Page 64 of Jake Forever
Bianca called back, "Why shouldweturn around? We were here first."
"Alright," Jake said. "Don't turn around. Just get out."
Bianca made a sound of disbelief. "Well, that's just lovely. There's only one elevator. What? You want us to join you in there?"
"Hell no," Jake said. He jerked his head toward a plain gray door, located a few paces away from the much fancier doors to his penthouse. Above that nondescript door was a classic exit sign. "You can take the stairs."
"But we're twenty floors up," Bianca protested.
"Not my problem," Jake said.
Again, I peered around him. I called out to Bianca, "Oh, stop whining. You took the stairs up here, right? So, just take them back down again."
She glared at me. "Have you forgotten my foot? It really does hurt, in case you didn't know." She gave a dramatic sigh. "But I guess no one cares about that, do they?"
Well, I didn't care, but only because I didn't believe her.
Next to her, Vince gave a small laugh. "You're fine," he told her. "It was two flights, and you survived those, didn't you?"
Twoflights? Oh. Of course. They'd done what any smart person would've done. They'd taken the elevator to the eighteenth floor, and then, they'd walked up only the last two. That wasn't so bad.
Next to him, Bianca hissed. "Oh shush, they don't need the details."
Vince chuckled. "Too late now."
"I don't know what's so funny," Bianca muttered. She looked back to Jake and said, "Alright, fine. We'll wait in your office. But I don't know what the big deal is." Her lips twisted into a smirk. "She was, after all, practically naked when we picked her up."
It was my turn to sputter. "I was not!"
"Well, you surelookednaked." She gave a fake, tittering laugh. "I'm surprised you weren't arrested for indecent exposure."
In front of me, Jake's body tensed, but he said nothing. From where I stood, I couldn’t see the look on his face, but I'm guessing it wasn't friendly, because a moment later, Vince gripped Bianca's elbow and started hustling her toward the stairs.
Already, she was whining. "But I don't like stairs. They're always grubby. And I'm wearing high-heels."
Vince ignored her complaints and paused to give me a boyish grin. "Keep the hoodie," he said. "We'll call it a gift."
That grin, as harmless as it looked, didn't fool me one bit. Not anymore. Underneath all that charm, he was a total snake. But within the last hour, hehadgiven me a rideandloaned me the hoodie, so I couldn’t exactly be rude about it.
But apparently, Jake had no such qualms. "No," he told Vince. "You'll be getting it back."
Vince gave a laugh. "Why?"
"Because she doesn't need 'gifts' from someone like you."
Vince shrugged off the insult. "Suit yourself." Once again, Vince, with Bianca in tow, began walking toward the stairway door. Just before it swung shut behind them, Vince called out over his shoulder, "Hey Jake, if you're more than five minutes, give us a call. We'll come back and join the fun."
Well, that wasn't disturbing or anything.
Peering around Jake, I stared at the door. I lowered my voice and asked, "Did that mean what I think it means?"
"If it does, he can piss off." Jake turned around and reached for my hand. "Now come on, let's get you inside."
Five minutes later, I was alone, soaking in a hot bath. As for Jake, he'd gone downstairs to meet with Vince and Bianca. About what, I still had no idea. In all the commotion, I'd forgotten to ask.
But now that I was alone, I was more curious than ever.
I also couldn’t help but wonder why Vince was looking so happy all of a sudden. I'd seen him confront Jake on several occasions. Every single time, Vince had been royally pissed off for reasons that made a lot of sense.
