VI

July 7, 2013

1930 Hours

Jasmine giggled as she made her way up the stairs. The man she was with, Tony, said something about today’s politics, and Jasmine took it as a joke and started bawling over his comment.

“Oh, you’re so funny!” Jasmine said, hitting Tony playfully on the chest. Her hand lingered there for a minute, and she gave Tony a playful look. He gulped nervously.

How do I break it to her? Tony thought. He wanted to say something ever since the first sentence came out of her mouth at dinner, but he didn’t want to seem rude.

Tony was sitting down at the table, playing with the two forks he was given by the waitress. He looked at his watch, noting the time was a quarter past nine. He sighed, and thought about leaving when he heard a clatter and a glass shattering in front of the restaurant. A girl with short brown hair ran into a waiter, making him drop the tray of wine glasses and food onto the floor. Tony had a nervous sweat go through him instantly.

Please don’t let that be her.

The girl, after saying sorry over and over again, made her way to Tony’s table, and plumped down on the seat. She got out a little mirror from her mini purse dangling off her arm, and started fixing up her hair. Tony got a strong whiff of her perfume, and he nearly gagged. Not that it wasn’t a pleasant smell for him, there was just too much. You can only do so much peppermint.

“I am so sorry for being late Tony,” she said as she applied mascara and and eye shadow at the dinner table. “I was fighting with my ex-husband, and it got really heated.” Tony stared at her dumbfounded.

They made their way to Jasmine’s apartment door, and Jasmine took out her keys. She jingled them playfully in her hands, taking her sweet time with trying to open the door. Tony’s watched Hitch enough times to know what this meant.

“Well. It looks like this your place,” Tony said, trying to make small talk to avoid the awkward silence. Jasmine smiled, and looked down at her keys again.

“Yeah, I suppose it is,” She said, still tinkering with her keys. She looked up at Tony in the eyes, and he could see what she wanted. He wanted no part of that.

“Yep, well you found your way! I better be going,” Tony said, slowly backing up. Jasmine look confused for a second, then smiled.

“I know what you’re doing!” She exclaimed. Tony stopped in his tracks, confused.

“What exactly am I doing?” He asked. Jasmine threw her keys on the ground, walked right up to Tony, and pushed him against the wall.

“You’re playing hard to get,” Jasmine whispered on his ear.

No I’m not! No I’m not! Tony screamed in his brain. Tony admits that she was a good looking chick. A solid eight, but he was a Christian and would rather save himself.

“I-I’m a Christian, Jasmine. An-an-and I would rather… you know… d-d-do it with someone I love,” Tony explained. Jasmine smiled again, relieving Tony from being pushed up on the wall. Sidestepping Jasmine, Tony sighed quietly with relief.

“I see…” Jasmine said, looking at Tony. Tony smiled at her, and started to back away when Jasmine pushed him against the wall again.

“This is part of your game, isn’t it?” She whispered.

I’m done. Tony thought, and he pushed her off of him. He didn’t know where this sudden strength of willpower came from, but he didn’t push it away.

“Look. You’re a nice lady, and hot while I’m at it, but I’m not interested in you,” Tony explained. Jasmine gave him an innocent look. She opened her mouth to say something, but Tony interrupted here. “Not interested you at all.”

“But why? You said I was nice and hot. Let me show you how hot I can get,” She said with a wink. Tony chuckled lightly at her stubbornness.

I’m cocky all of a sudden? Tony thought.

“Lady, I just said I was saving myself for someone I truly love, and here you are trying to seduce me? That’s honestly disrespectful,” Tony said, a little hurt. “I tried to be nice, but you’re pushing my buttons!”

“Disrespectful?” Jasmine said, her tone switching from loving to hostile and snotty. “Oh please. You big baby, go get blue balls somewhere else.” Tony was going to say something, then thought better of it.

“I bid you farewell,” Tony said, and walked off quickly to the stairs. He left the building, and tried to whistle down a cab. Tony looked to his right, and saw a cab coming his way. Right on the cab’s tail was a big white van, with no license plate, and the windows were tinted black.

“Lay off,” Tony muttered to himself as the van impatiently passed the cab. As it drove off into the city, Tony eyed it. It turned a sharp left into an alley about four blocks down. The cab in front of Tony honked, and he nearly jumped. He got in, and decided to go to that party his friend was talking about; it was only about four blocks down the road.

Jasmine flipped Tony off as he descended the stairs. Hearing him leave the building, she slumped and got out her keys to the door. Opening her apartment door, Jasmine looked at her phone to see if there were any missed calls. One was from Dan’s apartment.

“This a*****e,” She said as she closed the door behind her, and walked into her living room. Grabbing a bottle of wine, she started drinking straight from the bottle. Jasmine dialed back Dan’s apartment number, and a little girl on the other side picked up.

“Mommy?” Chelsea asked. Jasmine set down the bottle, and genuinely smiled.

“Hey sweetie! Hey, not that I don’t want to talk to you, but where’s your dad?” Jasmine asked, curious why Chelsea was calling her on her visitation with Dan. Also more curious as to why he doesn’t have a babysitter over there right now.

“Daddy is somewhere else,” Chelsea said, “I need someone to say goodnight too. Chell laid me down, but I forgot to say goodnight to you.” Jasmine and Dan both weren’t really worried about a babysitter not being there when the child was asleep. All it ever did was save them the hassle of paying a little extra for the hour the sitter stays waiting for the adult to arrive.

“Don’t you have Dan’s number?” Jasmine asked.

“Yes, I have daddy’s number. He’s at work though and I don’t wanna bother him,” Chelsea said. Jasmine noted how good Chelsea’s speech was, and wondered where she got it from. Even though she was three, she was a fairly decent speaker.

“You’re going places sweetie,” Jasmine said, “Alright, well. Go to bed, I love you. Goodnight!” Jasmine said, and hung up. She took off her purse from her shoulder, and her headband out of her hair. She fell onto the couch, and noticed a bottle of wine on the table in front of her. Picking up the bottle of wine and looking at it, she furrowed her eyebrows.

“I need stronger.” She said, throwing the wine to her side carelessly, and getting up to get a couple of beers from the fridge. Jasmine popped open three beers, poured them into a big cup, and then mixed vodka in there with them. Jasmine smiled and muttered, “This is better.”

After drinking the whole thing a thought appeared in her head.

I better call Dan and tell him off. She smiled as she started to dial his number.

The ringing stopped, and Jasmine immediately said, “Hey Dan.”

“Yeah, what is it?” Dan asked on the other side of the phone. Jasmine hiccupped silently away from the phone, and returned back to the phone.

“Chelsea called again to say goodnight,” Jasmine said. She then had a confused look on her face.

Did she do it a first time? She thought. The alcohol getting to her instantaneously, she continued on with the conversation.

It didn’t matter that she said “again”, Dan didn’t even think about it. “Could it be because she misses you?” Dan said on the phone, trying to make excuses. Jasmine noted that was a good point, but she wanted to make him feel bad.

“No, Dan! It’s because her father wasn’t there to say goodnight!” She exclaimed.

Yeah. That’s a good excuse. Go Jasmine. She thought to herself as she imagined patting herself on the back.

“Look Jasmine, I was working a late night case with James. Okay? I’m home now, an-“

“Out with James again, huh? Slipping some cold ones I suppose?” Jasmine intervened. She said it in an accusing manner, just to make Dan feel worse. Unbeknownst to Jasmine, all it did was make Dan even angrier.

“No! I just said I was out on a case,” Dan corrected her. “Jesus woman. There was a murder, and we investigated the crime scene.” Jasmine scoffed at the excuse, although she knew it was true. She didn’t care.

“Humph,” Jasmine said, hoping to annoy Dan. It worked for her as she heard keys being thrown somewhere on the other side of the phone.

Ha, he’s mad! Jasmine thought, although it wasn’t true. Dan just tossed his keys onto the table in his apartment nonchalantly. “Well I don’t care!” Jasmine exclaimed, hoping it would rile Dan up. She assumed by now Dan would roll his eyes, so then she turned serious to keep her act up.

“I heard that!” She yelled. She went up to go get more beer, and stumbled a few times on her way over to the fridge.

“Look, Jasmine. I’m honestly done with you. I’ll do what I damn well please, okay?” Dan snapped. Jasmine stopped halfway to the fridge, and stumbled to the island in her kitchen. She was actually surprised at his response, and didn’t know what to say. She was flustered. “And one more thing. Don’t call me aga-” Dan stopped talking mid-word. Jasmine looked at her phone to make sure he was still on.

She finally worked up the thought process to say, “What were you going to say? Huh?” She waited a little bit for him to respond, but he didn’t say anything for a few seconds.

She was going to say something else when Dan yelled, “CALL THE COPS NOW!” Jasmine jumped from the sudden yelling, and retaliated back with yelling.

“WHY!” She yelled back. No response prompted her to smash her finger on the hang up button, and pout. She then decided to call the cops, because if it’ll get him arrested for annoying the neighbors, then that’s good for her.

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” The operator said. She had a sweet and caring voice that was used to calm down people who were frightened or anxious.

“Hi, hello, um. My stupid ex told me to call you, but I don’t know why.” Jasmine said.

“Ma’am, then why did you call us?” The operator asked. Jasmine raised her hands on frustration.

“I don’t know! Because he told me too?” She asked. Jasmine could almost hear the operator shrug, and she decided to use the excuse she had in mind.

“Alright fine. I chickened out last minute because I felt bad, but I wanted to report that Dan molested a child tonight, and he’s going to get more children later.”

“What! Ma’am why didn’t you tell us! Why did he tell you to call us! What… I-I’m sending dispatch immediately! What’s his address?”

“Oh, um… 623 San Potem Apartments,” Jasmine said with a mischievous smile. The operator hung up, and Jasmine tossed her phone onto the couch. Jasmine sat down and felt like she won that night.

That nothing could go wrong.

“You’re going to have a horrible night,” Jasmine said, referring to Dan.

She soon found out she was right.