Hello!
So this is part 2.
When I have a story in my head I have to finish it soon. I don't have the patience to post a chapter each three months, I have to be done with it soon or else I'll have no peace.
Chapter 2 was a hard child to bear, because I wasn't sure how much information to put in it. This alternates between Travis and Morena's POV.
The story is meant to have 5 parts.
Particularly, I like the third one better because it is more revealing, but that's only coming to you next week (and it's longer).
Once again I must warn you: English is not my first language, so forgive my mistakes.
Enjoy.
XOXO,
Nana
*****
MORENA
I snapped my copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover shut. The book was giving me ideas and It was no good trying to concentrate. It had been a week since I'd awkwardly met Travis Keegan, and I had thought about him with alarming frequency ever since. Only god knew why, though, those had been the weirdest five minutes of my life. Nevertheless, his smile and uncanny blue eyes kept crawling back into my mind.
"What about moo shu pork?" George's voice caught my attention.
George was watering his plants in the firescape wearing my sunglasses and bright blue boxers in heart's pattern while he pondered on what we should have for lunch.
"I think I'm in the mood for Yakisoba today." I said.
"Yakisoba it is, then."
***
I hadn't had the courage to ask Gee if he knew Travis. He probably did, since he was a fashion photographer -I thought- and Gee knew almost everyone in the business.
"Gee?"
"Hum?" He looked up at me with his mouth full of Yakisoba.
"Do you know a photographer named Travis Keegan?" My curiosity got the best of me and I hid it poorly.
George stopped chewing and narrowed his eyes. "I do. He's quite famous. Why?"
I picked up a piece of chicken with my chopsticks, setting it aside, and trying to sound uninterested.
"Oh, nothing. I just met him the other day. When I went to the Lincoln Center to bring you your chest."
Gee swallowed his food, drank a sip of his diet coke and sighed loudly.
"So he found you then, did he." He said.
Found me?
"What do you mean
he found me
"? It was clear George knew Travis, and by the looks of it didn't think very much of him.
George rolled his eyes and waved a hand. "He came asking for you after you left that day. I told him you had left, but he clearly found you."
Travis had asked George about me? How could he have asked about me when he didn't even know me? Obviously, the only theory that made sense was that he had seen me talking to George. He had seen me and come after me? It didn't make sense to me.
"He did, yes." I could tell by Gee's expression I was failing miserably in faking my lack of interest in Travis. "Why didn't you tell me he asked after me?"
"Ah, well. You didn't mention him so I figured he hadn't found you and I just forgot about it."
I gave him my best sarcastic look from under my eyelashes. "Forgot about it. Oh, I see."
If a man, a good looking one at that, showed any interest in me and Gee didn't tell me about it, his reason for not doing so went being forgetfulness. His mission in life was to get me a boyfriend.
"Yeah. And?" Gee asked.
I looked at him, shrugging and pretending to be oblivious to his meaning.
"Morena. What happened? Did you talk to him?" His tone was curious and comandful.
I groaned in frustration.
"He...He took my picture and then he just...smiled. He kept smiling at me and telling me I was beautiful. Frankly it was weird. He was weird." I spoke too fast using too much of my hands. Obvious sign that I was nervous.
"Ohmygod! You like him!" Gee shrieked, his words coming out in a string.
"I WHAT?!"
He pointed a finger at me. "You like him, Morena!" He threw his new discovery at my face.
"George. I don't even fucking know him!" I said defensively.
"You like him! He's gorgeous and you like him!" He enthused so loudly, I bet the whole neighborhood heard him.
"Shut up, George!" I threw my napkin at him.
"You like him, you like him, you like him, you like him-ouch!"
My chopsticks hit him in the forehead, because honestly, sometimes it was like we were still 12 years old.
"Alright, George! So he's handsome and he's got nice eyes. But I don't like him. I don't! I don't even know him. He doesn't even know my name. And besides he looks like he's bad news. Also," I added quickly. "It's highly unlikely I'll ever see him again." I was babbling and giving myself away. It didn't even take an expert on me like Gee to know I was lying. I was a shitty liar, too.
"Yeah. You like him." He said for the millionth time. "And, if you'd like to see him again, I could arrange that for you, my darling."
"Oh, god, could you stop saying that?! And, no, I don't want to see him again." I lied, glaring at him.
Gee widened his eyes as if he were God's most innocent creature. "What?! You just said yourself you like him!"
"No, I didn't." And I had not.
"You did. You said he's handsome and that you like his eyes." He pointed out.
"Well," Damn George, he was doing his best to throw me off my balance. "Of course I noticed he is handsome. He is most likely the most handsome man I've ever seen, and his eyes are lovely. Truth. But anyone can see that. One only needs to have eyes to see that, George!"
He was chewing again.
"Hmmyeahhmm." He hummed, with his mouth too full of food for him to speak.
Gee swallowed and spoke, a piece of broccoli still dancing around his mouth. "But, mmhmhmm, he's a bad boy, Mo."
I wrinkled my nose. "George, swallow your food, please. You're disgusting."
I didn't want to hear him say what I had already gathered. Travis Keegan was bad news. There was a warning flashing on his face:
Look at me. I'm gorgeous. I'm sexy. You want to shag me senseless and then I'll ruin your life.
Any man who had enough balls to go running after strange women and telling them they're beautiful -Exquisitely beautiful- certainly also had enough experience with them. All that confidence came from somewhere.
"But you know something?" I stopped my thoughts about Travis and focused my attention on George when he spoke. "You're smart, if only a little uptight. I bet you could handle him. And I'm sure he's a beast in bed! Oh, I've heard some stories. It appears he's got a hu-"
"Oh, George! Enough! For fuck's sake!" I most definitely did not want to know what stories he had heard. "I've told you: I.DON'T.LIKE.HIM!"
"If you say so." The bastard said with a coy smile and returned to his food.
I ate just for the sake of eating, because I could taste nothing anymore.
A beast in bed? Wherever had Gee heard that?
And with how many people had this Travis slept with that there were known stories about how good he was in bed?
If I was being honest with myself I had wondered what it would feel like to have his hands on me. Those blue eyes going over every inch of my body. His beard grazing my skin...