Good Kisser?
1812 Words
“How did your parents visit go?” he asked her as he sipped his coffee, his long legs stretching out under the table.
She made a face, “same as it always does. They never tell me when they’re coming and then they show up, let themselves into my place and then make me feel bad about all my life choices.”
He seemed startled by her words. “You don’t get along with your parents?”
“Not for lack of trying,” she puffed her cheeks out and blew loudly with annoyance. “Have you ever pissed another person off and had no idea what you did to deserve their anger?”
“Not really. I usually know why someone is angry with me and it’s usually deserved but please elaborate.”
Her lips tugged at his teasing words. She couldn’t imagine anyone annoyed with him. He seemed so gentle in every conversation she’d had with him up until the night before. “Well, for as long as I can remember my mother has been angry with me. I don’t know if she simply never wanted to be a mother, or if I vomited in her mouth as an infant and she’s simply never forgiven me for it, but she hates me. She’s not very maternal. My dad is a gentle man, but he bows down to her every decision including how she felt I should be raised. I wasn’t pretty enough, smart enough, studious enough. She put me in karate when I was five because she felt I was so pitiful I would get beat up on the playground. Three years ago, I got fed up with her constant picking on me and I moved out of her house while she was at work. I literally packed my s**t up and ran away from home at twenty-one because she terrifies me.”
“What did she do?” He snickered at her words. “When you ran away at twenty-one?”
“Beat me up.”
He sat up straight, his smile fading, “she did what?”
“Came to my apartment and laid a beating on me.” She gave a mortified laugh, “went to work the next day with a black eye and my freedom. She told me I was no longer her daughter if I wanted to behave like a slut living a free and loose lifestyle in New York City like I was on the s*x and the City television program. Now she only shows up once in a while to give me grief and remind me she doesn’t consider me her daughter since I’m such a disappointment.”
“I’m sorry to hear this.” He appeared truly horrified by what she was divulging.
She shrugged, “she also said a bunch of other things I didn’t understand which is likely for the best.”
“What do you mean? You didn’t understand.”
“She’s a Chinese immigrant. She married my dad and moved here when she was young. She was only eighteen when they married. She got pregnant at sixteen, had me at seventeen and they finally made it back to America when she was eighteen. They were married here but she refused to speak anything but English with me. I wasn’t allowed to learn Chinese. It was like she wanted to leave everything about her past and culture behind. However, when I disappointed her or she was angry with me, her native language would come out in spades.” She pursed her lips, “I wanted to learn how to speak Chinese so I could understand what she was saying to me, but it hasn’t worked yet.”
“Do you remember the words she called you? I can highly likely translate.”
She shook her head, “I think I’d like to remain ignorant after her visit last night.”
“What happened last night?”
“She was more judgemental about me going for drinks with my friends than you were,” she dragged her fingernails across the tabletop. “I don’t even know how she found out. Someone sent her a picture of me laughing and taking a sip of a drink and she showed up to berate me and call me all kinds of salacious words. She made sure to let me know there is no way I could ever return to her home without undergoing a thorough medical exam to check my virtue and my run a battery of tests for s****l diseases.”
He leaned forward and spoke carefully. “I was not judging you last night, Iris. I was concerned for your safety. Most assaults on women happen by men they know. Despite you being out with your friend’s brother, it would have been quite easy for any of them to slip the three of you a drug and hurt you.”
“I know you’re older than me but I’m not looking for a third parent. I was careful and I’m not a child. I don’t need to be watched as if I’m going to make stupid decisions each time, I leave my house. Having friends and relationships is normal. Having dinner and drinks with my friends is normal. I’m not going to die from it.”
He set his coffee cup down gently and studied her, “why don’t you date?”
She bit her lower lip, “how do you know I don’t?”
“Because we’ve had weekly calls every Friday for the last two years while you learn Chinese, with only a few missed sessions. While you’re not the most forthcoming person with your information, the fact you haven’t had a single Friday night date tells me you don’t have a boyfriend and you haven’t been out with a guy either. This foray last night into social experiences is not common for you.”
She snorted at his words, “simply because I didn’t go out before our calls doesn’t mean I didn’t go out after them.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“With whom? Name one man you’ve dated in the last,” he threw his hands up in the air as he fished for a number, “three months.”
“Just one?” She knew she was being catty.
“It would suffice.” He appeared truly perplexed by her comment.
“Nathaniel Cameron.”
“Who?”
She smirked as he appeared stunned by her easy ability to throw a name at him. “He works in the office building where I work reception. We went for dinner and drinks three weeks ago on a Saturday evening.”
“And how did it go?”
She moaned with the memory, “Not good to be honest. All he did was talk about how eventually he wants to be as rich as the guy who owns the office building. He’s some kind of recluse old man billionaire with more money than brains but Nathaniel thinks he can blow his way to the top.”
Jay choked on his coffee at her words, and she realized what she said and covered her mouth.
“Sorry. That was rude.”
“What would you know about such things?” he teased her as he used a napkin to elegantly wipe his lips from the coffee he’d barely contained in his mouth.
“I know enough Nathaniel thought I might be interested in working my way up from reception on my knees and I had to politely decline. He thinks because he’s a VP in his office he has pull. He argued with me so in addition to me politely refusing to get under the table for him, I also paid my own half of my dinner and took an uber home.” She noted the way his hand had crumpled the napkin and frowned, “you asked me who I had dated in the last three months, and I gave you answer. Satisfied?”
He appeared to be contemplating a question as he regarded her curiously. He lifted an eyebrow behind his thick glasses, and she considered yet again how much more handsome he would be if he removed them. They made his eyes seem unnaturally large and she was certain under the rims his cheekbones were sharper than cut diamonds.
“Are you a virgin?”
It was her turn to sputter at his comments and she glared at him, “a gentleman does not ask such things.”
He gave a mocking laugh and lifted his eyebrows, “that’s a yes.”
“Are you?”
“Nope,” he was smug as he folded his arms over his chest. “It’s been a while since I was in a relationship but I’m not so desperate to prove my mother wrong about being a w***e I live a life of celibacy and only date losers who want to take advantage of staff who work under them.”
“You are rude!”
“And accurate.”
“Pfft.”
“Did he really ask you to blow him?”
“Yeah,” she grunted staring into the bottom of her now empty coffee cup. “Said he could talk to the senior managers in his company about getting me an admin assistant role in his office so I wouldn’t be under the temp agency the building uses for reception. He said if I wanted a job with benefits, I had to reciprocate for the benefits.”
“And you turned him down?”
“I’m still working reception, aren’t I?”
“Maybe you’re not good at sucking cock.” His smirk was wicked as if he was enjoying making her squirm.
She kicked him hard under the table and took pleasure in the way he grunted at the movement.
“Not funny, Jay.”
“It was kind of funny,” his lips twisted as if he was struggling not to laugh. “Do you know if you’re any good at it?”
“You’re being incredibly rude.”
“What about kissing? Are you a good kisser, Iris?”
She felt her cheeks flaming at his questions and looked away to a print on the wall of a dog drinking coffee. Didn’t the artist know coffee was like poison to dogs? Ugh.
“You’re not going to answer the question?”
She shook her head vehemently and kept her gaze averted.
He stood up and rounded the table to sit next to her on the bench. “Maybe I’ll have to see for myself.”
“What?” she turned her gaze to him in shock, her mouth open to protest his words but was met with his lips touching hers. Not what she was expecting at all.
- Writer
