The day dragged on as slowly as it possibly could have for Roman. He spent most of the time playing online poker, trying to earn a little extra cash by gambling since he couldn’t make anything more on commissions. Unfortunately, his rotten luck continued to ruin his day and he finished with a loss of two hundred. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, resting his arms behind his head. [i]Bye bye, grocery money.[/i]

Ten minutes before five, his boss came back into his office. The man’s face was scrunched in his usual oh-so-friendly manner, and his fingers were curled tightly around a piece of paper in his hand. He stepped up to Roman’s desk and dropped the sheet in front of him. “Congratulations,” he curled his lip. “My superior decided to add another thirty-five hundred to your salary.”

“Great,” Roman smirked. He picked up the paper, which was a signed confirmation of the five percent pay increase, and put it in his file cabinet. “Make sure you let her know just how grateful I am for the raise.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll show her, yourself,” his boss said dryly. The man was well aware of his hire’s reputation with women.

“Maybe I will,” Roman shrugged. “Why? You’re not jealous, are you?” He laughed as the other man just blubbered in response. “Relax, boss. You’re not my type anyway.” He got up from his desk and put his laptop back into his bag, which he swung securely over his shoulder. “See you on Monday,” he said on his way out of the office.

--

[b]October 2, 2015
New York, NY – Roman’s Apartment
5:37PM[/b]

Roman sat down at the small, dingy dining room table in his small, dingy apartment. He set down a paper bag of Chinese takeout he had picked up on his way home and picked up the remote to his small, dingy TV. Turning it on, he flipped through channels until he found a news report about a robbery in Times Square. He watched the story as he ate, attempting to use the chopsticks that had come with the food—although he eventually gave up and grabbed a fork from the kitchen.

He pulled his phone from his pocket to see that Abby had texted him again earlier that day… twice. She was more persistent than he had expected. He smiled to himself. It had been a long time since a woman had pursued him like this. He wasn’t used to it, but maybe it would be fun. He opened the text thread to find her new messages:

[center][b]Haha, thanks. Maybe next time I should treat you to something.
Well, I don’t want to bother you anymore. You must be busy at work. Sorry! ><[/b][/center]

[i]Eager, yet bashful,[/i] Roman thought, popping another bite of orange chicken into his mouth. [i]She’s an interesting one, alright.[/i] He tapped out a short reply:

[center][b]Don’t worry about it. Home now.[/b][/center]

He drummed his fingers on the table, thinking for a moment more before typing one more message:

[center][b]I can’t say no to free food. How about dinner tomorrow at 6?[/b][/center]

Setting the phone aside, Roman finished off the last of his food and tossed out the trash. He sat down heavily on the couch and flipped through more channels on the TV. However, before he could settle on something to watch, his phone buzzed from the dining table. He groaned and got back up to see who was calling him during his quiet time. Checking the caller ID, he found that it was his half-brother, Isaac. He stared at the screen in surprise. He hadn’t heard from his brother in almost a year.

Roman answered the call, “Hello?”

“Roman!” the younger man’s cheery voice boomed loudly in his phone’s speaker. “How’s it going, my brother from another mother?”

“What do you want, Isaac?” Roman said blandly.

“Come on,” he could almost see his brother pouting. “I know it’s been a while, but I can still call my big bro without needing a favor, can’t I?”

“I’m hanging up now,” Roman sighed.

“No, wait, wait, wait!” Isaac protested hastily. “Alright, fine. I’m coming to New York on Monday, and my lodging fell through. I was wondering if I could crash on your couch for a few days.”

“Why don’t you just stay with your girlfriend?”

“That’s the thing,” Isaac exhaled. “I was coming to visit her, but we just broke up. It’s too late for me to get a refund on my plane tickets, and I can’t get anyone to buy them off of me. I figured I might as well make a vacation out of this whole mess.”

“And you just expect me to drop my plans to take you in last minute?” Roman said.

“Please? I’ll pay you. How does twenty dollars a day sound?”

“Make it fifty and you have yourself a deal.”

“Thirty.”

“Forty.”

“Fine! Whatever. Just let me stay with you, jackass.”

“A pleasure doing business with you, [i]little bro[/i],” Roman grinned. “I’ll see you on Monday.” He hung up the phone and sat back down on the couch, flipping through channels once more, although every once in a while he checked to see if Abby had responded to his last text. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt more eager than usual to know if she would accept his offer for a second date.

[i]She’s really something else to have me so hooked,[/i] he thought, finally settling on an old-fashioned monster movie. [i]I just hope she’s as good in bed as she is good-looking.[/i] If he was going to be playing a long game, he wanted a worthy payout at the end.