The elevator doors were about to close when she put her legs in-between and stopped them. With a shy smile on her lips, she lifted her face. “I’m sorry…” she began, but when she saw the person that was in the elevator, her words choked in her throat, and she didn’t know what to do next. And she was already inside the elevator, wasn’t she? With no Julia or someone to help her for she was aware of the murderous look he had on his face.
What and what had she told him in the airport? She wanted to recall and see if what she had said was bad enough even though all she wanted was to kill him as well. She mustered a poised expression and acted as though she hadn’t seen him, all the while holding firmly onto the bag that had her snacks and drugs.
From where he stood behind her, Jack wanted to pull back that long hair of hers. But then again, he remembered all that she had said, and he knew this would be the only chance for him to teach her the lesson he had been wanting to teach her throughout his flight to Florida.
He cleared his throat, and he watched the way she had softly moved. Was she nervous? Or perhaps she was afraid? There was no better way in making her pay for what she did to him than now, here, when she was alone with him and probably afraid of what he might do to her. “You know you can easily apologize to me, and I’d act as though we’ve never met, right?” he said with an enigmatic voice, and he watched as she discreetly flipped her hair away from her shoulders.
She turned with a stoic expression and stared directly into his eyes, and that was the first time he had noticed how green her eyes were. Was it possible to have such eyes? No, maybe if he looked hard he would realize that they weren’t green. Was it teal or silver? Her eyes were a color he had never seen. “What the hell are you staring at?” she yelled in his face, and that was when he noticed that he had stared for too long. And knowing this girl after the short encounter they had, she would have to drag him over this. He had to make her fear him. He had to.
“What should I stare at, miss?” he asked with a voice she wasn’t able to comprehend as he took a few enigmatic steps toward her. She took a step backward. His eyes still held the question while he lifted an eyebrow, waiting for an answer until he made sure she had backed all the way against the wall. “Tell me, what should I stare at?” he repeated his question again, and the way she had gulped down a lump in her throat didn’t go unnoticed by him.
“What do you think you’re doing? What’s your name again?” She was trying to appear as strong as she could even though she had never had a man make her heart beat as fast as he did now. She didn’t know whether it was fear of what he might do to her or what his broad physique cornering her made her felt. “Oh yeah, Jack. Back off, or else I’ll have to make you regret ever being whoever the hell you are!” she yelled out loud, and he threw his head back, laughed, and grabbed a handful of her hair.
“Really? You’ve got some nerves there, young girl.” His anger made an appearance yet again; he recalled all that she had said to him at the airport, the names she had called him. Stupid, a quack pilot, and what again? Yes, he wouldn’t look bad as her bodyguard. And that made him held tighter to her hair until she let out a cry.
“This will be my first and last warning to you, Jack. Let go of my hair now!” she threatened through gritted teeth as she wailed silently. Man, he was wicked.
Jack felt her knee his groin. He let go of her hair, and his knees went south, groaning out loud.
She straightened her hair and stared at the way he was flashing her a murderous look even though she was sure he couldn’t even move an inch now. “I’d love to do this over a thousand times to a fool like you. Apart from being an asshole, you’re a disgusting pervert.” And just in time, the elevator made a sound before it opened, and Anna grinned wickedly at him before she took her bags that were laying on the floor and walked out in a majestic stride.
The moment she closed her door behind her, she slumped onto the next available sofa as she heaved a sigh. “That was close. If I hadn’t done that to that fool, I don’t know what he would have done to me. Perverted idiot.” She massaged her scalp as she spoke and hissed outwardly. He was indeed a fool, and he deserved what she had done to him. Idiot.
She put on the TV as she silently watched while she contemplated visiting Nate in his apartment or not, but she opted for the latter. Because as it was now, she didn’t want to go out of her suite in case she saw Jack again. She didn’t know when she had saved his name in her mind, so she wouldn’t just think of him as the idiot he was but always as Jack.
While she ate her snacks, she remembered her best friend, Maya, and she smiled. Maybe she would visit Maya before their wedding with Nate. They had been friends since kindergarten. Anna’s father was a Spanish man, and they first lived in Spain at the early years of their marriage with her mother before they fully relocated back to America due to her mother’s nagging that she was tired of living in Spain. She was eight years old when they came back to California, and her father fully established his business and everything back in America. It was a big deal to him and a very big success that up until he died, he couldn’t stop praising her mother for making him come back to America.
Anna had lost all her friends from Spain except for Maya. Her parents sometimes let her visit her during summer, and Maya’s parents let her visit as well. It had been a year and a half since they last met, and Anna was suddenly missing her best friend. She picked up her phone and dialed her number immediately. “Hola, Maya, dios, te he echado de menos. (Hey Maya, God, I’ve missed you.)” They had the kind of friendship that everyone would love to have, and she loved the girl to bits and pieces.
She heard the girlish giggle Maya made as she heard her voice. “I’ve been so busy, Anna. How have you been?” They sometimes spoke in Spanish, which Anna always insisted on, but Maya wanted them to converse in English.
“I’ve been fine, but you know Mom always stresses me out. Guess what?” she giggled as she gulped down the drink in one gulp, smiling as she imagined how Nate would look when he saw her tomorrow.
“What? I’m already excited for the news.” Maya giggled, equally as excited because she knew whatever it was that Anna showed this excitement for was indeed something beautiful.
“I’m getting married!” She didn’t know what was with her and the urge to get married. Nate was a good guy, handsome, and he loved her so much. She thought all that was enough to make them have a good marriage just like her parents. Because despite her mother being so much of a pain in the neck, her father loved her until the last breath he took.
Maya nearly choked on whatever she was eating, and Anna threw her head back and laughed. “What? I was just joking, God. But, you know? Nate might propose to me this anniversary. It’s been three years since we officially started dating and four years since I first saw him.”
Maya sighed, and Anna dreaded what would come out of her lips. One thing Maya had in common with her Mother was a hatred for Nate. She didn’t know what was with them and Nate. There was once a time when she kept on bugging Maya until she came to Florida, and they had a group date with Nate. At the end, Maya boarded a plane back to Spain because she couldn’t keep up with ‘his fake smiles’. She only called Anna when she had landed in Spain.
“I know what you’re going to say; don’t say it, okay? Let’s talk about something else, but I’m going to prove both you and Mom wrong very soon.” Maya scoffed. She didn’t know why Anna failed to see everything they had seen; it was as clear as the blue that engulfed the whole sky every morning. What was so hard in seeing what type of a guy Nate was?
She smiled, though, because she didn’t want to make her feel bad. “I would actually be even more excited than you will ever be. You sound happy as it is now; what’s going on with your life?”
She remembered the look in Jack’s eyes when her knee got in contact with his balls, and she threw her head back as she laughed. “I gave one foolish guy a reset of his balls.”
The way Maya burst out laughing was enough to tell her that she had done a very good job. “Oh my god! Anna, no, you did not!” She couldn’t hold her breath. She had always known how crazy Anna was, and her bad temper could make her do almost anything. But no, she freaking did not.
Feeling so proud of herself, Anna flipped back her hair and wished she had recorded the look in his eyes, the pain and anger knowing he could not do anything to her at the moment. “Yes, I did; you know your girl! He was such an idiot, and the look on his face was priceless, Maya.”
“I can’t stop laughing at this, Anna. But why? Is he one of the guys that chased you or something? Or maybe he happened to be so unfortunate to have been one of your mom’s spies, and you found out?”
“I would have loved it more if he were one of those. His name is Jack, a quack pilot I met in the airport and the irony? He was the pilot of the plane I boarded. An idiot, an asshole, and a perverted fool.”
“First question: are you in California?”
Anna laughed and wished she could see the look on her face while she answered her. “Are you paying me a visit? Because if you are, I’m not there. I’m in Florida. I came to visit Nate. It will be our anniversary in three, so…”
“I hate you! I would have visited you if you were still in California; you’ve missed a lot. Tell me more about this Jack.”
“You wouldn’t love the story, but he wouldn’t look bad as a bodyguard. Actually, that statement riled him up more than me calling him quack pilot.” She threw her head back and laughed, remembering exactly the way her heart had raced when he had cornered her in the elevator. The pervert.