Jada/Ayano Pt. 03: Shower Sex

"By the way, Jada, I love those shoes, your purse. Those brands are very hard to get here," Antonija swooped in. "Ok, ready. Let's go to the next one."

"Can we go to a gallery that is... rougher? Younger? Bold. I want to discover new artists," she told Antonija. Antonija consulted with Iosif in Romanian and they headed across town again, visiting five galleries in all.

As the day went on, Jada began to have some idea who Ayano was in Romania. There were a lot of rich and famous people in the United States, but in Romania, especially with communism falling only recently, there were only a few dozen names to be thrown around. Everyone was exceedingly polite and helpful. Pedestrians kept a large distance from Ayano's car and other customers lowered their voices to speak about them when they looked around the galleries.

The last stop Jada had the energy to make was to look at a few dresses to see if anything looked exciting for the trip to Monaco. The cell phone Ayano gave her rang from her purse when she was in the dressing room.

"Hello?" she asked, knowing it could only be Ayano.

"Hi, iubi. What are you up to now?" he asked.

"I'm at a very fancy store near some British hotels and your President's house. What should I get for Monaco, do you think?" she asked.

"Uh, a very small bathing suit, lingerie, and an outrageously expensive dress," he said.

"What should the dress be like?" she wanted to know.

"Can it be very low cut? I mean, barely appropriate."

"Oh, really?" she said skeptically. "And I won't get any dirty looks?"

"What, you go to Monaco all of the time?" he pointed out. "If you're going to do Monaco, you should really do Monaco."

"I'll see what I can do," she said, taking a free drink from the salesgirl.

"Buy yourself anything you'd like. It's all taken care of."

"Thank you, darling," she said. She could have paid for any of it herself but thought it would be rude to refuse him.

"Listen, I'm on my way home from the lab and I just wanted to see when you'd be back."

"We'll leave here in about half an hour, and then however long it takes to get back from the President's house," she said, not remembering the name of the neighborhood. The city's traffic was a huge problem.

"Ok, iubi. I'll see you soon."

"I'm so happy I get to see you at the end of each day again."

"Me too. La reved-era," he told her. She at least knew the word for goodbye by now. It kind of sounded like "arrivederci" in Italian.

Jada hung up and proceeded to try on clothes and shop for a little while longer. Then, Iosif took them to a market so Antonija could buy some dinner ingredients, and then back to Ayano's house.

GOULASH

Iosif pulled into the driveway and brought the things Jada bought into the house. Antonija was carrying her bag of groceries. Ayano greeted the three of them at the door. It was impossible for Jada's eyes not to linger on him. He leaned against the door frame, wearing a white v-neck t-shirt that fit him perfectly to showcase his insanely toned arms. His black jeans fit like a glove, too. Jada had noticed some of the clothes in his closet wrapped up in paper, evidently how the tailors here would return finished items. She liked that he took care in looking nice, even in his casual clothes. And that he didn't use any hair product that she could detect. His thick, black hair had the slightest wave to it, which he wore back in a ponytail almost all the time at work. Today, he also had on an expensive-looking black and gold watch.

The fact that Jada was in a country she knew almost nothing about hadn't caught up with her yet. She was just in a place where her gorgeous new boyfriend was. As she approached him, she gave him a sultry smile, not even attempting to staunch her lovesick expression.

"Did you miss me?" Jada asked Ayano flirtatiously.

"I nearly perished without you." he said sarcastically as Ioseph and Antonija walked past. "You're liking Bucharest?"

"Yes. It's beautiful," she told him.

"<Antonija, what are you cooking?>" Iosef asked Antonija something in Romanian as they went down the hall.

"<Goulash,>" she answered. Ayano heard and smiled at Jada.

"You're going to try a very famous Romanian dish tonight." he said. They lingered at the door for a moment so Jada could be slightly more cute with him in private.

"You did a wonderful job supporting the art community of Bucharest today." Jada told Ayano, leaning up against his chest.

"Did I? What'd I get?" Ayano asked, kissing her.

"Some traditional, some modern representations of different things... the Carpashian Mountains--" she started.

"Carpathian," he corrected her.

"The Carpathian Mountains, characters from Romanian folklore... oh, I got some sexy abstract naked ladies from an artist who's going to be really famous someday," she continued.

"Yeah? How can you tell?" he asked.

"She's been arrested five times already. And I like the paintings," she grinned. "I can sense these things."

"What about shopping? The lingerie? And the dress?" he asked, looking over at the bags they brought in.

"I'll show you later. Hey, I saw some black and white news photos of miners at a protest a few years ago..." she started to ask.

"C'mon, let's go hang out in the kitchen," he said, swiftly turning around.

"Ayano, why were the miners fighting university students in Bucharest?" she continued.

"It's a long, long story," he sighed, walking away and toward the kitchen.

"Are your miners... political?" she insisted on asking and followed him down the hallway.

"I'm but a simple metallurgist, iubi," he said, walking across the threshold. "Nikos, is that the one you made?" Nikos was holding a strangely shaped jug with a plum inside of it.

"Yeah, you want a glass?" Nikos offered.

"Please," Ayano replied.

"His is shit! Mine is much better!" Dumitru claimed, turning around from behind the counter. "Greeks can't make tuica!" To which Nikos responded with an obscene gesture.

Antonija had made quick work of the produce- the room already smelled like butter browning and onions sizzling.

"It's not bad," Ayano said, of Nikos' drink. He had poured it in a small glass with a narrow rim.

"Jada? You want to try? It's not that strong. The stuff they distill twice is palinca, this is just tuica," Nikos offered.

"Sure," she said. She received the same type of small glass and had no idea what he was talking about.

"What do you think?" Nikos asked after she took a sip.

"It tastes like gasoline!" she said, her eyes watering. She put down the glass and ran to the sink. "Is this moonshine?!" she yelled, drinking some water. The group laughed, expecting this reaction from her.

"It's an acquired taste," Sergei laughed. "You want some vodka? Store-bought vodka?"

"How about wine?" she suggested. Ayano got a bottle from the wine holder underneath the kitchen's bar they were congregating around. It was a white wine. "Do you have any in the fridge?" she asked.

"Cold? No. It's bad for your health." Ayano scoffed. He got a corkscrew and opened the wine for her. Luckily, the wine tasted quite good, although she still wished it had been chilled. Then, the doorbell sounded. "Ah, now you will meet even more of my friends. That's Filip, guys. And he said he's bringing Sorinah and I can't remember if she's his wife or mistress?" he asked, looking at all their faces.

"Wife," Sergei said.

"Mistress," Nikos answered at the same time.

Ayano gave Jada a look that said "See what I have to deal with?" and left to answer the door.

He returned, introducing the two new guests to Jada. Filip was a few inches shorter than Ayano with very short gray hair. He was very soft spoken and nodded his head a lot. Sorinah was the same height as her companion, showing off her long legs in a short pencil skirt and stiletto heels. She had brown hair with an auburn tint. It was impossible to tell if she was thirty years old or fifty years old. Jada had no immediate guess as to their marital status.

Ayano served them drinks and sat at the kitchen bar with Jada, Nikos, and Dumitru while Filip went off to whisper things to Sergei in the corner. Sorinah went to kiss Antonija on the cheek and offer some help.

After Jada finished her glass of wine, dinner was on the verge of being served. She set the table for them as she saw the frying pan getting fuller and fuller.

"Goulash is almost done, everyone," Antonija alerted them. Sergei and Nikos brought drinks out to the dining room table while Sorinah carried the platters of food.

"Jada, my honored guest, you're at the head of the table. I'm the host, I'm to your right. Antonija, please." Ayano directed the seating. All around them, chairs were being pulled out and pushed in. Everyone set down their glasses.

"What is goulash?" Jada asked.

"Gulaș de cartofi cu afumătură!" Dumitru told her as he served himself.

"Smoked meat and potatoes," Ayano told her.

"Oh, didn't I tell you guys? I'm vegetarian," Jada said. The table went quiet. "I'm just fucking with you!" she laughed. They all looked immensely relieved and laughed with her.

"See? I told you, she's great," Ayano said.

"Thank God!" Nikos said. "We were going to have to throw you out!"

"That was good," Filip said, nudging Ayano in approval.

Dumitru passed Jada the platter first and she put some on her plate, Antonija's noodles following. Soon, everyone had food on their plates and Ayano raised his glass.

"Noroc!" he said.

"Noroc!" the others echoed. They all drank and began to eat.

"You grew up in Brazil, Jada?" Dumitru asked, talking with his mouth full.

"Yeah."

"What do you eat for dinner there?" he asked.

"We barbecue a lot. And pork, black beans, and rice stew. Plantains. We make our own booze, too. Cachaça," she told them.

"What's that?" Nikos asked.

"It's like rum but it doesn't have that warm, kinda burnt flavor. It's from sugar cane, not molasses," she explained.

"How are the beaches in Brazil?" Nikos asked.

"This time of year, it's winter. People still go, but not as much. Some guys wear those little speedos! Bleh! And lots of tiny bathing suits on the girls, you know, thongs and stuff. The girls love their tan lines but I just hate them," she gabbed. Ayano refilled her wine glass.

"Don't the women go topless?" Antonija asked.

"No. Why, do Romanians go topless?" Jada asked, a curious smile spreading across her face. Brazil had a pretty relaxed stance on partial female nudity, but maybe it was Catholicism that kept the women's tops on at the beach.

"Yeah!" the table responded enthusiastically. Jada turned and looked to Ayano to see if they were kidding. He nodded casually.

"You don't have to," Ayano told her.

"That's so French, you guys! I had no idea!" she exclaimed.

The rest of the dinner went smoothly. It was an interesting cultural exchange and lots of wisecracks. Afterwards, they started making plans for the summer.

"When are we going to Constanta this summer? We should get a hotel," Nikos asked after dinner, the plates having been cleared by Antonija.

"This weekend, it's Monaco. Next weekend, we should go," Ayano said.

"We should do Mamaia again. Mamaia was crazy," Sergei suggested. He poured himself another vodka. Jada couldn't help but notice that all of these men could consume enough alcohol to make a horse stagger, but they were all still coherent.

"I know someone there. We'll get a few rooms," Ayano offered.

"You know people everywhere," Jada commented.

"What was the name of that girl who worked at the casino?" Sergei asked with a wily grin.

"Was it Tatiana?" Nikos tried, squinting at the memory.

"You should stay away from the casino, Sergiyko, you're on a losing streak," Dumitru told him.

"He lost two hundred thousand lei to me," Ayano told Jada proudly.

"For what?" Jada asked, not particularly interested but asked for conversation's sake. Sergei and Dumitru looked away from her with guilty expressions.

"Sergei thought you didn't like me, that you wouldn't come to Romania," Ayano revealed. Jada smiled, but also wondered why they needed to bet about this.

"You're out of his league, Jada. Clearly you see something in him that we do not!" Sergei said, defending his wager.

"What was the bet, exactly?" she inquired.

"He came back from New York saying you'd be here within a week," Sergei said. "I said you'd never be back. Too good for the likes of him!"

"My, aren't you confident!" She laughed, glaring at Ayano playfully.

"Wishful thinking!" Ayano told her, throwing his hands up.

The gathering moved to his garden behind the house, on the iron outdoor furniture. After many drinks, the guys had starting making more stupid bets with each other. They were mostly concerning upper body strength.

Jada reflected on her cool factor. Was she letting on that she liked Ayano too much? And really, he was betting on his love life? That seemed a little demeaning, but it flew out of her mind, carrying no weight. She wanted to be agreeable to him and stick around until there was nothing to stick around for.