A Christmas to Remember

6: Jack

I don’t know how Mrs. Smith did it. But she found the perfect woman. When she told me she would only be twenty years old, I had thought she would look like a child, but I had forgotten just what twenty-something women looked like.

Because mother of all that is holy on this earth… gorgeous didn’t cover it, neither did words like striking, breathtaking, or stunning. She was utterly exquisite. The knee-long boots formed her legs, making them even longer than they probably were. That short skirt - that wasn’t even that short - made me think of how a gush of wind could become my very best friend. The soft cream colored sweater she was wearing was just tight enough to showcase her form, but still loose enough to seem comfortable to wear. Her blonde hair was so blonde it almost looked white, and made me wonder if she put in highlights or if that was her original color. Her blue eyes assessed me, like she was trying to decipher me, like I was some kind of puzzle and no one had given her the box, only a huge pile of pieces.

“Mr. Hudson,” Mrs. Smith suddenly interrupted my inspection of the divine creature in front of me, “may I introduce Emmeline Julie Slater.”

Emmeline. Never had I ever heard that name before, it was positively perfect for her. A special name for an almost mythical creature.

“Miss Slater, this is-”

“I know who he is,” she interrupted, making one of my eyebrows fly up. Had I already met her somewhere before? That couldn’t be true. I would remember seeing a woman like this. Her hand reached out as she took the last few steps towards the sofa group where I had been waiting. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Hudson.”

I refused to believe I had met her before. It couldn’t be true, it would be practically impossible to walk into a room and not notice her, let alone talk to her. I took her hand and reveled in the softness of her skin.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too. May I ask where you know me from?”

A shy smile crept onto her lips, as she put down her bag and jacket on the side of the sofa. “Last semester I did a paper on the New York City council and what new laws and legislation they were trying to pass, and there I came across your suggestion to better the awareness and the help towards veterans.”

Jesus, was she smart too? How was that fair to the rest of the population of women? Elegantly, she sat down on the couch, crossing her legs and resting her hands in her lap. I followed suit and sat down, as Mrs. Smith went over to prepare drinks for us.

“Miss Slater is in the middle of her third year at Columbia, studying pre-law and hoping to pass the bar and go on to a post-graduate degree also,” Mrs. Smith informed me.

My gaze fell on her, and she didn’t even flinch. Her icy blue eyes were set on me, not willing to look away, as if she looked away I would pounce on her. I would like to pounce on her.

“That’s impressive,” I acknowledged. “Have you always wanted to study law?” I asked her, just trying to get to know her, trying to do exactly what Mrs. Smith had told me to do.

“Converse with her, feel out her mood and see if that feels like something you could do for a year. I promise you, the companion I found you checks off all of your demands, all we need is chemistry.”

“Not always,” she answered with a small smile. “I actually got interested in the field a few years back, when my father needed some legal advice. I thought it impressive how knowledgeable and authoritative he was, and when I asked him what he did for a living, he told me that he helped people. I want to help people too.”

My gaze flickered at Mrs. Smith, who stood behind Emmeline and smirked down at her, clearly impressed with her, and I couldn’t help but be so too. Surely she was only twenty years old, but the way she spoke, her choice of words, made her seem beyond her age, which would only help me sell this to my parents.

“I guess that’s the same reason you’re in politics,” she guessed, accepting a steaming cup from Mrs. Smith. “Mr. Hudson?” she asked when I didn’t answer.

“I’m sorry,” I smiled apologetically at her, “please, call me Jack, everyone else does, and if you’re supposed to be my girlfriend, I suppose you should too.”

A crooked smile came to her lips, making my heart beat a little faster. Her lips had a small sheen to them, like she had put on some kind of gloss, but it only made them pop even more. “Sure, Jack,” she answered, and I had to suppress a f*****g shiver, “but only if you call me Em, that’s what I go by.”

I accepted a cup of black coffee from Mrs. Smith, right before she sat down on a chair that was right between the two small sofas occupying me and Emmeline.

“Alright,” I nodded. “But to answer your question, then yes. I want to be able to help the people who need it, and after coming home from the Navy, I realized that there’s not much help for those who can’t afford to pay for it themselves, and therefore, I wanted to make sure that it was available to all. Sure, I have other ideas to help better our community, but that is where my heart truly lies.”

The entire time I talked I could feel her intense gaze on me, often she would do a little nod like she agreed with my opinion. I felt like she actually listened to what I said, and not like she was already onto the next topic of conversation.

“I think that’s honorable,” she smiled, taking a small sip from her cup. “I know from my research that you also work at Hudson Corporation, but I must be honest with you, I’m not entirely sure what they do,” she said with a tight smile, sounding almost horrified she didn’t know every little part of me.

“The simple answer is, we buy property, and then we build houses on those properties,” I answered her, setting down the cup of coffee, not really wanting the caffeine buzz while I was sitting with her.

She made an amused sound that made me give her smile completely freely without even thinking about it. “You make it sound so straight forward.”

“Well, it’s taken us a while to grow as big as we are, but with the financial freedom we have acquired it’s not really a problem for us.” Which was not even blowing smoke up her ass, just plain honest truth. My grandfather had started the firm up slowly, buying one house and fixing it, just to buy another and fix that too. He had lived in every house, fixing it up and renting it out to another family when he was done, and then moved his family yet again to fix another. By the time my father took over, they bought small roads or boulevards, and now we bought larger patches of land, building almost small villages on those patches, putting down housing, supermarkets, and sometimes restaurants or schools.

“Do you like it?” she asked me, looking over the rim of her cup. “The corporate job?”

“Sure I do,” I answered, probably a little too fast, because a small knowing smile showed on her face. “What about you? Do you enjoy the college lifestyle?”

She tilted her head from one side to the other, actually debating what to tell me. Which only made me like her more, that she wouldn’t just say something, but actually thought about her answer. “Sometimes I do,” she answered, “I’ve just survived a series of exams that were really hard, and took up a lot of time studying for, so I’m looking forward to a break from that.”

“You’re already on winter break?” I asked, leaning my elbows on my knees, concentrating on her, trying to block out Mrs. Smith that watched us like a tennis match, turning her head from side to side as if she missed something important if her eagle eyes weren't watching us.

“Not just yet, I also have some shopping left for classes next year,” she answered. “I’m debating a few choices I have, most of them would be purely for my own interest, and not really for any other purpose than that.”

“As far as I remember, there are a lot of different choices. It’s always hard to choose something hoping you didn’t make the wrong one.”

“Exactly,” she gave me a warm smile. “I would hate to have wasted my time studying a subject I’m not completely devoted to.”

“And speaking of devotion,” Mrs. Smith interrupted our conversation. “I must say that you two seem to have a great connection, or is it just me?”

I looked back at Emmeline, who smiled towards Mrs. Smith. “It would seem that way,” she nodded towards her, before she looked back at me. “What do you say, Jack? Does this work for you too?”

It worked really well. The conversation just flowed between us, and because she gave me the feeling that she really wanted to get to know me, I gave it right back to her. It had been a long time since I felt a woman actually interested in getting to know me, and not just knowing when I would be able to propose to her.

I knew immediately Emmeline would be perfect for me to take out into public. She was positively beautiful, she had a certain elegance about her that just made you want to look even closer, and her eyes just held so many emotions, so much information, and I wanted to know it all.

“It works for me too,” I answered, nodding as I looked at Mrs. Smith.

“Very well,” she said, clapping her hands together as she stood up from her chair. “I just have a final contract for you two to sign together, and then I will send you out into the wild together.”

Into the wild. That was probably the best simile to high society in New York. It was just a pack of hungry wolves, trying to get close to you, figure out your weaknesses and then strike when you least expected it.

Mrs. Smith came over with yet another contract. “And what am I signing this time?” I asked, picking up the papers and trying to read through them.

“This is the agreement between you and Miss Slater. It will be a legal obligation to both of you to stay in this relationship for the next twelve months. What you want this relationship to look like is between the two of you,” she explained. “This is security for both of you, to make sure that Miss Slater upholds her part of the deal, and also security for Miss Slater that she has the next twelve months with her salary.”

I nodded, it made sense. I looked over the papers at Emmeline. “Would you, as a future lawyer, sign this?”

She gave me that charming smile that the women from Disclosure apparently mastered. “Of course, Mrs. Smith gets nothing out of conning you, Jack.”

So I nodded and wrote my name at the bottom of the line. Getting a copy to read through myself, making sure I didn’t sign anything I couldn’t uphold.

Giving Emmeline the papers too, she also signed her name to the dotted line, before she stood up and shook hands with Mrs. Smith.

“I wish you well for the next year, Miss Slater.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Smith, I will not disappoint you nor Disclosure,” she swore, before letting go of Mrs. Smith’s hand.

“And to you, Mr. Hudson,” she said, turning towards me. “Congratulations on your new relationship, I hope it is everything you want it to be.”

“Thank you for the help,” I smiled at her, giving her my hand to shake. Looking towards Emmeline, I picked up my coat and scarf. “Shall we?” I asked, holding my hand out towards the door of her office.

“Sure.”