Page 21 of The Hot Mess

My feet were aching by the time we were done when Isabella suggested we dip into another one of her trendy hangouts for cocktails and salads.

“So. Jada,” she said, leisurely chewing on a crunchy breadstick. “What’s your story? Have you ever used your company’s site for yourself?”

“For dating? Oh! No. We have a sort of unspoken rule about not using our own service. It’s a sticky security situation.”

“But you’re single?” she pressed.

“Yes,” I blurted. “Sort of. I mean, yes.”

“Well…are you or are you not? If you have to think about it so hard, you’re probably single.”

“No, I’m definitely single,” I corrected myself. “I’m just…”

Her eyes lit up. “Sleeping with someone.”

“Not just one someone. There’s someone new, but I’m not tying myself down,” I tried to explain. “I’m kind of new to…”

“Hooking up? Casual sex?”

“Yes and yes,” I confessed, feeling foolish for admitting something like that to someone like her. If she didn’t think I was pathetic before, she certainly did now.

“I know what you need,” she decided suddenly, flying up to her feet as she waved to the waiter. “Charge this to my account.”

I rushed to grab my bag and run after her. “Where are we going?” I asked as I struggled to keep up.

She didn’t answer. She just led me into a nearby spa and marched right up to the counter. “Two full luxe spa packages please, for my friend and I.”

“And do you wish to have the included bikini waxes?”

I was so giddy from Isabella referring to me as “friend,” I didn’t have time to panic when she smiled at the woman and said, “Yes, of course. That’s the whole point.”

“Wait.” My face dropped. “What’s the whole point?”

She laughed and leaned towards my ear. “Darling, if you’re going to be out there sleeping around…you have to have the proper landscaping down there.”

Once again she was off, leaving the poor clerk to usher me along in my shock.

11

Jack

All the lights in the city blurred together with neon strings of cars zipping back and forth, restaurant signs glowing with advertisements of their ramen and sushi. I loved the charged energy of Tokyo, even with the unfamiliarity of the language and some of the culture. The waning voice of a Japanese singer blared from the outdoor speakers of a nearby club and another one sang out from a karaoke bar. It was like one big giant party, and there were plenty of other Americans visiting to enjoy it.

As I was the visiting consultant, my clients had treated me to everything the city had to offer as I guided them on their business ventures. The work had been satisfying, and the fun parts made the trip more than worth it. But every step of the way, my thoughts were stolen back by something waiting back home…or rather,someone.

If there was ever a place to get lost enough in the busy shuffle and bright lights to forget what happened before or what was coming next, it was this place. And yet I was painfully aware of what my send-off had been, and the temptation that would still be there when I returned.

Jada. I was oblivious to everything she possessed all these years. That body, those lips, her eyes. They burned into my mind and consumed my thoughts.

I snapped aware at the sound of an old man shouting at me in Japanese. I took in my standing position on the street corner and the cab waiting in front of me, finally clearing my mind enough to reach out for the door and get in.

“Haneda airport,onegaishimasu.”

He kept yelling at me halfway there, but I slipped back into my dazed, distracted state through paying him and making my way across the terminal to my flight.

I wanted to take Jada places, to whisk her off around the world, showing her all of my favorite places and what was special about each one. I could imagine lounging on some tropical beach with her, sipping cocktails while I took in long looks of her in a bikini. For all the women I had met in different places, Jada was the first one I imagined travelingwith, rather than to or away from.

The whole flight back, I kept thinking how funny it was that I was worried about her getting attached to me, since I was her first. And now it seemed the tables had been turned on me.

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