The Laws of Attraction

4

 “You’re rather quiet.” Jacob noticed after driving for some time. I was counting the lamp lights on either sides of the roads, listening to the lady on the GPS.  “Hm?” I turned my head to look at him. He took a quick glance at me and then back on the road. “You haven’t said a word since you got in the car.” He explained.

I gathered the air in my mouth, releasing it in a pop. “I’m nervous.” I finally blurted. “And I am so, sorry I picked up a call that was meant for you,”

“Rosie.” He said.

“It’s’ just that we have exact same phone and phone case, so I thought it was mine and I was half asleep and..”

“Rosie.” He chuckled. “You’re okay, really. It was an honest mistake, no harm done, you can let it go. Although..” he trailed as he made a turn for a restaurant not too far away with dimly lit lights. “I am gonna apologize beforehand, my friends will bombard you with pretty uncomfortable questions.”

“What do you mean? I gulped as he stepped on the break gently and the car came to a halt, he pulled the break and turned off the engine. “They think you’re my girlfriend.”

Before that registered into my head, he had already gotten round the car while I unclasped the seat buckle. The car door opened wide and Jacob stood there with one hand on the door handle, waiting for me to get out. “Thank you.” I smiled politely. “Pleasure’s all mine.” He answered as he slammed the car door shut. We walked side by side into this restaurant called ‘le Boeuf’.

“It’s means beef in French.” Jacob said as he caught me glancing briefly at the expensive looking sign board. “Oui, je savais que.” I answered and he looked at me, impressed. 

“Not bad.”

“I try.”

As we walked into the fairly crowded restaurant, all the tables were filled to the brim and I was pretty sure that places like this did not allow walk-ins without reservations and I was right. “Sir, do you have a reservation?” the receptionist, dressed in a dark blue body con dress with her auburn hair knotted tightly in a low bun, smiling politely as she asked.

“Daniel Hewitt.” Jacob said.

“Right this way please.” Maddy, her name tag read, led us from the front of the restaurant towards seated customers. Jacob looked around and spotted his friends almost immediately at the center of the restaurant. I assumed the person who waved was Daniel since he had the biggest smile and an overly enthusiastic wave.

“Here you go Sir, Ma’am, please be seated, and here are your menus for this evening.” She smiled as we took our seats and two menus placed right in front of us. “And you must be the lovely mystery girlfriend? I believe we spoke over the phone just over an hour ago?” Daniel leaned over the table and offered his hand. “It’s nice meeting you, I’m Rosie.” Instinctively, I reached over and shook his hand while Jacob greeted his friend’s partners at the table, kissing them on the cheek.

“Danny, don’t you scare her, hello, I’m Sophie and this is my fiancée, Daniel.” Sophie was dressed in a beautiful baby blue dress and her brown hair was woven into a neat French braid. She smiled kindly at me. “Hello, I’m Nadia and this Mark.” Nadia was British, I could tell it from her accent. Her rich honey colored hair stood out to me and she too, was smiling at me.

“We’re not actually dating.” I waved at Jacob and I. “He’s uh..”

“I moved in yesterday.”

“Ah, so he’s your new roommate then?” Mark asked. Mark was British too. “Yes, he moved in last night. He did freak me out for a bit.” I admitted sheepishly.

“Was he standing at your door naked?” Daniel chuckled, sipping his wine. “Don’t be ridiculous.” Jacob waved him off. “My sleeves were bloody, she thought I was some sort of criminal mafia or something.”

“I did.” I nodded, taking a sip of water that was served by a waitress just seconds ago. “How interesting, but Jacob told you what he does right?” Sophie asked.

“He took a day to tell me, frankly speaking I was pretty worried.”

“Jacob is ridiculous like that, don’t bother too much about him.” Daniel countered. Sophie smacked her fiancé’s arm lightly. “Have you looked over the menu yet?” Jacob asked, leaning over and peeking at my menu.

“I was thinking of a medium rare steak with a side of baked potatoes.” I looked at him and he nodded and waved at a waitress. After the waitress wrote down our orders, she disappeared into the double doors of the kitchen.

“So Rosie, what do you do?” Nadia asked.

“Oh I uh..” I looked at Jacob for a split second and then back at his friends. “I’m a ballet teacher.” I answered. “That’s lovely!” Sophie clasped her hands together. “I’ve always loved my ballet classes when I was younger, I could go on a half a day practicing my dance routines.”

“I teach little girls, there’s a little girl as young as 3 years.” I smiled and Jacob stole a glance at me. “3?” he asked, surprised.

I nodded. “She saw Barbie as the Swan Lake or something and bugged her parents to let her sign up for ballet.”

“That’s so adorable.” Nadia covered her mouth with her fingers.

“So, all of you are doctors too?” I asked.

“Daniel and I are,” Mark answered.

“I run an advertising company.” Nadia answered. 

"That’s so cool.”

“And I’m a Pilot.” Sophie said and my mouthed formed into an ‘o’. “I’ve never met a female pilot.” I said excitedly. “I mean, not one up close.”

“I know right, its pretty dope.”

“But a doctor and a pilot? How did you two meet?” I asked, curious. Daniel laughed heartily and so did Jacob and gang. “Now that’s a story you don’t get to hear every day. So one day, I was scheduled on this flight to San Fran..” Daniel began.

Daniel was on his flight back home from LA and he bumped into Sophie before boarding, he spilled his steaming hot coffee on her while he was on the phone with the Professor at the hospital he worked in San Fran. Sophie, as sophisticated as she looks, Daniel claimed that she was feisty at one point. The plane was scheduled to take off in another 30 minutes and Sophie did not have a spare uniform. She pulled Daniel—who was still on the phone, mind you, to a corner and ordered him to strip and gave him his shirt, and to her horror, he called her a p*****t, to which the Professor had thought that Daniel was saying that to him. Daniel said there was no way in hell he was stripping and she threatened him there and then, that if he did not give her what she needed, she was gonna get a driver (under Daniel’s expense) to take her home, take a shower and her own sweet time to get ready in which, this flight just had to be delayed. Of course Sophie was pulling his leg seeing as to how annoyed they both were, not forgetting that the Professor was still on the call, screaming at Daniel at who does he think he is, being called a p*****t. Oh Sophie made him take out his shirt there and then of course, afraid that he might run away.

In flight, Sophie was first captain and she did her usual speech, greeting everyone on the plane she made sure that she mentioned that this flight was almost to be delayed by man in the Business class seat, seat A1. Of course many heads were turned, scowls even thrown at him but nevertheless, Daniel knew that, that was the girl that he wanted to marry.

So despite he was gonna be late for a meeting at the hospital, he waited till the Pilots and stewardess arrived on airport grounds and he asked for her number there and then. Of course, she said, in her exact words, “hell no.”

Then exactly two weeks later, Sophie’s brother had a brain complication and needed to be sent to the hospital where she did not know that it was where mister clumsy coffee man worked. Daniel was the surgeon on call that day and he was scheduled to perform the surgery but also needed to explain the surgery briefly to the boy’s guardian but he was so happy it was that scary pilot lady (Daniel’s exact words) who was standing right in front of him. Sophie’s parents passed away in a car accident years ago and she raised her brother all on her own.

“And short to say, Daniel did his rounds more frequently than ever into Sophie’s brother’s room, like what? Twice a day, was it?” Mark asked. “3 times a day.” Jacob confirmed and Daniel covered his face in embarrassment to a beaming Sophie who kissed him on his cheek. “His clipboard would shake in his hand when he spoke to me, it was so cute.”

“You were scary okay, how can one not cower in your presence?” Daniel said jokingly.

After dinner, Nadia suggested that we all went to bar for a round of drinks since it was a weekend and we could all sleep in the next morning. I thought it was a great idea, not that I had anything to do tomorrow either. Jacob asked if I was okay with that and I nodded without hesitating.

There was a bar somewhere in DC, a name of which I have not heard. But then again, I’ve hardly ever been to bars. The bars I went to were law exams, yes pun intended. Paige had always preferred clubs for some reason, she said it was the one place where she could just let it all out, especially when she was in a bad mood.

“Nadia’s cousin owns this bar, apparently it’s really famous down here in the DC, have you heard of ‘The Range’?” Jacob asked as we walked the last 5 minutes towards a whole street of bars with a different range of music thumping from one side to another.

I shook my head. “It’s been awhile, really. Paige, my best friend, prefers clubs.”

“Well then, you’re in for a treat. This bar is probably the most you can get out of wild, wild, west. You’ve got to see it for yourself.” The Range was like the bars you’d see in movies, like a huge barn interior, decorated with barrels in each corner, a large wooden platform I assume was for dancing at the center, high tables and chairs neatly placed, haystacks on the side, a tumbling cow machine was in a corner, a series of arcade game consoles on the sides and the band playing at the front of the dance floor. “This place is a hit for people of many ages, I mean, instead of a DJ up there, you get a life band with those kind of instruments.” Daniel said.

“This place is pretty whack in a good way, I love country music.” Sophie did a little jiggle with her hands to her sides. I smiled as the boys sat us down and went to the bar counter to get some beer. “Soooo..” Sophie drawled, turning her head looking at me, her eyes blinking at me a couple of times, smiling. “What do you think of Jacob?” she asks.

“Sophie.” Nadia said in her British accent. God I loved her accent. “Stop that, you’ll make Rosie feel uncomfortable.”

“No, no it’s okay. He’s really nice, but..” I trailed, looking at the boys at the counter, pushing each other playfully as Jacob turned his head, looking straight at me then smiling. “I saw that.” Sophie squealed.

“But I’m not looking for anyone right now.” I simply said. Okay it was a half-truth, of course I wanted to go out there and date again but many things still scared me at the moment—which is also something I wouldn’t want to think about right now. “Wait, do you have a boyfriend Rosie?” Nadia asked and Sophie covered her mouth. “Oh dear, I’m so sorry, is that true?” she asked. I shook my head and laughed. “No, I’m perfectly single and not attached to anyone.”

“Then that’s great.” Sophie clapped her hands together.

“What’s great?” Mark asked as he placed two tall mugs of beers at the center of the table and kissed the back of Nadia’s head. “Oh we uh, we were just talking about Pilates.” Sophie quickly said. “Since we’re gonna be living here for some time, Rosie here uh..”

“Rosie would love it if we were to join Pilates with her.” Nadia finished. “Pilates?” Jacob repeated. “Uh yes, there’s a place where I go to, I teach classes there off and on.”

“You do?” Daniel asked.

“So you teach ballet and Pilates, well it’s no wonder our girls love you already.”

“Yes, Nadia and I attend Pilates classes twice a week even with our busy schedules, and now we have one more member to our girl’s party.” Sophie cheered. “Here’s to new friendship.” Nadia raised her glass and the rest of us followed. “To new friendship.” We repeated.

I took my first sip of beer and my face was all scrunched up. Jacob laughed, spilling some of his beer on the table. “Are you okay with that?” he asked. “I’ve not had beer in a long time.” I said honestly.

“It’s time you start training, that’s the only thing these boys drink on game nights.” Nadia said, poking her thumb at them. “Hey, we drink wine too okay.” Jacob countered. “Only during your charity balls and fancy doctor events.” Sophie rolled her eyes. “You’re making us sound like beer addicts in front of Rosie.” Mark said.

“Oh no, I have my fair share of wine too.”

“Witnessed it here last night.” Jacob said without thinking and the girls raised their perfectly plucked brows. My eyes grew wide, perfectly aware of what they were thinking. “Jacob came in drenched in the rain and the only thing I held in my hand was my half-finished wine and he chugged it down like water.” I explained.

“Please tell me you weren’t wearing a bathrobe with that wine in hand.” Mark covered his mouth, trying not to laugh. “Jesus Mark!” Jacob protested.

The girls snickered and Sophie whispered to me, “He has a soft spot for women in bathrobes with a wine glass in hand.”

“Sophie, I’m literally sitting right here.” Jacob narrowed his eyes playfully at her.

“I know, you were meant to hear it.” She stuck out her tongue at him. The song that came on next was a cheery one where Sophie and Nadia bobbed their heads to the music. “Come on guys, let’s go dance.” Sophie got off her seat and turned to me. “Oh no, I’m good.” I waved. “Jacob..” Sophie nodded at me. “If I don’t see you up there on the dance floor in 10 minutes, I’m personally dragging you to the dance floor.”

“She really means it.” Nadia nodded. “Boys, you coming?” Sophie was staring hard at them until they got whatever message it was she was sending them. “Don’t steal my beer Dankoff, my beer level stops here.”

“Sometimes, with the things you say, I’m actually surprised you’re a brain surgeon after all.” Sophie said. “Hey, you’re marrying all of this.” Daniel pointed to all of him as she rolled her eyes and dragged Nadia along with her.

“She might change her mind if you don’t catch up with her.” Jacob pointed at the girls hopping happily towards the dance floor.

We watched the crowd dance to an unfamiliar country tune where it involved a lot of spinning, feet tapping, hand movements and bouncing up and down. “Did the girls scare you?” Jacob asked as he took another sip of his beer. “On the contrary, no. Your friends are an exciting bunch, thank you for letting me tag along tonight.”

“Hey, there’s no need to thank me, but I’m glad you’re having fun. Also, I hope you’re feeling better today.” I tapped on the condensed water droplets that formed outside the glass, “Hm? What do you mean?”

“You had a wine glass in hand and your eyes were swollen last night. I don’t mean to be rude, but I can’t help but think you were crying last night.”

“I was.” I shrugged. “But I got over it as soon as a stranger showed up at my door with bloody sleeves.” I smiled. “Glad that made you better.” We watched the crowd dancing on the platform, my feet began to tap according to the beat of the drums.

“Come dance with me.” Jacob said.

“But I don’t know how to country dance.”

“Do I look like a pro to you?” he asked as he got up, offering a hand to me. “Jacob, I really can’t.” I protested, laughing as he grabbed my hand before I chickened out. “Well, I’m sure your ballet moves will come in handy somehow or rather.”

“Then I’ll guess we shall just chicken dance our way on the dance floor.”