Jacqueline was usually unlucky in love. She had a hard time opening herself up to people, which was something she knew about herself. This had always been the case with her, but a bad experience from high school exacerbated her condition and taught her that people were not to be trusted. If that meant she would die alone, then that was fine. She had no problem with being alone.
Most of the people she went out with got mad at her reservedness and inability to open up. Vincent, though… he didn’t seem to mind. If anything, he was just as bad as her.
They got dinner together once a week during their first three months of dating. After the disaster that was their first date, Jacqueline insisted it be more casual. Nothing too fancy. If it took reservations, they weren’t going there.
It was the middle of June, and they were at a packed little pizza joint. The slices were cheap, but, Vincent insisted, delicious. He was watching her dab the extra grease from her slice of pepperoni.
“Are you going to keep staring at me?” She asked as she balled the now orange napkin up and put it on the table.
“I wanted to see what you thought of it,” he said, “this is one of my favorite places to go.”
“Oh?” She paused before the slice met her mouth. The tip of it sagged, the cheese threatening to slide off. “Did you grow up here?”
“No. I came here originally for college and I guess I just never bothered leaving.” He shrugged. No other information was given. “You better eat that before all your toppings fall off.”
“Ah!” She took a big bite and covered her face with a new napkin so he wouldn’t have to look at the mess she was making. He laughed and took it away from her.
“Hey! Don’t hide from me.” He smiled, his eyes full of affection. “You’re lucky I don’t have my camera.”
She swallowed. “Why? So you can take a picture and make fun of me for being a slob?”
“No, of course not.” He leaned forward, the laughter gone from his face. “Why would you think that?”
Jacqueline shook her head and took a sip of her pepsi. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter.”
“What I was going to say is because you’re so pretty.”
She choked on a laugh, the pepsi threatening to come up again. “Really? Even when I’m covered in pizza?”
“Especially when you’re covered in pizza. Speaking of, what did you think?”
“It’s good-”
“Just good?”
“-great, then. I was just thinking, you showed me one of your favorite places, one of these days I’ll have to show you mine.”
“One of your favorites from here?” He asked, finally indulging in his own slice, “That would take a load off my plate, so to speak. I have a really hard time trying to think of places to go every week that aren’t expensive but are still romantic enough to be considered a date.”
“Really? I think you’ve been doing a bang up job so far. No, I was thinking that maybe someday we could go on a trip to where I went to college. They had this great little seafood bar that had the absolute best clam ch-”
“I hate to be a downer,” Vincent interrupted, “but I’m actually allergic to seafood. Sorry.”
“Hey, that’s fine.” Jacqueline laughed it off. “What’s there to be sorry about? Not like you chose to be allergic to seafood.”
He didn’t laugh. Something about his reaction was disquieting, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. “Yeah. Still, if there’s anything else you’d wanna do…”
“Don’t worry about it, it was just a thought. Still, though, if you want I can plan next week’s date. Find someplace special for us.”
Vincent smiled at that and tapped her nose with his pizza crust. “I look forward to seeing how you plan to romance me, Miss Author Extraordinaire.”
Apparently Jacqueline’s idea of a romantic dinner date was inviting him over for pizza and beer while they watched a movie on her couch. Very juvenile. But, he relented, it finally meant he was in her apartment. The fortress of solitude he had yet to penetrate.
Seducing her was proving more difficult than he thought. His plan was a bit behind schedule. Things like that were bound to happen, though, once the planning stages were over and the game began. Personally, he was still mad at himself about his reaction to the clam chowder. He thought he was over it. Clearly, that wasn’t the case.
He knocked on Jacqueline’s door. She threw it open and grinned at him. She had her hair up in a messy ponytail and there was a light sweat on her forehead. She’d been deep cleaning her apartment, he could tell. The chemical smell was still fresh.
“Come on in!” She moved out of the doorway and ushered him inside. “Pizza should be here soon.”
“Thanks. Nice place you got here.” Looking around, he meant it. While the furniture was eclectic (very “I don’t care I just need a place to sit”) it all worked together pleasantly. It was also particularly clean, though he wasn’t sure how much of it was normally clean and how much was effort for his visit. “You ever thought about becoming an interior decorator?”
“Ha ha. Maybe if the writing game doesn’t work out for me. You want a beer?” She was already going to the kitchen.
“Sure. But no, I’m serious! This place is way nicer than mine.” She handed him a beer, ice cold from her refrigerator. They both opened their cans and drank. Cheap stuff. Disgusting.“Thanks.”
She laughed. “Oh my god, you hate it!”
“No! No, I don’t… hate it. How could anyone hate free beer?” He took another sip and gave her a thumbs up. She laughed again, practically doubling over.
“I didn’t realize you were such a lousy liar! Oh man, I’m crying.” She straightened herself back up and took a deep breath in and out. “Sorry, I didn’t tell you this but I kinda went for a theme for this date.”
Vincent tilted his head. “A theme?”
“Well, last time we went to your favorite pizza place from college, right? And that got me thinking, wouldn’t it be fun to do a sort of like, college style date?” She gestured around at the apartment as if that explained everything. It was only then that he noticed she was wearing a sweater with her alma mater’s name on it. “What’s more broke college kid date than cheap beer and pizza? Not to mention a movie on in the background to makeout to?”
She wagged her eyebrows suggestively, and he couldn’t help but laugh at her.
“Clever! Tell you what, next beer you bring me? I’ll shotgun it.”
Jacqueline jumped up and down and cheered, spilling some of her beer onto her sweater. “Yay! This is gonna be so much fun, Vincent!”
He took a swallow of his beer and lied. “My college friends just called me Vin.”
“Oh, really? Vin?”
“Yeah, well, what they actually said was “Vinner Vinner, chicken dinner, but that was long and kind of silly so we shortened it to Vin.”
Jacqueline laughed. “My college friends just called me Jackie. Nothing too fun to work with there.”
“Well, Jackie, I’m gonna wait on the couch for pizza and see if I can find a good makeout flick. Care to join me?” He held his arm out to her.
She took it. “With pleasure, Vin.”
It ended up being a night of firsts for them. His first night inside her apartment. Their first time watching a movie together… not that they really watched it. They spent most of it making out and heavy petting.
He’d thought that was going to be the end of it, but in true college style, Jackie got herself wasted on the cheap beer.
She was straddling his lap and drinking his beer when another first happened.
She took off her shirt.
“I’ve been… I’ve been thinkin’ Vin-” She paused to take a deeper drink of his beer and ended up finishing it off. She crushed the can and threw it behind her, giggling. “Vinner Vinner chicken dinner!”
“Yup, that’s me.” Vin was buzzed, but definitely not as far gone as Jackie. “Hey listen, Jackie, I think maybe you’ve had enough fun for one evening. Don’t you think?”
“No! I don’t! We haven’t had near enough fun!” She leaned all of her weight onto him. He felt her breasts pressed into his chest. Her breath was hot in his ear. “I think we should fuck.”
Vin wasn’t sure where to put his hands, so he settled them on her waist. Thinking this was agreement, she rolled her hips. Vin took a deep breath.
“Jackie, don’t take this the wrong way, but… I don’t think we should do this right now. I feel like I’d be taking advantage of you.”
“You're not! I want this! Please please please, Vin!"
“Well, I don’t want to! Not like this!” He pried her off him as gently as possible. Jackie fell against the couch and stayed sprawled there. He took another deep breath and ran his hands over his face. God, what had he gotten himself into?
“I bet you can’t even get it up and that’s why you don’t want any of this Vinner Vinner Jackie dinner.”
She was just taunting him, he knew that. Still, he felt his rage flare up. There wasn’t anything he wanted to do more than have sex with Jacqueline, it was a major step in his plan.
But this wasn’t how he wanted to do it. He wanted her sober and fully consenting. Like this, it was just gross.
He picked her sweater up off the floor and threw it at her.
“Goodnight, Jackie.”
As he walked out, he heard her yell “Impotent fuck!”
He closed the door just in time to block the beer can flying at him.
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