O N Hot Josh
By Olivia James
It's a beautiful day in Mountain Town. Every day is a beautiful day in Mountain Town, but this one is special. Today, Hot Josh and I are finally having our first date. We decided on something super casual, since he will be joining us for the fancy Summit Sensation dinner next weekend. This afternoon he is coming by my place, and we're going to enjoy a late afternoon lunch. But first, it's time for brunch with the girls.
“What time is Hot Josh coming by?“ asked Charlie.
“He is getting to my place around 2:00 pm. I was thinking of making a salad and grilling kabobs on the grill.“
“That sounds delish!“ said Phoebe. “Are you using your peach vinegar and herbed olive oil for the salad? I love when you make that salad dressing. How about vino? Red?“
“Yes. I have the wine, but I need to stop by Mountain Town Olive Oil to get the oil and vinegar on my way home. What is peeking out of that bag, Phoebe?“
Phoebe started to blush. “It is Johnny's and my 10th anniversary this week. I bought some sexy, sexy to celebrate!“
“Oh, let’s see!," said Charlie. “What kind of sexy, sexy are we talking about?”
Phoebe pulled out two pieces of raspberry pink, skimpy, lace lingerie. “Gotta keep the magic alive! How about you Charlie? Are you excited about Matt coming to town?"
“That IS sexy, sexy! How do you even wear those things? Matt. Yes! I cannot believe that he is coming here. I keep waiting for him to cancel or something."
“He won’t," said Phoebe. “He's going to come in and fall in love with all of us!“
“Oh no, watch out Charlie! Phoebe will have you walking down the aisle before the end of brunch. On that note, I need to get going. See you later, ladies."
I popped into Mountain Town Olive Oil on the way home. They have an amazing assortment of olive oils and vinegars. My favorite is the Tuscan Herb Olive Oil, mixed with the Peach White Balsamic Vinegar. I put it on practically everything!
Hot Josh texted to let me know that he is on his way. I kept myself busy tidying up and making lunch to help calm my nerves. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him coming up the stairs. Damn, he was gorgeous! That weird twist in my stomach started again. I told him to come in, and Ryley immediately went right up to him.
Ryley is like a canine lie detector. If something is amiss, he will alert me right away. The fact that he was wagging his tail, as he met Hot Josh, was a very good sign!
I put Josh to work at the grill, as I opened a bottle of red to let it breathe. I grabbed the salad and moved us to the chairs on the deck.
“Your view is incredible,” he said. “How did you find this place?"
“I just got lucky. I searched for a place within walking distance of Main Street, and this couple was moving and needed to sublet out the rest of their lease. It is our favorite place in the world.“ I said as I motioned toward Ryley.
“I bet it is. Now it’s my favorite place in the world,“ he said, as he turned to me with the most incredible smile on his face. I knew at that very moment I was in trouble!
We talked about our past lives. I was surprised to learn that Josh had gone to Stanford. He was also the quarterback of their football team. Talk about a golden boy! He studied finance and landed at a hedge fund after he graduated. He hustled for 3 years with late nights and immense stress.
“I felt like I had sold my soul,” Josh said. “Once I put away enough cash, I decided to walk away. I came to Mountain Town five years ago and bought up as much property as possible. I met the crew at the firehouse and realized that was my true calling. So, I trained and made it onto the team. I have never looked back. “
“Wow,” I said. “And I thought I had a major life shift!"
The hours just slid by as we chatted, and soon the sunset was falling over the mountains.
“Well, as much as I would like to stay here all night, I need to crash. I have an early shift tomorrow.” Then he gave me the sweetest kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you so much for lunch. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.“
He then looked back after he started going down the stairs. “See you next Saturday.” There was that gorgeous smile again. I melted.
It was another crazy week at work. Kate was in rare form as we tried to achieve the 3-week earlier deadline due to a corporate shift in strategy. I worked every night until 10 pm and was wiped, but nothing was going to keep me from enjoying Summit Sensation. I needed to rally.
Eva flew in this morning and took an Uber to my house. She was waving to me from the porch when I arrived. Immediately, I felt more energized. I went upstairs and got into my comfy ME+EM loungewear, before pouring both Eva and me a glass of wine.
“What a nightmare week. Kate was running around like a chicken with her head cut off, reprimanding everyone for not getting the development done on time. She neglected to mention that she had forgotten to adjust the calendar and everything being late was on her."
“Are you surprised?“ said Eva. “Does she ever own up to her mistakes?"
“Of course not. That's where I come in as the proverbial scapegoat. Let’s just drink our wine and talk about something else.“
“Ok, how was your date with Hot Josh?“
“Amazing! What a cool guy! He has everything going for him. And, he called me first thing the next morning to tell me how much he enjoyed our date. How many guys would do that?"
“Not any that I've dated,” said Eva. “They all play games and have that stupid 3-day rule.“
It was finally Summit Sensation Day, and all the girls came over to get ready at my place. The guys are going to meet us later at the restaurant and were perfectly happy to avoid the girl chatter while we got dressed.
I made some Bellini’s and put on some music to get the party started! We danced to our 90’s favorites, while simultaneously putting on makeup. This led to a few mishaps with eyeliner, but we didn’t care. Phoebe prefers my eye shadow technique, so I was putting the final touches on her face.
I decided to wear an orange halter dress and beautiful strappy neutral heels from Reiss. Charlie landed on a bright fuchsia ikat patterned dress from Tuckernuck, which looked beautiful with her complexion! Phoebe selected an uber-feminine maxi dress from Sundance Catalog, with her Kork Ease sandals. Eva, ever the fashionista, was wearing a super chic, white jumpsuit.
Once we were satisfied with our final looks, we made our way down the hill to the event. As we got closer, we could hear the buzz of people and some live jazz music. From this angle, we had an aerial view of the tables going down Main Street. Every restaurant tries to outdo each other with the lavish setups for the tables. Some had huge floral arrangements, while others had lanterns hanging from poles. Some put up displays and separate VIP decks. Those, of course, were the more expensive choices, but we were happy with our selection, The Blue Basil.
The guys were waiting for us as we approached the table, pulling back our chairs like perfect gentlemen. They all looked so handsome! As expected, Hot Josh certainly cleaned up nicely. He looked like he stepped right out of a GQ magazine. Another kiss was planted on my cheek. Matt also looked so sharp with his cashmere sweater and sleek pants. Very San Fran! Johnny was sporting his rugged “mountain man“ look.
Phoebe requested our first glass of wine, Rosé for her, of course.
“I would like to make a toast,” said Phoebe. “I would like to thank all of you for being in my life, especially my husband Johnny, as we celebrate 10 years of marital bliss tonight!“
“What?? I had no idea your anniversary was tonight. What a perfect night for it. Thank you for sharing it with us. Cheers!“
“But wait. There’s more. I have an announcement to make,” said Phoebe. "You are now looking at the new VP of Marketing at Mosaic.”
We all started jumping up and down and hugged Phoebe.
“That is fantastic! I think that my makeover pushed it over the edge,” I said with a giggle. We were all so happy for Phoebe. She worked really hard for this and deserved it.
As each course came out, with its wine pairing, the guests at our table became more and more relaxed. We met new friends, enjoyed the street music, chatted with neighbors that passed by, and enjoyed novice street performers entertaining the attendees. After enjoying two desserts, Phoebe grabbed Johnny’s hand and said, “Time for us to go!" I think she was anxious to put that lingerie to good use!
The rest of us moved on to The Stall, a Western-style bar that features local mountain bands. No visit to The Stall is complete without doing a ski shot! A ski shot is a long ski that is fitted with 4 to 5 settings for shot glasses. Each person needs to turn the ski at exactly the right time and height to be successful. Charlie, Matt, Josh, and I mastered our shots with ease.
After the shot, we moved to the dance floor, where Eva had already made a new friend. I recognized him as Cody. Cody was a local cowboy, who owned a ridiculous number of acres in the town next to Mountain Town. He was pretty unassuming, but that made him one of the wealthiest men in the area. With Mountain Town’s increased popularity and decreasing space, people were looking to build in surrounding areas. But, for now, Cody kept it as a running ranch, with horses, sheep, cows…. the whole shebang! I had to chuckle when I envisioned Eva going on a cattle drive. But for now, they were just having a blast doing the two-step. We all joined in as the band started to play Sweet Home Alabama.
I could tell Matt was really into Charlie. I knew that she felt like he could be wishy-washy, but from my point of view, both had their green lights on.
Hot Josh continued to surprise me. He was an incredible dancer! He explained to me that the Stanford football team all took ballet classes to help them with their footwork. As a result, he was incredibly light on his feet. I mentioned that I had to use the restroom. He literally DANCED me to the ladies’ room and dipped me right before he let me go. I was lightheaded. And not just from the dip. Was this guy for real? When I was done, he was waiting for me outside of the door with a new drink.
The band was fantastic and played for 3 hours. We were on the dance floor the entire time. Eventually, we heard the classic ringing cowbell, which meant last call . The bartender announced, "Closing time.You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here!”
Cody, Eva, Matt, and Charlie were still raring to go and looking for the next party. Josh and I looked at each other knowingly. It was time to make our escape. I glanced back at Josh as we climbed the stairs to my house. It seems crazy that we met each other 6 months ago, and it all happened organically and in its own time. And now, here we are…..
