In Bloom

Chapter 3

Jackson’s anxiety kicked into overdrive as the woman poked him, “who do you think you are?!” Her voice was making his ears ring at this point as it reverberated off the steel walls of the moving metal box. His eyes flicked nervously from her to the man looking both mortified and confused in the corner.

“Babe, come on,” the man finally said, “you’re making a big deal out of nothing.” The writer watched as the man pulled her a little closer to him and leaned down to whisper, not so quietly in her ear. “ Don’t you know who he is?”

“I don’t care who HE is! He should know who you are which means he should know who I AM! If he knew anything he would’ve known better than to jump out in front of the car and then punch the hood!”

The writer mentally rolled his eyes as he could hear the fake waterworks building in her throat. He knew what was about to happen, but her loud sob still made him jump. “How can someone so small be so loud?” He thought as she began wailing.

“I’m sorry baby! It’s…just…” the woman’s hysterics turned into hiccups as she tried to shmooze the other man into taking her side, “I can’t stand it when someone disrespects you,” the woman let out a dramatic sniffle and, this time Jackson couldn’t stop himself from scoffing out loud.

Both of the couple’s heads snapped to him at the same time. Normally he wasn’t one to lose his cool. Jackson usually avoided conflict like it was the plague, but his anxiety was high and his anger kicked in right behind it as soon as he recognized her voice.

The woman walked back over to the writer in the corner and shoved her face in his, “now you want to be rude?!” The girl all but shrieked in the small space that only seemed to be closing in on them at this point.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Jackson said quietly, but still sounded polite despite his rage soaring. He managed to press himself further into the wall to give himself some space from her as he spoke. “If anyone is being rude here, it’s you,” the writer knew the woman was about to fly off the handle, but he continued before she could; “first you poke me and call me names, then you whisper like I’m not here. Not to mention that Oscar-winning performance you gave.” Shaking his head and letting out a chuckle, Jackson took a step around the woman and extended his hand to her boyfriend. “Hi, I’m Jackson North. The man who your girlfriend almost ran over.”

Christopher took the man’s hand, almost in a starstruck trance, and gripped it with both of his own, “holy hell! Mr. North… I’m a huge fan! This is such an honor!” The man was talking excitedly as he shook the writer’s hand. The CEO knew this was his morning meeting, but he never expected his first meeting with his favorite author would be in the elevator.

Shaking the fog from his fanboying head, the rest of the man’s words hit him like a freight train and his eyes widened as he looked over at Evie, “she did what?!” Face turning red, Christopher’s temper was rising as the truth was finally coming to light.

This wasn’t the first time Evie had done this, he only prayed it wasn’t about to get any worse.

“Baby… It’s not what you think! I swear!” The girl began to plead; she stepped between the men and yanked Jackon’s hand out of her boyfriend’s grip. “He really did step out in front of the car! And he did hit it! I’m not lying this time…” Real tears began to pool in her eyes as she hoped he would drop it, but knew the chances were slim after she’d made such a massive fuss in the first place.

Christopher looked from his girlfriend, who was moments away from actually sobbing, to the handsome writer who had allowed the petite woman to push him away. “There’s more isn’t there?” He asked, looking directly at Jackson. The other man simply nodded his head and the CEO brought his hands up to his face; wiping them down as he sighed. “Do you want to tell me,” he asked looking down at her, “or do you want him to do it?” Nodding in the direction of the writer. Evie didn’t get a chance to do more than open her mouth when the elevator dinged and opened up to the floor of his office.

Calmly walking towards the opened doors, Christopher gestured for Jackson to step out first, “after you, Mr. North,” he said with a smile.

The writer returned his smile and walked into the smaller, but equally elegant lobby of Christopher Bloom’s private office. Hopefully, this issue could be resolved quickly, after Mark had roped him into taking this meeting, the last thing he wanted was to be late for it. Or even worse, have the man he was set to see walk in to witness the argument unfolding in his lobby. Talk about a bad first impression.

Evie stood in the elevator, arms crossed and looking anywhere but at her boyfriend. She knew she’d messed up, but she also knew there was no way she would get out of this. “Come on babe,” Christopher said softly, attempting to coax the young woman out of the lift.

She shook her head no and prepared to have a full-blown meltdown in the last attempt to make this whole situation go away when Jackson cleared his throat, “well what happened was-” His words were quickly cut off as Evie let out an exasperated growl, and stomped out into the lobby.

The writer was barely able to hide the amusement on his face as she stormed past him and through the large wooden doors that he assumed led to Mr. Bloom’s office.

Jackson turned towards the man that was still standing there and raised an eyebrow questioningly, “wha-” Almost immediately getting cut off by a loud voice, the writer’s head snapped around to see the familiar blue sweater coming his way. “Jackson! There you are!”

Letting out a mental and physical sigh of relief, Jackson smiled, genuinely as Mark made his way over to the men. “Ah, I see you’ve already met Mr. Bloom,” the editor said as he held up his hand to shake the CEO’s. “Mr. Bloom, it is wonderful to meet you! Thank you for allowing us to come in and talk with you. I know you’re a busy man so we won’t take up too much of your time.”

The writer felt all of the blood drain from his body. He was about to call Christopher Bloom’s girlfriend a liar when the whole reason he was there was to scope out the potential job. After his second encounter with the girl, Evie, he didn’t know if he would be able to accurately write a biography about a man who chooses to have someone like that around him especially if she were going to be around all the time.

The writer swallowed hard to compose himself before clearing his throat to speak, “Christopher Bloom, huh?” He said with a smile, a feeble attempt to portray confidence. He watched as his possible muse and his editor shook hands, but he didn’t miss the wink Christopher gave him either.

“Guilty,” the CEO said with a smirk. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both as well.” Glancing from his office back to Jackson, Christopher looked at Mark with a dazzling smile and gestured to the large, fluffy couch in the middle of the room. “If you don’t mind, why don’t you make yourself comfortable? Mr. North and I have some unfinished business we need to handle in my office before we start our meeting.”

Mark’s smile practically fell off his face as the sense of impending disaster started to swell in his gut. He looked over at Jackson, trying to see any sign of what had happened in the five minutes he’d left his friend alone, but as usual, the shy but stoic writer showed no signs of trouble. “Uh, sure. Yeah,” he said, incredibly trepidatious to leave the duo, “I’ll just be here.”

Jackson nodded and watched as his friend headed to the couch, pausing to look at the men right before they passed through the wooden doors. He tried to give him a reassuring smile, but at that moment he couldn’t even reassure himself that this wouldn’t end up being trouble. Mark was going to kill the writer if he blew this before the meeting even started.