The Mark

2. Jessica

I hadn’t realized I had been crying when the man raised my head to look at me. I watched as his hand reached up to wipe the tears that had begun to spill from my eyes.

“Shh. It’s alright. It won’t hurt you.” The man coaxed.

I wiped the remaining tears from my eyes and sat up in an attempt to distance myself from the man. I don’t know what it is about this man, but he had me melting in his lap. His voice was luxurious. Full of sophistication and seduction. This man had the power to make me come undone with nothing more than a glance in my direction.

I needed to distance myself from him before I did something stupid.

The bus began to move once more. So I grabbed a Kleenex from my pocket and wiped the remaining tears from my eyes.

“Thanks." I said before turning away to look out the window. I needed to look anywhere but at the man. I knew that if I continued looking at him, I would never be able to look away.

Neither of us said anything for the remaining duration of our trip. Once the bus stopped, we had finally reached our destination. I quickly grabbed my bag and ran out from the seat before the man beside me even had a chance to realize that I was leaving. I managed to dodge him, only for his hand to stop me once I had made it to the aisle.

“Wait… can I at least get your number?” The man asked.

I turned around to look back at him, eyeing him over.

‘What would he possibly want with my number?’ I thought to myself. I couldn’t think of any rational reason why. So I did the next best thing. I ran in the complete opposite direction of him, not looking back. The moment I made it onto the street, I saw a taxi waiting nearby and dashed into the cab, directing the driver to my best friend Jessica’s house that I would be staying at for the next foreseeable future.

Jessica and I have been best friends longer than I can even remember. Jessica’s mom and my mom were good friends. They used to joke that we became friends in the womb. So whenever my mom and Jessica’s mom would get together, we immediately started to play around in our mom’s stomachs. Or at least that’s what they claimed anyways.

Either way, Jessica has always been a great friend of mine. She moved here to New York last year, and this was my first time coming to visit her. Like me, she moved here as she was given a massive opportunity for work. She was a lawyer at a prestigious law firm. I was so proud of her.

Since we were both single, I would be staying with her. That is until I get a chance to find a place of my own. Jessica had said that I was more than welcome to stay with her, but I knew she would want her own space. However, I wasn’t exactly in a rush to find my own place either. It would be fun living together.

I had come here a week early so that way we could spend some time together and she could show me around. I was majorly excited. Jessica and I stayed in contact every day. She would tell me how much she loved her new job and her life in New York, which only made me more intrigued to see it for myself.

So when I had been given the opportunity of a lifetime to work on a project for Stone Enterprises, based out of New York, I knew I couldn’t turn it down. This job would be a career-defining position. I would be staying here for several months to work on a new architectural outline for a new building they were designing in Europe. I had recently moved here from England, which is why I was chosen to spearhead the project. They needed someone well-versed in international design, which happened to be my forte.

If I did well on this project, I would have the opportunity to become a partner for our company. It was my absolute dream. And from what I knew about the project, it should be a cakewalk. The owners seemed to have no requirements for the building, which meant that I would be free to do the project all on my own. Money wasn’t an issue. The commission alone from this job would almost be enough to retire. But I was young and loved my job. So retiring wasn’t an option. If anything, it only made me thirsty for more.

“AHHH! YOU’RE HERE!” Jessica’s screaming took me out of my trance.

Together we jumped up and down in sheer excitement. We hadn’t seen each other for a year, and we're making up for the lost time.

“I know! I can’t believe it either. I’m so excited to be here!” I said, giving her a warm hug.

“So, how was the trip? Meet anyone cute?” She asks, getting straight to the point.

I couldn’t help but laugh. One of Jessica’s traits was her directness. She was always the first to jump on the ‘Get Haley a Boyfriend Bandwagon’.

Even though her question was absurd, I couldn’t help but find myself thinking of the man from earlier.

“OH MY GOD! YOU DID! YOU TOTALLY DID!”

I turned to look at my best friend jumping up and down in front of me like a kangaroo.

“What’s his name?”

“Where did you meet him?”

“What does he look like?”

“Is he from here?”

“Do you think he has a sexy friend?”

“Jess! Jess! Stop! One question at a time!” I said, reaching for her shoulders to get her to stop jumping in front of me.

“Fine, start from the beginning.” She said, rolling her eyes, as she pulled me from the front door to sit on the sofa in the living room.

“There’s not that much to tell, really.” I saw her side-eye me, so I decided to rip the band-aid off and get it over with.

“There was just this guy I met earlier on the bus here. He was quite hot. Nothing happened; he just sat in the seat next to me.”

“I know you well enough to know that’s not only what happened.” Jess said.

My mind immediately began to wander, thinking about how the guy decided to sit next to me out of the entire bus. I was probably reading too much into it, though.

"Hales..." Jess coaxed, snapping her fingers in front of me.

I turned to look at her, realizing that I had gapped once more.

"You can deny it as much as you want. But this man, whoever he is, seems to have had some sort of effect on you. I can't seem to get you to concentrate." Jess said.

"It honestly wasn't a big deal. This guy decided to sit next to me. We sat beside each other from the airport until my stop here in Manhattan. I don't even know his name or where he was going. I'll probably never see him again. So we might as well drop it." I said; as I stood back up to walk to the door to grab my suitcase.

Jess sighed but nodded her head begrudgingly.

"Fine. I'll let it go for now. But tomorrow, you and I are hitting the clubs. Perhaps you'll find the guy of your dreams." She said, looking cheerful once more.

"I don't know about meeting a guy. But club-hopping does sound fun. It's been a while since I've gone dancing." I admitted.

Jess smiled and hugged me before reaching down to grab my suitcase.

"You don't need to do that. I can carry it." I began, reaching for my suitcase to grab it from her. However, she brushed my hand away.

"Oh, hush. You're my guest, so follow me to your room." She said, without even pausing for my answer. Rather she spun around and made a beeline for the second floor.

I rolled my eyes at her, but followed her dutifully towards what would be my bedroom.

Jess set my bag on the floor by the closet and walked towards the door to my room.

"The door on the right is the bathroom. You have your own private ensuite. Let me know if you need anything. We can go shopping tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure you're pretty exhausted from your flight."

I took a quick look around the room. The entire house was very rustic looking, with a few modern changes. It was your classic brick stone but had been remodelled recently to give it more of an updated look. It was quite lovely.

I smiled at Jess, then walked over to her. I hugged her once more before stepping back into my room.

"Thanks, Jess. Really. You've been nothing but kind. I definitely owe you one for this." I said, smiling at her.

"Of course. Anytime. You know I'd do anything for you."

I smiled at her as she turned to leave my room. She closed the door on the way out, heading to what I figured was her bedroom. I'm sure she'd give me more of a tour tomorrow. So I turned back into my room and walked over to my suitcase.

I hadn't realized how tired I was until the sheer thought of unpacking my suitcase seemed to be the most daunting task I've ever had to do. So instead, I quickly rummaged through my suitcase to find my pyjamas and night kit. I took a quick shower, then went to bed. Before I knew it, I was engulfed in a deep sleep as thoughts of the man from the bus began to swirl in my mind.