Moore to Lose by Julie A. Richman Page A

her grandparent’s apartment. “Hello.”
    “Jailbait.”
    Giggling, “You don’t get to call me that for too much longer.”
    “No, I don’t. I just got off of the train. I’m in Grand Central. I’m going to catch a cab down to you.”
    “Ok, I’ll see you in a few. It’s apartment 22D.” Mia hung up and danced around the apartment.
    She hadn’t seen Tom in over a month. He’d been in LA working on a pilot for a show about a Los Angeles law firm. With her grandparents off on back-to-back river cruises through Europe, she had taken over their apartment for the summer, with the promise of keeping Grandma’s plants alive and her cat fed and loved. The sweeping three-bedroom apartment was located off of Union Square on 16th Street and Fifth Avenue with a southern wall of windows prominently displaying the World Trade Centers.
    The call came from the doorman in the lobby that Mia’s visitor had arrived and she told him to send him up. The building’s doormen had known Mia since she was a toddler and looked out for her whenever she stayed at her grandmother’s.
    Upon hearing the knock, Mia whispered “Showtime” and opened the door to Tom’s sexy smile and tousled hair. He was holding a bouquet of blood red roses surrounded by baby’s breath.
    “C’mere you,” was all she needed to hear and she was in his arms. They backed up into the apartment, lips-locked. When their kiss ended, he held her face in his free hand, smiling at her. “Mmm, Happy Birthday, Baby. I have missed you.”
    “I somehow doubt that.” Mia laughed, “Surrounded by all those Malibu Barbies.”
    “Mostly I saw the inside of a writer’s room and a lot of very fake looking plastic surgery.” It was then that the view outside the window caught his eye. “Oh my God, that is gorgeous.” They walked over to the center of the windows to look at the Twin Towers all lit up at night. “What an incredible view.”
    Mia laughed. “I used to try and count all the floors when I was little.”
    Tom turned to her. “You are not little anymore,” he thought for a second, “but I’m not going to stop calling you Jailbait.”
    “I’m glad. I kinda like it.” She led him into the kitchen to put the roses in a vase which she handed back to him. Then she started rooting around in the refrigerator.
    “What are you looking for?”
    Mia poked her head out and with a devil grin announced, “Provisions. We may never pass this way again … ”
    A few minutes later she was set with fruit, cheeses, nuts, cups, utensils and a pitcher of water. “Follow me,” she called over her shoulder as she led him through the spacious apartment to the guest room where she always stayed. She put the provisions on a night table next to the bed and then took the vase from Tom and placed it at the center of the dresser directly across from the bed.
    Mia then plopped herself down at the center of the queen sized bed and reached out a hand to Tom. He took her hand and joined her on the bed.
    Lying down with her head on a pillow, Tom followed suit, facing her. Mia reached out and smoothed his hair, fingering the individual irreverent locks.
    I’m so toast, Mia thought. This man is sex on a stick. “I’m not going to lie to you, I’m scared, Tom. You’re going to break my heart, aren’t you?”
    “Well, it’s not my intent,” his dark eyes flashing sincerity.
    “But it is your M.O.” She continued to play with his hair.
    “I can’t argue with you. But what I’ve done in the past doesn’t minimize what I feel for you. What I have felt for you for a long, long time, Mia.” He reached for her hand and pulled it from his hair to his lips, kissing the inside of her wrist.
    “I don’t have all that much experience and I’m afraid I’m going to be in over my head.” And then there were the words she didn’t say, and the myriad of emotions and thoughts flooding every cell in her body. Doing this tonight would be some kind of emotional end to Schooner