Chapter Twenty-Five #2
"Trust me. I went on a date once with this guy in college, and we went to grab a burger, then we went back to his place, and I thought it was because he wanted to sing his song to me because he said he knew all of Jack Johnson's songs and I said I love Jack Johnson.
But when we got back to his place, he handed me a basket.
He was like, 'Here's five dollars. Will you go to the laundry room, and I'll meet you there?
'" I stare at Kingston, who's laughing. "It's not funny. It was horrible."
"Did you do the laundry or not?"
"I'm not going to answer that question."
"Oh, Skye, you did his laundry?"
"I did one load, but he never came back." I shake my head. "I know. I sound like an absolute loser."
"No, you just sound like a really nice girl that was taken advantage of."
"You could say that again."
I put the ticket into the slot and then a door opens to the right of us. I can hear jazz music playing from the bottom of the stairs and I glance at him with wide eyes.
"Oh my gosh, this is so cool. I've never been to a speakeasy before."
"Well, I'm glad that I'm your first," he says as he leads me down the stairs.
We make our way into a small room, and there are about twenty people sitting at small circular tables.
There's a stage at the front of the room where a saxophone player, trumpet player, and someone on the keyboard are playing.
A beautiful, tall woman with long, curly hair steps onto the stage and starts singing a song about New Orleans.
"This is perhaps the coolest moment of my life," I tell him. "I'm not even mad that we're not in Paris."
"Really?" he says. "You like it that much?"
There is a happy look on his face, and I nod. "Yeah, this is the best fun night I've ever had."
"Oh, yeah? Better than date nights even?" he asks, grinning.
"I'm not even going to answer that question," I say as we make our way to a table and sit down.
Within moments, a tall man with a buzz cut stops by. "Welcome to the Laundromat. Would you like two of the specials tonight?"
Kingston looks at me, and I nod. "Sure. Thank you."
"Great. They'll be right out."
He disappears, and I look at Kingston with wide eyes. "We don't even know what they are."
"I know we don't, but isn't that part of the excitement?"
"Yeah," I say, sitting back. "This is so cool."
I look around me at all the other couples, and I feel like I'm part of something. I feel like I'm experiencing a moment on a checklist that I hadn't even been aware that I should have on the list.
"You know what's crazy?" I say as I look over at Kingston.
"No. What?"
"This is so cool, and this is the sort of moment I expected to have on my travels around the world.
I didn't even think that I could experience something like this right here in New York.
It just reminds me of how little I really know The City and how little I've explored.
Shoot, how little I've explored the country. "
"So what? You don't want to travel around the world now?"
"Oh, no. I definitely want to travel around the world, but I guess I can do more exploration and travel within the state as well."
"Yeah," he says with a nod. "And maybe other states."
"Yeah. I have to see how much money I have, but…"
"Stop thinking about money," he says. "You tell me that I'm obsessed with money, but almost everything you talk about comes down to money and how you don't have enough to do it.
Sometimes, in life, you have to make the opportunities.
You have to make things happen. You can't wait until you have the money. "
"True, but I don't want to be homeless or living on the streets or have nothing to eat."
"You can always count on me. You can always call me. No matter when, no matter why, no matter how, I'll be there for you, Skye."
I blink rapidly, trying not to cry. "That doesn't seem very professional."
“Are you saying I’m not professional?" He scowls.
"You seem really caring toward me right now, and is that really an emotion that you should have toward me?” Why do I sound like I’m begging him to tell me he has feelings for me?
He stares at me in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, in the day, during the week, you're my boss, and we have a boss-employee relationship, and that works.
And then, on fun nights once a week, we're able to have fun as a preamble to hot sex, and we both know that this isn't leading anywhere serious, and we both know that we don't want the other one to catch feelings.
So maybe we don't want to do things that could come across as caring because then that indicates more of a deep relationship, and we don't want that. Right?"
He nods.
"I'm very grateful for the offer, but I just don't want to complicate everything."
"Noted," he says.
"And this is only our first fun night," I say. "It's fine for us to define what is and isn't acceptable."
"Okay," he says.
"You look pissed at me."
"I'm not pissed off. I'm just taken aback. I was trying to be…" He pauses. "You know what? Let's not even have this conversation. Let's enjoy the music, wait for our drinks, and have a good night."