From Now On

“That’s him. Didn’t I tell you he’s gorgeous?”

             
Jo glanced at her coworkers as she walked back to her tiny office from the copy room. They were staring toward the elevators. Curious, Jo turned to look too and found herself staring at a man handsome enough to deserve a second look. He was tall, his body well controlled, almost like a soldier on maneuvers. His tawny hair was short, adding to the military look, but there was a gentleness in his brown eyes that softened the rough edges of his rugged features. He paused for a second and looked around, as though unsure where to go next. When their eyes met, he smiled, causing Jo’s heart to skip a beat.

             
“Look at her,” one of Jo’s coworkers said. “She thinks he’s looking at her.”

             
“A little presumptuous, isn’t she? Especially after Ryan.” The other woman laughed.

             
With a burning blush bursting across her face, Jo quickly turned and went to her office. With the door closed and the sound of their laughter cut off, the pounding of Jo’s heart slowed, though it did little for the pain that continued to twist in her stomach. They were right, she knew that. Why would a guy like that take a second look at her? He could probably have any woman he wanted. One who looked like them, with their perfectly coiffed hair, their expertly applied makeup, and their sexy, yet professional dress.

             
Jo glanced down at her conservative cotton skirt and primly buttoned up blouse, always perfectly cleaned and pressed, and knew no man could ever find her attractive attired this way. No man ever had.

             
Jo reached up and rubbed her hands over her face. She had no need to worry about smearing make-up; Jo hadn’t bothered to wear any in several years. It never seemed to make much difference and it made her feel like a painted clown. Plain, that’s what her mother had always called her. She seemed to melt into crowds, to disappear in the shadow of her beautiful mother and sister. Was it any wonder her coworkers made fun of her the way they did?

             
With a heavy sigh, Jo turned to her computer to get back to the report she had been working on. Searching through her carefully organized files, she found the information she needed and began to plug numbers into a spreadsheet. Within moments, she forgot the whole episode out in the hall. That was, of course, until he knocked on her door.

             
“Sorry to bother you,” he said, poking his head into the room.

             
“No bother,” she said so quietly that he had to ask her to repeat herself.

             
“I’m looking for Chuck Franklin’s office,” he said.

             
“Chuck’s down on the third floor.”

             
“Oh, okay,” he said, a soft smile revealing a small dimple on his left cheek. “I guess I should have double checked before heading up here.”

             
“You’re new?” she asked, feeling stupid the moment the words were out of her mouth. Of course he was new, or else he would know where the head of advertising’s office was.

             
“Yeah.” He came further into the room, standing awkwardly in front of her desk. “Just started last week.”

             
“What department?” Jo asked, wondering if she should come out from behind her desk, but afraid that, if she did, he would notice her bulky, conservative shoes and her lack of height. She should really learn to wear heels like Emily.

             
“IT,” he said.

             
“IT?”

             
“Yeah, fixing computers and what not.”

             
Jo nodded. She knew what IT was. It was the busiest department in this company, thanks to the fact that the powers-that-be consistently refused to upgrade their technology. Jo had had to call them three times just last week to get her computer functioning well enough to read her email. And the phones…half the time she had to rely on her personal cell phone to make business calls.

             
He was watching her closely, studying something on her face or in her hair. Jo nervously smoothed a hand over her braid, her cheek, wondering if she had lettuce in her teeth. His smile came back as he rocked on his heels, his hands clasped behind his back, again reminding her of a soldier. Jo bit her lip, aware that he was waiting for her to say something, but unsure of what to say.

             
Like an action movie hero, he came to her rescue.

             
“So, I’m Mark. Mark Rutledge.”

             
“Oh…” Jo blushed as she quickly jumped to her feet and held her hand out to him across her desk. “I’m Jo Mitchell.”

             
“Jo?” he asked as he took her hand. “Is that short for Joanne?”

             
“No,” she gulped. Sparks were shooting up her arm from where he continued to hold her hand, her fingers tingling so she could barely feel them. “No,” she repeated, feeling like a complete idiot.

             
“JoBeth?” he asked, a quizzical look in his eyes.

“No,” Jo said once again, wondering if he was a movie buff. How different it would have been to be named for JoBeth Williams. The Poltergeist franchise was one of her favorites.

“Or Jolene?” he continued. “Or Josephine, maybe?”

             
“No, for Joe Frazier.” Heat surged across her cheeks as his eyebrows rose high into his hairline. “My dad, he was a boxing fan.”

             
“He does know you’re a woman, right?” he asked with a humorous glint to his eyes.

             
“Yeah, that’s why it’s not spelled with an E.”

             
Mark threw back his head and laughed, a full throated, hearty laugh that brought moisture to his caramel colored eyes. Jo couldn’t help but smile too, drawn in by his obvious pleasure.

             
He let go of her hand, immediately causing a sense of loss to slide down her spine in a cold shiver, and rubbed the heel of his hands against his eyes. “Sorry,” he said after a minute.  “I shouldn’t laugh, but I have to admit that is the first time in a long time I have laughed.”

             
Jo bit her lip, wanting to ask why that might be, but she didn’t know how to form the words. Instead, she looked awkwardly down at her desk. After a few seconds, he cleared his throat.

             
“Well, I should go,” he said, the humor gone from his deep voice.

             
“I guess we should both get back to work,” she agreed.

             
“Yeah.”

             
Her eyes still locked on the desk, Jo heard more than saw him shuffle his feet. But he didn’t move toward the door. In fact, he made no move to leave at all. Curious, she looked up and found him watching her closely.

             
“I hope I didn’t offend you,” he said.

             
The concern in his eyes caught her by surprise. After putting up with the barely concealed hostility of her coworkers day in and day out, not to mention the unintentional barbs of her family, it was new to Jo to be faced with genuine compassion.

             
“No-oo,” she stuttered. “No offense.”

             
He smiled softly and offered his hand again. “Good. That’s the last thing I would want to do.”

             
He squeezed her hand lightly, winked, and walked away, leaving Jo so weak in the knees she literally fell into her chair.

             
Jo walked into her apartment, kicked off her shoes, and dropped her leather satchel on the floor. Exhaustion threatened to overwhelm her despite the vow she had made to herself that morning to clean some of the clutter that would soon overtake the place. A weekend of baking had taken precedence over cleaning, only to leave the kitchen as big a wreck as the rest of the apartment; albeit, an organized mess. Jo fell onto the couch and flipped on the television, happy to see she was just in time for her favorite Food Channel show. She would only sit here for a minute, she told herself.

             
Jo curled up against the big, soft cushions of the couch and thought about her brief encounter with Mark. She kept thinking about that wink he dropped just before leaving. She wondered what it meant. Could it be possible that he found her attractive? Jo shook her head, telling herself it was ridiculous. Guys like Mark did not find women like her attractive. While she wasn’t ugly by any means—at least she didn’t think she was—her almost boyish curves and her pale skin could leave some men wanting. She had always thought her dark hair was one of her best assets, the dark color accenting the paleness of her skin while making her creamy chocolate colored eyes pop. But it was impractical to wear it down at work. She almost wished she had met Mark somewhere else, under different circumstances.

             
Jo sighed. Here she was, a thirty-something, single woman, fantasizing about some guy she just met. If anyone could hear her thoughts right now, they might think she was some kind of teenager with a crush.

             
It wasn’t like she had a great track record when it came to guys. In high school, she might as well have been invisible. College had been productive on the social level thanks to her roommate, but the moment Rachel’s parents forced her to switch schools, Jo’s social status disappeared along with her. There had been a couple of serious relationships after college, a couple of good guys who had pursued her until they grew tired of her lack of social skills. And a few one night stands when a little too much wine loosened her tongue and her inhibitions.

             
But nothing lately.

             
She was lonely.

             
And she wanted more. She wanted a family, a husband, and kids. She wanted the boring, quiet life most thirty-somethings dread these days. Maybe it was that need for commitment that scared most potential lovers away.

             
The phone rang, interrupting Jo’s thoughts. She snatched it up and smiled when she saw the name on the caller ID.

             
“Hey, Em,” she said.

             
Emily, her younger sister, said, “JoJo, I am so glad you are home.”

             
“Why’s that?”

             
“This engagement party is turning into a nightmare.”

             
Jo leaned back and closed her eyes. Emily, five years younger than Jo, was already engaged to be married. To Ryan.

             
An image of Ryan filled Jo’s mind despite her efforts to forget everything she once knew about him. It wasn’t like they had been in a committed relationship. Ryan had been new at the office and Jo had been assigned to show him around, help him feel comfortable about his duties. They went to dinner a few times, shared a few intimate kisses. But then Emily visted her at the office for lunch one day and it was as though Jo no longer existed from that moment on.