were high school sweethearts.  Saturday night at the club the band played a song that had been very special to us.”  She didn’t dare tell him that Jason had paid the band to play it.  How could she explain that?  She wasn’t sure herself.  Jane looked up at Ed.   “We were reliving the moment, that’s all.”

Relaxing his grip on her shoulders he began caressing them.  He wanted to ask her more questions about this old boyfriend but looking into her sincere expression he decided to let it go.  “Glad to hear it.”  Their eyes held.  Ed leaned over intending to gently kiss Jane.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” 

The voice caused Jane to quickly jump up from her chair and move away from Ed.  She was turning red all the way to the roots of her scalp.  “Oh, hello.  We were just talking about you.”

“Really?” Jason puzzled.

Ed was frustrated by Jason’s appearance.  “We’re going out to lunch now,” he smirked, “unless there’s a problem with that.”

“No problem with that,” Jason smirked back.  Then turning to Jane he said, “I just wanted to remind you about the two o’clock meeting.  You do have your marketing brief ready for me to go over, of course.”

“Of course.”  Not sensing the growing tension between the two men, Jane reached for her purse and coat.  “Did you need anything before then?”

“No, I just came to have lunch with Terry.”  And then turning to Ed and smirking he added, “Make sure she’s back at two.  We have plans, you know.”

Ed returned a forced smile and put a possessive arm around Jane as he directed her past Jason towards the elevator.  Jason watched Ed continue his hold on Jane.  He didn’t like it one bit.  “Executive Frankenstein Goes To Lunch,” he murmured as he left Jane’s office.  And then his mind was filled with ideas for accessories to go with the incredibly big and ugly action figure he was designing.

Ed did have Jane back for the two o’clock meeting with only one minute to spare.  Jason was waiting in her office, pacing, when she blew in the door.  “Good afternoon,” she said hanging her coat on a nearby coat tree.

Jason flashed a frozen, humorless smile on his face.  “Did you have a nice lunch?”

“Yes, it was lovely, thank you,” she returned.  Looking over at the two assistants sitting on the couch, pads in hand she said, “Oh, hi Shelly.  Have you met my assistant Sally?”

“Yes, we’ve all met each other while we waited for you,” Jason said sharply.

Not taking the bait, Jane said, “Wonderful.  Shall we get down to business?”

After the brief was discussed, highly impressing Jason, calendars were opened, notes were brought out, and the planning began.  Phase one of the complete marketing campaign had to be in place before a meeting with a very important global toy distribution conglomeration took place.  Since that meeting was already scheduled in a little over four months, advertising of all types would have to be ready to roll out immediately after that meeting.

Deadlines for drawings, commercials, and publicity were added to the calendars.  Jason and Jane clicked off details as their busy assistants were quickly jotting information down.  But as successful and driven as the meeting seemed to be there was an underlying current of tension that was as intense as the conversation that zinged between the executives.

“I want the first commercials to be set to air during Labor Day Weekend.  That won’t be a problem, will it?” Jason asked.

“No.  We’ll want to film them in late spring and then do a test market and gauge response to see if we need to revise,” Jane said.

“I understand, but I don’t want to test revise, test revise, test revise to death.”

“Understood.  We think we can test once and then get a handle on what will work for the general public.”

“You ‘think’?  You’re not certain?  Jane, I’m not paying you to just ‘think.’  I need results and I need them fast so we can be on top of the Christmas market.”

“I understand,” Jane said through her gritted teeth.  “And you will be.  CARL is going to be a big success—after we revise the initial approach.”

Sally and Shelly sat quietly, eyes big as they watched the interaction between Jason and Jane.  Just like a tennis match their faces turned to listen to one and then the other.

“Are you sure all that testing isn’t just a waste of time?  With ‘Racing Rally’ we knew we had a great product.  We just put it out there and it was the biggest seller for that Christmas.”

“Yes, but CARL is a little more complicated than a simple race track with glow in the dark cars.  You’re introducing a complex electronical toy for the whole family.  The marketing has to be done correctly or it won’t succeed.  You have to trust me on that.”

“Yeah, Mrs. Carter, our English teacher used to call it ‘analysis paralysis.’  A person analyzes everything to death so that you end up accomplishing nothing.  You had a particular hard time in her class because you did that.”

“I got an ‘A’, didn’t I?”

Sally and Shelly watched and listened as voices were raised.  Not moving her eyes from the action, Sally leaned over and whispered to Shelly, “English teacher?  What’s that about?”

Shelly whispered back as the arguing continued, “They grew up together.  Went to high school together.”

“No way!”  Sally thought for a moment.  “Does this argument make any sense to you?”  Shelly shook her head.

“I’m just saying if you look on the calendar, we’re set to waste practically a whole month on testing and revising.  You could rewrite the constitution in that amount of time.”

“You’re the boss and we’ll do it your way, but as a marketing specialist I’m saying for a product to be the huge success that CARL should be we’ve got to take the time to test and revise.”

“And I’m saying with too much of the revising, it will be hard to establish a consistent brand.  I think all this testing will not help, but may actually hurt CARL in the long run.”

“You think?  You’re not certain?  I can’t believe you don’t know for sure.  You’re always so sure of yourself.”

“Yeah?  Well, I learned how to be when I was a kid and the smartest guy in school Gary Watkins was trying to steal my girl.” 

At this point, hands were fisted and voices were raised as both parties were standing toe to toe.  Sally and Shelly looked at each other baffled.  “Should we do anything?”  Shelly said.

“You got me,” Sally shrugged.

“I was not your girl at the time and I was never interested in Gary Watkins.  I went with him to the Junior Prom because somebody else was so interested in Karen Carmichael’s pom poms they didn’t know I even existed.”

“That’s bull.  I was never really interested in Karen Carmichael.  For God sake her I.Q. wasn’t as big as her pom poms.  Although she did have nice pom poms.”

“All right,” Sally said jumping off the couch and into the mix, palms up to stop the verbal war.  “Suppose we just get back to the calendar and see where we can have a win-win,” she said in a cheerful singsong way with a smile on her face.