For My Day In The Sun

Jordan didn’t answer me right away; he turned back to the TV and watched a couple minutes of the movie before picking up the remote to pause the movie. “Why is it important Anna? What did Zack say? Did he tell you why I stopped by?”

I debated pretending Zack said something but I really didn’t wish to lie, I hated lies and I wasn’t about to lie to him to get him to tell me something. “No, he didn’t tell me why. We mostly talked about Josh.”

Jordan shifted around until he was sitting with his legs crossed and facing me. “He asked Zack for your hand, didn’t he?”

“What difference does it make if that’s what he wanted Jordan? You know how we feel about each other, would it really surprise you?” I knew I sounded a little snippy but I couldn’t help it, I didn’t want to talk about that, I wanted to know what he wanted with Zack. “Well?” I raised a brow. “Why did you come to see Zack?”

He sighed, “Anna it’s not really that big a deal, I just needed him to fill out some paperwork for me.”

“Paperwork?” I frowned. “What kind of paperwork? Is everything ok Jordy?”

“Yeah,” he lowered his eyes, “I needed him to verify that I am who I claim to be.”

“What?” My eyes narrowed as I looked at him. “Verify who you claim to be? Why do you need to prove who you are Jordan?”

“Well they aren’t just going to take my word on it Anna!”

“Who won’t Jordy?”

“The government,” he said as he stretched to the side in an attempt to grab the papers I saw him carrying earlier – they were sitting on the coffee table. “Damn,” he grunted, he couldn’t reach the table by stretching, he had to get out from under the blanket he was covered with to grab the papers. “They want to know all sorts of stuff,” he handed me the folded papers. “They want to know where I lived, where I worked, who I been in contact with – I had to deny knowing you, they said you were a wanted criminal, sorry babe.”

“Whatever!” I scoffed as I unfolded the papers in my hand. It took me a moment to realize exactly what it was I was looking at. “You are applying for a passport?” I gave him a questioning glance before continuing to read his application. “And you didn’t deny knowing me! You listed me as someone who could be contacted about you!”

“Well you know,” he grinned as he shrugged his shoulders. “I’m hoping that they don’t call you, I’ll never get one if you start telling them my past!”

“Uh huh!” I started to refold the papers when I noticed the little envelope. “What’s this?” I asked as I opened it to look inside.

“Oh!” He jumped to grab it from me. “You don’t need to –”

“Oh my God!” I laughed out loud as I pulled out the passport photo. “You look…” I laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…” He reached for the photo. “I wasn’t allowed to smile –”

“Or look remotely human?”

“Oh shut it!” He grabbed the cushion between us and make like he was going to smack me with it.

“Do that and you’ll have a ‘domestic disturbance’ on your record,” I laughed. “No romantic foreign getaways for you then!”

He took a moment to think about that, I thought he would drop the cushion but he didn’t, he whacked me with it. “Oh well,” he said with a laugh when I cried abuse. “You know you like it.”

“That’s beside the point,” I exclaimed. We sat together and laughed about his terrible passport photo. “I know they don’t want you to smile because that’s not how they’ll find you if you turned up dead somewhere but, I’m sorry, this doesn’t look like you! You look better than that!”

He snatched the photo from me, studied it for a moment. “I do?” He smirked, “What exactly are you saying Anna? You think I’m…hot?” He lowered his eyelids, stroked his fingers along my forearm and asked, in what had to be his ‘bedroom’ voice. “I think…” he chuckled softly when my eyes widen in shock. “I think…” he repeated as he gazed into my eyes. “…that I’m damn sexy too.”

“Jordy!” I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. “You are a pain in the ass, that’s what you are.”

He just laughed as he took the passport form from me to return them to the coffee table. When he sat back on the couch, he picked up the remote to play the movie again and I remembered that he didn’t really tell me why he wanted a passport.

“So why are you getting a passport?” I was very curious; he had never seemed that interested in going outside of Canada before so this was a little bit of a surprise.

“Well,” he chuckled nervously.

“Well what?” I peered at him. “Where are you going? And why?”

He shrugged, “I just thought I would take a trip to California sometime this year,” he sounded nonchalant but there was something in his eyes that made me think there was way more to this than he was letting on. This wasn’t a ‘maybe’ trip he was talking about but one that he had been thinking about for a while.

“What’s in California?” I asked cautiously.

“Disneyland...Golden Gate Bridge…Alcatraz…Grauman’s Chinese Theatre…Olivia…the Winchester Mansion –”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I stared at him.

“I know…the Winchester Mansion! That has to be something to see. Do you think she was crazy? The owner? To have -”

“Jordy!” I lunged forward and gripped his shoulders. “You know damn well I wasn’t talking about the mansion – although, I would love to see it!”

“Me too,” he said. “I hear that no one knows just how many rooms that place actually has and –”

“Jordy!” I groaned. “Stop just stop! I don’t want to hear about the house, I want to know who Olivia is and why I never heard of her before now.”

“Oh!” He acted like he was surprised that was what I wanted to hear about. “Olivia,” he smiled. “She’s someone I met about a month ago when she came into the shop, her engine light was on, she was freaking out a little, it was cute. She rambled on and on about her friend’s wild idea to take a trip this way to met some guy she met online as I checked her car over. Apparently the guy wasn’t anything like he said he was a total dirt bag according to Olivia.”

“Oh, sorry for her friend. But…” I frowned, “You like her? Did you go out with her while she was here?”

He nodded, “Yeah I went out for drinks with her and her friend – Leslie. They are pretty funny.”

“But…”

“But what?”

“But how?” I scratched my forehead. “Why would you go out with her when…where was Bella? She couldn’t have been happy about that!”

Jordan’s smile disappeared, his whole body seemed to go ridged the moment I said Bella’s name. “She can go to hell as far as I’m concerned,” his tone was capable of freezing a raging river in the middle of summer.

“Why Jordy? What happened?”

He glared at me, his eyes were just as cold as his voice, I shivered. “She’s not who she says she is."