Under Different Circumstances

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

We arrived at Jay's apartment building fifteen minutes later. I was excited to finally see his place after we'd spent all of our time at my house so far.

Jay followed me into the small, brightly lit elevator with a mirror on the far wall and pressed the button to the fourth floor. I stepped close to the mirror and wiped away a smudge of mascara from underneath my eye. Jay moved to stand behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I leaned my head back against his chest, placed my hands on top of his, and regarded our reflection.

He was more than half a head taller than me and broad enough that my slim frame was completely surrounded by his silhouette. My blonde curls had become undone during the evening and fell loosely and messily onto my black leather jacket. Jay wore a black bomber jacket, and our jeans were a close match in colour too. The cold light in the elevator intensified the crystal blue of my eyes and brought out the blue in Jay's green eyes.

"We look good together," I noted and saw Jay's reflection smile in response.

I turned around in his arms and stared up at him. His smile widened as he tightened his arms around me, and I got up onto my tiptoes to brush my lips against his. The elevator dinged when it reached our floor and the doors opened, but neither one of us was ready to break our kiss just yet, and we stayed where we were. When the doors began to close again, Jay reached back quickly to hold his hand into the closing gap and walked backwards, pulling me out of the elevator with him before breaking the kiss.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me down the corridor to the last door on the right. He unlocked it, and I followed him into the open-plan living area of his apartment after he'd turned the lights on.

While I took off my shoes and hung my jacket onto a coat rack in the entryway, Jay headed into the kitchen to our right and threw his jacket onto a barstool by the kitchen island. He went to his fridge, and I walked into the room to look around.

Immediately, I felt comfortable and at home in his place as I sensed Jay's presence and character in every piece of furniture and every object I saw.

The space wasn't big, but it was nicely furnished for its size. Half of the room was taken up by the kitchen and entrance area, the other half was the living room. Between two big windows in the far wall, stood a console table with a TV mounted above it. A modern, black, leather sofa and two matching armchairs faced the TV, and a wide, industrial style shelf filled with books and picture frames was placed against the wall behind the left armchair. On the opposite wall, hung a stylised painting of a motorcycle above a sideboard made out of the same dark wood as the shelf and console table.

"Do you ride?" I asked, standing in the middle of the room studying the painting.

Jay came to stand next to me and handed me a cold beer. "Yeah. Whenever I get the chance. Which isn't too often, sadly."

"Maybe you could take me for a ride one day?" I looked up at him hopefully. "I haven't been on a bike in years, but I'd like to do it again."

"My bike has been in storage for the last few months, but I could dust it off for our trip on Sunday," he suggested, delighted by my interest in his hobby.

I nodded eagerly with an excited smile on my face, then took a sip of my beer and walked over to the shelf. I recognised several of the books on display and owned a few myself.

"I liked this one," I said, skimming my fingertips across the spine of one book. "This one was emotionally difficult to read but amazing. Hated this one," I noted and tapped my fingernails onto a book with a red cover.