Plain Jane

Mine

The morning on Monday was something I never looked forward to but for some reason I was up at the right time and dressed, ready for my latest article to be set to print. The one from Cold Hearted Bastard had me bouncing on my toes with excitement, and the fact that the day we set things to print is a relaxed day and we are not expected to do much.

I left a sticky note for Darren and rode the elevator humming along to the music, taking occasional sips of my coffee. John waves goodbye to me and just to my luck a taxi is idling on the curb, just waiting for me to slip in. I open the door and smile at the man, closing it behind me just as someone else slides in next to me and closes their door.

I turn towards the person ready to tell them I was here first but come face to face with Ryan. "Don't you have a car or something?" I roll my eyes, putting my hand on the handle to get out of the taxi.

"It broke down." He says.

"And you just happen to be outside the building I live in waiting for a taxi?" I accuse.

"No, I was waiting for you." He answers. I turn to him in confusion and he leans forward, putting his rough, warm, lips on mine. I didn't respond in fact I put both hands on his chest and shoved him as far as I could away from me.

"Why would you do that? Don't kiss me Ryan!" I yell, wiping off my lips off like a pouting three year old.

"Listen lady one of you needs to tell me where to go." The cab driver says from the front. I run my hands through my hair and look at Ryan from the corner of my eye. He's biting on his lip, a confused look on his face.

"Take me to the New York Times offices." I tell him and he lurches the cab forward. I don't have time to fight with Ryan over the cab so he is going to ride with me to work, because I won't be late over him.

"What you're not going to kick me out?" He snaps.

"I have a column I'm excited to publish today, its from a man, which doesn't happen often." I say, ignoring his bitterness and the awkwardness from our kiss.

He's silent for a moment. "Do you know the name of the man?" He asks.

"Cold Hearted Bastard." I answer, looking at him. His face turns a bright shade of red and he tells the driver to stop, and he does so by slamming on the breaks.

"I have to go." He almost leaps out of the cab, running around the traffic and disappearing into the crowd.

"Wow lady, you sure know how to get a cab for yourself." He laughs.

"Yeah something like that." I mutter.

.....

The day flew by and I was happy with myself because my editor told me this was the best article I'd written in awhile. I clocked out early and made my way to the quaint Chinese restaurant a few blocks away to pick up Darren and I's favorite food.

The door dinged open and the woman behind the counter, a small Chinese woman with a heavy accent and even heavier hands, smiled and waved me over. I inhaled deeply and basked in the aroma of fried rice and egg rolls, until catching a familiar sight out of the corner of my eye.

Cayden.

And Mandy. Her nasally voice rang through the restaurant and jealousy surged through me. My only bad attribute is my jealousy, I was a very jealous red head in a small body. My hair could definitely match my temper when it came to my man or someone I liked.

"Mandy!" I called through clenched teeth. Her voice stopped and she turned to face me, a smile lighting up her face.

"Jane!" She strutted over to me in her tall heels, wrapping her thin bony arms around my shoulders and pulling my face into her chest, squishing her oversized breasts and overbearing perfume smell into my face and nostrils.

"What are you doing here?" She asks, after finally releasing me.

"Just ordering the best Chinese food in town." I respond, pulling my smile tighter and wider and staring towards Cayden who was nervously scratching his neck.

"Same and I happened to run into Cayden here who I decided just had to try the to die for fried rice!" She screeched.

"Oh really?" I ask, looking around her shoulder.

"Yes, Cayden come here let me introduce you to my fav New York writer!" She says airily.

He hesitantly walks towards us, my eyes locked in a fierce glare with his until he stops a couple feet in front of me.

"Hi, I'm Cayden." He says, sticking his hand out to shake mine. I grip it in a death shake and we both keep contact longer than normal and Mandy seems to become uncomfortable.

"Well I just wanted to let you know me and Cayden go way back, we met again in a hotel room a couple months ago and haven't stopped talking since. He's practically in love with me." She whispers the last sentence but Cayden turns beet red so I think he heard it.

"Is that so?" I smirk. He shakes his head furiously, his faces till flaming red.

"Yeah! We had a red hot romance if you ask me, but then he up and left, and I never heard from him, until now. We actually grew up a couple hundred miles from Manhattan. We had some pretty good memories right Cad?" She asks, turning towards him. My eyebrows shoot up and I look at Cayden with irritated amusement clear on my face.

"Yeah we did Mandy, but I wanted to tell you that I don't secretly love you, and that we didn't have a red hot romance, I left to get away from memories of home and you bringing them up isn't making it any better. And I know Jane by the way, we met when she thought I was just another business man coming to New York for the first time, and now you've gone and ruined that too." He snaps, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. My mouth is frozen in a permanent O shape and Mandy is bright red now, steam practically seeping from her ears.

"Order number 1 and 2 ready." The woman behind the counter says. Mandy and I both walk awkwardly up to the counter and grab our bags, making the decent towards the door, neither of us sure who should speak to Cayden. I leave her with him and continue out the door but he follows after me quickly.

"Are you free?" He asks, calling after me.

"Tonight, no. I promised Darren-"

"No I mean are you free, boyfriend free, past free, just free in life?" He asks. I was confused by his question until I realized he was asking if I was single and not carrying any baggage.

"Yes." I answer proudly.

"Well I was wondering if you would like to try not being free." He says, now almost a couple of inches away from me.

"Meaning like date?" I ask.

"Meaning like I swoop you up whenever I feel like and take you on extravagant trips around the city, or I bring you homemade lunch at work or I text you sweet things to make you smile." He says, my heart melting. "Meaning we don't kiss other people. Meaning we only kiss each other." He says, his lips brushing mine, my heart beating faster with each word.

"Meaning you are mine." I answer, biting his lip.

"Get a room!" I hear someone yell from across the street, a grumpy, probably single lonesome New York man.

"I'll get right on that!" I call back and he grumbles away in response.

"Meaning I'm yours, yes." He answers.

"Good. I have to admit seeing you with Mandy made me extremely hot tempered." I say, smiling against his lips.

"I think I like hot tempered Jane. My own fiery red head, who would have thought." He laughed and I realized Mandy has breezed passed us because her perfume was in the air surrounding us.

"You smell that?" He asks.

"Does it smell like expensive perfume, nasally voice, and desperation?" I ask, leaning into his chest.

"No it smells like the past. I don't like it. I like the smell of the future." He says, and I laugh at his cheesiness. "No really Jane. I like this." He says, leaning down to steal a kiss. My phone buzzes and I pull away from him, taking it out.

We should talk, I have to tell you something. -R

"Who's that?" Cayden asks, reading over my shoulder.

"My friend Rylie she has something important to tell me, probably about her and her new boyfriend or something." I lie.

"Well here, I'll take this food and go eat it with Darren and you go talk with her." He says, taking the bag.

"Thank you! You're a lifesaver, Darren gets angry when he can't eat the food he's promised!" I laugh dryly, hailing a taxi. Cayden kisses me one more time and then continues down the sidewalk, I lose sight of him in the crowds.

Sighing loudly I slip into the taxi, giving him directions to Ryan's house. The ride is silent but on the inside my brain is screaming for me to turn the taxi around, go back to Cayden and just cuddle and eat Chinese food. But the curious part of me was urging the taxi to go farther, and I didn't know which one to listen to. But apparently my mouth did because the taxi turned onto Ryan's street and idled slowly past the plain houses. He stopped when I told him too and I made my way out of the taxi, my heart pounding through my shirt and my palms sweaty.

What did he have to tell me? I repeated the question over and over in my head as I payed the driver and watched him drive off, turning to face the light that was coming from the porch. The red door opened and out stepped Ryan himself.

He was wearing loafers and sweat pants that hung loosely on his hips and a V neck white shirt with short sleeves. In the light coming from his porch light he looked like a God with his dark hair and strong muscles, and I could feel his eyes trying to meet mine. My skin prickled all over but I kept my head high remembering that I was Cayden's girlfriend.

Girlfriend? He never really specified. But he did say that I was just his, no one else's. So I can't do or have anything to do with Ryan, not that I would want to. I take tentative steps forward, my eyes not leaving his, we were in a deadlock glare battle.

"Will you hurry up the wind is starting to pick up!" He growled.

I moved my feet a little faster, pushing around him and through his door. He slams it shut behind him and I jump a little as I feel his hand graze my arm.

"Why so jumpy, Jane?" He asks. My name melts out of his mouth, sounding like liquid gold but I shake the thoughts and attraction out of my head, focusing on the task at hand.

"What did you want to talk about? I don't have all day." I really didn't. I needed to get back home to Cayden so we could cuddle and talk for hours like I'd been planning before I got Ryan's text.

"Eager to get back to your boyfriend?" He asks, pouring a cup of coffee.

"He's not my boyfriend, he's someone I'm dating." I specify.

"That makes him your boyfriend." Ryan laughs dryly.

"No, it means we haven't put a label on it. Now instead of talking about my personal affairs how about you tell me why you asked me to come over so I can leave." I snap, sliding into one of his bar chairs.

"You know that article you were excited to publish?" He gets right down to business, sitting across from me.

"Yeah, the one from Cold Hearted Bastard?" I ask, confusion clear on my face.

"Yeah, well I wanted you to know that-" He says but the doorbell rings. We both look up and he puts down his coffee mug, making his way towards the door, holding up one finger to signal for me to wait.

I heard him open the door and a muffled woman's voice that was getting louder after a couple minutes passed. I strained my ears and leaned closer but then I heard the clicking of heels and the shuffling of loafers and Ryan and a tall brunette rounded the corner. She was babbling away, waving her hands around wildly and a smile was on her face, but it instantly dropped once she saw me.

"Who is she?" She proclaimed loudly to Ryan.

"I'm Jane Everson. Who are you?" I asked, looking her up and down.

"Lily Peterson. Ryan's girlfriend." The woman responded, her bright red lips turned upside down.