New to New York

Jason had one of Addi’s arms over his shoulders with his arm wrapped around her waist, her eyes were drifting closed and she leaned heavily on him. His eyebrows were pulled to together as if he were trying to figure numbers

“You can come up if you want,” Willow said to Jason. She didn’t really think she could get Addi up the stairs and into the apartment all by herself. “To help me with her, I mean.” She finished looking down, she heard Jake laughing behind her as he strolled up with an easy lope.

“I’ll take her, Hatter. Take a smoke break or something,” he said winking at Willow. She hoped to god that Jason hadn’t seen that.

“Okay, just don’t let her do anything to ya.” And he handed Addi over. When she saw who now held her so gently, she smiled up at him. Whether or not she remembered feeling it in the morning, she was genuinely happy for the first time in a long time.

Then Jake left to the two others in charged silence, Jason still looking confused and Will wondering what his problem was. Finally he took out a smoke and lit it, took a deep drag then lifted his face to hers. “Want one?” he offered.

“Um, no. Don’t smoke.” He shrugged but his eyes didn’t leave her face. They traveled around her heart shaped face, her brown eyes, her full lips and her dark brown hair. She was so unlike the other girls he fell for; he didn’t really know how to react. For one thing, he’d never date a non-smoker. She also looked so much younger than most girls, innocent and pure and beautiful. He knew he didn’t look anything like that. He was the guy parents hoped their girls never brought home. He was the “bad boy”.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked, more or less to just fill the silence. But part of her really did want to know.

“You,” he said honestly. He took another drag, “Me. My job.”
Choosing to ignore the part that made her heart jump she asked, “Your job? What do you do?” Without meaning to, she took a step closer to him.

“I – uh, I deal with money. I help people get it…and stuff like that. Are you going to get a job? I mean, obviously, you’re going to get a job,” he took a nervous puff and breathed out slowly. Willow tried to suppress laughter at his stumbling. “What I mean is, what are you going to get a job in?” he finally finished.

Taking a step toward him again and looking in at the street, “Well, I was thinking bar tending. I took a class not too long ago back home and I was pretty good at it. Know any places hiring?”

She watched a man across the street open up his shop and she thought absently that it must be getting really late, or really early. She didn’t know. “The place we were at tonight is always looking for extra hands. I know the owner, real nice woman, I can put in a good word for ya?” he walked right up to her now and watched the man too.

“Do you know what time it is?”

“No, but I’m willing to bet it’s around six or something. That’s when these shops usually open…” his words faded as he turned his attention to something else, something he really didn’t need at the moment.

Across the street, just turning the corner, a man Jason “worked with” came into view. He didn’t want Willow to be seen with him, it could in the end put her at risk, but what could he do to get her out of sight and safe without raising a red flag?

Kiss her.

The thought hit him hard. He acted on it without thinking really. But that was a kiss to its core. Impulsive, exciting, completely sudden.

Cupping her soft cheek in his calloused hand and tilting her face up to meet his, he pressed lips to lips. Tingles make their rounds over his skin and hers, colors explode behind their eyes, she sighs into the kiss and pulls him closer. He walks forward, pushing her backwards, into the ally and out of sight.

But he can’t pull back like he thought he could. He’s too into it now. The way she feels beneath him, her breathing against him, it’s so much more intoxicating than it had been with any other girl. This one, he knew, was going to change the world as he knew it.

The kiss went on, slow and sweet, against an ally wall while the sun rose higher. Willow thought it would have lasted forever if Jake hadn’t come back down to tell Jason it was time to go home. She smiled inwardly at the thought of kissing Jason for eternity.

“Ahmm. Jay, I think we should, um, go home now.” Jake was standing at the mouth facing the street, back turned towards the two love birds to give them privacy. Jason put both his hands on either side of her face, smiling and breathing ragged, she thought he must be the most gorgeous thing she’d ever seen.

“I think I have to go now…” he said grinning up to his eyes. The feeling in his lips was just now fading to normal.

“So I heard,” she said back, smiling also. She could feel that her hair was mused and her lips were probably red and she had a dazed look in her eyes, but she didn’t care. “Will you call me?” she asked. She felt silly afterwards but had to know.

“Course I will, Low. I’ll stalk you.” He kissed her quick, smiling. Then ran to Jake, taking one last look at her before turning and heading south to the East Village.

Willow sighed happily and stayed in that ally a minute longer, savoring the moment, before fatigue took her up stairs and into her bed, where she heard Addi snoring lightly in the other room.

&&&&&

Across the island, in a not so nice neighborhood, Jake and Jason were sitting in their tiny living room. Too tired to walk down the hall to their beds, they sat drifting in and out of consciousness. “What happened with you and Willow? When I left you, you weren’t even looking at her. She’s not your usual type.”

“I just…I don’t know. She just…and I was just…she’s really pretty. And smart. And funny. Plus she reads. She might just be the most beautiful girl I’ve ever kissed…” Jason answered, kind of in awe.

“Looked like you were doing more than kissing, from what I saw. You had her pinned against the wall Hatter,” he paused like he was thinking, “What about Gina? She was really…attractive. ‘Member her? Blonde with baby blues?”

“Yeah,” he remembered her. And she was beautiful…at the time. But that was before he’d known a girl like Low had existed. Gina started in March but ended in June. She wasn’t anything special, anything like Low. “But Low is different.”

“Low? Thought she went by Will?” Jake asked.

“I guess I just made it up.” He smiled to himself sense Jake had already closed his eyes and was about to fall asleep. He knew he would have to figure out how to fit her in to his life without putting her in danger because of his job, but he’d deal with that later.

Right now he was going to dream about her.

His smile grew.