Run, Girl (If You Can)

Chapter 451: The True Violet

Jeremy thought about his encounters with Violet Hale the following morning at work with an absentminded smile on his face. Seeing that elegant, poised woman he met in the elevator look so frazzled as she rushed into the hospital room in training clothes had been amusing.

She regained her cold and composed air once they were in the car alone after she dropped her father off despite her casual attire. It was rather intriguing how quickly she could go back and forth. Which side was the true Violet?

He still didn't manage to figure it out as they talked over smoothies later in the day. She seemed uncomfortable, as if she didn't know what to say, at first. Was she not used to describing herself to others?

As soon as they started talking about college her composure was back. Though she laughed and smiled occasionally it was entirely perfunctory and different from the laughter and smile she displayed while talking about her family.

Though Jeremy had enjoyed talking to Violet, it wasn't because she was a riveting conversationalist. It was entirely the sort of small talk he had perfected while dealing with acquaintances in college.

He liked talking to her because he could tell there was much more under the surface. He was willing to bet when she was comfortable around someone that she was rather intelligent and well-spoken. He wanted the two of them to get to that point.

Violet definitely seemed like a tough nut to crack. She mentioned that her new show opened soon and would run for two weeks, with evening performances Thursday through Sunday and matinees on the weekends.

If he showed up on opening night that might make an impression, right? He wanted her to open up to him so he could find out what kind of person she actually was. Jeremy had never been so curious about a woman before.

"What are you so happy about?" Aaron grumbled as he caught his assistant smiling to himself. "Pay attention to your work."

"I am paying attention. In fact, I just finished the paperwork you gave me," Jeremy replied lightly. "But if you must know, I had a date last night."

His boss raised an eyebrow. "How old are you now, twenty-seven? It's about time you got yourself a girlfriend."

The evaluation, though harsh, was valid. Jeremy hadn't been on any dates since coming to New York five years earlier because he hadn't seen the point. He dated some in college but it was always the women he studied with who asked him out. He didn't want to offend them and lose a study partner.

Dates weren't too much of a bother but a girlfriend definitely would be. Girlfriends required time and attention that would detract from time he could better spend advancing his career.

Although…the right girlfriend who had similar interests and conversational topics might not be too bad. For some reason Violet flashed through his mind. She probably wouldn't be too terrible of a choice.

"I'll take it under consideration," Jeremy said. "But if I may return the question…what are you so mad about?"

It was a daring thing to ask but Aaron normally wasn't in this bad of a mood first thing in the morning. He could get grouchy after dealing with idiots all day but normally he was less icy first thing. Jeremy realized now it was because he had barely left his wife and was still in a good mood from seeing her.

His boss actually laughed. "You have guts, kid. Let's just say I have to deal with someone very annoying that I thought I would never have to deal with again starting next week. I found out last night."

That only made Jeremy's curiosity worse but he didn't dare get more personal than that. If Aaron had wanted to tell him who it was, he would have.

He trusted his protégé completely when it came to business but hardly ever talked about his personal life aside from occasionally bragging about his children. When Kaleb had made it into the majors he mentioned it to everyone in the office at least once over the following week.

Once he saw the difference between how Aaron acted in front of everyone at work and his daughter, he looked him up on Instagram. It wasn't a private account so he could see the pictures.

Jeremy couldn't have been more shocked. There were tons of pictures on there—he posted multiple times a week—dating back decades. Each one was of his family or their cats but he hardly ever put captions on them.

A quick peek at his wife's Instagram was quite different. Of course she posted about her family as well but she also posted pictures of friends, coworkers, and objects or places. Her Instagram looked fairly average but Aaron's was entirely focused on gushing about the same couple of people.

Unbelievable. He really was an entirely different person where his family was concerned.

After his date with Violet last night, he decided to look at hers as well. She posted a lot of artistically posed promotional ballet photos from her work but there were also a lot of food photos and pictures of her cats.

Most of her pictures didn't actually have people in them but when they did it was usually on holidays or other special occasions. Going further back there were some pictures taken with rotating groups of people from college and high school.

The most consistent faces that made an appearance on her profile were those of her parents, who Jeremy recognized, and four young men. He couldn't match faces to names but they had all appeared on Aaron's Instagram with Violet at various points. But didn't he only have three sons?

He was willing to bet the dark haired young man in most of the pictures with Violet on Aaron's profile was her twin brother, Kaleb. They seemed particularly close.

There were a lot of candid shots of those two where they seemed to be off in their own little world. Jeremy had heard of cases where twins had a special connection like that before though he had never seen it firsthand.

Maybe in his quest to figure Violet out he should get friendly with Kaleb Hale. He was stationed in Detroit right now and traveled a lot during baseball season but Aaron had said something about him coming for a visit soon the other day.