Jasmine was thankful that she didn't have to deal with her mother's antics for nearly a week after her impromptu lunch date. She was puttering around the house when she heard a noise from the direction of Derick's office.
She cautiously made her way to the closed door. Maybe she was just hearing things. Maybe she was going crazy. Maybe-
He'd been watching over her for the last four months. He could feel the ache in his heart every time she cried. He tried so hard to just let her know that he was still there. That he would always be with her. Derick stormed into his office, so angry with how helpless he felt that he shoved at the lamp that sat at the corner of his desk.
To his utter surprise, the lamp toppled over making a soft thud on the thick rug that decorated the center of his office. The sight of the lamp made his spirit soar. This had to be a move in the right direction.
Jasmine's hand shook a bit as she reached out to take hold of the brass knob. She twisted it, and slowly pushed the door in. She wasn't sure what she expected to see in that office, but what awaited her was not anything that she could wrap her mind around.
He heard the metallic scrape of the polished brass knob turning. With the sound, Derick swiveled his head around so he could see her, yet again, open the door and peek into the room. He saw her eyes grow wide. He smiled at his startled wife only to see her eyes roll back in her head.
Derick rushed over to Jasmine and leaned over her crumpled body. He instinctively reached out to brush her hair out of her face, and thrilled when he was able to complete the action.
Jasmine felt his fingers gently skitter across her forehead as he brushed the hair from across her face. She couldn't help but keep her eyes closed as she savored the feel of him. She knew that she must be dreaming, or hallucinating, but didn't care. She needed with all her being to have Derick near again, and just wanted to make this feeling last as long as she could.
When he saw the corner of her mouth turn up, he leaned down and lay a kiss on that smile and was rewarded with a sigh.
Tears rolled down the side of her face along her temples. She squeezed her eyes tight and turned over to get to her feet. "I miss you," she whispered, and pulled the door shut on the apparition in the office.
* * * * *
The air conditioner broke! Here it was the end of July, and her air conditioner broke! Jasmine flipped through an endless stream of repair men waiting for one of them to just jump out at her so she could get it fixed.
Finally frustrated enough to just pick any, she pressed her finger against the glass screen of her smart phone and made the page stand still. Zeke's AC was the one that she clicked on.
"Zeke's AC," a peppy voice declared after two rings.
"Uh, yeah, my AC broke, and I was wondering if I could get someone out here today." Jasmine felt silly. Of course the woman must have heard the same phrase every day.
"Yes, ma'am. If I could just get your address down, I'll send out a tech within the next hour."
Jasmine gave all the information the woman requested, and ended the call. She decided to take a quick shower to try and cool off before the technician came. She was still toweling off her hair when the front door bell rang. She padded barefoot to the front door, dropping the towel over the hand railing at the bottom of the staircase.
Jasmine opened the front door to see a technician holding onto a clipboard. "Hey," she said.
He looked up at her when he heard her soft voice. Zeke was expecting some elderly woman or someone in her mid forties. Not this blond beauty occupying the lavish two floor house. His heart skipped a beat before he could answer her. Did she ask a question? She was looking at him with an expression that she was waiting for a response.
Pulling his head out of the sand, he jumped into the spiel that was engrained into him. "Good afternoon. My name is Zeke, I'm here about your AC."
Jasmine stepped to the side. "Yeah, there isn't any cool air coming out of the vents-"
Zeke smirked, not at her, but at the butterflies that started playing tag in his belly. He'd never felt nervous around women, but there was something about the way her eyes seemed to look right through him. Something about how her lips slightly turned down at the corner. Mentally shaking himself, he stepped into the foyer.
He looked back at the board in his hand, then up around him. "Can you lead me to the unit?"
Derick heard the AC technician's voice and didn't like having another man in the house with Jasmine. He stepped out of his office and into the hallway just in time to see the man following his wife past his office and down the hallway to the back of the house.
Zeke was thoroughly intimidated with the size and elegance of the house. He'd typically been in moderate two or three bedroom middle income homes. This house gave him such a surreal feeling, he wasn't sure he was actually awake. There was something there that gave him a chill up his spine as he followed the woman down the hallway.
Jasmine led Zeke through the hallway to the French doors that lead to the back patio. Just off the end of the right side of the patio was an AC unit. She gestured at it. "Here it is," she said lamely.
"I'll see if I can figure it out for you. I'll have to see the other part as well."
Jasmine turned confused eyes up at him. "The other part?" she asked.
Her eyebrows were drawn together, her eyes were brown, but they seemed to have yellows going through them making them seem like a dark amber was hidden under the darker color. The effect she had on his nerves was beyond anything he ever experienced before. Zeke almost forgot they were having a conversation as he looked down in those inquiring eyes.
"Yes," he responded, his voice deeper than it was moments ago.
Jasmine thought she was crazy as she looked up at this stranger. She saw his eyes cloud over the way that Derick's used to when their playful banter turned into something far heavier. Surely she was reading too deeply into the situation.
They stared into each other's eyes, both lost in their own thoughts, neither quite ready to break the spell. Fortunately neither had to. There was a noise in the house that had both of them turning to the noise.
"I don't know where the other part is. Isn't this the unit?" Jasmine asked, wondering what the hell was going on in the house.
Zeke turned back to his client. He tilted his head to the side a bit. "Yeah, one part is outside, and the other is inside. Typically it is where you change out the filter."
He watched that confusion only get deeper. "Filter?" her voice squeaked out.
Zeke wanted to roll his eyes. Of course she wouldn't know where the filter was. She probably had some maid or butler do all the mundane house maintenance. Rather than rolling his eyes, he chose to instead smile down at her upturned face. "I can find it, if you don't mind me looking around."
Jasmine felt so silly that she didn't know where the filter was. She gave a sheepish smile. "Yeah," she said. "My husband usually does all that." She moved around Zeke and led him back into the house.
His stomach clenched at the word husband. He instinctively looked down at her hand as he followed behind like a horny school boy. Sure enough there was a rock the size of Texas on her I'm taken finger. He berated himself for not noticing before.
Derick watched the two of them come back in. He wanted to follow them out of the house, but for some reason he couldn't. He was pacing the floor waiting for them to come back in. When Jasmine walked across the threshold, he noticed the tech seemed a little down and out, and hoped she set him in his place.
Jasmine just stopped at the bottom of the staircase when she turned to look at Zeke again. "I wouldn't know where to look, so go ahead and do your thing. I'm going to be in the living room if you have any questions." She turned away in the direction of the living room on the other side of the base of the stairs when she realized something and turned again.
He was only a step behind her when she spun around. Her momentum sent her right into his arms, and he instinctively wrapped her up so she wouldn't fall. Husband be damned, when she turned her apologetic eyes up at him, he wanted to cover her surprised "oh!" with his mouth.
Derick was angry beyond anything he'd ever felt before. He couldn't believe his eyes! He saw Jasmine wrapped up in the AC guy's arms, and lost it. He screamed a short angry bark and smacked a hand against the wall. The pictures nearest his palm shook.
Jasmine heard the smack of something against the wall and pushed herself out of Zeke's arms. For the briefest of moments she thought he was going to kiss her, and she was angry with herself because she wanted him to close that distance. She wanted to feel normal again. She wanted to pretend that everything really was going to be okay, like everyone tried to convince her.
When she looked in the direction of the noise, she was convinced it was Derick watching them just around the corner. She could see his eyes full of anger, jealousy, disappointment. She flicked her eyes up at Zeke, who was battling his own demons, and at the spot again. Derick was gone, but the feeling of guilt was still embedded in her bones.
Zeke cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I'll be out of your hair in a jiffy."
Jasmine watched Zeke walk away and felt another pang of guilt in her chest. She wanted to go into the hallway and see if she might catch another glimpse of Derick. She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and chewed it as she debated with herself. With a quick sigh, she shook herself from her thoughts and went into the living room.
He found the filter, and changed it. He checked all the coils and the coolant. He made sure everything was cleaned and replaced what needed to be switched out. Once he heard the clicks followed by circulating air, Zeke went to find Jasmine. She was sitting in a plush couch, her feet sere tucked under her as she leaned against the arm of the couch. There was a blanket covering her lap and a pillow on top of that. She was zeroed in on a compact puzzle book. One hand was holding the page flat, while the other ticked a pencil against her teeth.
Derick was watching Jasmine work on a sudoku puzzle when Mr. Hot lips came in. She had no idea that he was standing just inside of the doorway appraising her. Derick was ready for him to get out of his house. Now.
Jasmine didn't know what made her look up, but when she did, she saw Zeke watching her with a bemused look on his face. She suddenly felt self conscious. His cheeks darkened. Somehow it made her feel a little better that he was embarrassed that he'd gotten caught. "Hi," she said.
A dimple formed at the corner of his mouth when he smiled causing Jasmine to give him her own.
Zeke felt his already struggling heart skip another beat when she smiled at him. He still didn't respond to her hello. He was worried that if he did speak, his voice would crack.
Jasmine stood up and crossed the room. "I can hear the air, were you able to fix it?"
Thankful for a subject he didn't really have to think on, he answered, "yeah. I found the filter, and it seemed like it hadn't been changed in at least five months, maybe longer."
Jasmine felt a flush. "Derick used to take care of that." She looked away, not sure if she should tell him. Not sure if she would be able to voice the fact.
The way she said used to, made Zeke hope that maybe the couple was separated. She seemed to want to say something else, but was debating whether or not to let him into something obviously personal. The look on her face loosened him up enough to fill in the growing silence.
"I can show you where it is, if you want. Then you can start changing it yourself, and you won't have to put up with me snooping around so often."
Jasmine was thankful that he interjected into her thoughts. She nodded her answer to him.
This time when they walked through the house, Jasmine was the one following behind. They went through the hallway, past Derick's office, to the opening that was just inside of the French doors. Along the back of the house was a second hallway that lead to a bedroom that took up the rest of the right side of the house behind the living room. There was a closet just inside of the room that held the second part of the air conditioner unit. Along the bottom was a gate that hid the filter. Jasmine looked where he indicated, her eyebrows drawn together. "How did you find this?" she couldn't help but ask.
"Well, usually the two parts are pretty close together, so I figured I'd start in here. It's nice that it was hidden in the back of this closet, but tricky for the owner; you in this case, to find it."
"Thanks so much," she smiled. Zeke found himself wondering again how good those lips would taste. He forced himself to back up, to step away from her. She may be separated from her husband, but she was still wearing the damn ring. She obviously wasn't ready to move on just yet.
Jasmine saw disappointment cross Zeke's eyes, and found herself confused again. Rather than dwell on it, she decided to see him out. There was something that seemed to draw her to him, but she wasn't ready to start living again. Not yet.
Derick watched the two of them go through the house and into the foyer. There was a closet just inside the door that Jasmine always kept her keys and purse in. He watched her grab up the wallet from its home in the black hole that she always carried around with her.
Zeke signed off on the invoice attached to the clip board. "So, I changed the filter, cleaned the coils, filled the Freon, and there was a part that was rusting, so I replaced it."
Jasmine signed the check and ripped it from the booklet. She handed it off to Zeke. "Thanks again, for coming out so quickly. I really don't like to be hot," she whined.
"Of course," Zeke said. He went through the door and was all too pleased that she followed him out. He heard the click, and looked back to see her put her hand up to shield her eyes from the blinding light of day.
"So, you own the company?" she asked.
Zeke smiled sheepishly. "No," he clarified. "I'm junior. My dad owns the company. You spoke to my sister who handles the calls and is our accountant."
"Are you being groomed to take over?" Jasmine pried, and wished a little too late to retract her words.
He shrugged, he wasn't really sure that he wanted to take over from his dad. He knew that his family wanted to keep the company within their family, but even though he knew a lot about his profession, he really wasn't passionate about it. "I'm sure I am, but I'm not sure if I want to," he answered honestly.
Jasmine nodded her head. She understood what he meant. She'd been in the same situation before she and Derick got together.
Zeke saw her seem to get lost in her thoughts. A look of sadness came over her, pulling the corners of her mouth down. He wanted to kiss away that frown. Whatever she was thinking of was something that was none of his business. He took a deep breath. It was time for him to leave. All he could do was hope that he could service her AC again.
"This is our business card," he said, and handed her a card that was paperclipped to the work order, compliments to his ever mindful sister. "If anything happens, just give us a ring, and I'll be back to help out."
Derick watched through the large windows as the two exchanged words in the driveway. He felt a pang of sorrow knowing that she would have to let him go one day. Damn it, it didn't have to be today!
Jasmine went back inside, still lost in thought with how the whole day seemed to turn out. She shook her head and went back into the living room to finish just one more puzzle.
She thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye by the windows facing the driveway, but when she turned her head, it disappeared.
She didn't know what compelled her to do it, but she went over to that spot that she thought she saw the apparition. "Derick?" she asked the empty room.
Jasmine never expected an answer. She never believed in spirits or anything along the paranormal plains. When her questioned Derick was answered with silence, she felt a lump form in her throat. Tears pricked at her eyes. She could feel her bottom lip begin to quiver and knew that he would never hear her new husband's voice again.
A sob escaped releasing all the sorrow within the hollow recesses of her heart. She fell to her knees, her hands flew up to cover her face as her body shook with the violence of her cries. "Oh, Derick, I miss you so much!"
Derick knelt down next to Jasmine. He wanted so badly to comfort her, but every time he'd tried to touch her, he seemed to pass right through. He'd made multiple attempts over the last few days, trying to hold her hand, or kiss her cheek, but each time it was like pushing through water. There was a little resistance, but nothing to stop his action. He felt so helpless, but the need to hold her was so overwhelming.
Jasmine felt herself falling over. She knew in the back of her brain, the part that kept screaming at her to stop crying, to listen to all those around her and move on. She hated that part of her brain for not grieving with the rest of her. She hated that part of her brain that always tried to be logical, and cried harder because it seemed to become more predominate over the last few weeks. She didn't want to be happy without Derick.
Before she could fall over, she found herself leaning against something. No. Someone. Jasmine wrapped her free arm around that body. She could feel him hold her, and hiccupped as her tears stopped flowing. She squeezed her eyes shut not wanting to have him disappear because she felt the need to sneak a peak at him. "Derick?"
The arms tightened, but there weren't any words. Jasmine didn't need words yet. The feel of his body was enough for her today.
Jasmine shifted in his arms. Her head was pressed against his chest, one arm trapped between them, the other circling his middle. He tried to answer her, but she didn't respond. Derick kept quiet as he held her against his body. He would take whatever he could at this point. Maybe communication would come later.