CHERRY. [JESS MARIANO]

Pigeons and Bagels

"I wanna meet him," Zayna told me as we lounged in the living room of our dorm one Saturday afternoon. Benjamin sat beside her as he flipped through a discarded magazine.

I raise an eyebrow at her and take my eyes off the tv. "You wanna meet Jess?" I asked from across her as she nodded her head in confirmation. "Meet, not torture?"

For quite a while, Zayna always spoke about how she much she wanted to punch Jess for making me 'sad'. In my defence, I never really spoke much about him before, but Zayna just had a way of knowing things. Usually through her psychology course.

Benjamin closed the magazine in his hands and sat up straight. "I'm sure she won't torture him," he began as Zayna nodded. "The guy probably gets enough of that if he's dating you," he continued out with a smirk.

Benjamin and I's relationship still hasn't changed much over time, much to Zayna's dismay. Although, our once hostile remarks and comments toward each other has simmered down into some playful banter instead.

"When do we get to meet him?" Zayna ignored Benjamin's dig at me as she leaned forward in her seat. To be honest, I actually really wanted them to meet Jess. Not in the 'I think they're going to be friends' way, but more in the 'Can you believe I got this guy!' Also I wanted to rub it in Benjamin's face about how amazing Jess is.

Turning in my seat, I checked the watch that hung above the refrigerator. "He should be here soon. We're supposed to go out to the park."

"Aw," Zayna cooed as she leaned against Benjamin. "How cute. How come we never go to the park anymore?" She directed her question at Benjamin.

Without any hesitation, he answered his girlfriend. "Because the last time we did you tried to push all the little kids over."

"Right," she recounted sheepishly as I shook my head at the two.

Shortly after, there was a knock at the door. I look over to Zayna and Benjamin who stood up excitedly. "No hitting," I reminded them as I made my way to answer the door.

Opening the door, I saw Jess stood there with a denim jacket on for the chilly autumn weather. He had his hands in his pockets and when he saw me he smiled lightly and gave me a soft kiss.

"You ready?" He asked me.

"Actually, you should come in." I tell him as he raised an eyebrow. "They wanna meet you."

Jess still didn't make a move to come inside, "They?"

"Zayna? And Benjamin?" I told him as he recalled the names from when I had mentioned them briefly.

"Wasn't Benjamin that douche from Washington all those years ago?" He asked me as I dragged him inside by the hand. I nodded my head at his question.

Jess and I stood in the centre of the room opposite Benjamin and Zayna, who had just put on a emerald green hijab. We all stood in silence for a moment before Zayna broke it.

"Hi," she started as she extended her hand to pat Benjamin's shoulder. "This is Benjamin and I'm Zayna."

Jess nodded stiffly and gave her a polite smile. "Jess," he said his name curtly. Despite his statue like demeanour, I could see that he was actually trying to be polite.

Benjamin spoke up and asked Jess a few questions about where he worked and what he did. Jess told him about Truncheon Press but kept out the detail about his upcoming book. I could see that the two weren't on the verge of making any crude remarks toward each other so I saw that as a huge win.

I turned to look at Zayna and saw that she was giving me a look that said, 'Wow, nice catch.' I look back at Jess at the same time she did. His hair was still longer than usual and he spoke in such a way that made you feel that he knew what he was talking about.