She came to me in the night, dressed in a tongue-pink shade that set off the bruise-blue hunger in her eyes, hunkered over my bed like this was the most natural thing in the world.

“My friend’s call me Cin,” she said.

“Come here, Cin,” I said.

On all fours, like a cat, she crawled. Our faces connected. Lip tore at lip, hunger battled hunger. My hands claimed her, hers did them one better – putting my fingers where she wanted them. Her velvety channel was wet, willing, my eager pumping matched by her grasping, groaning - leaving me no doubt as to what she wanted connected next.

She parted her legs further for me then reached to grab a hold of my straining cock and then…

“SERIOUSLY OWEN?”

Jake’s voice interrupted my thoughts as my bedroom door flung open and I froze. My throbbing dick fell to the bed, all arousal gone as quickly as it had come.

I leveled a glare at him as I pulled the covers over me. “Seriously dude? You couldn’t knock?”

“Sounded like you were dying in here.” Jake leaned on the doorframe, gaze still firmly fixed on my poster of an abstract light photograph on the wall.

“You waiting for something or came in to watch?” I said, still glaring. When no response came, I growled, “You’ll be the one dying if you don’t close that door.”

“Jeez.” Jake threw up both arms as he retreated behind the now half-open door, although he didn’t leave. “Crabby much? Clearly it’s been too long since you’ve gotten laid.”

“As a matter of fact, I was at Kimberly’s last night,” I said defensively. “It’s not that, it’s…” I trailed off, not knowing what to say.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Jake asked quietly. He paused, as if waiting for me to say something, and, when I stayed silent, finally said, “It’s been almost two weeks, and you’re still thinking about that ER nurse too, aren’t you?”

“’Too’?” I asked.

Jake knocked one palm into the other one, scowling. “It’s been two weeks, not two years.”

His scowl found its way to me as he continued, “Still, pretty lame considering we’ll never see her again. There’s literally no way.”

I examined him, realizing just what he was saying. “You didn’t.”

“What?” Jake started pace-stomping behind the door. “Just thought the nurses might think it was cute. You know, the whole ‘I had a connection with my nurse, and, I know, this is totally against protocol, but if there was any way, any way at all that you could maybe sort of hint her name and number…”

“Dude.”

Striding in now, Jake threw himself into my studded armchair. “I know, I know.” He glared at his tensed hands for another few seconds before leaping up. “We need to go out.”

“We?”

Jake lowered his chin to give me an incredulous look. “C’mon man, we clearly both need some fresh air, some fresh girls.” He swept his hand toward the bed. “Unless you’d rather moon over Nurse Impossible for the rest of our lives.”

My jaw tightened. Jake was right, but still. “Just give me a minute, alright?”

Jake paused in the doorway. He’d never been known for his patience, although he usually managed to find some during his fights. “You really going to make me wait outside your door while you finish jerking off?”

I shrugged. “I would actually prefer if you didn’t wait outside my door, thanks.”

Jake lingered for another few seconds. “Screw it, suit yourself.”

--

Jake chose Pickle Barrel since it was the kind of night that warranted our favorite. I wasn’t really in the mood, but I wasn’t in the mood for much lately, even work, although I hadn’t told Jake the full extent of it.

As soon as we sat down, though, the night got a whole lot more interesting.

Under the table, Jake jabbed my shins with his square-tipped shoe. “You see her?”

I kicked him skin back. “Yeah.”

I’d seen her as soon as we’d sat down. Cin, the ER nurse. Brown hair with wavy blonde highlights, a knockout evergreen dress that made noticing anything else near impossible.

Twisting around to catch her eye, Jake waved. She waved back, with a brief flash of a smile before looking away. As Jake rose, I grabbed him. “Think you’re forgetting something.”

As Jake eyed me uncomprehendingly, I leaned in to hiss, “Her date.”

Jake ripped his blazer sleeve free of my grasp. “You’re not my manager right now.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

“I’m just going over there to say hello.”

I tipped my head at him, the ‘oh really’ motion he always hated because I was usually right. “Be my guest, then.”

And so, I watched as Jake strode over there and said a few words with the clearly-embarrassed Cin and her date. Cin’s dates reaction was less visible as his brunette-headed back was to me.

I threw some water down my throat and chomped on some ice cubes, annoyed. Not of Jake’s gall, but of my own stupid certainty – that I should’ve gone with him.

Always playing it safe.

I massaged my hand with the plates in it, scowling. Was that all my life was gonna be now - one extended safe snore?

I was halfway up, when Jake came storming back.

“Guy’s an asshole,” he declared before he was even in his seat.

“Really or is it because he has his arm around the girl you want?” I indicated their table, where Cin’s date now had his arm around her.

“Doesn’t look like she’s enjoying it,” Jake said.

I peered at her. I’d never claim to be some kind of expert of the ongoing enigma that was the female mind, but if Cin’s tensed shoulders and pulled-away body meant what I think it did, then she wasn’t liking what her date was doing one bit. “You may have a point.”

A squeal distracted me from my staring session. “Jake! Owen!”

It was Mary-Belle, one of the usual blondes that served us here. She was beaming as if Christmas, her birthday, Kwanzaa, Hanukah, Halloween and Thanksgiving had all happened to land on the same day. “Ugh, I cannot believe no one told me you were here! It’s just like them.” Her blonde head momentarily stopped bobbing so she could glare at the clump of her fellow waitresses, chatting obliviously at the hostess desk.

“We just got here, actually,” I said. “But it’s great to see you.”

As she dipped to hug us, her arms and sugary cinnabon-esque scent simultaneously enveloping us, over her shoulder I checked on Cin. She looked to be imperceptibly trying to inch away from her date, although he didn’t seem to be getting the picture.

“What happened to you?” Mary-belle was cooing, bending over to peer at Jake’s fading scab.

“Just a fight cut. We’ll have the usuals,” he said, a bit too curtly.

As Mary-Belle’s high-watt smile fell, I cut in. “Sorry for the rush. We’re just starving.”

“Of course!” Smile back on, she hurried off.

“Could you be a little less obvious?” I asked Jake, who was still staring at Cin, not even trying to hide it now.

He shrugged, his gaze not budging. “It’s a free country.”

I stabbed at some puny ice cubes in the glasses of water that had been here when we were seated. “Thought we came here to cool off.”

“She doesn’t like him. Look – she’s leaving.”

“To the bathroom,” I said. “Just face it. There’s one girl on the planet that you’re attracted to that you can’t do anything about.”

Jake’s stare followed her as she left down the hallway to the restrooms. “You’re attracted to her too.”

“Yeah, I just don’t think that automatically makes me have to do something about it.”

I tossed some more water down my throat so Jake wouldn’t see it. That secretly, part of me was itching for an excuse to go to the bathroom and accidentally-on purpose bump into her. I could see it, her rosebud lips parting in a shy smile, my ‘Oh, hey, how’s it going? Kind of random, but you should check out one of Jake’s fights sometime’.

Back at their table, Cin’s date looked unsettled. I pretended to be drinking out of my water cup while I watched him in the circle of its glass bottom. Her date whipped a look around, then, apparently satisfied, shoved a hand into his pocket.

“Check out their table,” I said quietly to Jake.

As I watched, I had to admit, it was fast, the cough and hand flick he did next. Anyone else who hadn’t been watching the whole thing would’ve missed it. That he had slipped something into her drink.

The next moment, I was on my feet, over there.

“What the hell was that?” I demanded.

Her date had a baby face, power-blue eyes and too-big lips that gaped at me uncomprehendingly. “Huh?”

Jake grabbed him by the collar. “What you put in her drink, shitface.”

“Uh, guys?”

It was Cin, standing at the edge of the table, goggling us.

“They’re lying,” the man said. “I was just coughing and-”

“Ok.” Jake let him fall to his seat, grabbing Cin’s glass and hoisting it to his mouth. “Drink it, then.”

The man’s eyes bounced around us to Cin. “They’re lying.”

Jake shoved it into the opening between the man’s lips. “Drink it.”

Another bounced around look and the man stumbled out of his seat and backwards, his gaze imploring Cin. “They’re lying, I-”

Darting my hand into his pocket produced a baggy of white round tablets that I shook in his face. “Oh yeah?”

“Those are my allergy pills.” Both his eyes were bulging so much they looked like they were about to pop right out of his head. He forced a smile at Cin. “Hey, how about we get out of here?”

He grabbed her hand, which she immediately jerked away. “Think I’m good, thanks.”

His grip didn’t budge. “Don’t tell me you believe these jerk-offs?”

Jake gave the man a light jab to the ribs that sent him sprawling on the floor. Then, both of us towering over him, Jake said, “Cin said she’s good.”

The aftermath was fast, chaotic. The waitresses were understanding, Cin’s date stalked off, Jake letting him go only due to Cin’s firm request. While Jake settled both bills inside, I explained things to Cin outside. “Sorry about that. Just we saw him slip it into your drink and-”

“Don’t apologize.” Her eyes were fierce. “The whole time Paul and I had been texting, I’d had a bad feeling about him, only I kept shoving it down. I should be thanking you.”

Her arms pressing her body to me in a hug eliminated any chance I had of coming up with a worthwhile response. Not with what the heat of her closeness did to me.

“Hey, are you alright?” Jake asked, coming out to join us.

“Thank you,” Cin said, opening her arm to include him on the hug. “Both of you, I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t seen that” A shiver went through her.

“We should’ve beaten that guy until he turned himself in,” I said darkly. “How did you meet him anyway?”

“My friend set me up with him. She must not have known what he was like.”

“Shit.” Jake’s arm was still around Cin, though it didn’t need to be. “You want a drink or something?”

The smile Cin mustered up was unconvincing. “Thanks, but I think I just need to be alone right now.”

“You drive?” I asked.

“Normally but” – she shook her head – “Paul drove me.”

“We’ll drive you home,” I said.

“No, I couldn’t ask-” she began.

“You’re not,” Jake said. “We’re offering.”

She hesitated, looking us both square in the eye, one at a time, before eventually saying, “Alright.”

A few minutes later, as Jake and I drove her home, my mind came back to that. Her careful, measured agreement. I was grateful for it. That, when looking at us, really thinking about it, even with her instincts on high alert, Cin had known enough that we were good guys, trusted us enough. It made me worry too, stupid as it was. I barely knew the girl, and yet – she really tried to see the good in people.

After Jake’s few attempts at conversation failed, we lapsed into a comfortable silence. I couldn’t really blame Cin for her quietness, she’d very nearly escaped being raped or worse.

Instead of her place, she had us pull up to a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee shop.

“Well, at least your place has donuts,” Jake joked.

She grinned. “Maybe I’ll get you some sometime.”

“That mean we get to see you again?” he asked.

“Maybe, I….” she faltered, frowning, shaking her head. “I just need some time to think. What almost happened tonight was…” She let out a shaky breath.

“How about you come to one of Jake’s fights sometime?” I said. “He’s got a nice undefeated streak going these past few months. He’ll be at Workman Arts this Wednesday.”

Another pause, in which Cin looked from me to Jake, back to me again. “Yeah, I’d like that. Thanks again.”

And then she was gone. The shock was such that she had disappeared around the corner when Jake realized it. “Shit, her number.”