Raya Rose: The Opportunist.

Warmth covered her shaking body, she was so numb she didn’t even know she was shaking had it not been for the warmth that was consuming her and put a stop to it. She didn’t want to open her eyes, she didn’t have the strength to do so. She did notice though that she no longer laid on the cold hard ground, instead she was held in warm arms that swayed side to side. It had finally stopped raining, but that didn’t make the cold go away. Luckily, the person carrying her was kind enough to bring warmth to her. It definitely had to be a man, his woodsy musky scent gave him away. As the man kept walking she heard creaking on the ground which made her assume he was going upstairs. The man maneuvered her somewhat and finally warmth filled her up completely and the sweetest scent filled her nose and soul.

Pancakes.

Still she did not open her eyes.

“What happened?” Emily?

“She’s an idiot, that’s what” the man holding her growled. She sighed inwardly, definitely Jacob.

“Come lay her over here”

Jacob followed Emily and Raya soon found herself being laid in what felt like a thousand marshmallows. She sighed contently.

“Is she ok?” Emily asked worriedly

“She damn as well better be” Jacob bit.

“What happened, Jacob?” Emily asked again.

Jacob sighed loudly “I told her to stay in the damn car” he growled angrily. “Sam called… I was working on the car I found then it started raining fucking cats and dogs—“

“Language” Emily warned.

Jacob rolled his eyes “We got inside the car, stayed there for a while then Sam called, I told her to stay in the car while I went, but she didn’t freakin’ listen!” he growled the last part.

“Why did you leave her alone!?” Emily smacked his arm.

“I told her I would come back!” Jacob defended.

“Oh, please” Emily scoffed “Like she could believe you! Poor thing probably thought this was another of your schemes to get rid of her.”

“You know I wouldn’t have left her there”

“I know that, but she doesn’t, Jake! How could you have been so insensitive?”

“Tell that to your husband”

Emily shook her head “Just wait til’ Sam gets here, he’s going to have it”

“He’s definitely to blame” Jacob agreed

Emily smacked him again “You’re still not off the hook”

Raya groaned, Jacob and Emily turned to her.

“Raya?” Jacob asked

“Raya can you hear me?” Raya felt Emily’s hand on her cheek.

“I think so” Raya whispered.

Emily chuckled “I think so too”

“Open your eyes Raya” she heard Jacob say as the bed shifted down.

“No”

“Why not?” he demanded

“I’m scared” she confessed.

“Of what?” he sighed tiredly holding the bridge of his nose

“Your reaction”

“I’ll leave you two alone” Emily said closing the door behind her. Jacob watched as Emily left the room and waited for her to close the door then turned to his mischievous little wife.

“Alright Raya, no more kidding around, open your eyes” he demanded again.

“No”

Jacob sighed “Raya, I promise not to yell”

“Or have an angry face?”

Jacob rolled his eyes “Or have an angry face” but nonetheless agreed.

Raya slowly opened her eyes. Jacob was sitting on the bed next to her, he seemed to be rather calmed, but as soon as her eyes made their way to his hands they were balled into a fist. Well, at least he was trying.

They stayed in silent contemplating each other.

“Well?” Jacob finally broke the silence.

“Well what?”

Jacob exhaled annoyed “WHAT THE HELL—“ he took in a breath trying to control his anger “were you thinking?” he managed to lower his voice.

“The same as you when you left, I needed to get away” she shrugged.

“I WASN’T—“ he took another breath “trying to get away”

“Could have fooled me” Raya spat sitting up and crossing her arms.

“Look Raya, we’ve discussed this… I wouldn’t hurt you… intentionally.”

“Could have fooled me” she turned her head towards the wall

“I wouldn’t”

“Could have fooled me”

“Could you stop saying that” he rolled his eyes

She turned to look at him “Could you stop rolling your eyes at me”

“Touché” he scratched his eyebrow “I need to know what the hell you were thinking getting out of the car when I specifically told you stay in there, so speak”

Raya scoffed “What am I a dog? It’s like you had a dog and now you’re trying to replace me with it, it’s rather rude”

“Raya” he warned.

She rolled her eyes “I thought I saw something” she lied.

“Saw what?” his eyebrows raised in interest.

“I don’t know, but I wasn’t going to stay in there and find out. I don’t know if you haven’t noticed but I’m not the most muscular or toughest person in the planet. I mean I once had a fight with a penutbutter jar…it won. I broke two fingers, you see?” she said showing him her left hand “I can’t really curve these fingers”

Jacob stared at her dumbfounded. What the heck was she talking about? Raya was the most random person he had ever had a conversation with. She never stayed on topic and she always talked about the most insignificant things, yet it was strangely refreshing. He never got bored. In all honesty, he could just have sat there and listened to her talk all day, but the hell he would ever admit that to her or anybody else.

“And you see this?” she twisted her wrist “I got this scar trying to feed a Chihuahua a chicken bone, but I guess it thought my arm was the chicken bone and it bit me. I like to think about it as my warrior scar though”

“Why is that?” Jacob sniggered.

“I don’t know, it makes me feel like I survived without getting rabies or having my arm completely chewed off”

Jacob bit the inside of his cheek trying to prevent the smile that was on the verge of showing. He didn’t want her to think that he was warming up to her.

“I’m a survivor” she smiled.

He couldn’t help it, the corners of his mouth twitched upwards. Raya looked at him in awe, she hadn’t seen a genuine smile come out of Jacob before. They were usually all cynical or sarcastic. He looked rather sweet.

Jacob cleared his throat. “You see this?” He said lifting up his sleeve. Raya nodded. “I got this scar on my shoulder falling off the roof. My sister told me that if I believed hard enough I would be able to fly. I guess I didn’t believe hard enough, I ended up breaking my arm and my leg”

Raya laughed causing Jacob’s heart to flutter. This was the first time she had ever laughed because of something he said.

He liked it.

But he kept telling himself he didn’t want it.

“You were a little rascal weren’t you?” Raya teased feeling light hearted.

Her voice flowed so smoothly in his ears. She was a temptress and she had no clue.

“You need to get out of those wet clothes” he got up from the bed “I’ll ask Emily to bring you something so you can shower if you want”

She sighed, leave it to Jacob to ruin a good start.

He walked out of the room not bothering to give her a second glance.

“Jerk” she muttered as soon as the door closed.

She rubbed her temples. This was not what she imagined when she got here. She needed to do something to have an upper hand on this situation. Maybe change her tactic? Be more aggressive? She huffed annoyed, what the hell did she need to do to win him over? Hadn’t she done enough? She practically became his slave. Doing random little things for him, following him around, always making sure he was ok--- and all he did was ignore her, and she kept coming back.

He ignored her.

She kept coming back.

He ignored her.

She kept coming back.

That was it!

She stood up on the bed excited.

He wanted to play that card, then so would she. She jumped off the bed pacing excitedly around the room.

“Jacob Black” she stopped pacing around the room putting her hands on her hips “prepare to be unacknowledged” she smiled mischievously.

“What was that, honey?” She heard Emily say from the other side of the door.'

“Oh, nothing! Come in!” Raya said happily. Emily entered the room with clothes and a towel in her hand.

“Jacob said you would probably want to take a shower” Emily smiled handing Raya over the pile she had in her hand.

“Thanks Em, you’re a sweetheart!”

“Anything for you” she smiled patting Raya on her shoulder. “Well, the bathroom is in the hallway to your right, just call my name if you need anything”

“Thanks again Emily”

Emily gave her a wink and walked out of the room. Raya made her way to the bathroom took a quick shower, changed and went to the kitchen. She found Emily cutting fruit on the counter and Jacob putting his plate in the sink.

“Hey there!” Emily smiled “Want some breakfast?”

“Yes, I would love some” she smiled at Emily and brushed by Jacob without giving him a glance. Raya sat on the table and Emily put a plate in front of her. Raya took in a breath of the lovely pancakes Emily had set in front of her. She dug in and holy behold it was like catching a glimpse of heaven.

“This is delicious!” she said with the food still in her mouth “Excuse me” she gulped embarrassed.

Emily chuckled “It’s totally fine as long as you enjoy it”

“Raya, try to hurry up, we need to get going” Jacob called out from behind her.
“Go ahead and go” she simply stated not looking at him.

Jacob raised his eyebrow “You’re going to stay here?”

Raya shrugged her shoulders.

Jacob mimicked her and shrugged his shoulders “If that’s what you want. Thanks for breakfast Emily” he said waving at her and walked out.

Raya huffed to herself patience she reminded herself.

**********************8

Raya stayed at Emily’s house til’ dark until Sam went to go drop her off because clearly Jacob didn’t care a rat’s ass about his wife. It was 11 o’clock when Raya walked inside the house. It was dark with the exception of the TV in the living room. She found Jacob sitting there with his arms crossed looking straight at a commercial of Sham Wow.

“You finally decided to show” he commented not taking his eyes away from the TV.

“I’m surprised you’re even here” She rebutted “Usually you’re leaving around this time” she crossed the living room.

Jacob shrugged “I can do whatever I want”

“As can I” she said feeling her anger bubble at his sexist comment.

Jacob shrugged again “Sure you can, I don’t care what you do”

“Oh really?”

“Really”

She chuckled “Well that’s a relief”

“Sure is”

“Good, then you won’t be surprised when I go on my date” she said so casually putting her back to him.

“You’re what?” that got his attention.

“My date” she smiled her back still to him

“With whom?” he got up next to her

“Oh, you know a guy”

“What guy?”

She turned to face him “What do you care?” she raised her eyebrow.

“I-I – I don’t” he stumbled with his words.

“Good, then I don’t have to do any explaining to you” she yawned. “Goodnight Jacob” she said leaving him alone in the living room. Jacob muttered something causing her to smile. She shut the door to the bedroom.

Shove that up your ass, Jacob.