Naughty Match

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 6

…………..

“Look, Dex.” She shook her head. “Mr. Quinn, you are my boss. What happened last night was-”.

“Hot?”

“It was unprofessional.”

“I don’t agree with that, Rosie.” I brought my hand up to rest on her face, feeling the deliciously warm skin on the apple of her cheek. “I may have gotten ahead of myself a bit but what happened last night was fucking amazing. And it would have been even better if you hadn’t run off.”

“No-”

I cut her off. “I didn’t even get to kiss you and I was still on fire, and I know you were too.” I desperately didn’t want to embarrass her further, but I needed her to admit what happened between us was important.

“Mr. Quinn, please-” she pleaded, her voice slightly rougher than before.

“You can admit it, Rosie.” I leaned down. “You can admit that you felt something between us.”

She pulled away abruptly before I could get the chance to kiss her. Those brown eyes wild. “No!”

“No?”

“Yes!” She took a deep breath. “I mean no! You’re my boss, Dex.” Rosie put some space between us with a step back. “We shouldn’t be discussing this.”

“Why, are you going to sue me for sexual harassment?”

“Can you be serious?”

“I am being serious, Rosie,” I said, my tone much more lighthearted than I meant it to be.

Rosie sighed, dropping down in the chair, holding her head in her hands. For a second I was afraid I had pushed her too far.

“It doesn’t matter what you want, Dex.” She looked up at me again. I could see the seriousness in her bright eyes. “It doesn’t matter what I want.”

“Of course it does-”

She cut me off, her voice as hard as steel. “I don’t want you, Dex. If you keep trying to pursue me, I’ll walk out that door and leave you to deal with your horribly disorganized life by yourself.”

I nodded. “Alright, okay. I’ll drop it for now, but just because you’re doing such a great job helping me get my shit together.”

---

Rosie

About a week after the incident in Dex’s car, and the slightly more tense one in his office, I was woken up by someone banging on my front door again. Filled with frustration and a little bit of rage, I angrily wrenched the door open. I was fully expecting to see my disgusting landlord on

the other side, or even worse, Dex. Instead it was a woman, around the same age as me and just as tall, with shoulder length dark brown hair and light brown eyes. She had a gleaming little

stud in her left nostril and a large floral tattoo along her right shoulder. The woman stood there so casually, confidently gracing my doorway in nothing but a pair of denim cutoffs, a lacy

bralette, and an expectant expression on her dimpled brown face.

“You gonna let me in or what?”

Before I could reply, or slam the door in her face, she brushed past me into my apartment.

“Huh.” She looked around, fiddling with my things. “Your place is bigger than mine.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Nora. I live across the hall.” She pointed behind me, towards the apartment directly across from mine though my still open door.

“And why are you here, Nora?”

“The crappy air conditioner in my place is out again and I don’t feel like having to park my gorgeous ass in some douchey downtown cafe all day so-” She waved her hand in front of her in a flourish, as if her explanation made perfect sense.

“That still doesn’t really explain anything.” I tried, but Nora had already made herself comfortable on my ugly little blue couch, flipping through the smutty romance novel I had facing down on the coffee table. “Do you always just barge into unknown people’s houses?”

“Only when they’re as adorable as you are.” She winked one of her hazel eyes at me. “What’s your name anyway?”

I sighed, all but giving up on getting the unfamiliar woman out of my home anytime soon. As much as I hated to admit it, it was nice to have a little company. My only source of human contact since I moved here stemmed from Dex and the nice, older Cuban men who worked at the corner market near my place. I was seriously itching to have a conversation that didn’t revolve around fresh produce or upcoming business appointments.

“I’m Rosaline.” I paused, a part of me wanted to tell her to call me Rosie, but it felt wrong somehow. No one but Dex had ever referred to me by that name before and I felt weird about letting someone else use it.

Nora nodded her head, still flipping through the book in front of her. “I approve of your choice in smut, Rosaline.”

Cheeks burning, I snatched the book out of her hands and tossed it the short distance through

the living room onto my bedroom floor. “You really shouldn’t go through people’s things without

permission.”

“Chill out, we all gotta get off somehow.”

I let out a huff. “This conversation is a little too intimate to be having with someone who essentially just broke into my apartment.”

“Hey!” she exclaimed. “You let me in using your own free will!”

Nora threw her head back and let out a full- bellied guffaw

. Her laugh, while slightly obnoxious, was equally infectious. So much so that I quickly found myself cracking up alongside her, reveling in the first genuine moment of happiness I felt in a long time.

Nora, as it turned out, was also 21, and in her senior year at the University of Miami. She also moonlighted as a waitress in a slightly shady bar downtown, was currently working on completing a science fiction novel, and was a complete slob. She was, or seemed to be, my complete and total opposite, but I couldn’t help but find myself enjoying her company.

She was candid, fun, and free with herself. None of her traits had ever been present in myself or any of the other people I called my friends over the years. Nora’s presence was much like Dex’s in a way: a total breath of fresh air and the complete opposite of everything I had ever known. Even after spending such a short time with them, I couldn’t help but admire those qualities.

Nora and I spent the afternoon together, chatting and watching episodes of crappy reality

television before it was time for her to get ready for work. I sent her off with an offer to spend some time at my place until she could afford a new window unit. Partly because I wanted to help my new friend out, and partly because I felt genuinely starved for human contact.

A few minutes after she left, I was rooting around in my kitchen, trying to figure out what to muster up for dinner when my cell rang. I answered without looking at the name on the screen, automatically assuming it was Dex, as he had been the only person other than my landlord to call me since I moved to Miami.

“Hello?” My voice sounded uncharacteristically cheery, even to my own ears.

“Hello, Rosaline.”

I recognized the voice immediately, the deep rumble of it devoid of any sort of warmth or

tenderness. The same voice I wished so many times before would comfort me, but never seemed to be able to.

“Dad.” I couldn’t say anything else.

“Rosaline, it’s time to stop acting like a little girl.” His tone was exasperated, as it often was when speaking to me. “I don’t know where you are or what you are doing but it’s time to come home.”

For most people, I could only imagine hearing their parents were eager to have them home filled them with sense of fondness. Instead of making me happy, my father’s insistence that I return to my family filled me with dread. I knew exactly what he wanted me for and I wanted no part of it.

“That’s not going to happen, Dad.”

“Rosaline, I will not repeat myself.” The volume of his voice was rising steadily, sounding angrier by the second. I could imagine his face in my head, clear as day: his cheeks flushed that ugly,

splotchy red color and the thick forehead vein popping out of his angular face as he struggled to take control of his anger.

Even then, thousands of miles away from home and safe from his righteous ire, the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention and my back straightened into a tense, straight line. My body was silently preparing itself to deal with the onslaught of emotional damage.

I said nothing, but he continued anyway, just as he always did.

“I am up for reelection, this year, Rosaline.” I heard his breathing slow down, his voice getting slightly calmer. “I need the entire family to be together. We have to present a united front and that means you getting your ungrateful little ass back home to us.”

“I’m sorry, Senator, but I just can’t do that.”

I hung up the phone before I could be subjected to any more of his yelling. I knew he wouldn’t

call me back, not that night at least. My father was many things, many awful, horrible things, but patience was his only virtue.

Suddenly feeling drained, I sluggishly made my way to my bedroom. Slipping under the warm covers of my perfectly made bed, my previous hunger completely diminished. My feelings of comfortable contentment were gone just as easily as they came, leaving behind an aching ball of stress and fear in the pit of my empty stomach.

TBC