J

On the morning of our date, I answered the front door at Jisoo and Bobby's wearing the black dress. I thought maybe it would be Lisa, surprising me with an early pick-up. So I fluffed up my hair and my boobs before opening the door. I think it's safe to say that the florist's delivery guy would have preferred to put his tip inside of me, rather than take the three dollars I gave him.

Lisa had sent me two dozen lavender colored roses. Not yellow for friendship. Lavender purple. For me. I don't know how she knew it was what I liked. Other than the fact that I was always buying that kind of roses at the flower market. The note card said: From the hardest-working guy you know. Still thinking about you. See you tonight.

I felt like a prima ballerina. Except that I could barely move my legs in that dress.

At almost six-thirty, I was standing in front of the mirror in Bobby and Jisoo's dining area, trying to confirm that there would be no nipple slips as I emerged from the car or bent down to pick something up. I heard the front door open, assuming it was Bobby or Jisoo, and caught my breath when I saw Lisa's reflection behind mine. She was about ten feet away, watching me. We locked eyes in the mirror.

Every debilitating, dehumanizing second that it took to get me into this dress was completely worth it just to see that look on Lisa's face. At first she may not have realized it was me. But when she did, it was like the sight of me knocked the wind out of her. I had never felt so attractive in my life as I did in this moment. I turned to face her, fingers gripping the buffet table behind me.

"Shit," she said under her breath, taking me in as she stood where she was.

My own eyes were so fixed on hers, watching them scan me down and up again, that it took a minute for me to notice just how hot she looked in her jeans and blazer. So not like Jerry Seinfeld. I very rarely saw Lisa in a blazer. I have a thing for blazers. I was so used to seeing her shirtless around the house, but somehow she looked even sexier to me like this. I definitely wanted Business Lisa to give me the business.

"Hi," she said, finally approaching me.

"Hi."

"You look…" She bit her lip and shook her head. "You're stunning."

"Thank you."

She leaned in to kiss me on my cheekbone, her hands gently touching my waist. Before pulling away, she pressed her lips against my neck, just below my earlobe. She smelled different. She was probably wearing the cologne that she reserved for dates. It was intoxicating. I inhaled deeply and swayed a little. I was already lightheaded due to minimal food intake, but there was a high probability that her amped-up attractiveness was going to make me fall over at some point. For one second I completely understood how jealous she felt about Kai, because I felt jealous of all the faceless women she'd worn that cologne for before me, all those necks she'd pressed her lips against. But she was all mine for now, and I knew it.

"Not complaining, but you're a tad over-dressed and over-exposed for this event," she muttered, staring down at my cleavage.

I held my finger up in front of her face. "No I'm not." I picked up the thin white blouse that was resting on the buffet table under the mirror. I put it on and did up a few buttons, tying the bottom of the blouse into a loose knot just above my waist. "See? Not too over-dressed, not too over-exposed."

"Wow," she said, perhaps a little disappointed that she could no longer see my boobs. "It's like a fashion magic act. Now you see them, now you don't." She smiled. "You're perfect. You ready to go?"

"Yeah. How was your day?" I picked up my purse and she gestured for me to walk towards the front door, ahead of her.

"Interesting. Attended some interesting talks, met some interesting people. Thought about what you looked like in a towel. I think I've decided to go with a Santa Monica-based venture capitalist for my next project. How about you? Did you work today?"

"No, we start breaking down the sets tomorrow. I spent most of the day getting into this dress, picking out which shoes to wear with it, scheduling my upcoming jobs, and trying to remember what you looked like naked the night we met."

She grinned. "Any luck with that?"

"Not really. You'll have to refresh my memory."

"Not on the first date," she whispered in my ear, as she opened the front door for me.

"Fair enough."

She wasn't very talkative on the drive to Burbank and that was fine with me, because I closed my eyes and replayed the banter we'd just had over and over in my head. I must have had a big dumb smile on my face because she said: "You're thinking about our little exchange just now aren't you?"

I huffed. "Get over yourself."

"I just wish that blouse was as transparent as you are." She kept her eyes on the road and she was frowning.

I smirked. "Would you like me to remove the blouse?"

"I'll be doing the honors at the end of the night. Hope you took your sewing kit with you to Bobby and Jisoo's, because those buttons are gonna go flying."

"Is that a threat or a promise?"

"It's a promising threat."

I would have told her that I didn't much enjoy sewing and would make her buy me a new blouse if she ripped this one, but we were already seconds away from the studio and I could see from the bulge in her jeans and the clenched jaw that she needed to get into the no-boner zone fast. So, like a good friend, I kept silent and pretended not to notice when she shifted things around down there and cursed under her breath.

This party was my first time on the Warner Brothers lot, though I'd driven past the yellowy-beige perimeter many times. I wanted to work there, to design glorious sets that would be built in the big stages on this lot. But for now, it was quite a treat to be there with Lisa. I didn't know that studios rented out space for private events, but it made sense. Apparently these investors and techpreneurs knew how to party. Or at least they knew how to throw a party. It looked no different from a big movie premiere event, with purple, amber and fuchsia spotlights, Warner Brothers-themed set pieces, gorgeous classy bar and seating arrangements and a big stage for the DJ and band to perform.

There were a couple of hundred people milling about the sectioned-off New York street exterior set area of the backlot, and I swear that all of their eyes turned to Lisa when we showed up. I felt surrounded by new money, money that was worked for, disrupted money—let's be honest—nerd money. Lisa was in no way the richest or most successful person there, but she seemed to have everyone's attention without asking for it. Was she the most attractive techpreneur present? Without a doubt. Did she carry herself with the most confidence? Looked that way to me. Was she the most athletic nerd ever? Probably. Regardless of the why, I definitely felt the axis of the party shift as soon as we had arrived.

I was glad I hadn't really seen her in work situations before this. Because it was a massive turn-on. Lisa Manoban was the It Girl. She was polite and charming, articulate and straightforward, and she introduced me to everyone as Jennie Kim. Not "my friend Jennie Kim," nor "my housemate Jennie Kim," or "my secret wife Jennie Kim." I was Jennie Kim—full of possibilities. She wasn't kidding when she said she was going to introduce me to wealthy people with houses that needed decorating. Literally every venture capitalist and his or her spouse asked me for my card when Lisa told them that I did staging and decorating on the side.

When the event photographer approached her for a picture, Lisa pulled me in and put her arm around my waist, then asked the photographer to take a picture of us with her phone, with the Batmobile in the background.

Now there were a grand total of two pictures of us together where we weren't making goofy faces.

She had barely looked straight at me since we got out of the car, but I didn't read into it at first. There were so many people vying for her attention. When she led me over to the bar and ordered me a glass of red wine and a water for herself, I noticed a distinctly familiar-looking tall thin gentleman.

"Um. Is that Snoop Dogg?"

Lisa didn't look up to check as she reached for the drinks. "Probably. He's been investing in tech for years, and also, you know, weed-related startups. You should talk to him about that. Maybe he'll give you some samples."

"Haha."

"Joseph Gordon-Levitt was at the conference today," she mentioned casually.

I squeezed Lisa's arm and started exaggeratedly craning my neck. "Cool. This was fun, thanks for bringing me," and then I walked off, pretending to look for JGL and thoroughly enjoying my joke. When I walked back to Lisa, she did not look at all amused.

"Really? You're not even going to laugh a little bit?"

"His wife's probably around here somewhere too. She's a brilliant robotics scientist."

"Well, now I'm jealous. I'm not even an average robotics scientist." I said this while doing The Robot. The restrictive dress actually improved my dance moves.

Her face barely twitched, her jaw was tight, and her body was rigid.

I stood upright again, hand on my hip, lowered my voice.

"Do you want me to leave?"

"Why would I want you to leave?"

"Well you seem very uncomfortable with me here."

"Do I?" She looked around the immediate area, probably to see if anyone could hear me being an annoying date, then put her arm around my shoulder and pulled me in close as she leaned down to speak directly into my ear: "I'm uncomfortable around you because you're a fucking knockout and all I can think about is taking you home, peeling that dress off of you, exploring your beautiful naked body with my hands and tongue and fucking you until we both forget that there was ever a time when we didn't fuck each other. But I can't do that because I have to stay here for at least another hour, and I have to talk to people who aren't you, about things that have nothing to do with fucking you. So just do me a favor and act like the confidant woman you are, don't leave, and also maybe try not to look so goddamn hot, even when you do The Robot like an idiot, okay?"

I cleared my throat and gulped down half my wine. "Okay." I could definitely do that. With the help of a little more wine.

"There she is!"

"What's up, ugly?"

I recognized the voices behind me and turned around, even though Lisa didn't look very happy to see her friends. Jackson and Bambam were her cute nerd buddies from USC, but I hadn't seen them in ages. Their eyes widened when they recognized me.

"Whoa!" Jackson stepped back. "Is this who I think it is?"

"Hey guys!"

Bambam, who was always the flirty one, grabbed me and hugged me.

"Oh my God we thought she'd murdered you."

"It's been ages."

"It hasn't been that long," Lisa grumbled. "Alright alright, that's enough." She tapped Bambam on the shoulder.

When he finally released me, I gave Jackson a quick hug.

"Long time, girl. Wow. You look great."

"Where have you guys been?"

"We've been around—where have you been? It's been like a year since we all hung out."

"We always ask about you, but this girl's like 'oh she's busy with work,' so we figured she had you chained to a wall or something."

I glanced at Lisa, who was giving Bambam the wide-eyed Shut Your Face look.

"Well, I have been busy with work." I took Lisa's hand. "It's kind of nice to be out on a date with this one for a change."

Lisa pulled me in closer, and Jackson and Bambam's jaws dropped.

"No way! That's awesome, you guys."

"Awww you guys are so cute. Well, that explains a lot."

I gathered that Lisa had been trying to keep me away from other single boys for a little longer than I'd realized.

I excused myself to the bar and let Lisa do some explaining to her friends. I ordered a beer, stared up at the life-size Wonder Woman Justice League statue, wondered if Gal Gadot ever ate while she was wearing that costume, and waited for Jackson and Bambam to wander off before delivering the beer to Lisa.

"Drink this."

"I'm driving."

"Drink one beer. You need to chill." I took the water from her hand and replaced it with the beer bottle. I clinked my wine glass against the bottle and said: "Let us calmly remember that this is a party for tech nerds and investors, that is meant to be enjoyable."

"Well-played," she grinned.

That grin made me wobbly.

"Hey. Did you eat dinner? Let's get some food."

"I'm fine."

"Uh. No. You're hungry. You didn't eat all day because of the dress, did you?"

I frowned at her. "You don't know me."

She took my elbow and guided me towards the street vendor set-up to grab whatever it was the guy was cooking in the mobile oven.

She finished half the bottle in less than a minute and had a twinkle in her eye for the first time that night. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For encouraging me to have a beer. For coming with me. For letting me see you in that dress so that I know what you look like without that blouse on and other people don't. For being you."

"It's my pleasure." I felt totally calm and confident—so much so that I asked a passing server for another glass of wine.

"You sure you haven't had enough?" My best friend/secret wife/hot as hell first real date raised an eyebrow at me. "Maybe pace yourself. The night is young."

"So am I. Who's the grandma tonight? Yeesh."

While she chatted with a couple of men who'd approached her, I checked my phone and found a slew of texts from Jisoo.

Jisoo: Did she like the dress?Jisoo: How's the party?Jisoo: Have you guys had sex yet?Jisoo: Seriously. How's it going?Me: It's huge and very impressive.Jisoo: Please tell me you're talking about her penis.Me: No, dirty rabbit. Party is on WB lot, impressive and winetastic. My date is hot and is yet to show me her penis.Jisoo: Aww. You guys are so old-fashioned. I love you guys.Me: Go back to watching Netflex.Jisoo: We're both working on our laptops in bed actually. Naked. With vodka tonics.Me: You're my heroes.

When I looked up again, I followed Lisa's gaze. She was watching a young woman who was making the rounds, hand-in-hand with an attractive guy. She had lilac-colored hair, looked half-Japanese, super cool and 1000% gorgeous.

She quickly looked back over to me just when the couple saw her and started heading our way. She calmly said to me: "You're about to meet someone that I once dated."

Mina. She didn't even have to tell me.

"All you need to know is that we dated up in the Bay Area for a few weeks and when I ended things I introduced her to this guy she's with now, because I thought they'd get along and now they're engaged. So don't be weird."

"So don't do The Robot?" I assembled my face in the least weird expression I could manage and didn't take a bite of food because I didn't need to meet one of her former sex partners with food between my teeth or on my blouse.

"How did we not run into you at the conference, bro?" The guy shook hands with Lisa while still holding hands with his fiancée, who was smiling at me, wide-eyed and fascinated.

"I didn't even know you guys were in town."

"I thought I texted you."

"Did you?" She leaned in and gave Mina a quick peck on the cheek. "Hey you, good to see you." Quickly stepping back to me, she rested her arm around my shoulder. "This is Grandma—uh—Jennie Kim. We live together. This is Mina and Sean from the Bay Area."

"Oh hi!" Mina held out her hand and seemed genuinely happy to meet me. "It's so nice to meet you."

"Hi," I said. "You're stunning."

"Oh my God," she laughed and covered her face. "Thank you, that's so sweet."

Sean shook my hand as Mina kept talking.

"When did you two move in together?"

I side-glanced Lisa, waiting for her to answer.

She rubbed my back. "When we were still at USC."

I watched as she processed this.

"We just started dating recently," she quickly added.

"Very recently," I said. "Like, an hour ago."

Mina looked relieved. "Awww, cute. Well, I don't know much about Lisa Manoban, but I do know that if she's stuck with you for years then it's saying a lot." There was no hint of malice in her tone.

"It's saying this girl is incredibly tolerant of me," Lisa said.

Sean asked Lisa if he could chat with her about a potential collaboration, and Lisa politely told him she'd love to talk about it with him tomorrow but she promised her date she'd get her some more food. We all looked down at my full plate of food.

"I have an eating disorder," was what came out of my mouth.

They bought it. Lisa just blinked and shook her head. Fortunately, the DJ and his band started making a lot of noise, so we didn't have to dwell on this.

She didn't want to leave me alone to talk with Mina. It was considerate, I thought, that she didn't want to put me in an awkward situation, although it was also possible that she didn't want Mina and me talking for her own reasons. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Wow. You're so easy-breezy with the people you used to have sex with," I said, after they'd walked away.

She took my hand and squeezed it. "Don't waste your time and energy comparing yourself to anyone else that I've dated. It's not the same thing. You mean the world to me. No other girl comes close. You get that, right?"

Did I? When she put it out there so simply like that, it was difficult not to. Don't stop. Don't stop being so handsome and looking at me like that and saying all the perfect things.

"If you want to leave, we can."

"It's okay. We can go after one more glass of wine."

"You didn't eat anything."

"I'm fun. I mean fine. I'm fine and I'm fun and I'm having fun." I curtsied. "Hope I'm being confident and not too goddamn hot to your liking."

She frowned at me.

"What?"

She grabbed my hand and pulled me along with her.

"Are we leaving?"

She kept looking around. She nodded at people as they called out to her. She pulled me away from where people were hanging out, to the perimeter of the New York street set, saw the railing for the subway steps and headed for it. She peeked down at the darkened stairwell and took a step.

"Watch your step," she said. "Keep quiet."

When we got to the bottom of the stairwell, she pressed me up against the cool cement wall, staring at my mouth and sending shivers all through me. "Everything about you is to my liking," she whispered.

I was up on my tiptoes, lifting my chin, but she just kept staring at my mouth and it was killing me.

"Baby, you make me harder than the P versus NP problem."

"I don't know what that means."

"It's considered the hardest math problem in the world. It's a theoretical computer science joke."

I snort-laughed. But in a really sexy way. "You're such a nerd."

"You're such a fox."

"Shut up. I'm not."

"I wish I could develop the technology for you to see yourself the way I see you."

"I'd rather look at you."

"Aren't we lucky things are the way they are, then?"

"Shut up and kiss me."

"I thought you'd never ask."

And there we were, kissing each other for real, in fake New York City.

While my hands were feverishly exploring her back and butt, she was ever so slowly undoing the buttons on my blouse. She traced her fingertip along the top of the bustier, kissed my neck, my collar bone, my breastbone, and then the mounds of flesh that were protruding from the top of my dress. So slowly, with such control. There was so much tension between my legs, it felt like she was pinching me down there, but her hands were cupping my breasts.

You think you know a guy and then she looks at you with lusty eyes and bites her bottom lip and suddenly she's a sexy mysterious stranger in a dark stairwell who's introducing you to a side of yourself that you didn't know you had.

Apparently, tonight I was meeting the side of myself that was a drunk shameless hussy who had completely forgotten that she told this guy she'd have to work for it.

"You know what I think?" I said. Or maybe I slurred it. My tongue felt loosey-goosey, but maybe it was not as bad as it felt. "I think…that…this dress…would look good…on…your…bedroom…floor."

I felt the warm air on my skin as she laughed while kissing my neck. It took me a moment to realize that she was now slowly buttoning my blouse back up.

"I'll let you tie your blouse the way you like it," she said, as she pulled away from me and straightened herself out. "We should go."

"Are you taking me home?"

"Which home would you be referring to?"

"Yours. Ours. Yours. Take me back to your place and screw me."

She shook her head. "You are wasted."

"I'm being wasted on you tonight, apparently." I snort-laughed and high-fived myself, because that's what sexy classy sober ladies do on dates. We snort-laugh and high-five ourselves.

Apparently, we also get very angry and quiet when we realize that our dates are not taking them back to their place for end-of-date sexy classy screwing. Once I realized that Lisa had been driving on the 10 freeway and was slowing down to exit for Jisoo and Bobby's place, which was in the opposite direction of her place, my whole body stiffened and I was convinced that seeing Mina had changed her mind about me. It made perfect sense.

I didn't say anything when she went through the McDonalds drive-through and asked what I wanted to order, because I was so hangry and I needed to eat something so I wouldn't have another hangover. She got me two cheeseburgers and large fries, which is exactly what I wanted, but I didn't thank her because fuck her if she wasn't going to bang me.

After snatching the greasy paper bag of food from her, I did what I'd wanted to do ever since seeing her with Mina. I remembered that her ringtone for her was Let's Get It On. She didn't have ringtones for everyone, and didn't have one for me as far as I knew. I pulled out my phone.

"Who are you calling?"

When I heard the upbeat jazzy intro, I recognized it immediately. She looked around, and realized that I had called her phone. She said nothing. She looked a little embarrassed. I ended the call, because I knew all I needed to know right then. It was Harry Connick Jr.'s version of I Could Write a Book from When Harry Met Sally. "And the world discovers as my book ends, how to make two lovers of friends." What a cheesy dork. It wasn't a sexy song, but I had no doubt that it was personalized exclusively for me.

When she parked at the curb in front of Jisoo and Bobby's building, she said: "Hang on, I'll get the door for you."

When she opened the door and helped me out of the passenger seat, she pulled me into her, kissing me on the cheek, then gestured towards the building. "Door to door service."

"Well. Thank you for the lovely evening," I said.

She grinned and grabbed me by the waist. She licked her lips and pulled me closer with one hand, with the other she tilted my chin up. "Good night, Jennie," she said, as she lowered her mouth down to mine, so slowly that I swear I could feel each second ticking through my entire body, but when her lips touched mine, everything slowed down even more. With one hand on the small of my back and the other gently running fingers through my hair, she had me gripping her arms so I wouldn't lose my balance with my eyes closed.

When I caught my breath, I whispered: "Are you sure you don't want to go back to your place?"

"This is what you wanted," she said in my ear. "You wanted to live apart from me so I could pick you up and drop you off, so I could work for it, remember?"

"I know, but—"

"You are not going to be intoxicated the first time we have sex, Jennie Kim. You're going to be high on me and you're going to remember every single second I spend on your body making you gasp and moan and come like you've never come before."

Well, when you put it that way…

I kissed her on the cheek, went inside, shut the door and tiptoed through the quiet apartment, holding my breath and covering my mouth with both hands, because I was one inhale away from belting out my favorite Harry Connick Jr. song.