Clearing by Morning

Jack Grade made a bashful confession to Leesa Mitzvah over a drink at the lobby bar of The Fours Seasons hotel while staring into her hazel eyes and watching her mouth turn into a very pretty smile. He had to find—and subsequently quickly hang—one of his Adelaides before picking her up for “their date.”

“Well don’t tell me which one; I’ll try and guess when I see them,” she replied, holding but not sipping her almost untouched vodka and tonic. She wasn’t much of a drinker and to look at her she wasn’t much of an eater, either. With the exception of special occasions alcohol was not in common use in the Mitzvah household.

Leesa was five feet and three inches tall and she was 105 pounds after eating, something she did with a practiced eye to protecting her weight. She wore tailored slacks—chiefly because she knew she had a good backside—and tonight had slipped on shoes with a good heel before going out when she remembered how tall Jack was.

The dining room upstairs was intimate and, to be honest, rather conducive to intimate conversation and, it must be admitted, even a certain amount of romantic imagination. Leesa had been curious to go out with to Jack Grade and was enjoying the occasion, but she had not expected to find him both witty and fun but rather, well, charming in a way.

The plan was to complete the night with coffee and something sweet while inspecting the Jack Grade Collection at his place in “The Republic of Rathnelly.” How she laughed when Jack told her that story! Oh, he could tell a joke and she knew how to listen to one so they were a perfect match in that regard.

Sometime during decaf cappuccinos and dessert (Leesa urged Jack to finish her dessert, which he did) the conversation softened and voices were lowered. Jack talked about work, his plans for their “family newspaper” and the demands of the family business. She listened and made polite murmurs, noting his blue eyes and sandy hair.

He really was good looking, in that way WASPs can be. Tall and well formed, with vaguely athletic looks and great big mouths full of perfect white teeth. Lots of fine lines around the eyes later on, of course, but usually a good hairline. Leesa smiled at him; she listened to every word.

Jack thought he had finally—finally!—met a girl who was interested in his work and not in who he was. In his eyes Leesa became blessed with all the virtues the modern world admires. She was beautiful, kind, empathetic and caring.

Did I mention that she wasn’t hard to look at?

She had admired his two “wonderful” works from Miss Cousins, laughingly noting that one was actually a photograph and thus correctly guessing which one had been feverishly put on the wall that very afternoon. It was from a series of photographs taken in Beijing in 1999. Miss Cousins had taken a number of images, but only ever published four. This one was called “Temple of Heaven” and it was an image of beauty, if you liked black and white photography.

“I love black and white photography,” said Leesa.

Jack smiled and settled comfortably into his leather sofa, allowing himself the luxury of relaxing even more. Besides, he was rather full after eating so much dessert. He would definitely be going to the club first thing in the morning and working it off but right now he didn’t care.

Leesa was involved with raising money for the hospital and had personally created a program to provide teddy bears to any patient under the age of 16. Why, the program had been such an unexpected success that she and her committee were invited for tea next week as a thank you and she was thrilled.

She wasn’t like any other girl he had ever dated, he thought, as he silently added kind and modest to her ongoing list of charms. Most of the girls he dated were from backgrounds similar to his, but with less cash. Once or twice a friend of Clemmy’s had caught his eye, but he had never dated anyone too seriously from that crowd. He met a lot of women through his work, naturally, but he found career women not to his taste chiefly because they had career demands of their own.

He attended enough work-related events on his own, thank you very much, and he wasn’t interested in trailing along to some corporate event with a girlfriend who practiced law.