Why Not Me?

| 4 | JENNIFER |

| JENNIFER |

Friday, I spent the whole day hanging out at Cleo’s place with Steph and the guys. Saturday I spent it studying my next degree, which I still haven’t told the girls about yet, and binge watching all three Madagascar movies and catching and rewatching some old reruns of That’s so Raven. That night I spoke to Cleo and listened in on how her date went and what happened. Sunday is my snoozing day so you will not be able to contact me unless you have the keys to my apartment and literally enter my bedroom and drag me out of bed, which is what Stephanie does. So uncalled for.

Today is Monday and I have work and work I shall do.

I take my job seriously and I like things done well. My job may seem easy or not that important to some people, oh look the graphic designer. Yea, well who do you think assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and advertising. I also do photography on the side, taking your birthday pictures, your wedding pictures, School pictures, graduation picture, vacation pictures, honeymoon pictures, club pictures? We are the ones who capture those special moments. We are the ones who make things appealing to the human eye, who show you other sides of things, people, places you’ve never seen. We capture the true form of things and what’s out there. We are the ones who take and give you snapshots for your favorite bands, actors, celebrities, your favorite geological landmarks, and animals. Were the ones who post movie covers, book cover and bulletin boards, brochures, posters? You name it.

I already have my degree in Art, but what no one knows is that I’m working on getting an Associates in Marketing and Advertisement. I’ve always liked Geography and General Track its what I always actually wanted to do and have been fascinated by. In High School, besides art, my favorite class was Earth Science. Geologists are engaged in the exploration for mining companies in search of metals, oils, and other Earth resources. They are also in the vanguard of natural hazards and disasters warning and mitigation, studying earthquakes, volcanic activity, tsunamis, weather storms, and the likes; their studies are used to warn the general public of the occurrence of these events. But due to some life choices and some encounters with people and just life ticking by I couldn’t go with my first choice so I went on to the next an here I am.

I’ve always found those subjects fascinating and I never really get bored when I’m researching but I need to think about my future and a way to expand myself and grow which is why I came to the conclusion to apply and start on this next degree.

I’m currently running for my 11 o’clock birthday photo shoot. I work part-time a photo store when I’m not working at SJProduction, any money is more money you know. My clients are throwing their little boy, Andy, a birthday party for his 5th birthday. The theme is Pokémon so you can already imagine how excited I am, me being the nerd that I am. I’ve actually been taking pictures of the Kirkland family for a while now. They decided to make me their family photographer and I was okay with that. They’re kind people and great to be around, not to mention their kids are adorable.

They have about five kids. Andy is the second to last. The oldest is about 17 he’s a very...animated kid. The newest addition to the family is expected to come in about a month or two is what she’s told me. As I arrive at the studio I find the Kirkland’s already waiting.

“Hey, I’m so sorry for running late I had another job and had to take care of some finishing touches, but now I’m done and all yours,” I say setting done my bags and cameras.

“Jennifer, oh don’t worry about that. We understand how busy you are.” Mrs. Kirkland said.

“You’re here now that’s what matters.” I nod and set up my things once I finish setting up I walked over to Andy. “Hey, Andy how’s it going little man?”

He looks up at me and smiles as he takes off his coat and I gasp.

He is just the cutest thing ever. He was wearing a Poochvena Pokémon costume. “Oh, my goodness aren’t you just the cutest thing. Great choice in Pokémon little guy.”

“Yea, he said he wanted to take pictures dressed as a Pokémon. At first, I was against it but then I remembered when he grows well be able to embarrass him.” Mr. Kirkland said and I laughed. Poochvena is a dog like Pokémon. He’s a dark type Pokémon from the third generation.

We spent about an hours taking snapshots in all different poses and positions, and angles. He changed costumes like four more times. By the time we finished everything finished it was 1 o’clock.

I was packing up my things when my phone started ringing I was too busy packing I just picked up without looking at the caller ID.

“Hello? Jennifer speaking ? ¿Hola? Habla Jennifer con quién hablo?”

I heard chuckling. “Well, my names Drew Johnson, and I was wondering if Ms. Delgado was free right now?” I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face at just hearing his voice. “Hi, baby. How are you?”

“Great, now that I’m talking to you.” He says huskily. “I’ve missed you,” he says and I awed inwardly. Drew is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Sometimes since I get too much into my work and he’s too preoccupied with the company and his job we don’t see each other. Once we went up to a whole week without seeing each other even though we live in the same city. We call and talk but nothing’s better than physical contact and communication.

“I’ve missed you too.” I smile. “So, how was your day?”

“Pretty good you know, the usual.”

“Well, that’s good. I just finished a job.” I said zipping up my bags.

“Good, and now that your done packing we can go out,” he says.

“Yea, let me just---wait how did you know I was packing?” I asked confused.

“I have my ways. By the way, I’m loving the outfit,” he says, “the black and red skirt defiantly suit you. Fits you just right.”

I look down at myself. I had a black and red designed fabric pencil skirt and a gray puffy shirt with some flat shoes and my hair loose. Ehh, Drew was being creepy again.

“Drew,” I whined while he laughs, “stop being creepy.” I hear the studio door open and I turned around to see none other than my handsome prince.

“Pardon, the entry.” He says teasingly causing me to roll my eyes. “Drew!” I smile as he picks me up and spins me slightly causing me to yelp.

“Hey baby,” he whispers in my ear as I pull back and look into his eyes and smile. He shows me his super attractive smile and my heart does a flip as he leans in and places his lips on mine. I smile against his lips and he does the same while he wraps his arms around me pulling me closer to him. I wrap my arms around his neck and nibble on his bottom lip causing him to groan as I chuckle.

Next thing I know his arms are under my knees and I’m being picked up making me gasp and break the kiss.

“Drew Anthony Johnson put me down!” I giggled as I held onto him.

He laughs and places me on my feet. I pouted at him and he kissed my nose. “Why are you here?” I ask looking up at his tall 6′1 figure while taking in his attire. He had on black slacks and a nice teal colored shirt that showed his arm muscles and their size, tucked in with a black tie. His jacket must be at work.

“I came,” he says leaning against the counter pulling me in between his legs leaving his hands wrapped loosely around my hips. I placed my hands on his chest, “because I haven’t seen my girl in a while and,” he checks his watch, “it’s about to be 1:30 and I’m pretty sure you haven’t eaten yet.”

As if on cue, my stomach decided to growl, answering Drew’s question. I felt my cheeks heat up as I blushed making Drew laugh.

“Exactly. Come on let’s stop by my office to pick something and then I’ll take you out to eat.” I nodded giving him a smile.

I grabbed my purse and was about to walk out with him when he stopped me. I looked at him confused and he raised his eyebrow at me. “What?”

“Where’s your jacket missy. You may look absolutely delicious in that outfit,” I glare at him while he grins at me, “but we’re in October. It’s already cold outside.”

“But it’s not that cold outside-”

“Go put on your jacket.” I pout and stomp my way to the back. I put on my black jacket and walk back to Drew sticking my tongue at him. “Happy?” he leaned in and pecked my lips. “Yes, yes I am. Now let’s go,” he says grabbing my hand.

I glare at him as I close up the studio and walk outside. The cool October air did get colder. I tightened my jacket and held onto Drew as we walked to his car.

He opened the door for me and then walked around and got in. As we drove to his office, which is my headquarters, I filled him in on what happened on Cleo’s date. He was laughing, cracking a smile every time I subconsciously snorted. It doesn’t happen a lot only when I laugh way too much and he says he loves it, while I disagree because I should like a snorkeling piggy. Arriving, he parks out front and we walk in. He grabs my hand as we walk into the building. It was really tall. Twenty-seven floors and the outside walls were made of glass so it had that blue-ish color. I only come here a couple of times every month to hand in my progress report to my boss who’s under Drew and of course to see Drew when I have free time.

We walked in me on his arm saying hello to everyone I found familiar. Glaring and giving daggers to the passing females who dared look at my man with lust and hunger. Freaking fake plastic Bratz. No not Barbies, Bratz. Everything’s fake, supersize a to the max for no reason and it’s just ridiculous. I already warned Drew of what will happen if I find him with one of those things. It’s no secret that Drew and I are dating, we don’t really keep it from anyone, and it’s not like is forbidden at work or anything. The only thing is that people, of course, being how they are, talk and there have been rumors that Drew got me my job, or that I slept my way into getting this job, you know, things along those lines. I don’t really pay any mind to that. People will always say what they want to say as long as it is convenient for them, and due to the publication that we work for the majority of the staffed population are females so yea, basically jealous women fanning over a guy they can’t have because of he is taken.

I don’t blame them though. Drew has basically the whole package.

Waiting for the elevator. Someone walks and stands next to us. We look over. “Hey, Derek,” Drew says. “Hi, Derek,” I say as he looks at us.

Derek is my boss. Of course, he’s under Drew but he’s a Director in charge of my working branch and he responds to informing Drew on all my and my coworker’s projects. He’s like the Vic-Principle and Drews the Principle. He’s a very, unique person, especially for the role he has as his job. He’s very quiet and only speaks when he needs to. He keeps to himself often, doesn’t really go out when we arrange parties or get-togethers, gets his work says otherwise. That I can vouch for, he really as an artist view. He’s in his early thirties but still pleasing to the eyes, although I have no interest.

He first looked at Drew and then our hands that were entwined and then finally his gaze landed on me. I don’t know why but he does that lot.

“Hey, Mr. Johnson, Delgado.” He says looking at me knowingly, but I didn’t do anything so I just ignored him and shrugged.

The elevator opens and the three of us walked in. I was pretty good acquaintances with Derek at first but I don’t know what happened. Now he’s just really quiet, well mainly around me instead now I’ve found him staring at me all the time, like right now. I could feel him staring at me. I tighten my hold on Drew’s hand and he held me tighter. I’ve felt uncomfortable around Derek lately. I don’t know what it is. It’s a presence and a feeling I get that gives me shivers in a bad way.

The bell rang on the eleventh floor and the door opened.

“Well, bye, Derek,” Drew said pulling my hand. I nod at Derek and walk out hand in hand with him when Derek speaks. “Remember Jennifer you have to stop by tonight and hand me your report from last month.”

“Oh right,” I say to myself. I turn to him and nod. “Alright, gotcha boss.” and the elevator door closes but not before I see him glaring at me. A shiver ranks my body as Drew pulled me closer to him. “I don’t know about that guy.” He says lowly.

I look up at him as he holds the door to his office open for me to walk in. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. Lately, he just looks mysterious and suspicious.” He says grabbing his things. “Well, yeah I’m not going to lie and say he’s a ray of sunshine but he must’ve been through this faze before right? I mean he’s been working here for years, even before you.”

“Exactly,” he says putting on his coat, “and he’s never acted like that. And I don’t like the way he looks at you.” He says vigorously.

I walk up to him and wrap my arms around him. “Hey, It’s alright. Let’s forget about him.” I suggest looking up at him. He sighs and nods. I got on my toes and press my lips to his. “Now let’s go eat!” I smile.

He chuckled and kisses my cheek as we make our way to the car.

________

“So how’s the work going?” Noah asks as we eat our food. We ended up heading to Cleo’s place. That’s like our groups main hang out. Stephanie, Noah, and Cleo, of course, were there.

“Great, tiresome but progressive.”

“You guys are boring.” Cleo groans and we all laugh. “Oh calm down Cleo we’ll be out of your hair in a minute.” She grinned and I would kick her if she wasn’t so far.

“Well bye guys, thanks again for the food,” Drew said as I helped him pick up his things.

“Humph. You guys just came to eat up all my food.” Cleo grumbled. Geez, she’s been cranky lately. Logan needs to hurry up and do something about it or I’ll have to attack. “Of course free food, free entertainment and a couple of minutes to drive you crazy. Best day ever.” I say winking at her.

She rolls her eyes and I smile kissing her cheek then kissing Stephanie. “If I don’t come home tonight it’s probably because I’ll stay over at Drew’s,” I whisper to her and she nods.

“Okay.” I give Noah a big hug and walk over to Drew as he takes my hand in his. “Bye.” and we walk out.

Walking down the hallway we bump into none other than Logan. “Jennifer, Drew,” he says with a smile and we both smile back. “Hey, Logan. Just the guy I was thinking about.” I said causing him to look at me confused.

“You better hurry up. Things are getting crazy.” I sing as we walk out. “Wait, what?” he yells out but were already inside the elevator.

“You’re never going to leave that guy alone.” Drew sighs. “Nope. Not until this ridiculous scandal between him and Cleo is cleared.”

“You sure do care a lot.”

“Of course. She’s my best friend and she deserves to be happy, I mean, I am,” I say as I look over to him making him smile, ” she was the one who put us together and for that I’m grateful so why no help her out.” He agrees.

“So,” he says stopping at a light grabbing my hand in his, “your place or mine?”

“Yours.” And he nods, kisses my hand, but I did catch the smile on his face. I love making him smile, happy. It literally brightens my day.

Drew lives in a very, very nice studio apartment in Chealse, convenient for him to be surrounded by art and he doesn’t live that far from me either. A bus ride away or a quick run could do the trick. I get really jealous sometimes at the gorgeous view he as of his neighboorhood and he also lives by the river so during the morning the views to die for, but since he’s my boyfriend all that’s mine is his and all that’s his is mine.

Parking he grabs our things from the trunk and we walk towards his building. Entering his place he places his stuff on his counter and I follow suit.

We take off our coats, making his way to his room, and he lazily sits down on his bed letting out a tiresome sigh. I take off my shoes and climb in bed, crawl behind him. I place my hands on his shoulders and I slowly start to apply pressure, feeling how tense he was. “What’s wrong baby?” I ask softly massaging his shoulders.

He let out a low groan and let his head fall back with his eyes closed. I smiled sweetly and placed a kiss to his temple. “Just worked up.” Was all he said. I kept at my assault. He relaxed and I decided to go change into some jeans and my favorite Flash graphic-T. Making myself at home I throw myself on the couch and turn on the TV and start watching Aladdin. A couple of minutes later Drew comes out in a regular white T-shirt and jeans and plants himself beside me before laying down and placing his head on my lap.

“Whatcha watching?” He asks as I weave my fingers through his hair. My favorite pass time.

“Aladdin.” I smiled as he groaned.

“You’ve been on Aladdin for two weeks now.” He mumbles as I hum along to the intro song. “I’m sorry, I can’t help it. I’m on my Aladdin flow. You can never get tired of Aladdin, the genie is amazing, I mean come on, its Robby Williams, and with the new Broadway show out I don’t know, I’m just happy. Let me be.” I pouted as he sat up laughing.

“Alright alright, come here.” He says pulling me down towards him. I grunt stubbornly refusing to comply with him as he grins as he sits up, grabs me and pulls me, making me land on his lap as he tickles me.

“Drew stop! No-o, stop!” I laughed as he grins before planting his lips on mine. I stop moving and sighed as he wrapped his arms around me. After a couple of minutes of making out, we pull apart and just stare at each other. I caress his face and smile as he kisses my palm.

“I really really like you my little Kung Fu Panda.” He says kissing my nose as I grin. “And I really really really like you my Captain America.” I winked as I sat up. Drew shook his head chuckling as he grabbed the remote and pulled me towards him, tucking me into his side.

“If we’re going to watch anything it’s going to be Shrek.” He stated and I chuckled rolling my eyes.

“Aye Aye captain.”

A couple of hours later I was starting to get hungry so I got up and decided to make some food for us. I tied my hair up in a messy bun and started making some pasta. I don’t know I just felt like having spaghetti with meatballs, so I got to work.

By the time I started molding the meatballs the spaghetti was already done and I was so into cooking and humming along to the radio I didn’t notice when Drew walked into the kitchen. He was leaning against the fridge a smile on his face.

“What?” I asked smiling. He just shakes his head. “Nothing.”

I narrowed my eyes at him playfully and he just lifted his hands in surrender. “Whatcha making?” He asks stepping behind me wrapping his arms around my hips and placing his face in my neck.

“Stuff,” I say and he hums as if thinking of something. We stay quiet as I mold more meatballs. When I go to grab the flour he grabs a handful and literally throws it at my face causing me to gasp loudly.

I clean my eyes and look at Drew not believing what he just did, my mouth was still hanging open.

“Close your mouth darling, you’re giving me ideas.” I quickly shut my mouth, blushing red. I was pissed. This was one of my favorite shirts and he dirtied it and now I have flour in my hair.

“Drew!” I glared at him as he covered his mouth trying hard not to laugh. I grabbed a handful of flour and his eyes widened. Before he could say anything I through the flour and it landed on half of his face and chest. He made this very embarrassing feminine noise when he got hit I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“You started it,” I said trying to wipe my face.

I turned to grab a towel and was about to clean myself when I felt something cold and sticky go down my neck. I gasped and turned around only for it to fall on my face too. Opening my eyes I see Drew grinning evilly with a bottle of syrup still falling on me and the refrigerator open. Oh, he’s going to die.

I turned off the stove, my eyes still on him glaring him down. We started walking in circles. I moved he moved and that’s how it went. I raced to the fridge and grabbed what first touched my hand, opened it and threw it at him. I heard a splash and laughed when I saw all the apple juice now all over him, drenching his once white shirt. Then I grabbed the ketchup bottle and squirted it on him.

He looks at himself, shocked, and I couldn’t hold in my giggles. “Ah, you like that right,” he says but I’m too busy holding my stomach. He came up to me and hugged me. “Eww! Drew let go.” I wiggled but that’s when I felt liquid fall over my head down my body. My mouth dropped open again.

I licked my lips. Orange juice. “I thought I told you to close your mouth,” he said setting down the juice carton and pinning me against his kitchen wall, “you’re giving me ideas,” he says as our noses touch. We look into each other’s eyes. Our breaths mixing. I could feel his heart beating and I’m pretty sure he could feel mine too. A heavy wave tension settled between us as we stared at each other. One of his hands came down to my face and caressed my, sticky, juice-stained cheek with splashes of ketchup.

A smile broke on his face. “You’re beautiful,” he says and I couldn’t help but blush as a shy smile spread across my face.

He leaned in and I meet him halfway as our lips connected. It was magical yet tropical. He tasted of apples and I tasted of oranges. He pulled back slightly licking his lips. “Sweet,” he said as he moved down to my neck. I felt his tongue slide across my sensitive skin causing me to let out a low moan and an involuntary shiver escaped me as I held onto his arm. “Hum, you taste like oranges.” he continued kissing and licking my neck.

“Who’s fault is that,” I said breathlessly as I sensed him smirk against me. I felt him close his mouth around my neck and start sucking.

I moaned and couldn’t help myself when my hips started grinding into his. He let out a groan and wrapped his arm around my waist pulling me closer as he moved from my neck back up to capture my lips. We kept at it for a while until we were both panting and breathless. We cleaned up and showered, separately, and he lent me some of his clothes to wear.

I finished making the food while I made him clean the mess he started. Afterward, we entered his room and stayed there for the rest of the night.

I helped him with some of his work, he watched a movie with me. We made out... a lot.

You see Drew and I haven’t taken...that step of the relationship yet. Not from his part, though, it’s from mine. I’m just not ready.

I really like Drew, like really. I think I might be in love with him, but since I was little I’ve always said I’ll hold myself for marriage, and I get insecure sometimes and self-cautious. Of course, I’ve talked about it with him, and he understands, but he’s a guy and I know how they can get. I have brothers, older and younger than me. We mess around a lot but sometimes I feel like I should just give myself up to him even though he doesn’t force me or tell me anything like that.

We were laying in his bed, laying on our sides, facing each other. Just staring.

“Drew,” I say softly.

“Jen,” he repeats taking my hand in his entwining our fingers. I smiled. “I-I hum...”

“Yea?”

“I- I... love you,” I said looking into his shocked green eyes.

I waited for a reply, an answer, anything. He just stared at me, not saying a word. Seconds passed, minutes and my insecurities were coming out and I was getting this sick floppy feeling in my stomach. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. This is what I was trying to avoid, being embarrassed, getting hurt from his response.

Did he feel the same?