She should never have
gotten that tattoo. His bulging eyes ran dreamily up and down her neat long
legs, taking it all in. Did he think her skirt was too short? His gaze was
boring down on her limbs like these were the first pair of lady legs he had
ever seen. For a moment, she thought his eyes seemed to examine the beautiful
tattoo she had gotten only three days earlier. He liked it, she thought. He was
cute, but he was also weird, she thought, and scary too. Nobody stared at a woman’s
legs that long, not even a porn-surfing pervert. She wished the train to come
quickly, and knew instantly that he was waiting for the same thing too. She
tried to steal a glance at him too occasionally. She noticed he had a lean
muscular build with short black hair that was receding at the lines. He also
had deep-set blue eyes and the hairs that spread so generously across his chest
glistened from the unbuttoned top part of the shirt he wore. All these she took
in within split seconds. He looked Caribbean and she hoped he had an accent
too, and on the side that he was a good kisser. She grinned at the naughty
taught and saw his eyes leave her legs to settle on her face. Thankfully, at
that moment, the train came. She gathered her groceries in one scoop and in a
rush tripped over a few steps later, spilling everything all over the floor.
She was only bracing herself for the impact of the subway floor when she felt
herself stop mid-air. It was only after that, that she felt the strong hands
that were still holding her pull her back up. The hands steadied her and before
she had a chance to say thank you, she saw the pervert leg-watcher move into
the train. She quickly packed up her groceries and boarded the train.
Her first thought was
to be grateful to the pervert leg-watcher, then her second was that he was an
arrogant son-of -a-bitch, not even waiting for a ‘thank you’ and instead
rushing away like some omnipresent macho superman thingy. He wanted her to go
running after him to show her appreciation and look like some cheap roadside
grocery-shopping girl. Never! She was not going to star in this drama of his.
She was no roadside grocery-shopping girl, she was a hot, sexy paralegal at one
of the biggest corporate law firms in Texas and she was enjoying her weekend,
and hell, she needed a drink. She was also single and lonely as she had broken
up with Craig only weeks back. She found out he was gay. It wouldn’t be a bad
deal if this pervert leg-watcher macho superman had some cute in him, she
thought and grinned. The train came to a halt and everyone began to file out.
She decided to wait out the rush and followed only when the coast was clear.
Unknowing to herself, she tried to spot out the macho superman as she alighted
and just as she gave up hope of finding him, the crowd in front of her cleared
and she saw the pevert leg-watcher macho superman standing in front of her.
Before she had a chance to thank him, he blurted out ‘hey you know how I can
uh… find Mercer Street?’
Oh really? She thought.
He was going to the very same place she was, and he had an icily demanding tone
and cute accent that alongside his heavy build made him come through as sexy.
‘Yeah, that’s actually
where I live. It’s not far away. We could walk…together’
‘Okay’, he said, with
no hint of gratefulness at the piece of information and it still sounded sexy
They walked in silence
for a while till she broke the silence ‘Hey thanks for the quick save you did
back there. I don’t know how I would have managed if I fell’ she managed an
uneasy chuckle.
He just gave a slight
nod
‘He’s a stuck-up prick’
she thought instantly, and yet somehow she enjoyed it. She was going to get him
to talk, even if it took the hard way.
‘So
you don’t talk, huh?’
‘Only when it’s
necessary’ was his cold reply. His eyes were on her legs again. She was going
to bluntly ask him why he did the pervert leg-watch thing when he spoke
‘Where’d you get the
tattoo?’
‘A shop in El Paso, you
like it?’
‘What it mean?’
‘Huh?’
‘What the tattoo mean?’
‘I dunno…just asked the
punk for a nice, sexy work and he did this’
The macho man only
nodded.
‘By the way I’m
Valerie. You can call me Val. I work as a paralegal at Cossler, Cossler and
Braithwaite, somewhere in town.’
He gave the brief
annoying nod again.
She looked at him expectantly
‘You have a name?’
‘L.J’
‘What?’
‘Call me L.J’
‘Hey L.J’, she said
with a sarcastic smile ‘Your name got a long form?’
‘L.J is fine’
They got to her house
and she invited him in for a drink. That was when she wished she had never go
the tattoo. The questions began as soon as he had the cup of scotch in his
hands.
‘The guy that did the
tattoo, whad’he say when he did it?’
‘Nothing. Why are you
so interested in the tattoo? It’s no big
deal but it is cute. I mean, I could take you there so you could get one and….’
He stood up and
strutted casually towards her. Val’s mind raced to many of the romantic moves
that he could be planning, still hoping he was a good kisser. She was reveling in
the thought when she felt the heavy cold feel of metal against her forehead. It
was the barrel of a shotgun and L.J was the one holding it. The next words that
came out of his mouth were alarming.
‘Give me the package
now!’
