5

Part 3AND WE MEET AGAIN

Katie stood agape at the beautiful presence that was before her.

The angel has landed... Katie's mind was rejoicing and her heart was practically trying to leap out of her chest. How can she be here? What is she doing here? Say something Singer, say something! Thoughts rambled through her head.

"Uh, hi." Katie said, more like squeaked. She stood staring like an idiot at Jessie, the expression on her face a mixture of relief and disbelief. Her heart was covered with absolute fear again, and at the same time, happiness. She smiled, and Jessie smiled back.

Jessie couldn't really think of anything to say. For a moment, she was contented with just looking at the painter who stood fidgeting holding a paintbrush in front of her. The other girl had specks of paint on her face and arms, which didn't make the stranger look less adorable. Jessie's smile grew even wider.

"Uhm... I'm Jessie." She offered her hand for Katie to shake. Katie momentarily looked at Jessie's delicate-looking hand. Then she eagerly reached for it.

"I'm Katie." She held Jessie's hand far too longer than she intended to. And after realizing that she had been holding on to Jessie's hand as if she's holding on to dear life, she immediately let go, her face burning deep red in obvious embarrassment.

"Your Grace's roommate. I'm her stepsister." Jessie continued to smile at Katie without realizing what she's doing to her. Katie surely felt like there were thousands of butterflies in her stomach dying to get out at the moment.

They fell into silence again, both suddenly feeling shy. Katie was looking everywhere but Jessie, and Jessie's eyes kept darting everywhere but Katie. Silly really. The silence has to be broken, so Jessie cleared her throat.

"I was wondering if you know where Grace is?" She flashed her killer smile again, making Katie's insides literally mush.

"Probably at the Coffee Park." Katie blurted the words out so fast, Jessie almost missed them. Katie really felt strange, and for the first time in her life, it was as if she'd lost every bit of her self-confidence. This girl was doing something to her, maybe some sort of a voodoo trick or something.

Jessie stared at her in amusement. She wanted to stay there and watch Katie fidget even if it takes all day. But of course, that would have weirded out Grace's roommate, and the last thing she wanted was to scare Katie away. When it seemed like Katie wasn't up for talking anymore, Jessie spun around to leave, but Katie's not about to let her.

Katie, of course, wants to hear more than 3 sentences from Jessie Sammler. She'll stretch this talk time with Jessie, as long as she could. And with that goal in mind, Katie Singer gathered all of her lost guts again.

"Do you want to go see her?" It was her turn to flash her trademark smile that won the hearts of so many girls. Jessie somehow felt her face turn crimson. Katie's making her stomach turn into knots. Oddly enough. "I can take you there." Katie persuaded Jessie after not getting any response from the crimson girl.

Jessie stared at her thinking. She wants to go with Katie. She really does. She really likes the way Katie's making her feel, despite of not really knowing her much, rather not knowing her at all. Too strange, really. Katie's sexy voice broke through her thoughts again.

"Come on, you'll get free coffee." Katie grinned. Jessie smiled. After another short time of pondering, Jessie decided to go.

"Just what I need." She chuckled. "I'll go get changed, I won't take long, I promise." Jessie left Katie's workroom, Katie stood staring at the space where Jessie had been, smiling like a moron. As if she doesn't look stupid enough, she purposely let her knees give up, and she lay motionless on the floor, with a silly grin plastered on her face.

Meanwhile, Jessie's mind was swirling. She never thought she's see that gorgeous smile again. She hoped, but didn't really count on it. The odds of seeing that smile again with the population in New York was like close to impossible. Never even in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine that that smile could belong to Grace's philandering roommate, a.k.a. Katie Singer. In fact, she never imagined Katie Singer at all. Which is weird now, 'coz her interest in Grace's roommate had soared from zero to too much.

The drive to the Coffee Park was pleasant. Jessie and Katie felt comfortable with each other that they were almost able to talk about everything, if that was possible. Jessie had even shared with Katie her battle with anorexia when she was in higschool, something that she doesn't normally discuss with her closest friends, let alone her family. Somehow, she trusts Katie.

"So, you basically just fall for every beautiful girl you see?" Jessie asked jokingly when their conversation reached the friends status. Grace and Zoe had mentioned far too many information about their roommate even before she moved in, that she knew almost half of Katie's life before they met today. And having been armed with those information was fun. Jessie mentioned what she knew about Katie's philandering ways and Katie reacted so defensively, to her surprise.

Normally, Katie wouldn't defend herself, and probably would have done the exact opposite and brag about it. But with Jessie, she just felt the need to become someone else, someone better. It was like she was almost afraid to let Jessie see who she really is, what she does and how people perceive her.

"I don't fall for every girl I see. Actually, I don't think I ever had. I just…" Katie trailed off, glancing at Jessie's direction only to see her smiling at her. Damn, what a sexy smile.

"What?" Jessie asked, shaking Katie out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" Katie realized she lost herself for a while.

"You were saying something."

"Right. I was saying that… What was I saying?" Katie chuckled, and Jessie laughed with her.

"You said you don't think you had ever fallen for someone before and you just…" Jessie trailed off the way Katie did, almost sounding exactly like her. As if understanding each other, they exchanged smiles.

"Yeah. I just…" Katie laughed to herself. "I don't really know what I'm saying." She looks apologetically at the other girl. Jessie reached out and touched her right shoulder reassuringly. Katie almost lost her grip of the steering wheel with the sudden contact. She held on to the wheel as tight as she could. Her hands were sweating and shaking, which rarely happens and only when she's nervous.

"I don't even know why I do the shit that I do. I enjoy it, well, most of the time anyway, but you know, sometimes, it's not just about what you can get. Sometimes, you look for something more, you know, like a deep…" Katie searched for the right words but her mental vocabulary remained closed.

"Connection." Jessie supplied the word knowingly.

"Exactly." Katie glanced to look at Jessie's direction and met her eyes. Jessie smiled shyly and motioned to the road ahead of them. Katie realized she was still driving and focused her attention to the road. Grace isn't gonna be happy if she gets into an accident with Jessie.

"I think all of us are looking for the same thing. That you'd risk your heart for someone you feel connected with, someone you're meant to be with." Jessie said dreamily.

"Yeah." Katie whispers.

They fell into silence again. Not awkward, 'coz they understood exactly what each other meant.

"So, have you kissed someone you love?" Jessie couldn't help her curiosity.

"Yeah, my mum." Katie answered thoughtfully. Jessie chuckled.

"I mean, someone, some girl you actually had feelings for."

"I thought I said I hadn't."

"So Grace was right, you're always just about the sex?" Jessie bombarded her with questions she couldn't answer right away. Katie swallowed her tongue in Jessie's straightforwardness. Jessie grinned. "You really hadn't?" Jessie asked in disbelief.

"You wanna be the first?" Katie meant it as a joke. Jessie's ears turned red. The joke totally caught her off-guard. Seeing Jessie's reaction, Katie backtracked. "Uh... I'm sorry, I was just joking."

"That's okay, uhm... I'm just not really into that." Jessie focused her attention on the road to avoid Katie's eyes.

"Yeah, I know... Don't worry, I get it... And I was just fooling around... I hope I didn't, you know, offend you or anything." Katie glanced worriedly at Jessie's direction. They sat in awkward silence for a moment, but it didn't take long before the awkwardness turned into comfortable laughter again. Somehow, both felt like they have known each other for a really long time.

Katie and Jessie entered the Coffee Park and found Grace and Tad occupying Katie's favorite table at the corner of the room. Grace was drinking coffee and reading a newspaper, while Tad was sitting beside her, an arm wrapped around his girlfriend's shoulder. Katie grinned and with Jessie behind her, she occupied the seat opposite the lovebirds.

"Too early to get cozy, don't you think?" Katie winked at Tad. The cocky, insensitive and emotionally detached Katie Singer is back.

"Hi guys." Jessie smiled at her stepsister Grace and her friend Tad. She had been friends with Tad since highschool. In fact, she's the one who introduced him to Grace. Her stepsister and Tad didn't hit it off at first, 'coz the truth is, she was the one being pursued by Tad at first. But he wasn't really Jessie's type. It so happened that Grace and Tad met each other again in college when they went to the same university. Eventually, they dated, got serious, and now engaged. Jessie was really happy for both of them.

Tad didn't say hi to Jessie. He just stood there, staring stupidly at Jessie. Grace noticed Tad's odd behavior.

"Hey, Jess." Grace nudged her boyfriend.

"Oh, uh, hi Jessie." Tad greeted Jessie like a robot, his eyes still fixed on Jessie. Jessie squirmed uncomfortably under Tad's stare. Katie narrowed her eyes at Tad, and knew exactly why he was acting stupid. She crumpled a table napkin and threw it at Tad, hitting the middle of his forehead. Bullseye.

"Cranky, aren't we, Singer?" Tad glared at his bestfriend. But before Katie could make a smart come back, Ira came walking by their table, put two styros of espresso in front of Jessie and Katie, and leaned down and picked the crumpled table napkin that fell on the floor.

"What's with you and table napkins? You're draining our supplies, Singer. Do that again and you won't get anything free from here again, got that?" Ira threw the table napkin back at Katie's direction and it hit her by the nose. Jessie couldn't help but chuckle. Katie glared at Ira. He smiled at Jessie. "Nice to see you again, Jess."

"You too, Ira." She smiled back.

"If you know what's good for you, don't hang out too much with Katie, alright?" Ira warned Jessie and Jessie laughed again. Katie could feel her face turning crimson again. Ira finally turned and walked back to his office.

"What's his problem? He's so---" Katie was interrupted by a grinning Grace.

"Right?" Grace was intentionally trying to avoid her friend.

"Dead." Katie corrected her. She noticed that Tad decided to stop staring at Jessie and was instead, staring at her now. He was getting to her nerves now, so she got up from her seat and grabbed Tad's right arm.

"Aw, hey!" Tad whined. Katie's had a tight grip on him. Grace frowned at the two.

"Excuse us for a moment." Katie pulled Tad away from the table.

"If you're gonna kill each other, please take it outside." Grace said after them. Jessie was amused watching Tad being pulled by Katie.

"You wouldn't mind if I kill him?" Katie stopped pulling Tad.

"As long as you make sure I'd get all of his money." Grace joked. Tad looked in disbelief at his fiancée. Grace laughed and shrugged. And Katie continued to pull Tad away until they were out of earshot.

"Are they always like that?" Jessie was still laughing.

"Yeah." Grace laughed with her and went back to her reading. Meanwhile, Jessie stared staring at her coffee, the smile, not leaving her face.

"You can go break every girl's heart in New York, but don't even dare breaking hers." Tad said warningly as he turned to face his bestfriend, his arms crossed.

"What?" Katie scowled at him, not knowing what his point is.

"You think I'm that stupid not to realize whose eyes you were obsessing about?" Tad looked really serious.

"Actually, yeah." Katie tried to be funny, but Tad didn't even smile.

"I'm not amused, Katie."

"I'm not obsessed with anyone's eyes, okay?" Katie tried to convince Tad, or herself rather. She looked up at him, and a look of concern was evident on his face.

'I can't believe you have fallen for Jessie Sammler." Tad sighed.

"I have not."

"Have to."

"Have not." Katie realized she had slightly raised her voice. She glanced worriedly at Grace and Jessie's direction, but it didn't look like they heard anything, so she turned to Tad again.
"Look, Tad, forget about the drawing, forget about the angel talk, just forget about everything, alright?"

"Why?" Tad wondered what made Katie turn her back now that she's found Jessie. She's not the type who gives up so easily.

"Because it's not gonna happen with Jessie. Not ever." Katie's shoulders fell. She gave Tad one last look, and walked back to join Grace and Jessie in their table. Tad watched her walked away, and for the first time, sensed something that he'd never sensed around Katie before. Sadness.