liked it.
"Yeah, it's me. You were asleep.”
Jude looked around his desk in surprise. "What time is it?" he asked. He tugged his arms free of my hold. "I have to get these amendments reviewed—"
He actually went to wake the computer up. I reached across him and turned the monitor off. When he tried to turn it back on, I grabbed his fingers and said, "It's two a.m., Jude. You need to sleep. You can get a fresh start on it again tomorrow morning. Well, this morning, I guess."
"No, I have to finish," Jude said. He pulled his hands free of mine and fumbled to turn the computer back on, so I turned his chair so he was facing me instead of his computer.
"It's late," I said firmly. "You'll be able to tackle it twice as hard after a few hours of sleep."
Though my words made complete and utter sense to me, they seemed to agitate Jude further. I didn't understand why he couldn't see the logic in my thinking. But fortunately, he didn't argue further. It was proof that he was as tired as he looked. He finally nodded, so I released his chair and he immediately turned around and began organizing his desk. To me, the desk looked like it always did, but he must've seen a few things off because he straightened several items and moved others around. It almost seemed more like a ritual than anything else. I couldn't help but wonder if maybe he had a little bit of OCD going on. I busied myself by pretending to look at the view from his window.
I was surprised when he actually said, “Okay, I'm ready to go." It was the first time he'd acknowledged my presence as well as my role. Normally, he just took off and left it up to me to catch up to him.
I was glad to see that the guard outside of Jude's office suite was still standing at attention despite the late hour. Even though Jude wouldn't be there for the rest of the night, the guard would remain.
Jude was quiet as we rode the elevator down and he didn't put up a fuss as I turned in my visitor badge and walked by his side out the door. I'd already alerted the car and driver to be at the front of the building and the foot traffic outside was at a minimum, so it was easy to just climb into the vehicle and be on our way.
Once inside the SUV, Jude rested his head on the back of the seat instead of playing with his phone like he usually did. That wasn't to say that he was completely still, though. I noticed that the fingers on his left hand were constantly tapping on the seat in a certain pattern.
A couple taps, a beat, a couple more taps, two beats and then one tap. He repeated the motion over and over. I wondered if he even realized he was doing it.
"Long day?" I asked softly.
I fully expected him to ignore me as he had the past several days, but he surprised me again when he said, "Not long enough."
“Things going okay with the deal?" I asked.
Jude straightened his head and opened his eyes to look at me. He seemed to be trying to figure out if I was genuinely interested or not. I remained silent and held his gaze.
"Last-minute negotiations," he murmured. "They happen all the time. Just have to work through them one by one. It's still frustrating as hell, though," he admitted.
"I bet," I responded.
I fully expected him to nod off again, but he kept his eyes on me, at least for a few moments, and then he looked out the window. Then his eyes were back on me. I got the impression that he was trying to figure me out.
“Why did you leave the military?" he suddenly asked. He seemed to realize the personal nature of his question because he quickly tore his eyes from mine and said, "Sorry, it's none of my business. Never mind."
It was on the tip of my tongue to point out that not only had he said more than five words to me, he'd also actually apologized, but I kept that thought to myself and said, "It wasn't what I thought it would be."
"What did you think it would be?" Jude asked.
I shrugged, ready to pass the whole conversation off with some flippant response, but when my mouth opened, words I hadn't intended to