Jay/Luke

I knew she would look beautiful, but I didn’t think seeing her would make me feel this way. I’m glad I asked Max for some tips. Being the charmer that he is, Max knows a few things about women. I’m not that great with women or words when sober. If I weren’t for him, I know I would have said something embarrassing to Emma when I first saw her tonight. Fortunately I was able to do what Max suggested- tell her she looked great. Now I just had to make sure I didn’t make a fool of myself in front of her and that she doesn’t find out about me just yet. Nathan, Tom and Max were all giving me ideas of what to say in case she asked certain questions about me. Since he still doesn’t think this is all a good idea, Siva didn’t say anything to me. All he told me when I was leaving was to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into.

 Now that I was standing in front of her, I couldn’t think of anything to say. Hugging her had been distracting. I liked the feeling of holding her in my arms, and she smelled nice too. Whoa, Jay lad, slow down there. Emma doesn’t seem to notice my distraction. “So what’s the plan? Where do we go from here?” Her question brings me back to reality.  “Uhh well I made a reservation at this swanky restaurant not too far from here. My mate told me about it.” By my mate of course I mean my manager Kevin. “Do you want to walk or do you want to get a cab?” Emma smiles and says “Didn’t you say its not too far? We can walk. I love walking.” We leave the park and walk in the direction of the restaurant. During the walk, I ask Emma about the neighborhood. She tells me about all the great restaurants and bars located in Williamsburg. I remember her mentioning the other day that she’s lived her for about a year, and I’m about to ask her why she chose this area when we arrive to the front of the restaurant. Emma’s reaction when she sees where we’re at is priceless. “The Juliette French bistro?! Oh my god, what! This place is amazing!”  I have to remember to thank Big Kev later on. I smile at Emma and ask “So you’ve been here before then?” Emma gives me an exasperated look “Have I been here? Ha! I wish. It’s a bit out of my budget. Okay, a lot of my budget. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it though. But we can’t eat here.” At first I thought she was joking, but when I look at Emma, I see that her face is completely serious.  I’m confused so I ask her “Why can’t we eat here?” Emma sighs and says “Luke, I think this place is great and I’m flattered that you want to bring me here, but it’s too expensive.” That’s what she’s worried about?! I couldn’t stop myself from laughing, “Don’t worry Emma. That’s not a problem.” She looks at me through narrowed eyes, still skeptic, and asks, “Are you sure?” I try to think of a convincing answer, “For a girl like you, this is really nothing. You deserve more.” I wink at her, hoping I don’t look like a complete idiot. Nathan made it look so much easier a few weeks ago. Emma bursts out laughing and says “Okay that is possible the cheesiest thing I’ve heard in a while, so fine, let’s eat here.” I smile while holding the door open for her. When we go inside, we’re greeted by a cheerful blonde hostess with a strong French accent. Her name is Camille. I tell her we have a reservation for 8 pm and when she asks for the last name on the reservation, I panic. Tom made the reservation for me. I don’t remember if I told him what name to use. Looking behind me at Emma, I see Emma completely engrossed in a French billboard on the front wall, so she has no idea what is going on. I hesitate for a minute before answering “McGuiness”. The hostess looks through her book and says “Jay McGuiness?” Tom used my real name. I turn towards Emma again and now she’s looking at me, a confused look on her face and this is when I really panic. “No, that’s not me. It should be Luke McGuiness.” The hostess looks at her book again and says “Well I’m sorry Mr. McGuiness, I only have a reservation for Jay, not Luke.” Emma is standing next to me now and asks “What’s going on? Is everything okay?” I don’t answer her and before I know what I’m doing, I look at Camille and tell her “I’m sorry for the bother. Looks like maybe we’ve got the wrong place.” With that, I grab Emma’s hand and walk out the restaurant. “Luke, what happened? You look terrified.” Emma sounds concerned and slightly annoyed. I quickly think of an excuse and all I can come up with is “My reservation didn’t go through.” Emma looks like if she’s expecting more of an explanation, so I try to make a joke, “Seems like we won’t be eating here anymore. You win.” This brings a smile to her face and she asks “Good. So what’s your plan now?” “Uhh, well I actually don’t have another plan. I thought my first plan was brilliant so I didn’t think I would need a back up plan, which is pretty stupid of me, I guess.”  I had a feeling something like this would happen. I always ruin things. Although this really isn’t anyone’s fault. Maybe Tom’s fault, but I can’t hold it against the lad. I got myself into this situation by lying to Emma, so these are the consequences I have to pay.

Emma looks thoughtful for a minute and then says “I have an idea! Do you like pizza? Okay that’s a dumb question, who doesn’t like pizza?!  And even if you don’t like pizza, I’m sorry but you’re going to have to like it for one night. I’m guessing you’ve never tried any Brooklyn made pizza?” “Well seeing as this is only my second time in Brooklyn, no, I have not.” She gets excited when she hears this, “I know the perfect place for your first time. Ahh I’m gonna take your Brooklyn pizza-inity!” Now I’m confused “My what?!” Emma tries explaining herself “You know, its your first time. Like you’re a pizza virgin and I’m gonna take your pizza-inity?? Okay, bad joke, sorry. Carry on. Pretend I didn’t just say that. I’m gonna go get hit by a taxi now, bye.” And then she turns around and starts walking away. I laugh out loud and run after her. “Emma, wait! You can’t just leave!” I catch up to her and grabbing her elbow, I turn her to face me. “You have to take my pizza-inity. You can’t get me all excited like that for nothing.” Emma puts her hands in her face and groans, “I can’t believe I actually said that out loud.” I pull her hands away from her face and she looks at me, although it’s obvious she’s still embarrassed. “Don’t worry. I’m known for saying things much worse than that, so trust me its not a big deal. I don’t know about you but I am really hungry. Where’s that pizza?” She perks up and says with a smirk on her face, “Follow me.” We walk 3 blocks and we finally arrive at a pizza place with a big sign that says “The Luigi Brothers Pizza”. Emma notices me looking at the sign and says “Seems lame, right? But the funny thing is that they ARE brothers and their last name really is Luigi. And their pizza is to die for, so that makes up for it. They make one of the best slices on this side of the bridge.” We walk into the restaurant and almost all the booths are filled. Emma and I find an empty booth and I sit down while she goes to order. When she asked what topping I wanted, I told her to surprise me, and she gave me that look she does, the one when she smiles and glares at me at the same time. As I sit there waiting for her, I notice how she talks to the old man behind the counter, one of the brothers, I assume. She’s laughing s at something he told her, and as she laughs, she throws her head back. She has the most beautiful laugh. It’s the kind of laugh that makes you happy just by hearing it. She’s still chatting with the man when she looks my way and points in my direction, as if she were singling me out to him. The man looks at me, a serious look on his face and nods. That was odd. I have to remember to ask her about it later. The man finally hands Emma a flat box of what I’m assuming is our pizza. Did she order an entire pie just for the two of us? Good, because by now I’m starving. Emma walks up to our booth and says “Hey, so do you want to eat here or….” She doesn’t finish her sentence but I can tell she wants to go somewhere else. “Wherever you want is good for me.” Her eyes light up again as she smirks, “Good. Because I have another idea.” She doesn’t say anything. She just turns around with the pizza, says goodbye to the old man behind the counter and walks out of the pizzeria. I stand there for a few seconds before following her. We walk for about 20 minutes and even though I keep asking her where we’re headed to, Emma just smiles and stays quiet until she finally stops walking. Its dark by now and when I look around me, I see the most brilliant landmark: the Brooklyn bridge. I hear Emma laughing as she sees my reaction. “See why I didn’t want to tell you? You had to see it for yourself first.”  “So this is your big idea? Well played Emma, well played. You win again.” We sit down to eat our pizza on a bench by the water, with the Brooklyn bridge in our view.  After eating in silence for a while, Emma asks “So, how’s that pizza?” I wink at her and say “Not bad for our first time.” Emma glares at me but I interrupt her before she can say anything else. “This really was a great idea, Emma. Have you done this before?” She looks away, towards the bridge and replies, “I’ve never had pizza here but I used to run around here a lot.” She still hasn’t looked at me. This bothers me. She was in a great mood until just now. I have to figure out what it is, so I ask, “It seems like you used to do a lot of things. Why don’t you do them anymore? Like for instance, run around here?” She stays quiet for a while but she finally looks at me, saying “Life happened. I missed a great opportunity which I regret sometimes, which forced me to change my lifestyle. But I would really rather not bore you with the details about that. At least not yet.” And with that comment, she’s back to her normal self. Her reply is vague but she’s obviously not ready to talk to me about it. “Fair enough.” I decide to change the subject and say in the most nonchalant way I can, “By the way, Emma. Back at the pizzeria, I saw you pointing me out to the old man behind the counter. What were you talking about, if I may ask?” Emma smiles and looks me right in the eyes saying, “You. Benny treats me like a granddaughter, so he was interested in knowing about you. He asked what you do for a living, but honestly, I couldn’t remember exactly what you said you do. So I just told him you’re in New York on a business trip from London. He wanted to know what kind of business, but I told him I had to go. But now I find myself wondering, what kind of business are you actually in, Luke? If you don’t mind me asking.” Bloody hell, I should have been expecting this. Fortunately, the lads had prepared me with answers for this question, but I hesitate before answering, “Well, I work with a record label. I can’t talk much about it though.” That is all I say. I can see the disappointment on Emma’s face. She was expecting an actual answer.  All she says is “Oh”. I know at that moment that hiding my true identity from her is going to be a lot harder than I thought.