VII

"Charlie," Jesse called out from his office. 

"Yeah?" She peeked her head by the door, holding the jamb for balance. Her hair was now a bright silver shade. She looked hot.

"Come in." He ordered, a shy smile creeping up on his lips.

Charlie stepped into his office, her face rumbled in a highly puzzled expression. "What's up?" 

Jesse scratched his head and stood up. "Yeah, listen," he walked towards Charlie. He leaned his butt against the desk and stretched out his legs, his arms crossed above his chest. "I'm- I'm going out tomorrow and- "

"Hold up," Charlie stopped him from talking, holding up both her hands in the air. "I know that look, Jesse." She chuckled. "Are you freaking going out on a date?"

"No, no, no," Jesse was quick to object, then gestured to shake his hands in negation. "It's not a date."

"You've gotta be shitting me," she snorted, rubbing her chin contemplatively. "Lookie what we have here, my boss is now going out on dates. Hmm."

"Charlie, it's not a fucking date," he repeated, feeling quite embarrassed. "I'm just goin-"

"Bup, bup, bup, bup," she interrupted him again, now holding up her index finger as if telling him to shut up. "So what do you need from me? Who's this girl you're seeing? Tell me everything! Spill me some tea!" She almost shrieked everything in an annoyingly high-pitched voice.

Jesse glowered and rolled his eyes at her. "Remember the gig at Castello?" He started, then looked down on the floor with a face-splitting grin.

"Mm-hmm," Charlie bobbed her head, listening, and then abruptly opened her mouth upon recalling that night she cock-blocked Jesse. "Oh, oh, oh, is it blue-eyed girl from the bathroom?" She guessed.

Jesse nodded. "Yes."

"Fuck yeah!" She playfully prodded Jesse's shoulder. "Oh, wait. Don't tell me... you didn't have sex with her that night?" She sounded dismayed.

"We didn't," Jesse sounded upset, too. He was so horny that night, with the way K teased and bit her lip. "But I saw her again just this morning, by pure coincidence, at the coffee shop around my block. And... she wanted to go out tomorrow."

"Ooh," she hooted, playfully slapping Jesse's arm. "Who would have thought now, huh?"

"Charlie, listen, shut up, shut up," he held both of her arms, now standing upright. "She... she said she wants to play a game. And then she suggested that we go out. What the fuck does that mean?"

Charlie's brows furrowed. "How the hell do I know?"

Jesse shrugged. "I - I don't know, that's why I'm asking you." He looked impatient and exasperated.

"Hmm," she twitched her lip, deep in thought. "She's one pretty weird chick."

"K's not weird," Jesse defended. She's hot. Blazing hot.

"What did you ever do to her?" Charlie scoffed and laughed, as if she now gets what's happening. "I'm just thinking maybe this is some sort of revenge for a friend of hers that you've fucked up bad, literally and figuratively, in the past?"

"I don't think so," he sighed, pensive. There wasn't any way that was possible. They just randomly met at Castello. She couldn't have known that Jesse was there that night, and she seemed to genuinely have no idea who he was. "Yeah, no, I thought of that, too. But, no, that's highly improbable." His gaze dropped on his feet, pensive.

"Well, what are you going to do now?" Charlie sneered and placed her hands on her hips, as if challenging him. "Are you still in on her game?"

He looked up at her, his eyes wide.

Fuck, yes.

---

   

Times Square was throbbing with people, traffic, and lights from billboards, establishments and buildings. Tourists were taking selfies and group photos in the middle of the NYC traffic, trying to capture the charm of The Great White Way, north and south roads alike.

It looked perpetually alive, buzzing and tooting far from euphonious.

Jesse's eyes wandered through the crowd, looking for those pair of cobalt blue eyes. He was standing at the corner of Broadway, just in front of Planet Hollywood and good old Mickey Dee's.

He badly wished he had brought his earphones, so he could drown out all the noise from the roars of the cars, buses, truck engines, the honking of the big yellow taxis and the multitude of pedestrians babbling through their phones and maundering just about everywhere.

He leaned onto the street sign's metal pole, all jittery and worked up as he darted his gaze everywhere like a lunatic, or a maniac waiting for his next victim. He fished out his phone from his pocket to look at the time. 06:38 PM.

An hour and a half had passed, K still haven't showed up. She said they'll meet at 5pm, at Broadway and 7th. He stood exactly right where he told her.

Jesse wondered if this was part of the game, the part where K consciously and deliberately toyed on him. But he wasn't the one to give up. He was convinced he will own the game, he will win it.

But at the same time, he had qualms with everything that's been going on in his mind. He hasn't waited for a girl that long. In fact, he hasn't done anything for a girl - or at least when sex was not in his clear favor.

He wondered if he had already gone insane, agreeing to go out and meet K in the middle of Times Square - where an average of 340,000 pedestrians pass through on a typical day. And that wasn't a typical day either. It was a Saturday - a very hot and humid Saturday. Tourists and true-blue New Yorkers flocked the entire area. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Jesse couldn't even call K to check where she was, if she was still going to show up, or if she just completely bailed on him. K still hasn't given her phone number, not even her real name. She was shrouded in full fucking mystery that it was now bordering on scary. 

It scared Jesse. Well, maybe just a little.

He badly wanted to puff a cigarette, but he didn't want to smell like smoke. At least not when he intended to kiss and fuck K with his mouth.

Jesse turned around to walk to the street stall that sold magazines, cigar and candy right in front of Sunglasses Hut. He decided to just indulge himself in a pack of strawberry Twizzlers. He pulled out a dollar and some change, handing it over to the Pakistani vendor.

He went around to go back to his spot at the Broadway street sign, and surprised to see that K was already standing there. 

She was wearing a flowy, full-length black skirt with little white daisies printed all over the fabric. She paired it with a cute and cropped little white tee with the words YES. NO. MAYBE. sprawled on the chest area, an oversized denim jacket on top of it, and matched them with beige suede ankle boots. Her dark hair was in wild, loose curls. Her eyes were so bright - they gleamed and sparkled as the brilliant lights from the digital billboards hit her pupils. She was almost completely covered, very modest, except for her exposed tiny midriff because of the little crop top she was wearing - but she looked mighty fine and sexy.

Her face was painted with a beautiful smile. "You really are a bad boy," K greeted him playfully, leaning sideways on the metal pole.

Jesse walked towards her, his brows furrowed, wondering what she meant with what she'd just said. "What?" He opened the pack of Twizzlers and munched on one.

"Well, it's Sabbath, and you're out to do some forbidden work," she started with the teasing again. "And... you're about to kindle fire with a non-Jewish girl you don't really even know."

"Fuck Sabbath," Jesse glowered, now just a few inches away from her face that he could smell her wearing a different perfume from last time. She smelled like woody vanilla orchids and sunny clementines mixed with dark berries. It really smelled so sensuous. He let out a breath, not letting her scent distract him. He was really pissed that she made him wait for her that long. "K, I waited for an hour and a half." He snapped.

She pursed her lips and looked up at Jesse, her defenses up. "You weren't looking for me. You were just standing here like a tree." K reasoned out, and stirred up a huge smile on her face. "I was here the whole time." She grabbed Jesse's Twizzler and took a bite from it.

"No, you weren't!" He exclaimed, and frankly he felt annoyed that she accused him of not looking for her. "I was waiting for you to show up."

"I specifically told you to look for me. That's what I told you before I left you at the coffee shop yesterday, remember?" She raised both her eyebrows at Jesse, as if trying to prove a point. "You were just here, darting your eyes left and right. I was looking at you the entire time."

"So you were hiding around somewhere the entire time, observing me from afar and you just let me stand here waiting for you like a fucking idiot?" He sneered, hopping mad at her.

K scowled back at Jesse, crossed her arms above her chest and turned around to walk away quickly.

"Hey," he called her out, walking after K. "K, wait. K!" He reached for her arm and turned her around.

"I - I'm..." He paused, closing his eyes and having second thoughts if he should say what was on the tip of his tongue.

"You're what?" She catechized, her cobalt eyes fixed on Jesse's topaz blues.

He took a deep breath and rustled it all out in an expeditious sigh. "I'm sorry."

K reached for Jesse's nape, tip-toed, closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his. She slightly opened her mouth, darting her tongue out to meet his. 

Jesse wove his arms around K's back, his palms grazing her bare skin as he held her closer to him. He fought K's kisses, her lips and tongue tasted sweet and tart, like Twizzlers.

K pulled away from the kiss, looking at him with such depth and intensity. "Do-over?"

Jesse nodded, the tip of his nose against hers. "Hi." He breathed against her lips.

"Hi." K smiled and kissed him again.