Jake Undone(4)

I brewed a pot of coffee as Ryan got out the plates, and we reminisced about high school.

“So, Troll, no boyfriend at the moment?”

I sighed. “No. I was seeing someone at home for a few weeks, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Then, knowing I was about to move away, I decided to break it off. It wasn’t worth the effort.”

“Well, they can’t all be like Stuart, can they?”

Stuart was my first boyfriend in high school. He was sensitive and sweet and the constant butt of Jimmy and Ryan’s jokes.

“Ugh…did you have to bring him up? Poor Stuart. He was awesome, though.”

Ryan snickered. “He was a friggin’ girl. Stuart and his paper birds! What was it he used to do?”

I giggled recalling the memory. “Aw, Stuart was the sweetest thing. He knew the combination to my locker, and he would create these little ornate origami birds out of construction paper. Then, I would unfold them, and there would be these little poems that rhymed inside each one. It was romantic.”

Just then, footsteps crept up behind us, and a deep raspy voice that cut through me said, “That is…the STUPIDEST fucking thing I have ever heard.”

When I turned around, the immediate but unwanted reaction my insides felt at the sight of him told me I was in trouble.

Reality Show Scene Three, enter stage left: hot womanizing roommate.

Then, came the three words that would change my life. “Hi, I’m Jake.”





CHAPTER 2





Jake stuck out his tattooed-covered arm prompting me to take his hand and flashing a smile that could only be described as devilish. “You must be Neenee,” he said.

I coughed nervously, and a weird sound came out of my mouth that I couldn’t quite identify. It might have been my body saying, Well lookey here, she isn’t dead from the waist down after all.

He was freaking beautiful.

“It’s Nina, actually,” I said shaking his calloused hand, noticing a silver thumb ring. The warmth of his skin in the brief contact didn’t escape me, nor did the fact that my hand lingered longer than it should have. It might have trembled.

“I know your name. I’m just fucking with you.” He flashed a wicked grin and winked. My body’s reaction to that made me question my own sanity.

He smelled like a mixture of cigarettes and cologne, which was oddly arousing. He had a brow ring and a bottom lip ring, and his incisors were very pointed and sharp. His eyes were green with gold speckles, brought out even further by his contrasting short dark hair.

Come to think of it, Jake was like a black cat – gorgeous, but very likely bad luck if it crossed your path.

“Nice to meet you, Jake.”

He leaned against the kitchen counter, crossing his arms and gave me a once-over that sent a shiver down my spine. “So, who is Stuart, why is he making you origami bird poems, and who cut off his balls?”

I laughed. “Stuart was my boyfriend freshman year of high school. Ryan decided to bring him up now for no good reason.”

“What brings you to Brooklyn?”

“I start nursing school on Monday. Long Island University.”

Jake scratched his chin, sarcastically pensive. “Isn’t that in Long Island?”

“No, there’s a Brooklyn campus. It’s actually not far from the apartment.”

Ryan interjected. “With your fear of subways, that’s a good thing.”

I shot Ryan a death glare.

Great. He was going to embarrass me in front of Jake.

“What’s this, now?” Jake asked, lifting his brow.

“Thanks, a lot, Ryan,” I said, seriously pissed.

He gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry. It just came out.”

“It’s nothing,” I said looking at Jake, waving my hand, hoping he’d drop the subject.

Jake continued to stare at me quizzically. “Are you seriously afraid of the subway or something?”

“She’s afraid of everything: planes, elevators, heights...” Ryan let out a frustrated sigh.

I widened my eyes at him again, then looked at Jake and shrugged my shoulders trying to downplay it. “I just get a little nervous in crowded, contained places. That’s all.”

Jake nodded slowly in understanding. “It’s like a phobia. So, places that make you feel trapped?”

“Yeah, basically,” I said.

Jake squinted at me and seemed to be examining my face for the truth. His expression darkened like he somehow saw through my trying to pass my phobias off as nothing. Our eyes locked, and I felt an inexplicable connection to him in that moment that went beyond just physical attraction.

He scratched his chin. “Hmn.”

Suddenly uncomfortable, I changed the subject immediately. “So where do you work?”