“Come sit with me so I can show you this,” Wes said holding out one hand while the other moved the mouse around, clicking here and there.
Janet looked around and seeing no chair other than the one Wes was using, she sat on the edge of his bed.
“You can’t see from over there, Janet,” he said impatiently.
“There’s no other seat,” she said.
Wes looked around frowning. “Who the hell stole my other chair?”
“The same person that stole your Hustler magazines?” she asked. She regretted instantly bringing up sex again.
He chuckled. “I told you I don’t have any,” he said.
“Maxim then,” she muttered. She could kick herself. Why couldn’t she just stay quiet?
“Okay, you got me there,” he said laughing and holding his hand to her. “Come here.”
She hesitated a bit staring at his hand.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
“You… uh…you like to hold hands, huh?” she said evasively.
Taken aback he let his arm fall to his lap. “You don’t?”
“It’s funny,” she said walking around the room again.
“What is?” he asked now watching her with a crease between his brows.
“Most guys don’t like holding hands,” she said, even as she recalled her father holding her own hand, Jasmine’s and her mother’s too. He only stopped holding Stevie’s hand when he turned ten. She was struck again at how similar Wes and her dad were.
“That’s not true,” Wes insisted. “I see guys holding hands with their girlfriends all over the place.”
“Yeah, but they don’t really want to. It’s the girls that want to. They're the ones holding on and the guys are …just there,” she said, looking out the window into the immaculate backyard.
“Then I’m weird. I get it from my dad, I’m sure. He always used to hold hands with my mom and he used to with me when I was little and he still does with my sister.”
“Yeah,” she said turning around to look at him. “But I’m sure guys would rather be holding something else.”
“Like what?” he asked, leaning back in his chair.
“Like…pecs,” she said forcing a smile.
He laughed. “You're really funny, but you’re right. You know we can’t help it, though,” he said, glancing at her chest. “They’re nice to look at, so, naturally we eventually want to touch them too. It’s in our genes.”
“No, in your jeans,” she said, suddenly angry. “You better not be thinking of that with me. Got me?”
“Janet,” Wes said, shocked. “You know I wouldn’t do that!”
“Do I?”
“We were just joking around. I know I was,” he said staring incredulously at her. “So, you weren’t kidding before, when you asked if I was gonna rape you. You can trust me, Janet. I would never, ever do that…to anyone, but especially not you.”
She frowned, confused. What did that mean? Especially not her? But she didn’t care about that right now. He had said the magic words. She couldn’t count how many times she heard her father say, “Never trust anyone who says, trust me when you don’t think you should.”
“My…someone told me never to trust anybody who tells me to trust them,” she said, looking at him suspiciously.
Wes felt his heart sink to his feet. What had just happened? How had it come to this? They were getting along so well all day long and now Janet was afraid to be in the same room with him? She actually didn’t trust him. Was it just because he brought her to his bedroom? He looked around critically looking for any reason she should fear him now. He couldn’t see anything that she would find threatening. He concluded it must be him.
He looked at her and suddenly felt like kicking himself. He had crossed the line from playful banter to sexual harassment and he didn’t have a clue how it happened. Now she was looking at him as if he were some ugly insect which crawled out from under a rock ready to bite her. He could clearly see her wanting to stomp on him and squish him dead and he only had himself to blame.
What just about killed him was they had gotten so close today. All day they had such fun that he thought he could stop pretending and actually tell her how he felt about her. Now he’d be lucky if she still wanted to be friends. He may have ruined all that with one fell-swoop. She simply didn’t trust him and that hurt more than he cared to think about.
He ground his back teeth. “Nothing I can do about that,” he muttered angrily and went back to his computer. “I’ll take you home then, but first I’d like you to see this.”
She stayed where she was. He glared at her then stood up, grabbed her by the arm and dragged her back to his chair where he plopped her down onto his lap.
“Wes, what the hell!” she shrieked.
“You can stop acting like a hysterical virgin. If I was gonna rape you, I would’ve done it already,” he snarled.
This stung, but Janet wasn’t about to let him know it. “I’m not hysterical, but I am a virgin and I plan on staying that way…forever!” she said, attempting to get up.
“Yeah, I get it and I got news for you. I’m a virgin, too and I plan on staying that way until the girl I love loves me back. Now shut up and look!” he said through clenched teeth, pointing to the computer screen, then giving the mouse a final click.
Janet fought to free herself, but the arm Wes had around her waist might as well have been made of steel. She couldn’t budge it at all. “Let go of me!” she yelled and then her eyes fell on the screen and her struggles ceased instantly.
She stared, her mouth agape. There in front of her in blazing bright pink sprinkled with gold and white hearts and adorned with a picture of Troy with his arms around Jasmine both smiling for the camera was a website for Janet the Yenta.
“Wes…when did you do this?” she whispered, a shiver going through her as she stared at the screen and reached for the mouse on which Wes’ hand still lay.
“The night I fixed your laptop,” he answered as he loosened his grip on her, but didn’t remove his arm. “It’s rough still. Just some basic stuff up for now. There’s a bio page, the history of the yenta, a few testimonials and one for services and prices, but that’s pretty bare. Didn’t know what to do with that. You’ll have to tell me what you want on there. It can all be changed around, too. ..to whatever you like, any way you like…if you like it…Do you like it?”
Like it? Was he nuts? It was awesome! She suddenly felt horrible for not trusting him and now she felt like crying. She spun around on his lap and hugged him fiercely about the neck.
“Wes, I’m sorry I got you mad at me,” she mumbled, pressing her lips into his neck to keep them from trembling.
He held her close closing his eyes in relief. He was as happy now as he had been miserable two seconds before. “I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at me,” he said. “I was just teasing. I thought you knew that. But I understand. You’re a girl and you gotta worry cuz...cuz you’re little and not as strong as some of the weakest guys. You could be overpowered so easily. I tell my sister that all the time, not to trust just anybody, especially guys.”
She released him and looked into his face. “I was being silly,” she said.
“No, you were just trying to protect yourself,” he said shaking his head. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I wish I could make you believe me, but I would never hurt you…not on purpose.”
He frowned and took her arm, the one he grabbed in his anger. He caressed the slightly red spot. “I did hurt you. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.” He then brought it to his lips and kissed it tenderly.
Tiny tingles went up her arm and down her spine. She shook her head. “You didn’t,” she lied. It did hurt a tiny bit, but right now it felt rather nice to have him touching that spot so softly. She supposed her arm might even bruise by tomorrow, but she could tell he really was sorry and that made all the difference.
“I do trust you, Wes. really," she said. "Are we friends still?”
Every fiber in his being screamed, “No, not friends!”, but he couldn’t get up the courage to say otherwise. “The best kind,” he said.
Janet smiled and kissed him. “Why are you so nice to me?” she asked.
There were so many ways to answer that, but none of them came to him readily except for one. “Cuz you’re my yenta,” he said, unconsciously pulling her closer to him. “And I’ll do anything for my yenta. And I’ll never hurt her. I’ll cut my arm off before I do that.”
“I am your yenta. You’ll see, Wes. I’m gonna get you the best girlfriend ever. She’ll be perfect, smart and pretty and funny and everything else you want her to be and you know what?”
“What?”
“She’s even gonna want to have sex with you! But she won’t be slutty. You deserve better than that,” she said giggling.
“Janet…” he started but she had turned around and her attention was now fully on the computer screen. She moved the mouse around to all the different features of the website as Wes sighed and stared longingly at the back of her head.
At least she wasn’t mad at him anymore. He didn’t ever want to get her mad at him again…not ever!
