Just You

A few hours after the phone call, I finally worked up the courage to see Jensen. I knew that theoretically, we were alright with each other. But that didn’t work in the real world. In the real world we had to deal with pesky things called emotions.

So it took a while for me to grow some balls, metaphorically of course, and ask to go back to the house. Granted it was the fact I could smell the alcohol on my breath and body that overrode my embarrassment and fear. We were sitting in the living room, watching some random movie on HBO when I finally asked.

“Hey Jared?” He looked over from his spot curled up on the couch with Mikayla. “Do you mind taking me back to Jay’s?”

“Now?” I nodded. “Sure.”

“Thanks.”

“I think I’m going to stay here.” Mikayla said.

“Okay.” Jared bent down and kissed her. “See you later.”

“See you later.” She gave him a dazzling smile before turning to me. “Bye Anjilika.”

“Bye darlin’. Call me.” She nodded as we walked out of the house. We got in the car and got halfway through the drive in silence, with only the noise of Our Lady Peace surrounding us.

“So, he called you?” Jared asked finally.

“Oh, yeah. I apologized. Everything is cool.” I stared out the window for all it was worth.

“Good…good…” and that was it for the rest of the ride. When we got to Jensen’s house, he turned to me and gave me a long, searching look.

“What?” I asked him, hand poised on the door handle, waiting for an escape.

“Why did you kiss him?” I raised an eyebrow at that.

“That’s a little personal, don’t you think?” He just looked at me. “I was lonely, okay? He’s the only guy that’s been there for my entire life. And I was drunk. So I miscalculated.”

“Okay.” He nodded, long hair flying everywhere.

“Alright. Thanks for the ride.” I finally used that handle and fled before he could say anything else. Or ask any more ridiculously personal questions.

I walked up the sidewalk to the front door and paused before it. Do I just open it? Do I knock? Taking a chance, I just opened the door. I glanced around the living room cautiously, though I didn’t really expect them to be having sex on the couch or anything. They weren’t, thank God. But Jensen was sitting on the couch, watching the same movie we were watching at Jared’s.

“Hi.” I said as I walked in and closed the door behind me.

“Hi.” He didn’t look up from the TV. I stood there for a full minute in an awkward silence.

“Alright, I’m going to go take a shower.”

“You do that.”

“Great.” This is going to be awesome.



I sat at Jensen’s breakfast table a couple of days later, looking at the Help Wanted ads online. Most of them were shit receptionist or customer service jobs, but hey, a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.

“How’s the job search going?” Jensen asked, peering over my shoulder.

“Not good.” I grunted. He sighed and placed a hand on the same shoulder he was looking over.

“You know, you don’t have to do it this soon.”

“Yeah I do. I’m crowding you guys and it’s not fair. So I need to get a job. I have enough saved up for two months in rent if I’m careful, so I can move out soon. I just wish I wasn’t such an idiot and let Brent talk me into him working and me staying home to work on my book.”

“You weren’t an idiot. You were hopeful. You wanted to get published. There’s nothing wrong with that.” He tried to reassure me.

“Yeah, well…” I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I let the sentence trail off.

“Oh, here’s one. Management position at a local bookstore, forty thousand a year, not too shabby, needed immediately.” Jensen said, pointing at a listing that was about halfway down the screen.

“Really? I’m almost thirty years old!” I squinted up at him in disbelief.

“It’s management! And it’s temporary.”

“Fine.” I sighed and clicked on the listing. I have passed the bookstore before. It was called Libros, and it was a cute, two-story store in a tourist-y area of LA, so I knew it would get a lot of business. I sent my résumé to the email address listed and closed the laptop before hopping up to get a bottle of water.

“So what now?” Jensen asked, leaning against a counter.

“I have an appointment to look at an apartment.”

“Oh, busy day.”

“Yep.” It’s been like this between us since that damn kiss, frigid and awkward.

“Well, do you want company?” That surprised me. He’s been avoiding me since I came back from Jared’s, and today it was almost like things were back to normal. Weird.

“Um, sure.” I shrugged, opening the bottle of water and taking a sip.

“Great. What time is the appointment?”

“In about forty-five minutes.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

“Sounds good.”

Here’s to hoping things are going to be the same as it was before that damned kiss.