Ryan stepped out of his room, and I followed him.
“Okay, you may need to put on some sunglasses for this one,” he said as he opened the door across the hall.
“This…is Jake’s room.”
Jake. The sex room.
If this room had a theme song, it would be Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N’ Roses. It was a complete contrast to Ryan’s bedroom. It was smoky, musky and mysterious. Now, I knew what he meant about the sunglasses. The walls were a neon orange. Everything else in the room was black: black furniture, black bedding and a black window shade to keep out the light, since this room actually had a window.
It was like every component of the room contradicted another part: neon orange and black, bright window with a dark shade. On top of that, there was a large collection of gargoyle figurines atop the dresser, but right next to them was a black and white picture of two adorable little girls who looked identical. Whoever this guy was, he was an enigma.
“What’s Jake’s deal?” I asked.
Ryan ran his hand over his short blonde hair and laughed. “Jake…how could I possibly sum up Jake? He’s…different.”
I laughed. “What do you mean different?”
“I mean, he’s cool…he’s just a lot of things. You’ll have to meet him to know what I am talking about. He’s from Boston. He pretty much takes off and goes back there every weekend. I don’t know what he does there or if he has some side business or something. He’s kind of secretive. I know his family lives there. He’s close to his nieces apparently,” he said gesturing to the photo.
“What does he do for a living?”
“Actually, it’s sick how smart he is. He’s an engineer for a company in the city, and he pretty much can fix anything that breaks in the house. But when you see him, you’re gonna be like, ‘he’s an engineer?’”
“What do you mean, when I see him?”
Ryan grinned. “He’s interesting.”
“Okay. Whatever you say.”
I didn’t mention to Ryan that I had already kind of gotten a preview of my own regarding Jake’s interests. I could never admit that I was hiding behind a door listening in while Jake “entertained” his guest.
Ryan led me back down the hall, opening the door right across from mine.
“This…is Tarah’s room.”
This was the best bedroom in the house. Like Jake’s, it had a window, but was painted a delicate lavender. There was a built-in white bookshelf, neatly organized with books and pictures and the room smelled like fresh laundry. It looked like a page out of a Pottery Barn catalog. The sun was streaming in, and I was so wishing this was my room.
“So, what’s Tarah like?”
Ryan blushed. “She’s really cool.”
“She is not with Jake, by any chance, is she?” I asked, thinking about the rendezvous I overheard earlier.
“Hell no! Why would you ask that?” he snapped.
“I was just wondering.”
“Trust me, there is nothing going on between Tarah and Jake.”
“And that’s because…?”
Ryan’s face turned red again, and he gave me a look that answered my question.
“Tarah…and you?” I asked.
He smiled. “Yup.”
“Really…”
“Yeah, it’s new…six weeks now. Wait ‘til you meet her. She’s awesome.”
“Nice, Ryan. I am so happy for you. But what if it doesn’t work out? I mean, you’re living together. Wouldn’t that be weird?”
“Probably. But I can’t worry about that right now.”
“Well, I can’t wait to meet her.”
“I think you two will get along really well. She’s a hair colorist for a salon in the city. She’s working until close tonight, but she should be home around nine.”
I suddenly yawned, and then my stomach growled. “I am starving, but I haven’t had a chance to food shop.”
“No need. Let’s go downstairs to Eleni’s. My treat. Phenomenal Greek food.”
“I know. I smelled it on the way in here.”
As Ryan and I headed downstairs, I heard the same swearing from the apartment below us. The woman seemed to have a Jamaican accent.
“What is up with the lady on the second floor?” I asked.
“Oh, you just wait. That is just another benefit of living here, Troll. If I tell you, it will ruin it,” he said laughing.
“Okay, I am not even going to ask.”
***
After a fantastic dinner of Greek salad and chicken skewers, we returned to the apartment to have the baklava pastry the owner, Telly, gave us to welcome me to the neighborhood. After just one meal, I already knew I would need to limit my Eleni’s intake, or I was going to go broke and get fat.
I brewed a pot of coffee as Ryan got out the plates, and we reminisced about high school.
“So, Troll, no boyfriend at the moment?”
I sighed. “No. I was seeing someone at home for a few weeks, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Then, knowing I was about to move away, I decided to break it off. It wasn’t worth the effort.”
“Well, they can’t all be like Stuart, can they?”
Stuart was my first boyfriend in high school. He was sensitive and sweet and the constant butt of Jimmy and Ryan’s jokes.
“Ugh…did you have to bring him up? Poor Stuart. He was awesome, though.”
Ryan snickered. “He was a friggin’ girl. Stuart and his paper birds! What was it he used to do?”
I giggled recalling the memory. “Aw, Stuart was the sweetest thing. He knew the combination to my locker, and he would create these little ornate origami birds out of construction paper. Then, I would unfold them, and there would be these little poems that rhymed inside each one. It was romantic.”
Just then, footsteps crept up behind us, and a deep raspy voice that cut through me said, “That is…the STUPIDEST fucking thing I have ever heard.”
When I turned around, the immediate but unwanted reaction my insides felt at the sight of him told me I was in trouble.
Reality Show Scene Three, enter stage left: hot womanizing roommate.
Then, came the three words that would change my life. “Hi, I’m Jake.”
CHAPTER 2
Jake stuck out his tattooed-covered arm prompting me to take his hand and flashing a smile that could only be described as devilish. “You must be Neenee,” he said.
I coughed nervously, and a weird sound came out of my mouth that I couldn’t quite identify. It might have been my body saying, Well lookey here, she isn’t dead from the waist down after all.
He was freaking beautiful.
“It’s Nina, actually,” I said shaking his calloused hand, noticing a silver thumb ring. The warmth of his skin in the brief contact didn’t escape me, nor did the fact that my hand lingered longer than it should have. It might have trembled.
“I know your name. I’m just fucking with you.” He flashed a wicked grin and winked. My body’s reaction to that made me question my own sanity.
He smelled like a mixture of cigarettes and cologne, which was oddly arousing. He had a brow ring and a bottom lip ring, and his incisors were very pointed and sharp. His eyes were green with gold speckles, brought out even further by his contrasting short dark hair.
Come to think of it, Jake was like a black cat – gorgeous, but very likely bad luck if it crossed your path.
“Nice to meet you, Jake.”
He leaned against the kitchen counter, crossing his arms and gave me a once-over that sent a shiver down my spine. “So, who is Stuart, why is he making you origami bird poems, and who cut off his balls?”
I laughed. “Stuart was my boyfriend freshman year of high school. Ryan decided to bring him up now for no good reason.”
“What brings you to Brooklyn?”
“I start nursing school on Monday. Long Island University.”
Jake scratched his chin, sarcastically pensive. “Isn’t that in Long Island?”
> “No, there’s a Brooklyn campus. It’s actually not far from the apartment.”
Ryan interjected. “With your fear of subways, that’s a good thing.”
I shot Ryan a death glare.
Great. He was going to embarrass me in front of Jake.
“What’s this, now?” Jake asked, lifting his brow.
“Thanks, a lot, Ryan,” I said, seriously pissed.
He gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry. It just came out.”
“It’s nothing,” I said looking at Jake, waving my hand, hoping he’d drop the subject.
Jake continued to stare at me quizzically. “Are you seriously afraid of the subway or something?”
“She’s afraid of everything: planes, elevators, heights...” Ryan let out a frustrated sigh.
I widened my eyes at him again, then looked at Jake and shrugged my shoulders trying to downplay it. “I just get a little nervous in crowded, contained places. That’s all.”
Jake nodded slowly in understanding. “It’s like a phobia. So, places that make you feel trapped?”
“Yeah, basically,” I said.
Jake squinted at me and seemed to be examining my face for the truth. His expression darkened like he somehow saw through my trying to pass my phobias off as nothing. Our eyes locked, and I felt an inexplicable connection to him in that moment that went beyond just physical attraction.
He scratched his chin. “Hmn.”
Suddenly uncomfortable, I changed the subject immediately. “So where do you work?”
“I’m an electrical engineer for a company in the city. We design stadium lighting. And at night, I dance…at a male strip club.”
I couldn’t tell, but I was pretty sure the color must have drained from my face.
“Seriously?”
“Yup.”
“Wow,” I said.
He looked over at Ryan. “You didn’t tell her she was living with Magic Fuckin’ Mike?”
Ryan just laughed, gauging my reaction.
Jake looked amused and bit his bottom lip, his teeth clicking against his lip ring. Then, he let out a guttural laugh. “I’m just fucking with you again.”
“You’re not a stripper?”
He laughed and shook his head. “I like you. You’re an easy target. It’s gonna be fun to have you around. By the way, I really am an engineer. My cubicle mate Raj gets pretty pissed when I try to take off my clothes and give him a lap dance, so I stopped stripping a long time ago,” he joked.
That’s a damn shame.
Jeez, where was this coming from?
I couldn’t believe how gullible I was sometimes, but then again, why wouldn’t I have believed him? With his overall stature and the way his black hoodie hugged his clearly defined chest, his body could certainly pass for that of a stripper. Plus, I didn’t know him from Adam. What I did know was that Jake was a ball-buster and did not appear to be the type of guy I should be attracted to. Or at least, that was my first impression of him.
I looked down again at the various colored tattoos on his right forearm. On his left, there was just a lone dragon. I wondered what else was underneath his clothing.
He walked over to the other side of the kitchen, picked up a banana out of a pile of about twenty, peeled it and ate the entire first half in one bite whilst looking right at me, grinning.
Ryan laughed. “I forgot to mention, that’s Jake’s bushel of bananas over there. We think he is part human, part monkey.”
I looked at Jake. “You like bananas, huh?”
Still chewing, Jake said, “Damn straight, I do. I fuckin’ love ‘em. Mmm.” He took the other half of the banana and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth, gesturing to me with the peel, his mouth full. “Wa-wan?”
“Huh?”
“Want one?” he said more clearly.
I held my hand out. “No, thanks. I’m good.”
Still chewing, he continued looking at me, and my heart fluttered.
Ryan broke the uncomfortable silence. “I told you Jake was interesting.”
I watched as Jake slowly licked his lips after finishing the banana. He is interesting alright.
The front door then opened, and in walked a cute girl with short black hair in a pixie cut.
Reality Show Scene Four, enter stage right: instant best friend.
She was wearing an adorable blue shift dress and immediately dropped her purse that was practically larger than she was, walked over to Ryan and planted a kiss on his lips.
“Hey, babe,” Ryan said and then turned to me. “This is Nina. Nina meet Tarah.”
She startled me when she immediately pulled me into a hug. “I have heard so much about you, Nina. I have been waiting for you! I am outnumbered here. You didn’t tell me how pretty she was, Ryan.”
“Aw, thanks…likewise,” I said. “It’s really nice to know I won’t be the only female in the house.”
Tarah had almond-shaped light brown eyes, defined, thick eyebrows and full lips. She was petite with smooth olive skin, and I could totally see what Ryan saw in her. I was curious about her nationality, so I asked her.
“Can I ask…are you Italian…Spanish?”
“No, actually, I’m Persian. My family is from Iran.”
“Ah, I knew it was something like that. You have a very exotic look.”
Tarah smiled and Ryan said. “Yeah, where Nina and I come from, there are two ethnicities: white and pasty white.”
We all laughed, and then I noticed Jake walking back down the hall to his room. I was oddly disappointed by his sudden retreat.
Tarah immediately started playing with my hair.
“Who does your highlights?”
“No one. This is my natural color.”
“Seriously? You are so lucky, girl. Do you know how much money people have to pay me to get highlights that look like this?”
“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t have to pay for it. I’m gonna be pretty broke this year since I am going to try to not work and just focus on school full-time.”
“Nursing, right? That’s probably a pretty tough curriculum.”
“It is. So, the more focus on school the better. I have enough money saved to just about pay my rent and food for the year.”
“Well, if you ever need anything, you let me know, okay?” Tarah said.
“That’s really sweet of you. Thanks.”
She had kind eyes, and I could tell we were going to be good friends.
Ryan nudged Tarah, kissed her forehead and looked at me. “I told you she was awesome.”
It was obvious that Ryan had it bad. Feeling like a third wheel all of a sudden, I excused myself to go finish unpacking, even though I had already put most of my stuff away earlier.
“I’ll come say goodnight later,” Tarah said as I waved to her.
When I got to my room, I turned on the only light, a small lamp, and lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. It had been a long day, and even though I should have been resting, my mind kept racing.
I decided to take a shower. Gathering all of my toiletries and placing them in a caddy, I grabbed my robe and walked down the hall to the bathroom.
The sound of some kind of alternative music was coming from Jake’s room, but the door was closed. It occurred to me that from now on, every time I used the bathroom or showered, I’d have to do it next door to Jake, since his room was right outside of the bathroom.
As the hot water poured down on me, I tried to relax. I had a lot on my mind, from anxiety about classes starting Monday to my unwanted attraction to my tattooed, pierced, smoking hot roommate, who based on first impressions, was quite likely a man-whore.
I wrapped my wet hair in a towel, securely tightened my robe and grabbed my dirty clothes off the floor. Cautiously peeking out into the hallway before I escaped the safety of the steamy bathroom, I tiptoed back to my room and closed the door.
After I brushed the tangles out of my wet hair, I slipped into a pink camisole and shorts and grabbed my
Kindle to do some light reading before bed.
About twenty minutes into the book, there was a knock at the door. Assuming it was Tarah, I didn’t think twice before opening it with no bra.
The sight of Jake standing there completely shirtless and fresh out of the shower with his hair wet nearly knocked the wind out of me. He smelled like the men’s body wash that I had sniffed in the bathroom. The one I would be bathing in from now on.
Trickles of water dripped down his defined chest onto his six-pack. His chest had no tattoos, but I now saw that he had tribal ink on his side torso and upper arms. I knew he was attractive, but it truly stunned me how beautiful he was bare.
I swallowed, hardly getting the words out. “Ha…hi…what’s up?”
Jake’s heated stare burned through me as he quickly glanced down to my braless chest and back up to my eyes. He licked his lips, and I swear, I felt it. I could describe it as electric, but it was more like a dragon breathing fire down my throat, igniting a wet explosion at the site of my vagina.
Then, he reached into his pocket and handed me…a pair of underwear. “I found these on the bathroom floor…thought you might want them.”
I reached for them, mortified. They were the dirty underwear I had been wearing all day and must have fallen out of the clothes pile I carried out of the bathroom.
Covering my chest with my arms, I clutched the panties and was pretty much speechless as he stood there in my doorway. “Thanks.”
He stared at me for a few seconds, grinned impishly but said nothing else as he turned around. I watched him walk away and noticed that his back was just as defined as the front as he sauntered down the hall, his black pants hanging low on his waist, almost but not quite low enough to display the top of his tight, round ass.
Shaking my head, I took a deep breath and slowly closed my door.
Jake Undone Page 2
