LOVE PROBABLY

19.

I closely follow Rosie as she climbs the spiral staircase. We reach the first landing where there are two doors. Rosie walks over to one of them and is about to knock when her hand stops inches from the wood.

“What are you going to tell him?” she asks me, suddenly worried.

“Er! I don’t know. I didn’t think about it.”

We stay a few seconds racking our brains but impatiently, I’m the one knocking on the door.

“Who is it?” calls out a male voice.

“Jacky, it’s me, Rosie!” she said with the voice of a young seductress.

“Rose? I’m coming. Just let me put on some pants and a T-shirt.”

“Oh, yes! It’s better,” she says more for me than for him. “You’ll see. I’m past the age but this young man is just…”

“Yeah, Rosie, what’s going on?” he said as he appeared in the half-open door, brushing back a strand of long hair that fell over his forehead, thus releasing a hypnotic clear gaze.

Wow… I have an immediate shock. To finish Rosie’s sentence this young man is quite simply..., there’s no shortage of laudatory adjectives: handsome, magnificent, sublime, magnetic... The list is long.

Imagine Bradley Cooper fifteen years younger… Well, that’s his photocopy. That’s Bradley’s little brother. Yum… I’m starting to get hot. The words are stuck in my throat and my mouth is stuck open. It’s very disturbing. For a bit, I would liquefy on the spot, just because his ocean gaze stares at me from head to toe. No one had ever had this effect on me. I instantly regret not having put my shopping session at the top of my list of priorities. I don’t look like anything and I’m facing the man of my life. It doesn’t matter that he’s younger, you have to start one day and I really want it to be with him, tonight, right away.

Rosie, who has grasped my sudden incompetence to line up three words in a row, comes to my aid.

“Can we come in? Are you alone?” Rosie asks, craning her neck to peek curiously around the room.

“Um, yes. Come in, but I beg you, don’t look at the mess,” he said, picking up some things lying around. “I hadn’t expected to have a visitor tonight. I got home recently,” he said, clearing his coffee table of the remains of his dinner. “It’s a damn mess!”

“Tsss! No vulgar words, please. Don’t worry, we’ll close our eyes. Right, Maddie?”

Still unable to articulate a word, I just nodded. Rosie sits on the sofa and invites me to imitate her by pulling my arm.

“Jacky, sit down if you want! Maddie has something to tell you.”

“Uh, do we know each other?” he said to me, one eyebrow raised.

Both stare at me while waiting for me to speak. I interpret both looks. Rosie encourages me with hers, as for Jacky, he’s both curious and amused. A smile appears on the corner of his lips and my mind wanders completely. He grasped my confusion and I would immediately like to dig a hole to hide in. How am I going to get out of this?

I swallow my saliva and clear my throat as aesthetically as a truck driver who smokes more than a pack of cigarettes a day.

“Um, hum. My name is Madeline Jordan and you’re at my place!” I end up saying in one breath, without any consideration.

Rosie looks at me desperately, rolling her eyes. As for Jacky, well… he bursts out laughing.

God, how beautiful! Why did he have to put on pants? Oh, heavens. I feel myself blushing. I’m pathetic.

“I may have misunderstood,” he asks after having stopped laughing out loud.

“Madeline is the daughter of Mary Jordan, the owner of this apartment.”

“She’s dead and now it’s mine!” I say without much more tact than during my first tirade.

“Okay. My sincere condolences,” he said. “Shall I get you a drink? A fruit juice, a beer or… a herbal tea perhaps?” he said standing up.

He’s having fun with me now, isn’t he? He doesn’t know who he’s dealing with, kid.

“You don’t have something stronger?” I hear myself say by pure provocation.

“Would you like a whiskey coke? I’ll join you,” he says happily.

“Very well! I love it,” I say, looking convinced.

Jacky goes to his cupboard where he takes out a bottle of whisky, already well underway. He takes a can of Coke zero from his fridge, two glasses and puts everything on a tray. I watch him, ogling his ass without any restraint. I had never done that in all my life.

“Maddie, are you sure?” Rosie whispers in my ear, while Jacky unmolds ice cubes.

“Certainly! I need to relax. It’ll be fine, I’m used to it. Don’t worry,” I said, detached, lying brazenly.

“Well if I worry a little... All the same.”

“And you, Rosie, don’t you want a drink?” our host asks, coming back towards us, his arms moulded into his short-sleeved T-shirt, revealing his musculature.

“Nope. I’ll be fine. I thank you.”

Outside, Romeo starts barking. Rosie jumps and says to us:

“Well young people, I leave you, you have plenty to tell each other. Maddie, you know where I am, if you have a problem, just knock on the door.”

“What kind of problem could she have?” Jacky asks. “I’m a nice boy and she’s a big girl! Right, Maddie?” he said with a hint of irony in his voice.

“Absolutely! I’m coming soon, just enough time to settle this,” I say, thinking of a completely different matter if you see where I’m coming from.

I don’t recognize myself. Where’s the candid woman that I was just a few hours ago? Why do I suddenly want this man to have unmentionable thoughts and decide on the spot to get laid with me? When the glass is handed to me, I grab it and lift it.

“To this apartment!”

“Okay. If you want! To the apartment,” he said without conviction.

I drink my glass bottoms up. Don’t ask me why I did that, I don’t know. The effect of alcohol is immediate. My throat is on fire, my nose itches and my eyes are playing tricks on me.

“You okay?” Jacky asks me, worried.

“Yes, why?”

“Uh... It’s pretty tricky, but it looks like you’re cross-eyed.”

“No! No way!” I say, bursting out laughing. “Got a looking glass somewhere?” I questioned him, jumping up.

“A looking glass? Ah, a mirror… Yes, just behind the front door.”

Bad idea, everything starts spinning very quickly. I immediately rest my little buttocks on the couch. I’m starting to see him double. He’s right, I believe.

“I won’t offer you another,” he said, pointing to my glass.

“And why not?”

“Because, if I may say so, you must not drink often…”

“Bah, I don’t allow you. You’re here in my home, young handsome! I meant young man. Besides, you’re going to have to explain to me why you’re still living here when logically, you should have already been gone for several months.”

“It’s surely a misunderstanding. I don’t understand… I have to ask my mother.”

But of course… He has to ask his mother. Note, I’m in no position to criticise, I have spent nearly thirty-six years in the skirts of mine.

“Now, it’s late. I’ll call her tomorrow for an explanation,” he continues.

“But I can’t wait until tomorrow. I was supposed to find a roof and I ended up with a roommate. Certainly rather cute,” I say to the attention of my right armpit.

Jacky smiles and pours me a glass. Hum, he surely has an idea in mind, the rascal! Well, maybe...