My Seoul Man

Chapter 18

Ten minutes into my first day back at the district offices, I found myself standing in front of the Ladies Room just across from the main office, looking down at a pool of urine-tainted water with wads of toilet paper and I don't even want to know what all else floating in it.

The stench was stupefying. And all the office clerks were rushing around trying to find enough paper towels to pat down the very angry parent who'd been splattered with all that mess when it splooshed up out of the bowl she was sitting on.

But in the midst of all this...your girl's mind was back in the huge, oval shaped, silk-sheeted bed where AJ had shown me some of his lesser known but truly impressive talents the night before.

Oh, the man had skills, as we put it in The Quarters when we don't want to say exactly what we mean by that out loud—y'all know what I mean, though, right?

And let me tell you, during my time in LA I hooked up with a few notorious swordsmen that no self-respecting woman would've dared take the least bit seriously except for that very specific purpose. Cause Cali was kicking my ass so bad that one night with a definite Doctor Feelgood was a treat. That's how Blaine happened--we've been there already.

But my K-pop "wang-ja-nim" (prince) had out-performed them all. I mean, the minute that little dress I'd worn to dinner hit the bedroom floor he went to work, y'all.

Which is why the fact that someone had systematically clogged up all the bathrooms in the district offices and Whitman Elementary sometime the night before the schools and district offices reopened somehow just didn't matter to me as much as it should have.

Yeah, I remember the line I left you with at the end of the last installment. How salty I was about him saying he had to leave early the next day.

And I did get kind of distant and closed off. Because I'm not the kind of person who can just act like nothing's wrong. I believe in grabbing the bull by the horns and wrestling it down.

But I'm also that bitch who clucks and says, "What'd they expect?" whenever someone breaks up with a celebrity for being too busy all the time.

That also comes from my time in Cali. Where I watched all these desperate wannabes slinking around with stars in their sights at those events I catered. They know exactly what that life is like after rubbing up against it on the chase. And then they have the nerve to get all pissed about what that life is like once they're living it?

Now, I didn't chase after AJ. But knowing what I knew should've kept me from getting all mad when he admitted we only had a few hours left. Plus, I hardly knew the man, so I had no business acting a fool like that.

But see, I'm not one of those "not on the first date" kinda sistas. It's been a problem for me from puberty, my body "wanting" before my mind is ready.

And that explains how I went from ice cold to blow torch hot in a split second. In that evil elevator that put us a little too close to each other.

Seriously, it was like one of those scenes you laugh at in the old black and white romantic comedies. Think...Jimmy Stewart going from hissing at that girl to kissing the hell out of that girl while they're leaning into that old-timey wall phone in It's A Wonderful Life.

I was giving AJ this half-hearted little, "No, I totally understand, I just...was hoping..."

And then he pulled me up even closer and I felt his body react and he felt my body react and we both reached down to slap the "STOP" button at the same time.

Which made us laugh at first. Only the look after the laugh turned things up so much we wound up going up and down in that stupid elevator a few times before we finally managed to get off each other and head for my suite.