Forever Hers Ch. 02

5 years later

At the end of a quiet street sat a little, blue three-bedroom house. The crabgrass on the front lawn bled right into the curbless street, and its driveway - carved out by the cars of its residents - didn't even have the dignity of being bedded with gravel. Still, the cottage-style property served its purpose well as an affordable triplex; two main-floor studios and a one-bedroom apartment upstairs where its owner resided. It wasn't much, but the price was right. For example, if a bachelor needed an inexpensive place to stay when he had time off from the nearby fire house, this offered the perfect accommodation. Likewise, two close friends who didn't mind sharing a bed could definitely take advantage of the cheap rent. Such was the case for the first-floor tenants in apartment B.

It was 8am, and Thomas was due for his daily morning jog around the neighborhood. Keeping his body fit was an important part of his job after all. Not that his job was the reason Kate took notice of his body. Dressed in a simple, white blouse and black skirt common with most front desk receptionists, the thin redhead stood with an eye fixed onto the peephole of her door just waiting for his to stir. She'd been like this for a solid fifteen minutes. So when Kate felt her roommate's hands rest on her back and a chin slid onto her shoulder, she couldn't help but jump.

"What are we looking at?"

"Janeli!" She straightened herself up and forced a smile. "Nothing! Just," Kate looked around the small space they resided in for something to excuse her odd behavior, "taking out the trash." She unfixed the half-empty trash bag from the bin and held it up.

Janeli looked at the door and then back at her. "Well?"

Kate pulled it to her body. "I'm doing it. Just give me a minute."

"Here, let me." Janeli took hold.

"No, I got it." Kate brought it back to her waist.

"I insist," and so it continued.

"Okay, fine," Kate conceded before letting go. "Tom came home last night."

"I saw his car out front." Janeli rolled her eyes, tossed the trash back in its bin, and blocked the door with her body.

"Janeliiii," Kate pouted. "This is why I don't tell you about guys. You always get like this and end up scaring them away, and I reeeaally like this one."

"That's because every guy you date turns out to be a jerk, and I'm the one who gets to hear about it."

"He's handsome, he's nice..." Kate listed.

"He's a man in a uniform; something you need to get over and quick before you wake up pregnant with his third kid while he's out doing...whatever firefighters do at night."

"Save lives?"

"Go to work."

"You go to work," Kate responded in a childish attempt to one-up her roommate. "I've got fifteen minutes anyway."

Janeli stuck her bottom lip out, "Then hang out with me," and then poured herself over Kate in a waterfall of neediness. "We never hang out anymore."

"Nooo, it's too hot for this." She giggled as Janeli adhered herself to her side from hip to cheek and proceeded to walk around their apartment that way. When Kate refused to concede, Janeli graduated to using her entire body, pressing her erected nipples into Kate's unknowing back and grinding her flesh ever so slightly into hers. Their air conditioner had barely been enough to keep the sweat at bay. If Janeli continued to press the full length of her body against hers, Kate would show up gross for work. "Fine. We'll hang out tonight."

Janeli planted a friendly kiss on her cheek, "thanks, babe."

"But only," Kate began, "if you're nice to him today."

Janeli stomped her foot. "Oh, come on."

"What's that? Chinese-for-one tonight?" Kate threatened.

But, her threat had worked. "Oh, you bitch."

Kate gave an evil grin before her ears caught the faint jingle of keys she had been waiting for. "Ooo! I think I heard him! How do I look?" Kate didn't wait for a response. She grabbed her purse and, just like in a bad sitcom, bumped into Thomas in the hallway.

"Morning, Kate" Thomas greeted while wielding his freshly clean-shaven grin in her direction as he locked the door behind him.

"Morning." She answered back coyly as she'd just realized she hadn't even thought of what to say to the man past hello. "...You're up early."

"Wasn't it 8am the last time we ran into each other like this? And the time before that?"

Kate froze. "Ah..."

"Relax. I'm teasing." His smiled waned a bit when he saw Janeli in the background making unblinking eye-contact with him from her stove. "Janeli," he acknowledged.

She added a slice of bacon to a pan. "Hey Tom. Looking...good."

He folded his arms. "Thanks. It totally sounded like you meant it."

"Seriously, I can barely tell you're only five foot nine today."

"A-anyway," Kate interrupted by kicking her apartment door closed.

He shook his head. "Hard to believe she's single."

"Yea, she's...a character."

Thankfully, Thomas took over with the small talk, and the two made their way outside towards Kate's car. Hearing the front door of the house open and close, Janeli saw an opportunity and ran out to the common living room to the small, partially opened window.

She listened to Kate laugh at his lame jokes and compliment his unimpressive exercise routine. "Pfff, fuckin' please."

Then, the flip of a newspaper from the lounge pulled her attention away.

Her landlord, with one leg folded atop the other, kept things transparent. "Oh, rest assured. You are being judged," but he didn't lift his eyes away from his paper. "Let them be."

"I wasn't asking, Mark."

"Does anyone who's being called out ever ask to be?"

"I'm just looking out for her," she assured while taking a step back from the window. "Kate and I protect each other."

"Looks more like you're the one doing all of the protecting."

"You've seen the scrubs she's brought back here."

"You can pick them apart as much as you want to, but being occasionally late or a little too into video games hardly makes a guy a scrub. And, no matter how you look at it, neither of those faults were the reasons those relationships didn't work out. You were." At this point, he put his paper to the side. Unlike Thomas, he hadn't shaved or washed up yet, and he definitely didn't exercise. The morning hours were no time for being ambitious in his mind. Even this conversation was asking a bit much before his coffee, yet there he was engaging in it. "They like each other. They should be able to see where things go with or without your approval."

Janeli frowned. "She can like whoever she wants."

"No, she can't. You make it seem like you're looking out for her but, deep down, you're just trying to control her."

"Thanks, dad. Good talk." Janeli was done talking.

"You're just going to push her away."

She scoffed and finally gave him her full attention. "Look, you've got the easiest job in the world. All you have to do is sit there and take my money. I can do without the lecture. So, take your broken down ass back to bed or something."

Mark got up from his chair. Although Janeli was hardly intimidated, he did manage to carry himself two heads higher than her. "Last time I checked, I owned this house. I'll do whatever and go wherever the fuck I want."

"Are you going to keep making me wait for you to get to the point, old man?"

"My roof? My rules. Knock it off, or I'll throw you out today."

"Even landlords have rules. You can't just throw me out of my apartment. Especially without a reason."

"Under contract, sure. But, for some reason, you'd rather pay a little more for me not to ask questions. As far as anyone with the power to do anything about it is concerned, you don't have an apartment. Fine by me. Shortsighted on your part."

Janeli narrowed her eyes at him. Meanwhile, outside, the conversation went on.

"So," Kate continued, "how long are you home for?"

"Just the one week," he shrugged. " That's if duty doesn't call. I'm never really 'off', ya know?"

"Aw man. I guess we'll have to make the most of it some other time."

"Says who? I've been meaning to check out this bar & grill that opened up about fifteen minutes away from here."

Kate's eyes lit up. "Fishers, Farmers, and Bakers! I've heard of that place. It's supposed to be a big deal. When were you thinking of going?"

"Actually," he cleared his throat, "I've wanted to ask you for a while, but your roommate seems to have you on a bit of a leash."

She put her hands on her hips in flirty defiance. "I make my own decisions thank you very much."

He looked passed her. "Hey, Janeli."

Kate jerked her head around nervously only to find that there was no one. Then, realizing what he'd done, she looked back at him embarrassed.

"Yup. Clearly, you're your own woman."

"Point taken." She conceded. She thought for a second and then maintained her position. "Let's do it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Do it?"

"Let me take you to the grill."

"You're asking me out?"

"Sure. You save lives for a living, so the least I could do is buy you dinner."

Thomas couldn't hide it. He was flattered. Although he took care of himself, this was the first time a woman had been the one to take the initiative. He wasn't about to turn down a free meal from such a beautiful woman, either. "Umm, great! How about we go tonight then?"

Kate froze. "Tonight?"

"Yea, Tuesdays are usually pretty quiet. I'm probably not likely to be called in."

She slapped on a reassuring smile. "Sounds good to me."

"Six o clock sound good?"

"Six o' clock sounds perfect," she nodded

He put on his headphones and waved as he jogged away. "It's a date, then."

"Yup," she waved back. "It's a date. Tonight."

Meanwhile, back inside...

"Fuck." Janeli had heard everything.

"So much for 'she can like whoever she wants'," Mark teased humorlessly.

"I don't need this right now," she paced and then sat in his chair with her legs crossed. "Just let me think."

"There's nothing to think about. Kate's made her choice."

"That sounds like something a quitter like you'd say. Sorry, but I won't be ending up like you."

"Like me?"

"Alone. Or are you going to stand there and try to convince me that this is the life you've always wanted?"

The look on Mark's face was one of emptiness with a hint of anger. "You're going to crash and burn." He pulled her roughly from his seat, sat back down, and grabbed his paper again. Then he smirked, "I don't care how many bad decisions I've made in the past. If it all leads up to letting me watch, I wouldn't miss it for the world."