Chapter 3

Theo heard a sigh. He looked over at the little woman who had entered his life so suddenly. She had been fidgety all day, and he had the strong impression she was bored. It had, after all, been 3 days since she had given her elaborate breakfast apology, and she had been stuck doing nothing.

“I get the impression that you’re bored,” he stated, raising a brow. She huffed and turned over on the couch she was in, placing the book she had apparently not been reading violently.

“I am! There’s nothing to do around here!” she exclaimed, looking at him earnestly with her dark eyes.

“What do you want to do?” Theo asked, feeling a little bit guilty.

“Can I go home?” she asked promptly.

“No,” he replied just as promptly. She sighed, probably knowing better than to try and argue with him on that decision.

“Can we at least talk?” she whined, making Theo put down his screwdriver. “I don’t even know your name!”

***

After she had uttered the last sentence, there was silence. She sighed and picked up her book, mentally preparing herself for a lifetime of boredom. What was the guarantee that he was going to be interesting, anyways? It was better this way. Who was she kidding? She was going to gouge her eyes out if it continued like this.

“Theo.”

For a moment, it seemed like you could hear a pin drop; it was so silent in the room.

“What?” Jessie asked.

“You said you didn’t know my name,” he answered in his usual gruff manner.

“Oh my God, okay. I’m Jessica, but I hate my name, so I make everyone I know call me Jessie. It’s shorter and cooler, I think. It suits me. Short and cool and all that,” Jessie went on, then stopped, cursing herself. He was definitely not going to want to talk to her now. Why was she so weird?

She put her face in her palms, slowly and silently (because facepalming was going to make her seem even weirder), when she heard a kind of choking sound.

She jumped up from the couch and went toward him. “Are you okay?” she asked frantically before stupidly realizing he was laughing and not choking.

“Stop laughing at me!” Jessie explained though she was laughing herself.

Theo stopped laughing, but there was a smile on his face. Jessie found herself smiling too. Then suddenly, she stopped. This man, the one she was laughing with, did not want her to leave.

***

Theo did not understand. One minute they were laughing over her silliness, and the next, her face was completely closed off. He sighed and continued what he had been doing before they talked, fixing a loose cabinet door. He heard her sigh too, then went back to the couch she had been sitting on and picked up the book he knew she had not been reading.

“Did you know people can die out of boredom?” she asked randomly, looking at him now. Apparently, her grouchy mood had gone away.

He looked at her questioningly, and she explained, “It’s been proven scientifically. If you spend too much time doing nothing, you might die.”

Theo chuckled lowly and fitted the cabinet finally, pleased that this time around, it fitted. He put everything he had used back into the toolbox and then went toward her.

***

Jessie saw him approaching her, and she panicked a little. She was a little embarrassed after she had gotten annoyed out of nowhere like that, but she was really bored. She hated doing nothing!

“What were you doing in the woods?” Theo asked when he came and sat next to her.

Jessie sighed. She knew this question was going to come up sometime soon, but she was not yet ready to say out loud that her fiancé had been cheating on her.

“I- can we not talk about it? I really don’t want to think about it right now,” she replied and finally stopped to pretend she was reading the book in her hands. Truth be told, she did not even know what the title was.

“Okay,” was all he said, and Jessie grew confused.

“You’re not going to insist?” she asked hesitantly.

“No. I understand it’s a painful topic for you, so I’m not going to insist,” Theo replied, and Jessie stopped herself from going aww in time.

“Thank you,” she said. Then she asked, “How did you end up here?” She was still Jessica Rabbit (yes, her name was Jessica Rabbit, a great obsession of her father’s) after all, and she was born curious.

“I really don’t want to talk about it,” Theo answered swiftly. Jessie wanted to push, but she decided to give him the same courtesy he had given her.

Then there was silence. Jessie peeked a look at Theo, and he was watching her speculatively. She blushed and looked away. Theo was handsome, and he had a mature aura around him. And the butterflies in her tummy kept fluttering.

“My fiancé cheated on me,” she blurted all of a sudden, then cursed her big mouth. “Forget I said anything,” she said, tears filling her eyes. She did not want to cry right now and definitely did not want to cry in front of Theo.

Theo gently removed the hands she had put on her face and said, “Then he doesn’t deserve your tears.”

“I know! Goddamit, I know! But I loved him, or I thought I did and thinking of all the time I wasted with him just makes me so angry and so sad at the same time,” she said and promptly burst into tears.

“Come on,” Theo said, then pulled her into his arms. It had been long since he had comforted his mother or his sister, but that was something you could never forget. It was ingrained in him.

“I’m sorry,” Jessie said after a while. “You don’t even know me, and even after I was really mean to you, you comforted me.”

“I don’t hold grudges, Jessie,” he replied, and she almost melted at how good her name sounded coming out of his mouth. What was wrong with her? Just seconds ago, she had been crying about her fiancé, and now she was lusting over another man.

Jessie extricated herself from his hold and wiped the last of her tears. “Thank you, Theo.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, placing a small peck on her lips, then got up quickly and disappeared to wherever he always went.

Jessie touched her lips in wonder and asked herself how a small peck, an innocent kiss with Theo, had managed to make her react more than a passionate make-out session with her fiancé.

***

Theo walked into his room and passed his right hand across his face. He did not know what had come over him and convinced him that placing a kiss on her lips was a good idea.

It was the worst idea he had ever had in his life. That small kiss had affected him way more than anything else he had ever done with someone. He cursed under his breath and sat on his bed despondently. So much for not letting her affect him and not getting attached.