The Tangles of My Heart

After an hour of searching, I was more than ready to rip my hair out. I flopped into my couch face down, screaming into the suede cushions. “Tay?” I heard one of the twins call my name. It was Sid. “Tay, are you one your period?” he asked, sitting down and massaging my lower back.

“No! Worse!” I yelled, startling him when I sat up. “Sid, have you seen a red flash drive anywhere? Anywhere at all?”

“No…why? Do you need it?”

“Why do you think I’m looking for it?” I asked, still pretty much yelling at him. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, closing my eyes and breathing slowly. “I’m sorry, Sid. I’m just really pissed off because I can’t find it, that’s all.”

“Me and Vince can look around,” Sid offered, getting to his feet as well.

“Thanks, Sid,” I told him as I continued to wrack my brain for where I could have possibly put my flash drive. I thought I left it on my kitchen counter, but it wasn’t there. Where. The fuck. Was it! I had to call in sick at work because I couldn’t find it! I was about to have a fucking mental breakdown, but then I thought about Jack being in my house. He wouldn’t have taken it…right? Ugh. I called Zack just to make sure.

“Hey, hold on,” Zack murmured into the receiver, obviously leaving a loud place for a quiet, private one from the sounds coming from his end. “Taylor?”

“Sorry Zack, I’ll be brief. Do you know if, uh, Jack has, o-or might have, taken a flash drive from my house?”

“No, I don’t, but I could ask,” Zack offered politely. “Or…you could just talk to Jack yourself.”

I practically whimpered at the thought of having to talk face to face with Jack. There was the sound of some slight scuffle, and then over the phone, a new voice said, “Yeah, you could just talk to me yourself.”

I blinked a few times. I knew it was Jack. His voice was a bit deeper than I remember, though, and it had this biting, bitter tone to it that I wasn’t used to. I got all choked up and I didn’t really know what to say. I didn’t want to say anything. At least over the phone he couldn’t see the range of emotions displayed on my face right now, but he’d probably hear how bad my voice would shake.

“Oh my god, that bitch hung up on me,” Jack hissed after a few minutes of silence.

“I did not,” I snapped, making Jack laugh.

“Well, that’s good. Because if you want your little flash drive back…”

“Are you at your hotel? I’m coming to get it,” I said as civilly as I could manage, grabbing my keys.

“I didn’t say you could come get it! You didn’t let me finish! If you want your flash drive back, you’re gonna have to earn it.”

…What the fuck? “Jack, my job is depending on that flash drive.”

“Then you’d best bring your A game to dinner tonight,” said Jack, his voice much too cheery for my liking. “I’ll pick you up at seven. Wear…like, a nice dress or something pretty looking…oh, who am I kidding, you’ll look pretty in anything,” Jack muttered the last bit like he didn’t mean for me to hear it. And I smiled anyway. Jack cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m picking you up at seven.”

“You’re taking me to dinner…so you can give me my flash drive.”

“And get an explanation from you, hopefully some closure,” Jack sighed quietly, and it honestly hurt my heart. “And do dirty things to you in my car.”

“Jack Bassam Barakat!” I guess his immaturity grew back. I couldn’t take him seriously.

“Dinner with me at seven. Don’t fucking forget.”

“Yeah? Well, you’ve forgotten something… You don’t know where I live.”

“You’ve forgotten something, too,” Jack sneered. “Your baby sister’s right here, chilling with Matt. She’s gonna show me the way.” I swore at that, which made Jack laugh diabolically. “Got any more excuses? Or are you gonna stand me up so I can keep your flash drive?”

“You have a girlfriend,” I reminded him, but to no avail.

“How do you know I have a girlfriend? What do you do, stalk me on the internet?” Jack took my silence as an answer. “Aw, you do stalk me on the internet! How cute! What a creeper you turned into!”

“I will see you at dinner,” I said through gritted teeth. “Take care of my flash drive, asshole.” I hung up and walked to my kitchen, throwing together a long island iced tea to calm myself down. I didn’t stalk him on the internet. I just…looked him up…occasionally… Ok, maybe more than that, but it wasn’t stalking. I just checked every now and then to see how they were all doing.

Once I had a nice buzz from my alcoholic beverage, I went outside for a drag. I had the whole day ahead of me, so I figured I should blow Jack away tonight. And not like that.

I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure before getting the split ends of my hair trimmed off and my highlights retouched. Then I went ahead and bought a new red dress and a pair of black heels for tonight. When I got home, I took a nap and woke up around five. I had time to do my hair and make some more drinks…

“Where are you going, Tay?” Vince asked, arching an eyebrow at my getup and how I had the hair curler in one hand and a shot glass in the other.

“Dinner. A business dinner.”

“Starting early, I see,” Sid laughed, holding up my bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label.

“Shut up.”

“What kind of business?” Vince pressed, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

“There’s food for you guys in the fridge.” That did the trick. They cleared out of my room right away. I was struggling with curling the back of my head when Anna came running up to my room.

“Tay! There’s someone waiting for you outside!” she cooed, tugging on my curls.

“I fucking know, alright?” I sighed, slapping her hands away from my hair. “Could you curl the hair on the back of my head?” I asked, handing her the curler.

“Taylor, he’s really cute,” Anna gushed. “I mean, I’ve got Matt, and, sure, this guy was a bit of a jerk to me when we first met, but this Jack guy is really fucking cute! He’s foreign, isn’t he? He’s got such pretty eyes and a well defined nose and he’s so freaking tall! I bet he’s –“

“Shut up, Anna. Just please shut up.” I already knew all that stuff about Jack. “He’s Lebanese,” I said aloud for her benefit.

“…He’s that ex you were telling me about, wasn’t he?” Anna guessed, starting on another curl in my hair. “I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!” Anna squealed, noticing my blush. “He wants to see you again! He’s taking you out to dinner! Isn’t that a good sign?”

Oh, jeez. I’d never hear the end of it from Anna. “Ok, you know what, stop. I give up after this curl.”

“Oh, yeah. I’d hate to keep that fine piece of ass waiting,” Anna teased, unplugging the hair curler.

“I’ll be back as soon as possible,” I told her, trying to rush down the stairs like I normally do…but my new heels got me tripping. Of course I would fall right into Jack’s arms. Of course.

“I think I’m going to keep you for as long as possible,” Jack corrected me, wrapping his arm around my waist to help steady me on the ground. He was as tall as I remember, because even in heels, the top of my head only reached the level of his nose. Jack wore some tight black jeans with a white button up shirt, suspenders, and a red tie. A red tie. How could he have known that I was wearing red, too?

“See you, Jack!” Sid and Vince said in unison, their mouths full of food. “Have a good time, Tay Tay!” they added almost as an afterthought when I glared at them.

“Peace,” Jack said to them both with a grin. I hated how he was just so likeable. I needed to convince my siblings that he was the bad guy here.

“Bye, Jack!” Anna called from the top of the stairs. Jack blew her a kiss. What a fucking flirt. We walked out of the door together and he closed it behind us.

“You’re not gonna trip anymore, are you?” he laughed, walking slowly with me. “Because I’d hate for you to get hurt before we get to dinner.”

“Where’s my flash drive?” I asked impatiently.

Jack reached inside his shirt, pulling out a lanyard with my flash drive hanging from it. “Like I said, you’ve gotta earn it,” he said with a wink, slipping it back under his shirt before I had the chance to grab it.

...Looks like I’m in for a long night.