TITAN (4 page)

They pulled into an industrial
parking lot. They rolled past the security gate first and then through back,
and to the very edge of the park, she sees the letters. K.I.T.

She smiles excited, his studio!

K.I.T. stood for Keep it Tite.

She smiles again, the Xanax still
hitting heavy, but this time she looked right at the driver and gave him a full
smile.

He smiled back and eased to a stop.

Ok, Jordy, calm, cool and
collected
.

She asked the drivers’ name as they
were buzzed in.

“Jessie”

“Nice to meet you,” she smiled at
him.  “I am…”

“Jordy,” he answered. “I know,” he
smiled at her.

 
He knows who I am
?

They entered a long corridor that
ended at an abandoned receptionist’s desk.

The whole place seemed empty.

There were long luxurious black
couches everywhere, it looked clean and almost like a gym atmosphere.

Lots of furniture, not much on the
walls.

She looked around for what seemed
like forever, taking it all in. Jessie gestured her into another set of rooms
and she heard his voice.

Her stomach started to flutter, he
was talking, and she could hear the music at the same time.

 This was too much.

She was so happy for those Xanax.

She would be hitting Jenny up
again, soon, for more.

Damn, she is really beautiful. He
was looking at her through the security camera, long black hair in a pony tail,
uh, that skirt. He was smirking.

Mouse pusher, he thought to
himself, let’s see how she acts sober.

“Hey.” he said, a little too
serious for how she was feeling

“Hey,” she said, smiling like an
idiot, she was sure.

She turned to Jessie and said,
“Thanks for the ride, Jessie, sorry about the P.M. Dawn.” Jessie winked at her
and they smiled at each other for a brief second.

She turned her eyes to him and his
mouth was open slightly, but he recovered quickly and whispered what Jordy was
sure was a smart ass comment to one of the guys at the sound board.

“So, we are going to listen to a
track, okay?  Then I will be done here and we can eat?”

 It was more of a question
than an order this time.

There were only four people in the
studio.  Tite, herself and Jessie, and a guy Tite introduced as his
manager.

“Jeff, this is Jordy,” Titan
declared boldly.

Jeff barely looked up and under his
breath muttered, “Sup.”

He was concentrating intensely on
what he was doing. There was a loud burst of static and a zip and there it was.

 
Him
and a beat.

 She sat next to Jessie and
listened as the first two or three minutes of the song played, she had never
heard it and knew it was new.

“Good shit.” Jessie said.  

Jordy chimed in, “I have heard
everything of his and I am telling you…”

The music stopped abruptly, but
Jordy, not realizing it, finished her sentence in same loud voice.

“This guy is a fucking genius!”

To her complete horror, all eyes
were on her, especially Tite's, and then there was a sudden burst of laughter
from both Jessie and Jeff. Jordy was glad to be sitting down because she knew
would have fainted if she had been standing.

She wanted to run but had nowhere
to go, so she decided to give herself three more seconds of embarrassment and
then she would brave a look at him.

One, the guys were still laughing.

Two, why couldn’t she have just
said yes?

Three.

He wasn’t laughing at all. He was
staring at her hard. Almost mean, like she had embarrassed him.

She suddenly wanted to flee but she
kept his stare and he just
keep
staring at her then
mouthed, his eyes still on her, “Alright, quit clownin', the girl has taste,
you going to fault her for that?”

Still staring at her so seriously,
he tore his gaze away from her, started the music back up and began whispering
back and forth with Jeff.

Jordy had never wanted to disappear
so badly in her life. But she just waited for what seemed like an eternity and
the music stopped.

She couldn’t even hear it.

She was embarrassed and wanted to
leave. Why did he stare at her so intently? It hurt her that he looked at her
like he was mad.

What the fuck?

What am I doing here?

She got up abruptly and grabbed her
cell phone. She told Jessie she was going to make a call and left the room.

“I will. I am trying to tell you.
Now listen, Tony, let’s not fight. I will tell you everything tomorrow, okay?
Meet me at Schaffer’s at five, alright? Alright? Okay, see you tomorrow.”

“And what will you say?” Tite
asked, stepping up behind her.

She wheeled around on one foot and
damn near smacked into him.

The stress of the conversation
still on her face, she boldly stated, “I am not discussing him with you at
all.”

It was rude, she knew it, but he
was putting her in this position.

“I am sorry, I mean, let’s not talk
about it, k?” She blushed, a little remembering what an ass she had made of
herself earlier.

“Yep.”

He looked bored, she hated that.

Then, why, if she’s so damned
uninteresting, was she here?

This guy would be the death of her.

“So follow me, you crazy, drunken
insurance lady. Let’s eat,” he said, teasing again.

“It’s a Xanax,” she blurted out,
without thinking.

He turned around and faced her
squarely. Studied her for a long minute, then smiled, turned back around and
started walking.

“Okay, two Xanax,” she smiled at
his back, knowing he was smiling too. They went down the long hall to what
looked like a lounge room with a small kitchen.

“Do you like Italian?”

“Not really. I hate spaghetti.”
Fuck, Jordy, could you be any
more rude
? She quickly
corrected herself, “I eat lasagna once in a while.” They walked on until they
reached a set of long couches where the food was already there and waiting for
them. It was nothing fancy and certainly nothing romantic, just food sitting in
tins with plastic ware and bottled waters.

“
It’s
salad and fettuccine,” he said, as if he didn’t give a damn what she liked.

“Now, I like the white stuff,” she
drooled. She wasn’t eating a damn thing this time. Stop feeding me, Tite. Damn
food again. This time she was sure she would throw up.

“So, mouse pusher, how was your
mouse pushing day?”

“It was a day. Some crazy asshole with
a horrible accent called me trying to make my life hell.”

“Did he succeed?”

“Yes.”

“Well then, you had a Monday.”

“I guess I did.”

“Well, Tuesday might be better,” he
muttered through a mouthful of fettuccine.

She opened the tin and saw a salad.

Thank you, God.

She smiled to herself. She began to
pick at her
salad,
taking only small bites and setting
her fork back down after each one.

He looked at her like she was an
alien. She was so uncomfortable. He could tell. He was too. He didn’t like being
forced to make conversation. This was not his usual way of doing this. He knew
she wasn’t totally innocent, but she seemed that way to him. She was a good
girl.

“Eat your food, Jordy. The girl I
met mowed down two pancakes in three minutes,” he smirked.

“She was a drunken ass,” Jordy
replied quickly.

“She was you, Jordy, and from what
I can see, you have no ass at all,” he started laughing and almost choked and
had to take a drink of water to keep from doing so.

“Alright. You enjoying yourself?”
she said a little testy, but teasing too.

“Sorry, you have no ass. I mean,
you had to have noticed,” he played.

“More of a Monday by the minute.
So, you brought me here to show me how charming you are?”

“I am no gentlemen, I think we
established that, how old are you?”

“How old are you?”

“Google it.”

“Ahh... but that’s right! You can’t
Google me! Well, damn, I have one up on you!”

“And I can just swiftly…,” he grabs
Jordy’s purse before she can blink.

“Jordania Wilson,

“Can I have my shit back or are we
doing the whole ‘purse contents will tell me everything about you’ game?”

He handed it back to her with an
all-knowing demeanor.

“Old, huh?” She smiles at him,
knowing he has at least five years on her.

He leaned down in front of her. “No
baby, just
not
young and completely assless. Ha.” He sat back on the
couch opposite of her, picks his pasta up and starts eating again. It was one of
those laughs again. She had to take a breath. She ate most of her pasta and
they sat in a few uncomfortable silences before he spoke up.

“Let’s go back and listen, or are
you tired?”  He seemed concerned.

“No, I am fine and I kind of want
to since I really didn’t get to hear it the first time,” she lowered her eyes
and knew he was staring at her again. She was tempted to scream stop it! But,
she knew she never would. She liked it. And, he was making fun of her ass.
Thank God he thought that was her only flaw so far. Jordy knew she was not
curvy. She had some bust, but she was by no means a Maxim girl. She was
described, once, by a friend as a little
too
beautiful ‘girl next door’.
She agreed when she heard that;
that
she would take it. She didn’t have
to be perfect, and her looks were not something she was sensitive about. But
when
he
talked about her ass, she wishes she had one.

“So, you must be an ass man?” She
snickered behind him, using it as an insult rather than a question she was
worried about.

“Jordy, don’t even try to quip like
me. Don’t even try,” he said, crossing into the recording room again. This time
they were alone.

“Where is everybody?”

“We have been at it since last
night, I am sure they went home.”

“All night and today?”

“I have a room here, I sleep and
shower, it’s not that bad.”

“You must be exhausted,” she said,
concerned, until he gave her a “lady do you have an idea how long I have been
doing this give me a break with your bullshit concern” look.

“But, hey, what do I know? I am just
a mouse pusher,” and to that, he smiled.

Thank God for that, Jordy thought.

 He was immersed in his work
right away. It was almost like a switch flipped and he didn’t see her at all.
It was ok with Jordy, though, she finally had a chance to drink him in.

He wasn’t wearing a hat this time,
just a black t shirt and jeans, his black hair barely visible due to a very
short haircut. He had on some Jordan
sneakers and necklace, but not the big display that most rappers wear, just a
simple platinum necklace.

A star
, she thinks.

His face was gaunt and a little
pale, but he was perfect.

She admired his chiseled chest
under his shirt, brilliant blue eyes, strong nose, and thin lips.

She soaked it all in, her eyes
traveling down, all the way past his waist to his shoes and back up.

He wasn’t paying attention to her
at all at this point completely and she didn’t mind at all. She felt her mind
slipping to the ‘what ifs’ and for the first time in three days she went with
it.

Listening to his music was nothing
new, loving it wasn’t either.

Looking at him was a whole
different story.

So, she is staring at me now.

He is fully aware of it.

She thinks what the rest of them
do. I can just take it now, if I want to, clip those wings send her ass home,
stop pretending to be a nice guy.

Fuck her, make her cry, and then
send her packing.

He gave her a quick look, their
eyes locked for what seemed like forever. He took a step back from the board
and then decided to wait.

 Just a little longer, Tite,
make it fun for you.

She won’t ever know what hit her.

He kept thinking about her comment
“he is a fucking genius.”

He smiled to himself.

As many times as he had heard it
from his friends, other rappers, everyone who knew him, this time is sounded different,
real from the heart, raw, like a fan would say it.

She was so real.

He could read her like a book,
easily.

This one was way too vulnerable,
she wasn’t even trying to seduce him or ask him stupid fucking questions. She
was just staring at him, thinking he was a genius.

He looked over at her one more time
and realized maybe he had thought too much of what she thought of him because
she was dead asleep.

“Jordy, psst, hey Jordy.”

 He touched her shoulder
slightly and she barely moved.

“JORDY!”

 He said her name a little
louder, shaking her a little.

“Huh, oh, oh no, sorry!”

She was horrified.

The Xanax knocked you out, you
stupid girl.

Once again, you look like an idiot.
Oh, but how
do
you look?

“Bathroom?”

“Down the hall and to the left of
reception,” he smiled down at her and tapped his fingers on his chin as if
contemplating what to do next.

“Thanks, and thanks for dinner, I
didn’t thank you.”

He just nodded and stood there,
watching her walk to the bathroom.

She didn’t look
too
bad, a
little makeup smear she fixed quickly, and stuck a breath mint in, just to make
sure. She washed her hands and walked out. He was waiting for her.

“Jordy, it’s 1 a.m., I know you
have to work tomorrow, and I will take you home.”

“Okay.”

He was right in front of her.

Their eyes locked and he stared at
her lower lip.

She took hold of it with her top
teeth and closed her eyes briefly.

When she opened them, he was
walking toward the door.

She let out a sigh of disappointment,
but instead of keeping it to herself, she knew he heard it.

He stopped walking and turned
around.

“Ready to get those wings clipped,
Jordy?”

“Huh?”

She knew exactly what he was
asking.

“Nothing, don’t forget your purse.”

“Oh, thanks.” She grabbed her purse
and checked her phone.

Two texts from Tony.

I love you

And:

What is it, baby?

Tony, if you only knew
.

You would hate me.

And tomorrow you definitely will.

“Let’s go then, my little drunken,
drug addict insurance agent,” he teased, “Great, now I am 0 for 2

“Well, at least you admit you have
a problem. That’s the first step.”

He punched the code and the door
locked behind them. He nodded at the security guard as if to say goodnight.

 He unlocked the doors and
they both jumped in at the same time, almost bumping heads. His truck was
incredible she looked around taking it all in.

She was with Titan in his truck!

Titan.

She was sure she would never get
over this. Jordy wondered what a rap super star listened to himself? Other rap?

Did they ever listen to music
outside of rap? She didn’t have to wait long.

“Do dah dah dah dah, do dah dah dah
dah, do dah dah dah dah set adrift on memory bliss of you.”

Jordy laughed so loud it was almost
a scream.

She looked at Tite, who seemed to
be really embarrassed at first then started laughing with her.

They sat there, laughing, for what
seemed like forever.

He tapped her shoulder, indicating
for her to put her seatbelt on, but let the song play.

As they drove through the gates of the
park, P.M. Dawn was blaring out of his car.

He was smiling again.

The ride home seemed too short to
Jordy, who was itching to talk to him. She wanted to ask him a few things, but
he seemed oblivious to her as he drove her home, carefully stopping at each
light, making sure his signals were on and turning slowly around each corner.

He was thinking about something.
She wondered if she had done something wrong. She wondered why he was taking
such care driving her home.

It seemed almost parental.

She was getting sleepy again.

Fuck, work was going to be a
nightmare tomorrow.

As he eased the car into park he
turned and looked at her for a brief second and said, “I will walk you up.”

“You really don’t have to…,” but he
was already out of the car and cornering her side. She heard the car lock
behind her and they started walking slowly to the door, conversation lingering,
but failing, on both their parts.

“So, this is how a drunken, drug
addicted insurance agent lives,” he looked around her apartment scanning each
wall. He seemed interested and she set down her purse.

“Do you want something to drink?”
she asked, not really sure if she should ask.

“No, I am good.”

 He closed the distance
between them quickly and stood in front of her near her kitchen sink.

“Jordy, I don’t date, I am not a
gentleman, and I sure as hell don’t work for anything. When it comes to women,
I mean,” he said, plucking a pretend piece of lint off his shirt, his demeanor,
arrogant.

“Why are you telling me this?” Her
heart was sinking, this was it, and he was telling her good bye. Just as well,
she thought.

“I just want to make it clear. I am
not a nice guy.”

“Okay, Tite, so you don’t date or
do nice things and you’re an asshole to women?”

She asked as a question.

He rubbed his temple frustrated.

“Look, Tite, I get it. I do,
really, and if you mean anything you say in your lyrics, I get the picture.”

“Those are songs, but yeah, at
times I do mean a lot of what I say.”

“What do you want me to say?” she
said, almost exasperated.

Were they having a fight?

“That you don’t expect anything
from me, ever.”

“I don’t, and I won’t.” She looked
at him and tried to mean it honestly.

“Don’t,” he warned.

“Tite, I am just a flat-assed, mouse
pushing, drunken drug addicted insurance agent, who am I to expect anything
from you?” she teased.

It worked.

He gave a soft chuckle and put his
hands on her shoulders.

“Jordania.”

“Tite.”

“I am leaving you to sleep now, but
I will help you make your quota soon.”

“Good, I look forward to it.” She
smiled at him and he was staring at her and her lips again.

“Do it,” she begged.

And he did.

He leaned over her, for what seemed
like an eternity, and took her lip in his mouth and sucked on it slowly. She
started panting right away and parted her lips.

He kept sucking on her lip until
she moaned. She put her hands on either side of his face. She wanted him, she
pulled him closer to her and pressed her mouth on his and he gave in.

He kissed her thoroughly and her
knees started to buckle, he scooped her up on the counter and pushed up her
skirt parting her legs putting him between them. He slid his hands up her
thighs, but slightly. She moaned again and wrapped her legs around him. He
kissed her neck and found his way easily beneath her shirt to her nipples
kissing her all over her chest, neck and throat. He slid his hand in, between
her legs and she gasped. He felt her for a long time, warm and ready for him.
He was ready for her and he ground his hips into her so she could feel him
against her.

“Ready to clip your wings, yet?”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes.” He grabbed
her hair and pulled her head back to face him. He looked at her long and hard.
He was all too ready for her but held back.

“Jordy?”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes.” He took a
deep breath and a step back. She started to take off her shirt and he stopped
her.

“What the hell, Tite?”

“Not now, Jordy,” he snapped.

“What the hell is going on here?
Isn’t this,” she pointed below her waist, “what this is all about? Isn’t this
what you just explained to me?”

“No, it’s not. Actually, I told you
not to expect anything from me, not that I was just going to fuck you and you
would never see me again. So this,” he touched her there again, a little
rougher this time, “is not what it’s all about, I just don’t need the pressure
of expectations right now.”

She slid her hand down his chest to
his jeans and underneath, she grabbed him with her hand and started trying to
play his game. He had played this game before, he wasn’t having it.

“Jordy, let’s stop. I am going to
leave now.” He kissed her again for a very long time. He looked at her between
kisses planting smaller ones on her neck and chest.

She was about to explode.

He reached between her thighs again
and stroking her over and over, kissing her playing with her until she came.

He looked at her and this time he
told her. “You are beautiful, Jordy, you are.”

She couldn’t believe what had just
happened.

She had just been coaxed into
submission and couldn’t even talk.

She opened her eyes and he was
still with her, looking at her, a smug smile washed over his face.

“No expectations, Jordy, I am
leaving it up to you.” He knew she had just caught what he meant, he wanted her
to himself, and she had to dump Tony.  He couldn’t promise her anything
and if she let go of her boyfriend she was taking a chance of getting hurt and
probably would.

“And next time I see you, I will
clip your wings.”

He kissed her one more time and let
go.

She shut the door behind him and headed
straight for the only comfort left in her world, her bed.

She set her alarm for work and
dozed off immediately, thankful that the sleep came to her so easily.

He had thought about it driving her
home.

He couldn’t justify fucking her and
letting her loose.

 It was too cold and he liked
being around her. Every woman he had slept with pretty much knew the drill.

Jordy seemed to catch on pretty
quick.

 HE was the one who kept
prolonging it. She was no different than the others. But she was.

He couldn’t get his head around it.
He should have just dropped her off and said nothing. He tried hard not to care
about the fact she was in a relationship and if he just did his thing with her,
and forgot about her, it wouldn’t sit well with him. He knew he liked her. She
had been willing to sleep with him and cheat on her boyfriend with him anyway.
They were all the same.

He had never had an issue getting
what he wanted from any woman, married women, newly engaged
women,
they all just gave in without him even having to work for it. He should have
just fucked her and left. She would have been the one to cheat.

So you give her a choice?

To dump her boyfriend, or
not
?

He closed his eyes, briefly, at the
thought of her.

The way she felt at his fingertips,
the way she kissed him, her eyes.

He wouldn’t spend any more time
thinking about it. She had the choice to make. He just didn’t hope she was
reading too much into all of this, but then again, he had never done the noble
thing before.

He pushed play, laughing about how
she had busted him listening to the song. It was the first time he had been
embarrassed in front of a woman in a long time. It was refreshing. She made him
feel that.

He was curious about which way she
would go. He couldn’t have the baggage of a boyfriend if he was going to see
her again. It was too risky. This one made him smile.