Jake Undone(5)

“I’m an electrical engineer for a company in the city. We design stadium lighting. And at night, I dance…at a male strip club.”

I couldn’t tell, but I was pretty sure the color must have drained from my face.

“Seriously?”

“Yup.”

“Wow,” I said.

He looked over at Ryan. “You didn’t tell her she was living with Magic Fuckin’ Mike?”

Ryan just laughed, gauging my reaction.

Jake looked amused and bit his bottom lip, his teeth clicking against his lip ring. Then, he let out a guttural laugh. “I’m just fucking with you again.”

“You’re not a stripper?”

He laughed and shook his head. “I like you. You’re an easy target. It’s gonna be fun to have you around. By the way, I really am an engineer. My cubicle mate Raj gets pretty pissed when I try to take off my clothes and give him a lap dance, so I stopped stripping a long time ago,” he joked.

That’s a damn shame.

Jeez, where was this coming from?

I couldn’t believe how gullible I was sometimes, but then again, why wouldn’t I have believed him? With his overall stature and the way his black hoodie hugged his clearly defined chest, his body could certainly pass for that of a stripper. Plus, I didn’t know him from Adam. What I did know was that Jake was a ball-buster and did not appear to be the type of guy I should be attracted to. Or at least, that was my first impression of him.

I looked down again at the various colored tattoos on his right forearm. On his left, there was just a lone dragon. I wondered what else was underneath his clothing.

He walked over to the other side of the kitchen, picked up a banana out of a pile of about twenty, peeled it and ate the entire first half in one bite whilst looking right at me, grinning.

Ryan laughed. “I forgot to mention, that’s Jake’s bushel of bananas over there. We think he is part human, part monkey.”

I looked at Jake. “You like bananas, huh?”

Still chewing, Jake said, “Damn straight, I do. I fuckin’ love ‘em. Mmm.” He took the other half of the banana and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth, gesturing to me with the peel, his mouth full. “Wa-wan?”

“Huh?”

“Want one?” he said more clearly.

I held my hand out. “No, thanks. I’m good.”

Still chewing, he continued looking at me, and my heart fluttered.

Ryan broke the uncomfortable silence. “I told you Jake was interesting.”

I watched as Jake slowly licked his lips after finishing the banana. He is interesting alright.

The front door then opened, and in walked a cute girl with short black hair in a pixie cut.

Reality Show Scene Four, enter stage right: instant best friend.

She was wearing an adorable blue shift dress and immediately dropped her purse that was practically larger than she was, walked over to Ryan and planted a kiss on his lips.

“Hey, babe,” Ryan said and then turned to me. “This is Nina. Nina meet Tarah.”

She startled me when she immediately pulled me into a hug. “I have heard so much about you, Nina. I have been waiting for you! I am outnumbered here. You didn’t tell me how pretty she was, Ryan.”

“Aw, thanks…likewise,” I said. “It’s really nice to know I won’t be the only female in the house.”

Tarah had almond-shaped light brown eyes, defined, thick eyebrows and full lips. She was petite with smooth olive skin, and I could totally see what Ryan saw in her. I was curious about her nationality, so I asked her.

“Can I ask…are you Italian…Spanish?”

“No, actually, I’m Persian. My family is from Iran.”

“Ah, I knew it was something like that. You have a very exotic look.”

Tarah smiled and Ryan said. “Yeah, where Nina and I come from, there are two ethnicities: white and pasty white.”

We all laughed, and then I noticed Jake walking back down the hall to his room. I was oddly disappointed by his sudden retreat.

Tarah immediately started playing with my hair.

“Who does your highlights?”

“No one. This is my natural color.”

“Seriously? You are so lucky, girl. Do you know how much money people have to pay me to get highlights that look like this?”

“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t have to pay for it. I’m gonna be pretty broke this year since I am going to try to not work and just focus on school full-time.”

“Nursing, right? That’s probably a pretty tough curriculum.”

“It is. So, the more focus on school the better. I have enough money saved to just about pay my rent and food for the year.”

“Well, if you ever need anything, you let me know, okay?” Tarah said.