Ben
I knock on Kylie’s door thinking I’m being cute. She’ll be on her way to my place in a few minutes, but I can’t get the thought of those jerks bothering her in the hallway. Instead I’ll give her a personal escort even though she’ll think it’s corny.
“What are you doing up here?” Kylie asks, barely opening the door as she sticks her head out.
“I thought we could take a long romantic stroll to my place.”
“I’ll be down in a minute.” The flush in her cheeks and the way her eyes dart away has me instantly concerned.
“Are you all right? You’re being all dodgy and weird.”
“I’m always weird,” Kylie insists. “I’ll be right down.” The door closes in my face, and I’m left staring at the wrong side of a peephole.
“You’re good?”
“I’m fine.”
I step back and head down the hall until I hear another door open. “Hey Ben, I thought I heard someone out here.”
Penny has her gym bag over her shoulder as she closes her door and joins me on the way to the elevator.
“Is Kylie coming?”
“She’s in her apartment. I came to get her but she wouldn’t let me in. Is that normal?”
“Normal normal, or normal for Kylie? There’s a difference.”
“I don’t want to invade her space or anything, but it’s not like I haven’t been in there before. You had me over when you were staying there. Maybe she just likes her privacy?”
“I’m sure that’s it.” Penny has an oddly similar reaction, with darting eyes and flushed cheeks that has my antenna up. We ride together in silence and hop off on my floor.
“You’re doing great, Ben. I’ve never seen her so happy.” The door closes between us, and I stand here, trying to figure out what might be keeping Kylie from letting me in. I don’t care if she prefers to keep her space her own, but it seems like more than that. Like something could be wrong. I’m not insulted. I’m worried.
It’s only about ten minutes before Kylie is down at my place and doing her best to act like nothing strange happened.
“We finalized that new manufacturing relationship today.” She’s thumbing through the takeout menus and trying to look thoroughly distracted.
“That’s great. So everything at work is all right?” I eye her closely for any sign of distress.
“It’s good. Surprisingly, spending time with you hasn’t ruined my career. You were right. Do you want to work on the programming together for List to Leisure tonight? I think you can add some options for very brief meditation sessions. Just five minutes or so, something for beginners.”
This part doesn’t get old. We plan our evenings around these types of things the way other people plan what restaurant they want to go to, or what movie they want to see. A night in or out, usually always ends up with an impassioned discussion about something we are working on or hope to work on someday.
“Five minutes might be too long to ease people in.” I pull up my laptop and start jotting down notes. I tamp down the nagging voice of worry and assure myself that Kylie has made it this far on her own, and she’s well in control. “With your help this might be the fastest I’ve ever gotten an idea from conception to sale.”
“Sale?”
“Yeah, once I cement the idea and test it thoroughly, I’ll sell it. Some tech firm will slap their name on it and pay me out. Then I’m on to the next thing.”
“But this idea is so you. Can’t you invest in it yourself and take it directly to market? Why sell it?”
“It’s what I’ve always done.”
“Have you ever wanted to do it differently?”
“I’ve never given it much thought. It’s been relatively easy to find buyers for my developments.”
“Because they are amazing.” She lights with pride as she talks about my skills. “You’ve been on the cutting edge of countless creations in the last five years. Corporations must clamor to throw money at you when they know you’ve got something new.”
“My phone starts ringing, that’s for sure.”
“You could do an amazing launch of your own products from creation right through distribution. I can pitch in if you wanted me to.”
“That would be great,” I say, considering what a partnership between the two of us might look like. That’s what Kylie brings to my life that I’ve never found before. She challenges what has always been done in pursuit of what could done be better. Her hurricane-force perseverance is contagious. And her body in those jeans is sexy as hell. The whole package.
“Thai food?” she asks, waving the menu at me and smiling. “I promise this time I won’t say I want something small and then eat all your food. I really only want some noodles. I swear.”
“But I should probably get the curried coconut chicken I love?”
“And you do like the pork in peanut sauce too.” She smiles and nibbles her lip with a flicker of mischief in her eyes.
“But just noodles for you?”
“That’s all.”
“You are so lucky you’re cute.” I tap her nose with my finger.
“Oh you better get yourself the vegetables with the jasmine rice too. Just so you have enough. You don’t want to go to bed hungry.”
“And just the noodles for you?”
She nods and makes a little cross over her heart.
“You’re hopeless. But I wouldn’t change a thing about you.”