LOVE IN TRAFFIC

CHAPTER 13 : FINDING THE PERFECT MAN

Me : (getting up) "Coming!"

Ace : (whispering) "What is she doing here?"

Me : (whispering back) "Kinda forgot to tell you that she was coming. You stay in here and don't come out. Also make sure your phone is off. If you want to leave, get out of the window and make sure no one sees you."

Ace : "What about the thing?"

Me : "It doesn't have to happen. Besides you have a wife at home who can give it to you whenever you want it."

(I walked out of my bedroom and closed the door. I went to the front door and opened it. Jessica walked in holding a small cake and a bag of burritos.)

Me : (Closing the door) "This is new. Since when you started to knock on my apartment door and wait for me to welcome you in."

Jessica : "As you can see. I have my arms full. I couldn't open the door."

Me : "Okay. You brought food, but not a white board. I'm kinda intrigued by the fact that you aren't all hyped for this."

Jessica : "Well, don't be fooled. By the way, sorry I took so long. I had to make a few calls to check with some of my friends and confirm if they are still available for my lonely, sad, desperate for love friend. Come to think of it, it's not that long since you had s*x. No wonder you're glowing."

Me : (crossing my arms) "I'm not and can we start?"

Jessica : "Sure. Also, the white board you're talking about, I left it in your room. I'll just go get it."

Me : (blocking her path) "You can't go in there."

Jessica : "What's up?"

Me : "Nothing. It's just that the room is kinda messy and I don't want you to see it."

Jessica : (scoffs) "Girrrlll. I know that you are messy and all. And I have seen it messy before."

Me : "This is different."

Jessica : (pushing me aside) "Yeah, right."

(She opened the door and just froze at the doorframe. I covered my face, thinking that she saw Ace in my bedroom.)

Jessica : (looking shocked) "Emily! When you said it was messy, I didn't expect it to be this messy. I mean which girl in this world leaves their clothes and underwear on the floor, not make the bed and put their clean laundry in the laundry basket?"

Me : (peeping through the spaces of my fingers) "What?"

Jessica : "I mean when you said your room was messy, I didn't expect it to be this messy. It's like a hoarder is living in this room. You need to tidy up."

Me : (laughing nervously) "I told you but you didn't listen."

Jessica : (grabbing the white board) "Here it is. Now, let's go start, “Operation Getting You a Boyfriend,”"

Me : (looking around) "Yeah...... Sure......"

Jessica : "What are you looking for?"

Me : "Nothing. Let's go."

Jessica : "Wait...... Are you hiding a man in here?"

Me : (laughing nervously) "No way. You really think that I'll hide a man from you?"

Jessica : "You are acting weird."

“Someone knocks on the door.”

Daniel : (knocking) "Emily! It's me, Daniel. I got your pizza."

Jessica : "Daniel? You invited a guy over and told him to bring a pizza?"

Me : (opening the door) "What? No. He just work as a pizza delivery man. Hey Daniel."

Daniel : (handing over the pizza) "Hey, Emily. I see you have company. Looks like you don't need to spend some time with me again, huh?"

Me : (taking the pizza) "I don't know what you're talking about. Thanks anyways. Bye."

(I quickly closed the door before he could say anything. When I turned around, I saw Jessica leaned against the doorframe of the living room, with her arms crossed over her chest.)

Jessica : "Was he the one who made you glow now?"

Me : "What? No. That was his twin brother. Also, I'm not glowing at all and stop saying I am."

Jessica : (chuckling) "You might be."

Me : "Whatever."

(I put the pizza on the coffee table and grabbed some glasses from the cardboard and a bottle of orange juice and put them on the coffee table.)

(I sat down on the couch and Jessica stood in front of me, with the board filled with different pictures of men and my picture in the middle of them.)

Jessica : (pointing to one of the pictures) "This one is James. I met him in college and he was my dormmate. He's 24 years , 6'1 and cute. He's an accountant now. That checks the money problem for you. Possible red flags : He's a w***e, He's short tempered, Controlling, Abusive, loud, moody and weird. Oh... I forgot stinky."

Me : "I may be desperate but I'm not that desperate to spend the rest of my life with a man who stinks more than the world's most stinkiest thing. Pass."

Jessica : (pointing to another picture) "His name is Gary, and he........"

Me : (interrupting) "Pass."

Jessica : "Why?"

Me : "His name says it all."

Jessica : "He isn't always grumpy."

Me : "To me, he is. Wait..... One picture is missing."

Jessica : "Which one?"

Me : "The Russian man."

Jessica : "Let's go through these ones first."

Me : "Fine."

Jessica : (pointing to another picture) "How about him?"

Me : "He looks fine. Who is he?"

Jessica : "That's Kevin. I also met him in college. He's 27 years old now. I don't know what he's doing for a living now. But he's kinda cool. He was the best basketball player in college and most popular."

Me : "Wait...... His name is Kevin? As in Kevin Smith?"

Jessica : "Yeah. You know him?"

Me : "Know him? Of course. He's like my favorite basketball player in the world. He's the world's best basketball player ever. But I can't date him."

Jessica : "Why not?"

Me : "Firstly, he came out last year to the media, during a live stream. He said he is gay also, he has a boyfriend. And why is he even on the list?"

Jessica : "Oh....... I guess we don't need him. I didn't know that. Kinda like how I don't know that you like basketball. Actually........ When did you start liking it?"

Me : "Ever since one of my boyfriends in college used to play it."

Jessica : "I'm not digging down deeper. Let's move on. You know what?"

Me : (taking a bite of a pizza slice) "What?"

Jessica : "Let's just forget about these guys and focus on the ones that you actually want."

Me : "You mean the Russian one?"

Jessica : "I mean Daniel and Jason."

Me : "What are you talking about?"

Jessica : "I mean........ Instead of just choosing which one you like, you can go on a few dates with each of them and we can compare them both. Then you'll decide which one you like more and choose him."

Me : "But they're brothers who live together. Don't you think that they'll know that I'm just playing with them?"

Jessica : "Oh...... You're right....... How about you figure that out by yourself."

Me : (groaning) "Fine. Can't you just set me up with the Russian man. Just for one date so that I can practice with him."

Jessica : "No way. I don't trust you spend a night with that kind of person."

Me : "Why not?"

Jessica : "Well........ Since it's been a while you've had s*x and just ones in a VIP room isn't enough, you might wanna do it with him too and he's a real deal. If he puts it in a hole, he isn't taking it out without planting the seed."

Me : "Then I'll just use one of those pills that are for birth controls or get an injection."

Jessica : "He'll want the baby. And I don't want you to get pregnant before me."

Me : "Just say it."

Jessica : (crossing arms) "What?"

Me : "You want him for yourself."

Jessica : (scoffing) "You're delusional. I have a fiancé who's planning to marry me anytime soon and I can't cheat on him."

Me : "But it's been three years since he proposed to you. It's also been three years since he left you to work in another country. You think that he'll be able to control himself from not having s*x with any woman he meets and likes? You know how men are."

Jessica : "Yeah I know but he's different."

Me : "That's what he wants you to believe. Have you ever thought about visiting him without letting him know and just surprise him, to see how he'll react?"

Jessica : "I'll think about it. Just to prove you wrong, whore."

Me : "Whatever b***h. I'm still single and free. I can do whatever I want."

Jessica : "Yeah. Like not spending your one million dollars at all and not paying me back the money you owe."

Me : "I told you that I'll pay you. Anyway, who should I take out first."

Jessica : "Let's start with Jeremy first. You know, as a test. To see if you still got it."

Me : (Raising an eyebrow) "If I don't still got it, how do you think I got laid last Saturday?"

Jessica : "Okay but you're still going on a date with him."

Me : "I literally know nothing about him. You really like setting me up on blind dates."

Jessica : "Well, forgive me if I don't want my best friend to die loveless and alone."

Me : "What if I want to die alone."

Jessica : "So you really don't want to have a family? You don't see yourself one day married to a man whom you truly love and he truly loves you back? You don't see yourself spending the rest of your life raising your own children and your own grandchildren too?"

Me : (sighing) "When I was young I did have that kind of dream. But as I got older, everything started to be different and I just slowly lose hope everyday, for any of that happening to me. I mean if none of these men are the one for me, then no other man in the world is."

Jessica : "But you gotta have a little hope. Just give it a little more time and maybe everything can work out. Let's start with Jeremy and then we'll move on to the final two."

Me : "Don't you mean three?"

Jessica : "If you are counting the one I think you are counting, you can't. He's married. If it's the other one, then you can forget about him. He has other people in his life. Now we are focusing on Jeremy, Daniel and the traffic cop. What's his name again?"

Me : "Jason."

Jessica : (nodding) "Yeah. Him. So....... You don't just go on one date with each of them except for Jeremy, unless you wound up finding him interesting. You gotta make those date a secret from each of them."

Me : "Yeah. I'll try."

Jessica : "Great. Operation finding a boyfriend for my single-desperate-horny friend, is a go."

Me : (crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow) "We are not using that code name. It's just operation finding a boyfriend. No that s**t you just said."

Jessica : (texting on the phone) "Fine. I just texted Jeremy and he said he'll meet you on Saturday night at seven thirty sharp. He said he'll text you the place where he'll be meeting with you."

Me : "Fine. I guess I'm doing it."

Jessica : "Yeah and no turning back."

Me : "Yeah. Since we have nothing to do for the rest of the day, how about we watch a movie."

Jessica : "Sure."

(I went to the kitchen to grab some drinks for us. When I was about to open the fridge, I got a notification from my phone. When I checked it, it was a message from Ace and it said, " Since Jess interrupted our s*x session, I'll be seeing you later in the week or some other time. Also, don't worry. I got out before she even got into the room and I was the one who made it messy. Have fun tidying up.")

(A sigh of relief crawled out of me as I grabbed a bottle of champagne and two glasses and put them on the coffee table.)

(I sat down on the floor and she sat down on the couch. We watched a few movies of different genres until sunset. After we finished watching "The wedding dress," she got up and left without even saying goodbye to me.)

(I just rolled my eyes and cleaned up the mess. When I was done, I went to my room and picked up my clothes that Ace threw on the floor. After I was done, I was really exhausted and I just threw myself on the bed and fell asleep.)

(The next day I wake up to a loud bang on my front door. I slowly got up and checked the time. It was already twelve o'clock in the afternoon and that's when I realized that I slept through half of the day and not only that, I was about five hours late for work.)

(I got up and went to open the door. When I opened it, I was greeted by Jason's fury raging face.)

Jason : (growling angrily) "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

Me : "Yeah. Before you get all angry and shouty, I kinda overslept and I also forgot to set the alarm."

Jason : (shouting) "I don't f*****g care, Emily! You should have been at work five hours ago!"

Me : "I know. Just give me a few minutes to get ready and I'll leave with you."

Jason : "You know what? Don't even bother. Just take the rest of the day off. Tomorrow, you'll be working until midnight."

Me : "What do you mean?"

Jason : "I mean the restaurant will be open from eight in the morning to midnight and you'll be waitressing the whole day. It won't just happen for tomorrow only, but for the whole week. That way, you can forget about oversleeping and stuff."

Me : (eyes widening) "What?! Even on weekends?"

Jason : (smirking) "Yes. And don't even think of making excuses or coming up with stupid reasons to get out of it, 'cause if you do, I'll fire you on the spot."

Me : (sighing) "Okay then I guess I should forget about asking you if you'll be free tomorrow 'cause I'll be stuck working overnight too."

Jason : "What are you talking about?"

Me : "Well....... Actually, I was thinking if you'll be free tomorrow night so that I could maybe go out with you."

Jason : "Oh....... Uhhh.......... You mean like a romantic date?"

Me : (rolling my eyes) "No... Like a business date...... Of course I mean a romantic date."

Jason : (groaning) "Ugh..... Fine. I'll go out with you tomorrow night but that doesn't mean that I forgive you for what you just did today. So, when should I be picking you up?"

Me : "How about eight thirty at night?"

Jason : "Yeah sure. Wait...... But you'd still be working your shift. Uhmmm...... You know what? You can knock off at six thirty tomorrow."

Me : "Thanks. Well, have a great day."

Jason : "Same to you, work-skipper."

(After he left, I grabbed my phone and tried to call Jessica. After four tries of calling her, she finally picked up.)

Jessica : "Hey, slut. Shouldn't you be working now?"

Me : "Uhhh...... I should, but I'm not."

Jessica : "Why not? Are you already slacking off?"

Me : "You call it slacking off, I call it a day off."

Jessica : "Wait..... So you're telling me that you have a day off? Not even a month has passed since you started working, but you already have a day off?"

Me : "Yeah. How cool is that?"

Jessica : "It's not cool but it's stupid. And you wonder why I didn't give you a job at my company."

Me : "One day you'll regret it. By the way, can you cancel my date with Jeremy tomorrow?"

Jessica : "What? Why?"

Me : "Because I have a date with Jason tomorrow. Cancel my date with him, please."

Jessica : "Fine. But Why'd you start with your boss first? Why couldn't you go with Daniel first?"

Me : "Because I overslept and when I woke up, I found my boss on my front door and I just thought it was a perfect opportunity to ask him out."

Jessica : "Okay. Just a single, free girl doing whatever she wants. I see you."

Me : "Yeah. So, will you do it?"

Jessica : (sighing) "Sure I'll do it. Good luck with your date, by the way."

Me : "Thanks. Oh.... Can you say "hi," to Jackson for me. "

Jessica : "Whatever you say single, lonely, desperate for love and someone to bang her, slut."

Me : "Never call me that again."

(She laughed and hung up on me. I went to the bathroom and took a shower. When I was done, I got into my casual clothes and was about to seat down and watch TV, when someone knocked on the door.)

(When I opened the door, Ace just pushed me inside, closed the door and locked it. I looked at him confused while I was backing away.)

(He kept getting closer and closer to me as I backed up until I bumped into a wall. He stopped right in front of me, while he was towering over me.)

(He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him. He leaned in closer to my face. I felt his warm breath brushing against my face.)

TO BE CONTINUED..............