Mahogany sighed; the boy was so handsome. Jordan’s eyes were smoldering onyx marbles. She smiled to herself; he had probably charmed many women right out of their panties and she was no different. “No. I take good care of my body; or at least I did until this weekend. You are my very first fuckup. I like orgasms way too much to play around with missing them. And let me get this straight: you don’t have a girlfriend? As fine as you are? That counter clerk has the hots for you, did you know that?”
“Darice? Yes, I’ve heard that from quite a few people at work.”
“The day I was there, the day you helped me, she eyeballed you like you were something good to eat.”
Jordan smiled at Mahogany as he buttered a piece of bread. “She’s eighteen. I have no interest in dating a girl younger than me. I don’t even like them; they’re too immature. A young woman can do nothing for me except point me in the direction of her mother.”
Mahogany laughed. “I feel the same way about older men.”
Jordan stared at her for a very long moment. “I guess we’re well-suited then.” He put a piece of bread to her mouth. Meeting his gaze, Mahogany parted her lips and allowed him to place the tidbit on her tongue. He said, “It’s got a good crust and is very soft and chewy on the inside. I love this place; they get the bread right every time,” he said.
She chewed slowly as she stared at him. Tonight, his hair was down and it was amazing how it framed his face. Mahogany wanted to run her fingers through it and have it trail over her breasts. Jordan would be more than accommodating if she decided to take him back to her house. Instead of thinking about that, she decided to focus on the conversation at hand.
“Yoshito Kiyoshi?”
“That’s right.”
“Your first name is Yoshito?”
“No, it’s Kiyoshi. It is our custom to put last names first.”
“Oh.” She smiled thoughtfully. “I’ve never dated an Asian man.”
“Is that right? Are you biased or a victim of stereotypes?”
“Neither. It’s just never happened. I’ve dated Black, White, and Hispanic, but never Asian.” She ran her finger around the lip of her glass. “Those sorts of distinctions don’t matter to me as long as he can fuck. But you are the first Asian man that I’ve been attracted to. And you can fuck, so this is a win situation. Plus, I like you.”
“Good to know,” he said. “I used to date girls my own age, but when I got in the eleventh grade, I started dating older women, and I’ve dated all kinds.”
“How do your parents feel about that?”
“I imagine—because I’ve never discussed it with them—that they think it is a phase I’m going through. My mother knows I date older women and she’s not happy about it. I don’t know if my father knows.” He shrugged.
There was a long pause. Mahogany pulled on one of her curls and then took a bite of puttanesca. Clearly, there was a story there, but she wasn’t ready to hear it. “So how did you go from Kiyoshi to Jordan?”
He smiled. “My elementary school teachers always struggled with my name. For the most part, once I pronounced it, they got it, but it just got to be irritating after a while. With some people, they mess up your name no matter how many times you pronounce it for them, and I got tired because it started to feel deliberate after a while. So when I started middle school, I decided to screw with my teachers. Chalk it up to preteen ignorance or whatever, but when they called the roll and got to my name, I told them that it was pronounced ‘Jordan.’”
Mahogany laughed and sprayed a bit of food on her shirt. “What? And they believed it?” She wiped her mouth with her napkin. That was a bold thing for a kid to do. “There is no logical way that Kiyoshi can be pronounced Jordan and I know your teachers weren’t stupid.”
“It was fun watching the expressions on their faces. My friends and I got a kick out of it. I remember my seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Jackson, looking at me like I’d grown a second head and almost cussing me out for being so brash. We had issues that year, but she ended up being one of my favorite teachers. Anyway, Jordan stuck, and so that’s what everybody called me. ”
“Well, you shouldn’t have left them off the hook so easily, don’t you think? Kiyoshi is a beautiful name. You should have made them learn how to say it.”
“It means ‘pure.’ In retrospect, I suppose I should have. But I was twelve years old and I wanted to be like Michael Jordan. My parents, however, were not pleased about my new identity.” He laughed and took a long swig of his Sprite. “But it did not take long for me to get used to being called Jordan, and I’ve gone by it ever since.”
Mahogany stared at him. “That is one of the funniest stories I’ve ever heard. You were a ballsy little kid, doing that to your teachers. What does ‘Yoshito’ mean?”
“It means ‘good person.’”
“Are you?”
He shrugged and looked at her. “I’d like to think so. My family is good people, and they work hard to uphold the name.”
The candlelight flickered over her face. Mahogany’s skin was the color of roasted almonds and absolutely flawless. Her hair was thick and vibrant and the light made her hazel eyes glow. She was an undeniably gorgeous woman and built the way a woman should be. He was trying to downplay his attraction to her and failing considerably. Jordan took another long drink and leaned back in his chair, smiling lazily. His hair fell over his forehead and with one languid flick of his hand, brushed it out of the way. Then he started drumming his fingers on the table. Mahogany glanced at them, but then turned her attention back to him. But the vigorous tap-tap-tap was distracting.
“Mahogany,” he said, “have you ever wondered why I started poking my head in your door every morning?”
She met his eyes. “After our conversation on Sunday, I had to think about it. I didn’t really notice you until you hand-delivered that express package that day. And then I couldn’t un-notice you.”
Jordan smiled. He had waited until Mahogany’s secretary left her desk to drop off the UPS package with the instruction that it was to be opened immediately. Mahogany had stared at him for a very long moment before taking the package and she didn’t question how he got past Nadira. He stopped by to speak to her every day since then, and she had always been warmly receptive to his morning greetings.
“I’ve been attracted to you for a very long time,” he said.
She ran her finger over the lip of her glass again, feeling herself get warm. “How long?”
“Long enough that I had to figure out a way to get you to notice me. In the San Francisco Federal Building, I’m an insignificant drone and you are the Queen Bee. For our meeting to happen naturally was taking too much time.”
Mahogany closed her eyes, taking in his words and the heat behind them. “I didn’t know that.”
“I’d be remiss in my image of myself if you did.”
“And here I am thinking that it was the other way around. I have been lusting after you for months.”
“I would have been willing to let you think that, except that it was taking too long for us to meet. I wanted you. I want you. Then the time came when I couldn’t wait any longer. So here we are. You like me too.”
Mahogany crossed her legs to calm down. Jordan’s intensity and deliberate intentions were startling. “Jordan, I like everything I know about you. We wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. How did you know I would respond the way I did?”
“I had a sense about it,” he said. “I could tell by the way your eyes lit up whenever I stopped to speak to you at work. And then I started working at Barnes & Noble and saw that you were a regular customer. I watched you for a while before I gathered the nerve to approach you.”
“You caught me off guard, Jordan.” She blinked. He’d been watching her for longer than she had been watching him. Damn. Maybe she wasn’t the predator she thought she was.
“I know. It was intentional. I thought my chances were pretty good. ”
Mahogany closed her eyes for a moment. She was definitely slipping. “Should I be flattered?”
“You can be if you want. I don’t normally do this, but I couldn’t help it. I’m attracted to you. I told you that I want you. It was a risk, leaving that note in your book, but I had to try. I thought that the worst that could happen would be that you never saw it.”
She smiled and sat back, drinking her wine. “Well, we’re here now, and I’m curious as to what we’re going to do. You told me that you thought you were better than a fuck, and I’m willing to bet that you are. What are we going to do? Are we going to start dating? Messing around? I’m not used to this, Jordan. I typically fuck and then leave. I don’t know what to do, here.” She closed her eyes and felt her face get warm. “I’m not one to get into such situations.”
Jordan stared at her for a very long moment. “Let’s not put a label on this, okay?”
