twinge of happiness.
She reached for the charcoal again in an attempt to put aside all thoughts of her mother. Thoughts about a certain Brazilian entrepreneur with a smoking-hot body that begged to be traced both onto the canvas and in real life had to improve her mood, right?
Chapter 3
A pounding at the door startled JL awake. She jumped up, wincing at the stiffness in her neck, and looked around her apartment, confused.
What time is it?
The knocking started again, and the parrot began to oink. She stood and searched for her phone.
“Shit!” It was seven-thirty. She’d fallen asleep on the table while sketching. “Coming!”
She looked through the peephole. “Enzo?” she said, surprised, as she unhitched the deadbolts and opened the door.
“I didn’t want you driving all the way to my house.” He handed her a box of donuts. “So, I thought I’d pick you up.” He pushed the door open and walked inside as if he owned the joint. He set down two cups of coffee, then reached forward, cupped her face with his palm, and with his thumb wiped something under her eye. Her brain wasn’t fully awake yet, but her rapidly beating heart sure was. Was he going to kiss her? And then that thought turned to the next logical one: morning breath. She was about to pull away hastily when he released her and showed her the black smudge on his thumb.
“Oh, uh…I was sketching. Guess I fell asleep.” She wiped her face to get rid of any other traces of the charcoal.
“You were still sleeping? You were going to stand me up?”
“No!” she said, too quickly. “I mean, I wasn’t. I might have been late, though. Eventually I would’ve woken up, right? I don’t know what happened. I rarely sleep.” She lifted one of the cups to her mouth. “Coffee,” she sighed, and walked into her kitchen. He followed and sat at the small table, opening the box of donuts for her. She grabbed one and shoved it into her mouth, making him chuckle.
“So good,” she mumbled. “Donuts are my favorite.”
He reached forward and tugged on a lock of her hair. “Purple?”
“Magenta,” she said as she reached for another donut.
He sat back casually. “Nice PJs,” he said, his eyes roaming over the old Aerosmith T-shirt that she wore over boxer shorts. The T-shirt was falling off one shoulder, and suddenly she was very aware of the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. The way he looked at her made her feel as if she was sitting there completely naked. She crossed her arms over her chest, finished the donut, and stood up. “I’ll go get dressed,” she mumbled.
“Woof woof woof.”
Enzo looked around. “That’s a strange-sounding dog, Jamie Lynn.”
“It’s not a dog. It’s a parrot,” she said over her shoulder as she walked out of the room. “It’s Violet’s. I teach it animal noises and bad words.”
“Nice,” he chuckled. A moment later he said, “Hey, what’s this?”
She turned and realized she’d left her canvas on the coffee table. She leaped over the couch, tackled him to the floor, and snatched up the canvas, holding it behind her with one hand as she struggled to push herself up off his chest with the other. “It’s nothing,” she said breathlessly.
“That’s some pretty serious nothing,” he said, steadying her with his hands around her waist. “I mean, it got you to sit on me. I’m thinking that I like whatever that nothing is.”
She shoved him playfully and got to her feet, still holding the canvas behind her. “Don’t like people to see my drawings.” She walked backward toward her bedroom, noticing that he was lying on the floor looking up at her with a smirk and maybe…Was that…? Yes, with a hard-on. She looked down at herself. The worn shirt was practically see-through, and the short boxers had barely been any sort of barrier when she’d been sitting right on his cock. She fled into her room and shut the door.
After splashing some water on her face and brushing her teeth, she styled her hair in a fauxhawk, then put on fishnet stockings with holes and runs all over them, black shorts, a tank top featuring another rock band, and sneakers. She lined her eyes with black liner, added a heavy coat of mascara, and finished the look with red lipstick.
She walked back into the kitchen to find him going through his phone with one hand, a partially eaten donut in the other. He looked her up and down slowly.