Chasin' Jason Read online

  Chasin’ Jason

  by Wendy Dalrymple

  Copyright © 2021 Wendy Dalrymple

  All rights reserved

  Cover design by Kateryna Dronova

  First e-book edition: November 2020

  Chapter One

  Luna Lloyd rested her chin in her palms and stared out the double front windows into the University Mall parking lot. She exhaled heavily, blowing her dark, too-long bangs out of her eyes and noting that it was probably time to trim them again. It was nearing two p.m. on a Tuesday — the slow and sleepy time of day when few customers came into her store — and her eyelids threatened to slam shut as she languished behind the register. Luna tugged at the hem of her floral wrap dress as she watched the sun-dappled palms swaying in the mini-mall parking lot. Sunny winter afternoons spent stuck inside gave her cause to daydream that she was anywhere else in the world: Ibiza, Playa del Carmen, Honolulu. At that moment, and during most other moments of the day, Luna wanted to be anywhere but behind the dusty front counter of Copy Cats.

  Just as Luna’s lashes were beginning to droop, Nicodemus, her four-year-old polydactyl tuxedo cat, jumped on the counter demanding attention. Archimedes, his brown-and-black-striped brother, lounged lazily in the front window, occasionally batting at a lizard on the other side of the glass. Their mother, a six-year-old calico named Persephone, had made a bed out of an empty copy-paper box at Luna’s feet. The feline coworkers were part of the kitschy appeal of the specialty same-day copy-service center that Luna’s family had run for the last thirty years. If it weren’t for their location near the Ringling School of Art, and for their famous multi-toed cats, Luna was certain that her family business would have gone bust ages ago.

  At two o’clock on the nose, the bell rang over her front door, as it always did Monday through Friday. The familiar lanky silhouette of Armin, her nearest neighbor at the University Mall, darkened the front door with two cups of coffee in hand. Armin owned and operated Barks Books, a combination used-book store and coffee shop that catered to dog lovers. Four-legged friends were welcome in his establishment as long as they got along with his German shepherd, Sirius.

  Armin’s long-sleeved button-down was half untucked from his too-big khakis, and his dark, curly hair tumbled into his glasses as he tried to keep the cups from spilling. It was a charming, harried aesthetic that only Armin could pull off with style. A blast of chilly wind blew in behind him, making Luna doubly grateful for her daily coffee delivery.

  “I was all out of hazelnut. I hope French vanilla is okay,” he said, carefully handing over her cup.

  “Thanks,” Luna said, taking an appreciative sniff. “You’re just in time. I was about to fall over and die.”

  “I also finally got that travel book you were looking for… the one about the woman who backpacked the PCT?”

  Armin pulled a paperback from his messenger bag and a mess of receipts, empty chewing-gum packets, and a full bag of dog treats fell to the floor. Armin scrambled to collect his things as Luna admired the pre-loved book cover.

  “This is great!” Luna said, flipping through the pages. “How much?”

  “On the house,” he said. You printed up all of those fliers for the book club last week. I still owe you.”

  “Oh yeah, book club….” Luna looked up sheepishly over her coffee. “I forgot.”

  “It’s okay, you don’t have to come. I just wanted to invite you.” Armin shrugged.

  “Sorry.” She winced. “I did finally finish 1984 though. That one was a doozy.”

  “Yeah, but it was good, right?” Armin said. “Pretty relevant for our times.”

  Luna lifted the lid of her cup to let off some steam and checked the temperature before gratefully chugging the coffee. Armin’s own cup of coffee was forgotten as Nicodemus pawed at him for attention. He scooped the tubby cat up like a baby, nuzzled him, and scratched under his chin.

  “I swear, he likes you better than me,” Luna said, shaking her head.

  “He’s a good judge of character. Aren’t you?” Armin purred to the indifferent cat.

  Armin placed Nicodemus back down on the countertop as his eyes trailed to the corkboard over the ten-cent photocopy machine. There was a new flier nestled among the various art shows, for-sale signs, and book-club listings.

  “Manifest Vision? What’s that?” Armin plucked the paper from the board and made a face.

  “You’ve never heard of Jason Valentine?” Luna said, lighting up.

  “No.”

  Armin sniffed, eyeing the square-jawed, suit-clad businessman in the center of the ad. He adjusted his glasses and pinned the flier back onto the board. The grinning, successful-looking man featured front and center on the photocopy sported ice-blue eyes and coal-black hair that paired well with the expensive suit he was wearing. He was the perfect picture of success.

  “Jason Valentine is a local celebrity! Oh, and he’s gorgeous. He comes in here about once a week to run copies for his seminars and events. He left this one in the printer last time and I just figured I would hang it up.”

  “‘Manifest Your Destiny’… ‘The Power Is in You’… what is he, some kind of snake-oil salesman?” Armin scoffed.

  “No, he’s a motivational speaker. A genius, actually,” she said, crossing her arms. Armin threw her a knowing look.

  “You’ve got a pretty big crush on this guy, don’t you?”

  “Maybe a little. Okay, maybe a lot. He just… he inspires me to want to get out there, you know? I want to do more with my life than help art students make last-minute copies for school projects every day.”

  Luna’s parents had “gifted” the job of running the family business to her nearly a year prior, a situation that was intended to be mutually beneficial. The agreement was designed in such a way that Luna would have a steady job after having gotten laid off, while her parents could take some time off to live out of their camper and hop from one jam-band festival to the next. It was a situation that was supposed to give Luna a foundation to build toward her future, but with every passing day, she felt more and more imprisoned by the printers and photocopiers and computers that cocooned her.

  “You don’t need to listen to some fakey guru to do something different with your life, Lu,” Armin said. “I feel stuck in this sad little mini mall sometimes too, but I know it's not forever.”

  “Seriously, Armin, I don’t know how you do it. I think if I have to sit in this store for the rest of my life I’ll go mad.”

  Armin shrugged. “I have a plan. Barks Books isn’t the end of the line for me.”

  “Well, I don’t have a plan,” Luna said, picking at her nails. A heavy silence fell between them and Armin sighed deeply through his nose. “Or any other options, for that matter.”

  Armin scrunched up his face sympathetically. It was a conversation they’d had before.

  “I’m going to head back to the store; I’ve got Jade covering for me.”

  “Okay,” Luna said, assuming her position behind the counter again. “Thanks for the book. And the coffee. I probably wouldn’t make it to eight o’clock every night if it weren’t for your life-saving lattes.”

  “Glad to do it,” Armin said, reaching out to give Nicodemus one last scratch. “And Lu, I really mean it. It’s good of you to try and keep all of this alive,” he said, gesturing at the store around them. “But Copy Cats isn’t your only option. You don’t need some motivational speaker to tell you how to live your life.”

  “Noted,” she said, giving him a weak smile. “See you later?”

  “You bet.” He waved and turned to exit the store, glancing one last time at the corkboard.

  The rest of the day droned on as it usually did on those nondesc
ript Tuesdays. Luna marked the passage of time by watching the same beam of light creep across the floor as she sketched in her notebook. Around four p.m. she helped two graphic-design students print out a poster-size image for a group project, and later, around five, a little girl wandered into the shop just to pet Archimedes. Near six a woman with multicolored locs and a nose ring printed up a dozen copies of her poetry and assembled them guerilla-style with the shop’s self-serve spiral binder. She tore off one of her poems and tacked it to the corkboard before she left, right next to the Manifest Vision flier. It was a poem about freedom. Luna took it as a sign.

  Luna stretched and admired the dress she had designed for Persephone, a lacy white recreation of the dress Audrey Hepburn wore in My Fair Lady, complete with oversize hat. She had just about decided to give up on the day and close early when the bell rang over her front door again. Luna didn’t even bother to look up from her sketching, assuming that it was her book-loving coffee-shop pal from next door.

  “I’m just about to close, Armin,” she called out. “You wanna go get some sushi or something?”

  “I was just wondering if I could use your copy machine?”

  Luna froze and gripped her charcoal pencil tightly. She had heard that voice before. That deep, velvety baritone brimming with authority and wisdom. She had heard it every night as she went to bed, listening to his podcast on vision quests and mood boards. Luna willed herself to turn around and come face-to-face with none other than Jason Valentine.

  “Hi!” she chirped, her voice high and shrill. She cleared her throat and cringed internally. “Yeah, of course. I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

  “Great,” he said, flashing her a million-dollar smile, two rows of bright white porcelain veneers against a perfectly tanned complexion.

  Luna covered up her artwork, suddenly feeling light-headed and buzzy as he took wide, confident steps toward her copy machine. He retrieved a flash drive from his pocket and inserted it into the photocopier, tapping the series of buttons and programming the printer like a pro. The photocopier hummed, and as he waited for his printing request to process, Jason looked up at the corkboard hanging on the wall.

  “Hey, it’s my flier!” he boomed, letting out a triumphant laugh.

  Luna’s cheeks prickled with heat as the blood rushed to her face. She self-consciously tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and lowered her eyes.

  “Yeah, um… you left one last time. I thought I would post it.”

  “Well, I appreciate that,” he said, looking her up and down. He motioned to the flier. “Have you ever listened to any of my podcasts?”

  Only every night, Luna thought. Be cool, Lu. Be cool.

  “Yeah, I’ve checked it out a couple of times,” she said, trying to be casual. “I… like what you have to say.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  The photocopier beeped, signaling the end of his printing job. Jason collected the stack of fliers and retrieved his flash drive before moving to the register. Luna tossed her shoulders back and tried to look professional as he approached. She quickly took stock of her customer, the man she had been pining over from afar for weeks now. No ring. Clean-cut. Smelled good. Tall and broad. God, she was in trouble.

  “Let’s see, that’s a hundred full-color copies… that’s going to be fifty-two forty-three.”

  “Ouch,” he said, retrieving a wallet from his back pocket. He peeled off two fifty-dollar bills and handed them to Luna. Their fingertips briefly touched as she accepted the cash, and a thrill of electricity raced down her spine.

  “Good thing I can write off my marketing materials, am I right?”

  He snickered to himself and Luna nervously laughed in agreement as she fumbled with his change.

  “Would you be interested in my upcoming event?” he asked, handing her one of the glossy, full-color fliers he had just printed. “You can be my special guest.”

  Luna stared at the flier, frozen.

  “What’s your name?”

  My name? she thought. What IS my name? Is this really happening?

  “Lloyd,” she said, blinking.

  “Your name is… Lloyd?”

  “No!” she said, laughing and exhaling a little too loudly. “My name is Luna. Luna Lloyd.”

  He smiled and shook his head, leaning on the counter.

  “Well, Luna Lloyd, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Jason Valentine.”

  Luna watched in slow motion as he extended a large mitt in her direction. She looked at his hand and blinked. Of course she knew who he was. She accepted his warm, firm grip just the same. She nearly gasped at the bolts of pulsing light that flowed through her body from his touch.

  “Nice to meet you… Jason,” she breathed.

  “Call the number on the flier if you can come. Tell them you’re on my guest list and I’ll get you in for free. You can even bring a friend.”

  “Oh… okay,” she stammered, looking at the flier again. The paper was a jumble of letters and numbers and colors that she couldn’t comprehend. Jason Valentine’s smooth talk and firm grip had temporarily short-circuited her brain.

  “See you then, Luna Lloyd,” he said, winking and flashing his priceless smile her way once more.

  And just like that, Jason Valentine disappeared through the front door of her photocopy store and out of her life once more.

  Chapter Two

  Armin Ahmad was a simple guy. He liked his routines. He liked things to be in order most of the time, even if he struggled to keep them in order himself. He liked the quiet solace of a cup of coffee and a good book. He liked taking long walks with his dog, Sirius, and talking about literature and film with his friends. But more than anything, Armin liked Luna Lloyd.

  Armin had become something of an expert at hiding his true feelings for Luna over the past several months. It wasn’t easy for him to conceal the full-blown crush he had developed on his mall neighbor and friend of nearly a year. No matter how many times he tried to talk himself down, whenever she looked up at him over her cup of coffee with those big, bright eyes, it felt like a knife was being driven deep down into his heart. He knew that he should back off and stop coming over to her shop, but the pain of staying away from her was worse than being near her. He’d resigned himself to the fact that it was better to be her friend than to not be in her life at all.

  It wasn’t like Armin didn’t want to tell her how he felt. He did. He wanted to push those ridiculous bangs out of her face and feel the fabric of her oddly adorable thrift-store dresses in the palms of his hands. He wanted to taste the hazelnut coffee on her lips and lie in bed with her for hours talking about books and making jokes and just being with her. But he couldn’t. His parents made sure of that.

  Even though Armin was nearly thirty and lived halfway across the world from his family, his mother and father still ruled over him like two oppressive phantoms. They would come to visit him in Sarasota twice a year from their estate in Ontario to check up on their wayward son and make sure he was staying in line. With every visit, the pressure to marry the daughter of one of his father's business partners from overseas was brought up. Armin continued to bide his time with his family and claimed that he wasn’t ready. He knew, though, as his thirtieth birthday drew near, that he was going to have to do something soon. He wouldn’t be able to hold off Neha and Ali Ahmad forever.

  Sirius whined at his heels and Armin looked at the clock over the front door of his used-book store and café. Barks Books usually stayed open until nine p.m. on weekdays, but it had been slow that day and he was considering closing up early for the night. Just after eight p.m., his front door burst open wide and the most beautiful woman in all of Sarasota County spilled into his shop.

  “Armin!” she practically yelled.

  The hairs on the back of his neck stood up at his name. Luna’s voice was sweet and high, sometimes even slightly shrill and nasally when she was excited. It was the kind of voice that
some people might find abrasive, but to him, it was the best sound in the world. Sirius yipped and wagged his tail at her arrival.

  “Armin, you’re never going to believe who came into the shop just before closing,” she said, pulling up next to him behind the counter. Luna plunked down on her usual barstool, threw her tote bag on the floor, and made herself comfortable. She bounced around excitedly, her knees nearly touching his.

  “I give up.”

  “JASON VALENTINE. The guy from the flier! And he invited me to be a special guest at his next event.”

  Luna thrust a photocopy into his hands as a punch-drunk grin spread across her face. Armin began to feel queasy as he examined the flier advertising a motivational-speech seminar. The event was scheduled for that Saturday at eight p.m. at the Sarasota Sun Dome and was sponsored by Verizon. There, front and center in full color, was the stupid grinning face of the guru that his best friend and secret crush was mooning over. Jason Valentine. Even the guy's name sounded fake.

  “Congratulations,” Armin said flatly. He handed the paper back, unable to meet her eye.

  “Armin, don’t be like that. He said I could bring a guest. I need you to come with me!” she said, grabbing him by the arm. Luna was very touchy-feely when she got excited, a quirk that he hated and loved at the same time.

  “Me? Don’t you have a girlfriend you can take or something?”

  “Not really. Cecilia can’t be in an auditorium because of her anxiety and Alicia already said she can’t get a sitter on short notice. You’re it.”

  “I don’t know,” he said, scratching his head. “It’s on a Saturday. I would have to see if Jade could cover for me….”

  “Armie, you never take time off.” She pouted.

  Armie. Ugh.

  “Please?” she begged. “We hardly ever get to hang out outside of the stores. Besides, I need you to scope him out for me.”

  “So you need me to be your wingman?” Armin said, getting up from his seat. He began to absentmindedly rearrange a stack of books to keep his hands busy. He’d heard just about enough.