Jamie pulled away, and a slow, full smile, both winsome and alluring at the same time.
"I've been thinking about what that would be like for a while now," he said.
Wow, I took a short inhale as my heart fluttered. How can he be so adorably cute and crazily hot in the same instance? I wondered before muttering a 'Me too'.
"Is it okay if I sit here?" he said tapping the small space behind me.
Before I could answer, or even understand how he intended to fit in that space, he dropped himself down with one leg on either side of me and pulled me into him at the same time.
"Let me know if you're uncomfortable," he said, tightening his jacket over my chest and then wrapping his arms around me.
I'm most definitely not uncomfortable, although I am confused, I thought recalling that aside from the random sweet comments and occasional, but easily misinterpreted smiles, we were barely friends. We met up once a week at Noir's, talked all night and then didn't even have so much as a text message until the next week.
Jamie shuffled slightly to the left and tilted his head to get a view of my face. "Confused?" he asked when I told him as much.
"Well, I mean, what exactly are we, and where are we heading with this? Acquaintances with benefits?" I mused.
"What?" he said, before dropping his head into my shoulder and breaking into a fit of silent chuckles. "That's a new one," he said after regaining his composure.
"Well," I said, not sure if I should be offended by his outburst but finding it too cute to hold onto any grievance. "Unless you have a thing for not so pretty, and somewhat lonely moms, I'm not sure how to take this."
"What?" he said again, sounding even more surprised than the first time. "Before I answer that, I'd like to know how you concocted such a strange profile of yourself. I get the mom part, but?"
I let out a small sigh, almost embarrassed that I was by what I was about to recall. "You remember when we first met? Well, the second time anyway," I started and then gave him a brief recollection of his admission about not liking pretty girls talking to him, on top of the fact that he wanted to talk to me because I had cried to a song about being lonely.
Jamie let out a small 'Oh' before leaning his head back in thought for a few seconds. "You really took that to heart?" he said softly. "I didn't mean it in a bad way. I mean, sure I don't like talking to a certain type of pretty girl, but that doesn't mean I don't think you're pretty. I'm not such a moron that I wanna go out with girls that I'm not attracted to. And the crying thing, I thought was sweet. It's hard to see a pretty girl crying and not want to do this," he said and tightened his arms around me in a warm embrace.
I relaxed into his arms, hoping that there wouldn't be the need for him to loosen them again until he chuckled quietly into my ear.
"Acquaintances with benefits? Not even friends, just plain old acquaintances. I love how your mind works," he laughed.
"Well, what am I supposed to think? You've never even asked me for my number."
He leaned over again and peered at me. "You've been waiting for me to ask for your number?"
"Well, kind of."
"I wanted to," he said. "But you did all that 'I don't do one night stands' stuff when we first met so I was worried you would get the wrong impression. I've kind of been waiting for you to ask for mine."
"Really?" I asked, shifting my own body so I could get a better vantage point of him. "You've been waiting for me to ask you?"
"Why do you say it like that? There is nothing wrong with a woman asking a guy, I am all for women's lib."
It was my turn to laugh. "Looks like we both took things to heart," I said.
Jamie gave a small 'hmm' before uttering a low 'sorry' and sliding his hand into the inner pocket of his jacket from which he pulled out his phone.
"No peeping at my passcode," he said, snuggling his head into my neck while blatantly typing it in regardless, and then asked if he could have my number.
He typed as I spoke, saved it and then pressed call until we heard the ringing from my pocket.
"Save mine too please," he said, but still proceeded to go onto WhatsApp and send a random emoji and a 'This is Jamie' message before saying, "Just in case you forget."
Overkill? Maybe, but sweet? Definitely.
"Who's that?" I asked, referring to the illustrated girl set as his wallpaper.
"Oh, Mikasa," he said matter-of-factly. "My number one waifu."
"Waifu?"
"Yeah," he said with a small chuckle. "You know? A favourite anime girl that you maybe have a crush on."
"You can have a crush on an anime character?" I said before adding. "I'm not sure I want to know."
"Don't worry, it's nothing weird," he assured me before proceeding to tell me about the anime she was from and why she was such a badass character.
It was one he'd spoken about before which reminded me that I hadn't yet told him that I had started and was already hooked on an anime myself.
"How'd you like it?" he asked after a short moment of silence in which he was most definitely thinking about the anime.
"It was nice. I heard it's supposed to be really sad, and you know I'm a sucker for sad stuff, so."
"It is, I think," he said, adding the 'I think' a little too quickly as if to cover the fact that he had most likely already seen it. "I think we should meet up and finish it together."
"That would be nice," I replied, already making a mental plan of what I needed to do to prepare for such a visit. "I'm free this week if you are."
We hadn't completed our work project as early as we had hoped and had needed an extension, but everything had finally been handed over and work was going to be easy sailing for the next week at least while they were in talks for the next big project.
"Is a weeknight good for you?" I asked, still trying to manage a tidy-up routine and meal plan for the evening to come.
"Yeah, whenever you're ready will be fine. So don't watch anymore without me, okay?"
There was a slightly serious twinge to his voice that time which I couldn't make out if it was intended or not. He's pretty serious about anime, I thought while catching a glimpse of his phone screen as he checked the time.
"Are you just jealous in case I find my own waifu?" I asked.
"I didn't know you were kinky like that," Jamie chuckled. "Unless you mean a husbando?"
"Oh, right. That makes sense."
"Don't tell me you're already crushing on one of the characters."
"No, I'm not crushing on anyone. They're not real, besides they're all in high school. What do you take me for?"
I could have sworn I felt Jamie's body tense for a moment. Had I surprised him or something? But I hadn't said anything out of the ordinary, not compared to the usual foot-in-mouth statements I can often make.
"You know they're just anime characters, right?" he said. "I don't think them being in high school is a problem."
"Well, I choose to stay on the right side of the law thanks."
Jamie gave a low 'hmm', he was clearly contemplating just as I had sensed earlier, he really did take this whole anime thing seriously.
"What if the law wasn't a problem?" he said slowly and deliberately. "What if they were at a legal age but they still went to high school? Would you?"
It wasn't a question I needed to think about before answering; there was no way.
"To be honest," I started, "You being twenty is probably already too young, but it doesn't feel wrong liking you. I couldn't go younger than that though, it wouldn't feel right fantasizing about a teenager."
"Yeah, but … what?" He stopped in his train of thought. "You fantasize about me?"
As I said, foot-in-mouth.
"What?" I asked, deciding the best move was to feign ignorance. "I thought we were talking about the anime characters."
"Oh, yeah, right," he said, in a tone that I couldn't work out if he was disappointed or simply ignorant himself.
Jamie leaned his head back and slightly to the side as his eyes calmly scanned the roofing. "I think the rain has stopped," he eventually said.
Internally I groaned, I would have preferred to stay wrapped in his arms than go back to Noir's, but then he did have Jamie's deal with Owen to fulfil and I was currently the only one wrapped up while he was simply wearing a t-shirt.
I wiggled myself free from his embrace and slid down off the platform before turning to face him.
"Please wear it," he said, grabbing hold of the opening as I tried to remove it. "I'm all for feminism, but I do enjoy chivalry too."
Now, facing him I could tell something was bothering him. For the first time since I'd met him, his perfect smile was completely non-existent, even his eyes seemed lost in a sad thought.
"Is everything okay?" I asked. Had I said something that offended him in the last few minutes?
"Yeah, sure," he said, pasting a small smile back to his lips. "I just hope you're not annoyed about us getting stuck out here for so long. I don't ever want you to get upset with me."
I picked up half of the Twinkie boxes and secured them under one arm as Jamie had done with his stack and then slid my free hand into Jamie's.
"Don't worry about it," I said with a small laugh.
He was sweet to worry, too sweet, and as it was, I couldn't think of anything that he could ever do that would upset me?"