Page 8 of The Virgin Playboy

“That’s okay. I’m in good company, so I don’t mind getting my steps in along the way,” I flirted. And flirt was just about all we did on the way to her Fort Greene apartment. It was like you could immediately feel the shift in the air change once we were inside.

Normally another human inviting me to see their place was simply that. Never seen as anything more, especially with my neurospicy brain. But something told me something was going to happen. I just didn’t know what yet.

“Your place is really gnarly,” I admitted out loud, immediately associating the start of her flat with things we had discussed in casual conversation. The entryway was like a mishmash of gallery artwork and movie posters, particularly the original Scream. She really hadn’t been kidding when she said she was a horror fan, because while her place wasn’t overwhelmed by it, there were definitely artwork of Southern Gothic imagery, something I knew had to be inspired by Sinners, because she’d mentioned it was in her top five. Vintage circus bookends with a clown and a red balloon, had to be nods to Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

“I’m digging the antique telephone,” I bantered. “Does it work?”

“Wow, you just gonna cut on the types of phones I grew up with? Of course, it works,” as she picked it up, reenacting the first few lines from Scream, when Drew Barrymore met her unfortunate end.

One thing that had been rare for me to see, however, was the vinyl player in her living room, that had a healthy collection of records I’d never seen before with someone under the age of eighty.

“You’re so lucky to have a record player. The acoustics must be sweet. We used to have one at my family’s home, but my little sisters weren’t always careful, so it just got cased up and collects dust in the basement now.”

“You haven’t even seen the picture that was promised,” she teased, guiding me to a hallway of her encounters with loads of influential people.

“The vibe of your place is sick. But what would I expect from someone like you,” I admired out loud.

“Well, you should know that I am a rabid gun owner. So now wouldn’t be the time to try anything funny,” she joked.

"You don't have to worry about this rabbit holding the gun,” I smirked. “I'm from New Zealand, love. I've never even held a gun.”

“Look at you, so sure that you're the rabbit,” she squinted, accusingly.

“Well, I ain't the Elmer,” I laughed.

“Look who thinks he's cute because he knows a little Looney Tunes,” she flirted with a light tap on the shoulder.

“I keep telling you, girl, I may be twenty-eight but I know I know a little something,” grinning like the Cheshire Cat that the remark made her laugh. She had an amazing laugh. Wasn't even ashamed to admit that inflated my ego a little bit.

“So, are we doing the Red Light District tour or the Family Friendly Tour?” she teased.

“I mean, you invited me,” I flirtatiously reminded.

“Well, in that case, follow me. This tour indeed involves a happy ending,” she winked, and I couldn't help wondering that my initial suspicion was correct, and something would happen before the night’s end. Jacqueline had lived nothing short of an impressive life, having people as socially significant as Tarana Burke to culturally entertaining entities like Cardi B. Hate to say it, but if she did or said one more amazing thing, I just might freaking marry this one.

“You weren't lying when you said your job allowed you to meet such interesting people,” carefully trying to gain recognition of the folks I didn’t know.

“As promised, I give you Lin Manuel, and Gladys.” Both were really great pictures, and I couldn’t help feeling both a sense of pride and envy that the most iconic anything always tended to be American. Both I’d gotten to see live at least once, Lin Manuel during one of his sold out for months Broadway run of Hamilton, and Gladys, in 2018, at the “Be One” celebration in Salt Lake City. Honestly, it was the year that put a lot of things in perspective for me, because it was the year I cut ties with the LDS church.

“And you did not disappoint,” I flirted. “My only regret is that I don't quite have the camera phone to properly capture it from myself. My mom would die if she saw I knew someone who had met Gladys Knight personally.”

“Now that you mention it, you've got me wondering, what is a youngin’ like you doing with a dumb phone?” she questioned.

“Kind of a personal thing, really,” I casually shrugged. “Definitely not a polite conversation to have a first-time outing, but maybe if you let me take you out again, I could explain it another time?”

“So, you plan on seeing me again?” she cheesed, and I swear the ridiculous face she made was meant to make me laugh, because I nearly had a spasm from laughing so hard.

“Is that all right with you?” I questioned. It couldn’t have just been me who was catching the vibe.

“That depends. How did you see the end of the night going for you?” she coyly insinuated, like my suspicion that a hookup was definitely in the works.

“You tell me, I’m open to suggestion,” I flirted back, closing some of the distance.

“I have to admit, I can’t tell whether you’re just being friendly, or have the same idea as me. Because I’ve been trying really hard to make it not so obvious that I haven’t been staring at your lips all night, but I’ve been trying not to get my hopes up that I’ll experience them, if all you’re being is just a big flirt.”

Taking away the guess work, I pulled her in closer, leaning down to take some of her initial fears that I was just being cordial. She had some of the most amazing lips herself, probably the first time in a while I’d kissed someone with lips as full as mine since my time in New York. She somewhat melted into me, almost like she’d been holding back at first, and finally surrendered and let herself go.

The moment felt somehow…more intimate than other times. Like I was expecting things might progress quicker than I’d allowed things to progress before. Normally, I had really bad sensory issues, but it mainly came from a freshly brushed mouth. The alternative wasn’t much better, but I think given we’d gotten pretty hydrated at the bar, or maybe since I was such a lightweight, liquid courage was leading my path tonight.