I was twenty-eight when I first met James. Not Jim but James. He was 33 years and a beautiful man; dark wavy hair, deep blue eyes and strong chiselled features. Sort of a GQ model type.
I on the other hand was thin, silver-haired (as I had been since I was seventeen) and very unsure of my self in the ways of the world. I had only had a few dates with girls while growing up and most had been virtual disasters. As I grew older, the situation didn't improve since I felt more and more isolated from the opposite sex.
I am an accountant by training and at that time worked for a large corporation in my home city. I never seemed to have the interest or nerve to strike out into the larger more exciting world.
It was our fiscal year end and James came into our offices as the team leader from the CA firm doing our audit; they planned for a minimum two weeks of work and perhaps longer since the business was very complex. Since I was the senior accountant, I would be working closely with James on a daily basis. As he entered my office on that first day, my breath felt like it had completely left my body β he was gorgeous! As we shook hands he smiled a charming grin at me and made sure that I had his first name right (I had called him Jim in the introduction).
The audit proceeded pretty well without problems for the first week while James familiarized himself with our business. Since we had three subsidiaries in other provinces, I knew there would be some travel involved for the auditors but was astounded when James walked into my office on day eight of the audit to inform me that the president had authorized he and I to do a road tour of the various plants. I, with my extensive experience within the company, was the logical choice I suppose but it still caught me off guard. James dropped a folder of tickets on my desk and told me in the great tenor voice of his that we were scheduled to depart the next day at 11:00 am. He would pick me up and drive me to the airport.
Both the drive the next morning was a little awkward since I was intrigued and not a little attracted to James. However, we managed to fill the flight time with somewhat banal conversion.