by Cynthia Dane
“Why? It’s not that hard to believe. My dad and I lived in a crappy apartment. I don’t think that building is there any more. But I used to walk through these neighborhoods every day to and from school. Even back then it wasn’t much. My dad used to worry himself sick thinking that I would get roped into bad business. I guess he couldn’t expect what kind.”
“I still can’t believe this. You? Living in a hovel?”
“They were even worse back then. I hear that now air-conditioning is at least standard during the summer. There used to be this guy. Blind. He would sit on the corner, and talk to me every time I came to and from school. Somehow he always knew it was me.”
“No way.” He couldn’t possibly be talking about Pancho’s owner? “How in the world did you get out of here?” Let alone become one of the richest men in America? Almost nobody was able to make it out if they grew up there.
“I got lucky. Sure, it’s really a boring story, but it’s true. I studied my ass off in school, got a scholarship, went to Harvard, and things fell into place from there. My biggest break came when I met Jackson. A part of me feels like I owe him everything.”
Too bad. No wonder Ethan didn’t want to hear many criticisms about his friend. “Everything about you is so ridiculous. I still can’t believe you grew up anywhere near here.”
“Believe it. I attended Washington Elementary and then Stafford Middle. Just like every other kid who grows up around here.”
Jasmine wouldn’t know about that. She didn’t even grow up in this area. Where she came from, the town only had one school for every level. Granted they were large schools in larger towns, but the idea of children of different classes going to different schools based on where they lived didn’t exist in that town. We found other ways to hate each other’s wealth, or lack of it.
“That reminds me. You can still move into my penthouse whenever you want. Trust me, you and the cat would be better off there.” Ethan glanced around the room, his disgust permeating his eyes.
“I don’t know what the point would be by now.” Blackbeard stretched behind Jasmine, his big paws pushing into her back. “I would have to move out again in another three months.”
“What makes you so sure that this will all end in three months? Unless…” Ethan raised his eyebrows. “You’re planning to take my money and run.”
Jasmine didn’t know what to say. Of course I’m taking the money. She would be crazy not to at this point. “I don’t assume anything. I just don’t think it’s a good idea to move in together.”
“Hm?”
“Come on. Even if the penthouse isn’t your permanent residence on paper, you still live there like half the week. Moving in there will be like moving in with you. I wouldn’t have my own space. It’s not like we’re in a real relationship. I don’t want to be around you or your stuff twenty-four seven.” When Ethan didn’t respond right away, Jasmine realized what she just implied. “No offense. Girl has to have her space.”
“None taken. It’s just funny. You’re the first one who hasn’t lost her mind at the thought of it. Usually they’re barreling down the door of that penthouse to get in.”
“I’m not every woman.” Jasmine was tired of the movie playing on TV. She got up, quilt wrapped around her shoulders, and walked up to her humble entertainment system. “Did you say before that you play video games?”
She almost expected him to balk. But then she remembered that this man hadn’t always had a silver spoon in his mouth. Guys play video games, right? “Not in a long time. I never have time to figure them out.”
“Sad, considering you’re the one person I know who could afford them all.” Jasmine fired up her game system and hauled over two controllers, dropping one into Ethan’s lap. “I’m going to kick your ass, newb.”
Jasmine wasn’t going to toot her own horn and say she was an expert at first person shooters. She wasn’t even an expert at cell phone puzzle games. At best she was able to stumble through campaigns on her own, testing out main storylines, but for the most part she was never a star at multiplayer mode. Although I have long learned not to reveal that I’m a girl on these things. She usually played with Juan and Selena about once a week, but ever since she started working for Ethan she never had the time. He’s taking up my Friday nights. So when she entered them both into multiplayer mode, she hoped that Ethan would be able to pull his own.
He couldn’t.
The man was absolutely useless at video games. Jasmine had to pause her prattling multiple times during the loading screen to tell him what the buttons did and how to play. Every time when Ethan swore he understood, he ended up asking her a stupid question five seconds later. Is he kidding me? These games weren’t rocket science. Anyone who had ever spent his or her childhood playing handheld games should be able to get the hang of something like this within a few minutes. Then there was Ethan Cole, who had apparently not picked up a single controller in the past fifteen years. All that studying at Harvard, and for nothing!
“You’re going to get us killed!” Jasmine shouted more than once during a multiplayer campaign. She and Ethan were on a team with two other players somewhere in America. They were up against another team of four, and even though Jasmine told Ethan what to do and where to go multiple times, he still followed her character around like a lost puppy. “Why are you dropping bombs everywhere?”
“Because I have no idea what I’m doing.” Ethan only had one hand on the controller. The other was scratching his 5 o’clock shadow while his character ran around the screen like an asshole. “I don’t get this game.”
“What is there to get? You pick up a weapon, stop the bad guys, and shoot them dead. We win, we party, I get a bunch of tokens to use later.” She didn’t share the fact that she wasn’t playing so hot either. “For all that is good in the world, you can buy out entire corporations, but you can’t figure out how to load your weapon on this stupid game!”
It was another hour before Ethan began to figure things out. Even then he was only taking baby steps and beginning to complain about blisters on his fingers. Amazing, considering he had barely touched the damned controller this whole time. In fact, Jasmine was amazed he hadn’t asked for them to stop playing yet. But little by little Ethan Cole, the usually dapper billionaire who liked fine Italian suits and having sex in supply closets, got his act together and learned how to actually kill one of the characters in the game. Granted, it was Jasmine’s character. But they celebrated anyway, because now Ethan knew how to switch weapons and take someone out.
“Go over there! No, there!” Jasmine’s hand pushed into the air as she tried to get Ethan’s character to go where she wanted. “There’s a guy hiding at the bottom of those stairs. Take him out before he takes me out!”
“He’s not even doing anything.”
“Not yet! The guy playing it might be distracted right now, so it’s your chance. Imagine he’s about to go trample your precious garden.”
Whether or not that worked, Jasmine didn’t know. Either way, Ethan took a gallant shot, and not only did the opposing character fall down dead, but Jasmine managed to get her shot in as well. This culminated in her leaping off the couch, hands flying into the air as she squealed like a child on Christmas. Ethan jerked away from her, and Blackbeard started off the couch as if a firecracker were going off in his ass.
“We did it!” Smiling, Jasmine dropped her controller onto the couch and shook Ethan’s shoulder. “We actually won one!” How about that?
“Yay.” Ethan cleared his throat and set aside his controller. Jasmine was still doing an embarrassing dance as he straightened himself out. “My fingers hurt.”
Before Jasmine could celebrate anymore, her cat yowled from the bedroom. She turned off the TV and the gaming console, hurrying into her bedroom so she could find out what was wrong with Blackbeard. Turned out he had tried to hide beneath her bed, but it was so low to the ground that he was stuck. All Jasmine could see was tufts
of black fur as his hind paws struggled to gain traction against the hardwood floors.
“Baby!” Jasmine got down on her knees and attempted to lift the bed frame and mattress. Blackbeard hissed, not at her, but at this stupid situation. His owner continued to coo at him, making kissing noises and petting his side as she tried to lift with all her might.
The mattress popped up, and Blackbeard slinked away as if nothing were amiss at all.
“Thanks.” Jasmine remained on the floor as Ethan lowered the mattress again. “He can be so stupid sometimes.” She got up and sat on the edge of her bed. “Cats.”
The mattress sank beside her as Ethan joined her on the edge. “That was fun.”
It was all he said for a few moments. Fun. Jasmine never thought the time would come when her billionaire boyfriend told her that playing a first-person shooter together was a highlight of his day. Didn’t matter if the good times were interrupted by the cat or not. Jasmine caught herself smiling, and she was forced to turn away before Ethan could see her blushing.
Weeks had passed since she last allowed herself to disappear into Ethan’s charms. She was afraid; she admitted it. Ever since Samantha stormed into the office, Jasmine put her guards back up, refusing to let Ethan Cole take any more of her heart. She didn’t want to fall for him. Even after finding out that Samantha’s claims were false, Jasmine was still wary. But it was hard to stay wary when he sat next to her like that on her bed, as if nothing was expected.
“You really came here just to be with me?”
The man shrugged. “I enjoy the time we spend together. And I was curious. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to let me stay this long. Not like it’s Saturday yet.” He winked.
“So if I told you right now to leave, you would do it?”
“I’d be confused, but I would do it.”
“And when midnight rolls around in another couple of hours?” Jasmine nudged his arm. “You gonna come back here and say I have to do what you tell me because it’s Saturday?” Even she wasn’t sure if she was being sarcastic or not.
“Jasmine…”
She pulled her body up onto her bed and rested her head against her pillow. Ethan looked at her, but she kept her eyes transfixed on the ceiling, stained with dark splotches that had been there for years. “Then I guess you should stay. Wouldn’t want you to get in trouble waiting outside my door like a creeper.”
“We don’t have to do anything tomorrow. In fact I have an appointment early in the afternoon. A boring one.”
“Oh? Gonna turn your head and cough?”
“Not quite.” He leaned over the bed, one arm supporting himself while the other caressed the bottom of Jasmine’s bare leg. “Just taking care of some matters.” Fingers gripped her ankle.
She glanced at his hand and then back at his face again. “Come here.”
He crawled into the space beside her, kicking off his shoes before letting his feet rest evenly on the bed. Jasmine expected him to touch her, but he kept his hands folded on his stomach as his eyes traced the brown outlines on the ceiling. “This is going to sound strange,” he began, as Jasmine rolled onto her side facing him and pressed her cheek to the sleeve of his T-shirt, “but sometimes I wish I lived in a place like this again.”
Naturally, she scoffed.
“I’m not saying I wish I was poor. I try not to romanticize that time. Life was hard, and my father was a standoffish person. I’m sure he loved me, but his way of showing it was by keeping me alive. So I knew. I just never heard it.”
“Okay.”
His head turned toward hers. “What I mean is that I wish I didn’t have to live somewhere with lots of security. Although my ascent to this lifestyle was gradual over the years, there was a defining moment when I thought, shit. I’m a long way from Kansas. My version of Kansas was only a few blocks away from downtown.”
Why was he telling her all of this? Jasmine kept quiet.
“I miss being able to go out for a walk. A jog. If I want fresh air I have to be surrounded by people I know or somewhere secure. I can’t just go out to a park. Lots of people don’t know my face, but all it would take is one person. Of course, this is easier to do at the house, but when I’m living in the penthouse for a week I get cabin fever easily. Plus, sometimes I want to be around human energy that doesn’t want anything from me.”
Poor baby billionaire. Jasmine cracked a smile and instantly hid it from him. “Is that why you really came over tonight?”
“Sort of. It’s not the freshest air, but I like your energy. On the way over here I was worried that you would turn me away. I didn’t know where I would go.”
Jasmine couldn’t prevent the words coming from her mouth. “You sound lonely.”
She didn’t expect him to say anything. But Ethan took in a deep breath, his chest rising and falling within that plain cotton T-shirt. “Is it that obvious?”
“But how could someone like you be lonely? Surely there are thousands of people lining up to keep you company.”
“It’s hard to explain. I do enjoy their company, but it’s fleeting. They’re busy, I’m busy. When you’re as busy as me, you only have time to talk to people who work for you and the people trying to take something from you. Everything is about business. I used to thrive on it. Then, I don’t know, maybe my priorities changed.”
“Priorities?”
“Don’t ask me what they are. I’m still trying to figure that out.”
Wouldn’t happen to do with your sex life, would it? “Seems like a man who is so lonely shouldn’t be getting his girlfriends through contracts.”
Ethan stirred. At first Jasmine thought that she had offended him, and felt bad about it, but Ethan merely sat up in the bed and stared into the space in front of him. “You’re right.”
“Huh?”
“It’s a terrible way to find a girlfriend. Good thing I’m not looking for a girlfriend.”
The way he said it wasn’t flippant. It wasn’t malevolent, either. Instead Jasmine heard pain beneath his voice, as if it were about to bubble over from his throat and drown him. “Do you want to talk about it?”
It was impossible for her to say any softer. She didn’t want to offend him, but she also didn’t want him to play games with her. Everything would be a lot easier if Ethan would just really say what was on his mind. “I don’t know what else to tell you that I haven’t already. It’s as I said. I don’t have time to take care of a girlfriend emotionally.”
“Don’t have time… or don’t want to make time?”
This time Ethan really didn’t respond. He only clenched his jaw, a look that Jasmine did not like on him.
She sat up on her elbow. “It’s strange to me that a man looking for companionship would go about it that way. I get that you are busy… But it seems to me that there is another reason you do things this way. And it’s not about some undying love or desire for the lifestyle. You said so yourself that you’re not into it like a lifestyle thing.”
For a while she didn’t think that Ethan would answer her. Although his mouth was shut, his eyes fluttered open and closed as he chewed on her words and formulated his own response. It was slow coming.
“Did I ever tell you that I’ve been in love before?”
Jasmine moved back. “No. Who? One of your other girls?”
Ethan lifted his arms and entwined his fingers behind his head. Body relaxed against the wall, he said, “Adrienne Thomas.”
Now that name I do remember. The last woman Ethan had a public relationship with. What was it, five years ago? “Go on.”
Ethan took a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing. “I met her in business school. We were the top two in our class. Not only was she beautiful, but she was funny, charming, and so smart that she would make you believe you were the dumbest asshole on Earth. So, total package. This may sound pompous, but I never really had trouble getting girls to go out with me…”
“Y
ou don’t say.”
“But I was nervous asking her out. Turns that I didn’t have to ask her out. She asked me out.” Ethan chuckled. “Brains, beauty, and enough confidence to suck you into her world. I was done for even before our first kiss.”
Jasmine sank down into her bed, her head instinctively searching for Ethan’s side as she picked at her fingernails and listened.
“I don’t know what else to say. We dated for a while. Things were always hot and heavy, but still our relationship took a gradual shift into how serious it was. People were speculating when we would get married. I admit, three years into the relationship, we still didn’t live together, but I was thinking about marrying her.”
