by A D Seeley
“That’s good.”
“Yeah. It easily could’ve gone the other way if you hadn’t jumped in. I think the guy was thinking about shooting me.”
“Yeah…maybe….”
She seemed nervous again as she added quietly, “But, just so you know, Eric isn’t my boyfriend. I don’t have a boyfriend.”
He knew that she was hinting, but he was going to play his own game for a bit. He planned to only be her friend, albeit one who always hinted at things himself, until she couldn’t take it any longer. Then, when passion drove them together, she wouldn’t be able to think rationally and he could take complete advantage of her.
“He isn’t?” he asked after a few moments, pretending like he didn’t already know that Eric was just a friend. “By the way he was scowling at me the other day, I was sure you two were an item.”
“Nope. We’re just friends. I mean, he’s a good guy and everything, but I’m just not attracted to him.”
“How is it a girl as beautiful as you doesn’t have a boyfriend?” he asked as he flashed his best smile. This smile had seduced some of the most striking and powerful women in history—even the notorious man-eater Cleopatra had been clay in his hands. If it could accomplish that, then it could certainly seduce Hara.
She blushed, her hands on his getting warmer. He could also feel her pulse speeding up as she pressed her thumb deeper into his hand thanks to her nerves. She was becoming flustered. Exactly the reaction he’d been going for.
Hara swallowed, her lips slightly parting afterward as her luminous eyes looked between his eyes and mouth and her chest began rising and falling in shallow gasps. She probably didn’t realize how obvious she was being in wanting to kiss him.
Eventually, she said, “I just haven’t found a guy I’ve liked enough to become his girlfriend.”
“That’s a pity,” he said in a tone of voice that said it wasn’t really. He wanted her to be confused about him. To know that he wanted her, yet also to wonder whether or not he really did. The anticipation on her part would just build him up in her mind.
A lot of men had to do what they could to stay away from exactly that. But not him. He could live up to the fantasies. Actually, he would make even the best fantasy pitiful in comparison. When you had more than a hundred centuries of practice, not including the hundreds more before time was recorded, you knew your stuff. Archeologists believed that he’d migrated from the home of his parents in Africa somewhere between 60,000 B.C. and 30,000 B.C., but he knew otherwise. Scientists believed so strongly in their radiometric dating. But what they didn’t know was that, after a certain amount of time, the process would speed up so something would seem to age thousands of years in mere weeks. Also, the gases in the air that the objects were exposed to varied so much over the years that they were no longer comparable to each other. He wasn’t sure exactly how much the gases differed and how the process sped up because he hadn’t tested it enough to figure it out, but he knew there was no way that he’d been alive for over thirty-two thousand years. Maybe twenty thousand, but no more than that.
“What about you?” she finally asked.
“Me?”
She nodded.
“Well, I’m not really into men, so…” he said, shrugging his shoulders and then immediately wishing he hadn’t from the pain that again shot down his right arm and into his neck, chest, and back.
She lightly hit his forearm, not noticing his pain because he was a master at hiding his emotions.
“Girlfriend, I meant. Do you have a girlfriend?”
He laughed. “No.”
“Wife?”
Before he realized what he was saying, he’d answered, “Not anymore.”
Her eyes widened a fraction of an inch, but she quickly masked it.
“You were married?” she asked carefully a moment later.
Because he couldn’t go back on that now, he nodded. “A long time ago.”
“You must have married really young?”
“I suppose,” he said, not really committing to his answer.
“Do you still talk to her?”
He’d been married thousands of times over the years, but had spent the last fifty alone. He never kept a wife for long. He just got bored with things too easily. That was partly why he moved all the time, too. For some reason, though, when Hara asked, he skipped over his last wife and went to the one he’d had before her.
Thinking of Olivia, he said, “She’s no longer alive.”
“Oh,” she said, her eyes full of pity. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. It happened a long time ago. I’m completely over it now.”
“How’d she die? If you don’t mind me asking?”
“She wasn’t happy. After our baby died, she just couldn’t get over it. When I found her, she was already gone.”
“Oh wow,” she said, squeezing his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
Not feeling any emotions as he shook his hand loose from hers, he said, “Like I said, it was a long time ago.”
She didn’t seem to notice that he was trying not to touch her because she lightly touched his forearm with a piteous hand. “Still…I can’t imagine going through that. I’ve been very blessed in my life.”
How could she say that when her whole family had been murdered? How could she honestly have such a positive attitude about everything? He wasn’t pessimistic by any means, but he knew when things were painful.
He pulled his arm away from her. This time, from the hurt in her eyes, she seemed to realize that he didn’t need, or want, her pity.
“Do you have any family?” she asked as she straightened up, clasping her hands together in her lap. “I’m only asking because you haven’t had any visitors other than me.”
“Look, Hara,” he said, trying to keep his annoyance out of his voice; his family was a touchy subject. “Enough of the twenty questions.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes widening in what looked to be both surprise and guilt. “I didn’t mean to say anything wrong.”
“You didn’t. I’m just not in the mood for that conversation.”
“Do you want me to go?”
He looked her over, trying to determine the best course of action. After a few moments, he nodded; he just didn’t have the energy to play any more games today.
She looked like he’d hurt her feelings again but, ever the martyr, she stood up.
“Okay. Feel better,” she said as she gave him a tentative smile.
He didn’t say anything until she was opening the door.
“Hara?” he called.
She looked back at him, her eyes full of hope. “Yes?”
“You’ll come back tomorrow, won’t you?”
“Would you like me to?”
“Very much so,” he said, flashing that smile again. He couldn’t let her leave thinking that he wanted nothing to do with her.
“Then I promise,” she said, looking pleased.
After she left him alone in the cold hospital room, his mind went back to the memory of Aemuth he’d relived…then back even farther to his parents.
Not wanting to think about that, he asked the nurse for some painkillers, which blissfully put him into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter Five
***
“Oh my gosh, what happened to your face?!” Crystal demanded the moment Hara walked through the door. She’d been on the couch watching TV, but one glance at Hara had her turning it off and charging toward her.
“Oh,” Hara answered, putting a hand to her still swollen cheek. “I was mugged.”
“What?! What happened? Are you okay?” she cried as she pulled Hara over to the velvety couch. Hara sat down so she could tell Crystal every detail of the story, even the part about Inac kissing her hand at the restaurant a few days ago.
“And so I left. But he wants me to visit him tomorrow,” she finished with a smile.
With her own smile, Crystal said, “Girl, you’re in deep.”
“No I’m not.”
Crystal looked at her with her vivid green eyes. “Yes you are. You’re totally in love with him. Admit it.”
“It’s not even like that….”
“Did you just tell your first lie?” she teased, tossing her thick, shoulder-length black bob out of her eyes.
“Okay. Fine. I like him a ton, but it’s just a major crush. I don’t even know the guy enough to love him. I just know that, if given the chance, I could love him. But it doesn’t matter because he doesn’t even like me.”
“Honey, where I come from, a guy doesn’t come on so strong unless he likes you,” she replied, lifting her delicate face to peer up into Hara’s eyes.
“Then why doesn’t he do something about it?”
“Maybe because he thought you were with Eric.” She said his name with disgust. One thing about Crystal, she didn’t keep her opinions quiet. And she definitely had an opinion about Hara giving every guy a chance.
“Be nice. Eric’s sweet.”
“Well, leprechauns usually are.”
Hara opened her mouth wide in shock. “I can’t believe you just said that!”
“Well, he is short. Even you have to admit that.”
“He’s taller than you.”
Crystal rolled her eyes. “Like that’s difficult.” She was only 5’2” on her tippy toes, which was why she was usually never seen without her sky-high heels. “The point is, he’s short compared to you, Miss Ten Feet Tall.”
“I am not ten feet,” she retorted, chuckling as she moved until she was sitting on Crystal.
“Yes you are. But at least you weigh about as much as one of your stuffed animals.”
“I do not!” she cried. Crystal was petite, but she loved to make fun of Hara because, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t put on any weight. Of course, she did aerobics frequently, but that was just to keep herself from becoming skinny-fat. If she didn’t workout in the least coordinated way she could find—she was a hopeless klutz—then she still didn’t gain weight, but she’d start softening up until she was all jiggly gross. And if she got jiggly, Vinnie would fire her—the girls had to maintain a certain figure to work at the club.
“So how tall is Hot Boy?” Crystal asked once Hara had moved off her and back onto their battered old couch. The couch was so ugly that the previous tenants had abandoned it there. Stuffing was coming out of the brown and white flowered cushions everywhere…no matter how much Hara sewed it back in. However, she was grateful that it didn’t have a stench about it. Especially since it was the only real piece of furniture in the room—other than the couch, they only had a small, second-hand TV on a cheap particle board cabinet and some really cheap neon blow-up chairs that Crystal adored, but Hara secretly thought to be a little tacky.
Throwing her friend her best disapproving glare, Hara said, “His name’s Inac, not Hot Boy.”
“You knew who I was talking about so what does his name matter?”
“It’s disrespectful. He’s our new boss.”
Crystal’s eyebrows shot up. “Hara, I never thought you would be the one sleeping with the boss.”
Hara’s face felt hot when she said, “I’m not sleeping with him. We haven’t even kissed.”
“Do you dream about him?”
She wasn’t going to dignify that with a response.
“I thought so. Look, if you like him, just tell him.”
“I practically did! Remember? I told you I asked him if he had a girlfriend or a wife!”
“Wow, you’re so forward and blunt,” Crystal said, her voice oozing with sarcasm. “Look, you have to be direct with guys.”
“I would have, but he got all upset and kicked me out!”
“Of course he did! You brought up his dead wife and baby, for crying out loud.”
“Actually, what’s weird is that he didn’t seem too upset about that. When he suggested that she killed herself, and that he’d found her body, he was using the same tone of voice as someone talking about the weather. It was when I talked about how blessed I’ve been in my life that he got weird. And then, it was when I asked about his family that he became upset and pretty much told me to shut up.”
“So he has Mommy and Daddy issues. Who doesn’t?” She immediately flinched and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“It’s okay. I’m sure that, had my parents survived the fire, we would have fought too. Who knows the person I would have become had I not been raised in an orphanage.”
“You probably wouldn’t be too different. You might’ve actually kissed a guy, though,” she teased, squeezing one of Hara’s gangly legs.
“Only if I grew up around guys I was attracted to.” She wasn’t like Crystal. She wouldn’t kiss a guy she wasn’t interested in just because she “needed some.”
“Well, Hot Boy is totally sexy. I know that if you’d grown up around men like him, you might not be so, so…” she said, a naughty grin on her face that was daring Hara to ask her to finish her sentence.
“So what?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but she’d been raised to be polite.
“So virginal,” Crystal answered wickedly.
“Ah!” Hara yelled, laughing with disbelief. Crystal was just so open about everything. And she loved to embarrass Hara; constantly calling her too innocent and naïve.
“You’re more innocent than a baby straight from the womb,” she’d once told her.
“Hara, Hara, Hara,” she said now.
“Crystal, Crystal, Crystal.”
“You really need to make-out with our new boss.”
“I don’t want it to just be physical. Right now I know nothing about him as a person so I won’t be kissing him…no matter how much I might want to.”
“What are you talking about?! The guy saved your life! He’s your own personal hero; your knight in shining armor. He got shot saving you. He almost died for you. What more could you want?”
“Just because he risked his life for me doesn’t mean that I know him.”
“You know plenty. You know that his wife killed herself after their baby died. You know that he doesn’t speak to his family. You know that he’s brave and would do anything for you. You know that he’s rich. Plus, on top of all that, he’s totally hot!” As far as Hara knew, Crystal hadn’t even seen Inac, so to call him hot just made Hara shake her head.
“And that’s all fine and dandy, but it doesn’t mean that I know him. I don’t know how old his baby was, if it was a boy or a girl, or even how it died. I don’t know why he’s so defensive about his family. I know that he smiles and flirts, but he seems to do it at a distance. When he does, it hardly ever reaches his eyes. And he doesn’t seem to let anyone in. He didn’t even have one visitor at the hospital other than me. I think he’s really lonely but won’t admit it.”
“Well, his wife committed suicide. He probably feels partly responsible and is afraid to get close to someone again.”
Hara shook her head again, trying to clear out the confusion that had taken root in there.
“I just wish he didn’t act like he does. One second I feel like he wants to go on a date with me, but the next he’s completely aloof.”
“You know what you need to do to get him to quit playing games and to finally make a move?”
“What?” She was more than willing to listen to Crystal when it came to men. Despite how teeny she was, Crystal had been making emotionally unavailable men beg her to be exclusive since she was twelve. If anyone could get Inac to finally say what he wanted, it would be her.
“You need to make him jealous.”
“How so?”
“By pretending to date someone else, dearie.”
“I could never do that.”
“Why not? You want him, don’t you?”
“You know I do.”
“Well, sometimes you have to play hardball to get what you want.”
“I’m not going to use someone. That would hurt their feelings.”<
br />
“Hara, dear, sometimes you have to hurt other people to get what you want.”
“Well I won’t. There has to be another way. Besides, a relationship built on lies won’t ever work. What happens when he finds out?”
“He’ll be flattered that you wanted him so badly.”
Hara just rolled her eyes. Sometimes Crystal was so hopeless.
“Any other ideas that aren’t dishonest?” she asked as her fingers wandered aimlessly along the velvet surface of the couch, wondering if the sensation was anything like what it would be like to do the same to the black stubble on the top of Inac’s head.
“Hey, you’re the one who said that he was coming on strong when he thought Eric was your boyfriend, right?”
Stilling her hand so she could concentrate on what Crystal was getting at, she said, “Yeah. But what does that have to do with anything?”
Instead of answering her, Crystal asked, “And that he sort of stopped hitting on you once you told him that you didn’t have a boyfriend, right?”
Hara now understood what Crystal was trying to get at. If she wanted Inac to ask her out, she would have to give him a little competition. Or at least make him think he had competition.
“But how do we do that without hurting someone else?” she asked, hoping Crystal would follow her train of thought.
“Well…he owns the club….”
“So?”
“So maybe that means he’ll spend a lot of time there.”
“So?” Her mind just didn’t think the same way Crystal’s did.
“So just be totally extra flirty with everyone else and ignore him.”
“Won’t that make him give up?”
“Nope.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he’s rich. That probably means two things. First, he’s competitive, which has led him to succeed….”
“And the second thing?”
“There’s nothing he can’t have. If you make him think that he can’t have you, he’ll work harder to prove that he can.”
In theory, it sounded good. She just didn’t know if she could do it. Knowing her, she’d probably end up begging forgiveness for being so rude for shunning him.
