“Is that so?”
“Yeah, you know, I’ve got a case of the ‘lonelies’ and I was hoping you could, uh… cure me?”
Miki couldn’t hold her deadpan expression for more than five seconds. She slapped her hand over her mouth and giggled.
“What?” Matt asked, smiling. “What’s so funny?”
“Was that a pick-up line?”
“If it worked… yeah, it was a pick-up line and I thought of it myself. If it didn’t, then I really have to see a doctor for these, uh… these burns from this public humiliation and—and—my friend over there came up with it. I just listened to him ‘cause I’m a little buzzed.”
Miki smiled as she observed him. He was a tall, scrawny guy with a babyish face and boyish combover. He looked like he had never thrown a punch—like his voice still cracked from puberty. With the alcohol mixed into the equation, she was confident she could overpower him.
She asked, “Did you drive here?”
“Huh?”
“Did you drive here in your car? Do you own a car? Did you come with friends? A taxi? Uber?”
“Oh… Oh! Yeah, I drove here,” Matt said as he nodded rapidly. Then he squinted an eye and stuttered, “Wha–Why? You need a ride or something?”
Miki glanced around the room. The bartender served drinks to a couple at the other end of the bar. A group of college students laughed and screamed at a booth. Middle-aged men prowled the corners of the bar, searching for vulnerable young women to take home. There were a few downers in there, too, but most of the patrons appeared to be enjoying life.
No one paid any attention to Miki or Matt.
Miki said, “Let’s go for a drive.”
Eyes sparkling with excitement, Matt responded, “Re–Really? Okay, let’s, uh… Let’s go.” He pointed behind him with his thumb and said, “Let me just tell my buddy so he can get a ride from someone else.”
“No. I don’t want anyone to think I’m ‘that’ type of girl. We go now privately or we don’t go anywhere together at all.”
Matt liked her spunk. She knew what she wanted and he knew what he wanted, so he figured they were two smart people with an understanding between them. He looked back at his friends in the corner of the room. They pressured him into approaching Miki, but they weren’t watching him anymore.
Matt shrugged and said, “Fuck it. Let’s go.”
Matt drove a red 2015 Honda Civic EX. It was nighttime now. Rush hour had ended, but there were still plenty of drivers on the streets and pedestrians on the sidewalks.
“You wanna play some music?” Matt asked as he pointed at his radio.
From the passenger seat, Miki said, “Actually, I prefer the silence.”
“You mean, uh… You don’t want me to talk? You just want to get back to my place and… you know.”
Miki smiled and said, “What I mean is: I’d rather listen to your voice and have you listen to mine than listen to anything on the radio.”
“That’s… very sweet. It sounds like a pick-up line, actually. Maybe I’ll use it someday,” Matt joked.
“What? You’re one of those guys that picks up girls at bars for one-night stands and then dumps ‘em?”
The car stopped behind a truck at a red light.
Matt said, “Oh, no. No, no, no. That’s not what I meant. I mean, I, uh… I like you, of course, but I’m just not… I don’t think about the future so much, you know? If we click, we click. If we don’t, well at least we had fun. That’s the way I look at it. I try not to be an asshole. I just don’t wanna be that type of guy.”
The light turned green.
Miki could see Matt was a nervous wreck, the type of guy to ramble until he was out of trouble or out of breath. He was confident, he was willing to humiliate himself to seal the deal, but he seemed inexperienced. She didn’t think he was a virgin, but she assumed it was his first time actually picking up a woman at a bar.
She said, “Good. You should know something about me. You see, if you did try that on me—fuck me and then leave me—I’m the type of girl that would keep coming for you. And if you did anything to hurt me, I’m the type of girl that would chase you across the world to get even. I guess you could call me an asshole or a bitch.”
His mouth hanging open, Matt kept his narrowed eyes on the road. He braked to a stop at another red light. He turned in his seat to look at her with an expression that said: What the hell did you just say? Miki stared at him with a steady, cold expression. They could hear the muffled voices from the sidewalk and a motorcycle engine nearby.
Miki exclaimed, “Just kidding!”
“Just… kidding?” Matt repeated with an uncertain smile.
“I’m not one of those crazy girls. I know what I’m doing—what I’m going to do.”
“Wha–What are you—”
“Can you take a right here?” Miki interrupted.
Matt said, “Skid Row is that way.”
“You scared?”
“No, I’m… What? No. It’s not like it’s dangerous or anything like that, but it’s not the safest place at night and it’s not even close to my pad.”
Miki said, “It’s just that you’re swerving a little bit and there’s still a lot of traffic here. I don’t want to get into an accident or get you pulled over. You drank, I drank… It wouldn’t look good. Besides, I wanted to stop by Little Tokyo. There’s something I want to buy for us.”
“What?”
Miki leaned closer to his ear and whispered, “It’s a secret.”
Her sultry voice made the hairs at the back of his neck prickle. He gulped loudly, then he nodded and took a right turn. Within a few blocks, they found themselves in Skid Row. Tents, tarps, and cardboard boxes lined the streets. A few people loitered on the corners, listening to music on boomboxes while smoking and drinking. Others walked around, collecting cans or just making their way home. Shopping carts rattled and screeched on every street.
Miki said, “Stop.”
“Huh?” Matt grunted.
“Stop the car.”
“Here? In the–the middle of the street?”
“Please.”
Matt checked the rearview and sideview mirrors. There were no cars behind him. He made sure the doors were locked, then he pulled over.
“What is it?” he asked.”
Miki pointed in front of her and said, “Go into that alley.”
“What’s going on?”
Miki bit her bottom lip as she glanced at him. She lowered her head and blushed, swiping at the hair dangling in front of her face.
Matt laughed and said, “Come on, what is it?”
Miki said, “I want to fuck you here. In Skid Row. Right in that alley.”
“Are you… Are you being serious?”
“I’m so wet right now,” she whispered.
Matt, still laughing, couldn’t contain his excitement. His dick was already semi-erect. He looked over his shoulder and spotted two homeless men standing next to a blue tent on the sidewalk. He didn’t see any cops around. He drove forward, the car practically crawling towards the alley. He braked again. He felt his pulse in his fingers as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
Miki asked, “Don’t you wanna fuck me?”
Matt sighed. He had fantasized about public sex. He wasn’t ashamed of it, but he was worried about getting caught. He couldn’t help but imagine the conversation with his mother. ‘Hey, mom. I just got arrested for banging a girl in my car in Skid Row. Can you bail me out?’ At the same time, he couldn’t resist the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He gave Miki a shaky smile, she answered with a wink, and then the car rolled into the alley.