CHAPTER 4:
Escaped put it mildly. He had jumped out the window, not realising that there was no balcony to catch him. His body lay on the pavement twenty stories down, covered in blood and other bodily matter. A crowd of people were gathered around along with two police cars and four police officers.
"Damn." Jen muttered under her breath. She knew she would have to tell the police to "aid" their investigation. Otherwise, it would begin to look rather suspicious.
Eventually, the police began asking the people who lived on the top floors of the apartment complex if they had seen anything. Jen knew this was coming but she decided to lie. She did not want any involvement with the police, especially considering who she thought she may be dealing with. Jen simply said that she was asleep when she heard a woman scream outside. It woke her up and she looked out her window to find a man on the concrete. The officers believed her and soon left her alone. She added to the effect of being 'asleep' by changing into pyjama bottoms and a tank top. James could hardly keep his eyes off of her. James also noticed that Marcus couldn't seem to tear himself away either.
"Well, I should get back to my own apartment; make it look like I wasn't even in the building at the time." Marcus said, grabbing his jacket off the dining room table. Jen simply half-smiled at him as he left. She shut and bolted the door behind him.
"So," James began, crossing his arms. "Do you want to explain who this Marcus guy is and why he seems to look at you like he's seen you naked?"
"Why I never!" Jen turned angrily away from James, her back to him now, avoiding his eyes.
"Why are you then avoiding looking me in the eyes?" James took a step forward, his hand on her shoulder. Jen felt herself tense up at his touch. She stayed this way for a while, just breathing in and out. Then finally, she brought up her courage to turn around and tell James the truth.
"As I said previously, Marcus and I did know each other from school. In our last year, he asked me to be his date for prom. I said yes, simply because I had no one else to go with. Nothing romantic ever came out of that. Well…he did try to kiss me, but at that point I simply said no, and left. I never saw him until the following summer when I signed with Her Majesty's army. He was in my rank and in my regiment too. At first I thought it was a mere coincidence, but I found out through one of his friends that he still had a thing for me and he had to pull a lot of strings to be in my regiment. However, that did not worry me as I was an independent woman and did not need a man at that time. Being alone was a good thing for me. Then I was specifically selected by MI6 to work for them. And later on, around eight years or so after I stopped working for MI6 and had become a mercenary, I was working in Dakar." Jen took a breather. James slid his hand down her shoulder and he grasped for her hand. This time, she gladly took it. "Then I bumped into him. We reminisced and talked and he decided to be a little more…slow with his romantic advances. I…I didn't know what to feel or anything really. We had a brief…fling or whatever but I never considered it serious. He did however. But, I just…I did not reciprocate what he felt towards me and I feel bad now. I should have just told him that I did not have those feelings for him and he would have moved on. Then, a short while thereafter, I was hired by ExOps and I never saw him until I returned from North Korea to here. I was not expecting him to be alive, let alone my neighbour."
"Oh…" James said. He didn't know what to say back to her. Instead he embraced her to his chest. Jen closed her eyes, breathing in his soothing scent. She knew she never ended it with Marcus properly, but back then she didn't think she was going to find someone like James and besides that, she thought Marcus had been dead all that time. Jen knew now that she had a very, very important, life-changing decision to make.