You Kissed Me First!

Hi

Jasper Elsner

When I landed in Krabi, I had a good feeling about the task I was there to do. I believed in my capability. I could easily pursue this woman, I thought. It was business. I am good at dealing with such clients. This is why my father picked me to deal with it. We will be offering a fair deal she would never reject. We even made an offer with room for negotiation. I didn’t think it would be difficult, but as soon as I learned who Aria Simone was, I had my doubts. Her kissing me wasn’t the first clue, her snorting coke with her friends was the one.

When we arrived at Simmy’s resort, we were welcomed by the staff. They told us that they already had rooms prepared for us. The manager told us that we would meet Aria Simone in the morning. She was not present at the resort at the moment. I liked the idea. I was already tired and Shopia was sleepy. Meeting Miss Simone right now would have added to our exhaustion. I prefer to meet her with a fresh mind tomorrow morning anyway.

After I told Sophia to be out for breakfast at 8 tomorrow morning, we both went into our rooms. I freshened up, took a shower, and prepared to go to bed. I tried to sleep, but I slipped after the shower. I decided to finish some of the pending work when I heard some cheering and a dull thud of music coming from somewhere nearby. I am aware of the parties that happen at night on the island. I have been to a few myself when I used to come here with friends. I got curious and decided to see where this party was taking place, also a stroll in the fresh air would help me sleep.

I was walking by the beach when I realized that the party was taking place at the other end of the resort. I pulled my eyebrows together and walked inside. I wanted to see what kind of guests the resort hosts at their beach house. As soon as I stepped inside, the place reeked of weed, alcohol, sweat, and everything disgusting. I first thought that I was in the wrong place, but then I heard Aria’s name being called. A group of foreign and local people was in the corner, cheering on her as she snorted cocaine from the table.

“What the f**k?” I muttered. I watched as a group of young men and women cheered for a girl snorting. They were all calling her Aria. Wait – was this Aria? The ARIA SIMONE?! This can’t be it!

I quickly rushed outside and called Dad. When he didn’t pick up, I called my younger brother Austin.

“Austin, can you confirm it for me? Is the owner really Aria Simone? I thought the owner was some middle-aged woman!” I spoke to my younger brother over the phone. After, I walked out of the beach house.

“Damn, brother. What time is it there? What happened?” Austin chuckled.

I was expecting it to be a normal party with drinking, dancing, and just some tourists and locals having fun. I didn’t expect people to take drugs! Half-naked people were dancing around – half drunk, half high on whatever drugs they were taking.

“Don’t ask. Just tell me what I asked!” I gritted my teeth.

“Yike, relax. Let me ask Dad, wait.” He put me on hold, while I stood because of the beach. The soft waves touched my shoes. I didn’t even care that my shoes were getting soaked. I just wanted to be away from the beach house where I could stand the smell and the loud music. After a few minutes, Austin came back online, “Yeah, so Dad said that middle-aged woman is Aria Simone’s aunt. She looks after the place when Aria is not around. Aria Simone is the real deal. Now, will you tell me what happened? Why are you calling so late? Is she not there?” Austin asked.

I rolled my jaws and pinched the bridge of my nose, “Oh, she is here.” I muttered. Before I could say anything else, someone held my arm and spun me around. “Woah – hey!” I protested as I dropped my phone on the sand. I frowned and looked at the person. It was Aria. She could barely stand.

Now that she was standing hardly a few inches away from me, I noticed how short she was. She was looking up at me. She slowly blinked. I wrinkled my nose as she smelled like alcohol. She gulped and took my hands in hers. I was confused. I frowned and before I could ask her what she was doing, she placed my hands on her waist, “Hey, lady! What…?” She didn’t let me protest.

“Shhh,” she hushed and glanced sideways, “Just kiss me, okay?”

“What?” She is completely crazy! I wanted to take my hand off her waist. Since she was wearing a crop top, my warm hands were directly touching her sweaty and cold skin. She was colder than she should be. “Are you crazy?!” I glared at her and tried to take my hand off her, but she tightened her grip and dug my fingers into her small waist. The first thought that came to my mind was that this woman needed to eat. My thumb could feel her ribs poking out. She was very thin and cold.

“Shhh, just kiss me so that creep will leave me alone!” She gritted my teeth. I looked over her head and noticed that a man was standing a few feet away from us. It was dark out there, so all I could see was that he was standing there looking at us. He was awfully still, and even when I couldn’t see his face, I could tell that he was staring at us.

Before I could say anything, Aria tip-toed, put her cold fingers on the nape of my neck, and pulled my head down. I couldn’t even process it as she quickly kissed me on the lips. The two of us were still coming. I could taste the beer on her lips. After a few seconds, she whispered against my lips, “Hold me, please. I am completely wasted. My legs are giving up. I think I am about to fall. Please don’t let me fall,” she whispered before she passed out.

I was infuriated. My dad made it look like Aria was some middle-aged, stubborn woman. He never informed me about any details regarding this woman. I wonder if Dad even knows what kind of person Aria really is. At the moment, I could focus on how I was supposed to proceed with the deal because of this woman clinging to me like a limpet. She could barely stand. The man she was running from didn’t go away. If anything towards us. I wrapped my arm around her securely when I saw this said man stopping a few steps away from us. Aria stopped kissing me a minute ago, now she was just dangling around my neck with me stopping her from falling. I don’t know if I would even call it a kiss. Our lips touched, that's all.

“Aria, hey.” The man tried to reach for her, but I didn’t trust him. She told me to kiss her so that this man would leave her alone. My grip tightened around her. I pulled her closer to me. She mumbled something in my ear that I couldn’t understand and wrapped her arms around my neck, hugging me close. This woman was making me extremely uncomfortable, but I could tell she was in trouble. Even so, due to her own poor judgment, I had to help her. The man looked at me, “Relax man, I know her. Let me help her.”

“Thank you, but she is fine with me. You can continue with your night,” I didn’t bother to sound polite to him. I could see him clenching his jaws and squinting his eyes.

“I don’t trust you with her. Let her go, buddy, or else…” he foolishly tried to threaten me.

I sniggered, inadvertently holding her protectively. “Or else what? What can you do really?” That man opened his mouth to answer me when I chuckled and cut him off, “That was a rhetorical question. There is nothing that you can do. I know for a fact you were following her and she didn’t want you around. So, take it seriously when I tell you that I can make sure you never dare to harass anyone ever again.” That man just frowned. He knew I was right, so I challenged him. “Go ahead and do your worse because you and I both know that there is nothing more you can do than just walk away.”

The man snickered. I could tell he was angry at my threat. He squinted his eyes at me, “Know your place. You have no idea what could happen to you if you mess with me. Do you even know who my father is?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. How pathetic! A grown man threatened me with his father. “Cute. No, I don’t. But do you know who I am?” I asked back.

He only clenched his jaws and narrowed his eyes at me, “You don’t want to mess with me. It is better if you walk back to your daddy and cry your heart out to him like a wuss you are.” He was going to after a girl who was heavily under the influence, he is nothing but a wuss. “Leave, before I give something to your daddy to worry about,” I snapped.

“What’s happening here?” A new voice suddenly approached us while I held Aria protectively toward me. That strange man and I both turned to look at a middle-aged woman walking toward us. The deep concern-filled lines on her forehead told me that she is probably the aunt Austin was telling me about a few minutes ago. The way that man straightened up and took a step away ensured that she was someone related to Aria. He cleared his throat and put his hands in his shorts pockets.

“Vinny? What’s wrong?” The woman asked the man standing. Vinny struggled to speak. With knitted eyebrows, the woman looked at me before she looked at Aria in my arms. Aria once again mumbled something that I couldn’t understand and held me closer to her. She rested her cheek on my shoulder and snuggled into me. It was getting very awkward for me. “Who are you? And what happened to her?” She asked, trying to take Aria from me. I was glad she was doing so, but Aria refused to let me go. Great!

“Umm, I am Jasper Elsner.” I replied while the woman and I were trying to get me free from Aria’s hold. She might be skinny, but this woman got some insane hold.

I didn’t even have to say anything else, the woman gasped softly and stopped trying to remove Aria away from me. She looked at me with widened eyes. Her eyes admired me. It was weird to be looked at like that. She softly gulped and blinked a couple of times. She cleared her throat and spoke, “I am so sorry about my niece, Mr. Elsner. She can be…” she was lost for words and looked embarrassed.

I didn’t want to add to her worries, so I replied, “Please, call me Jasper.” I smiled, “And it’s fine. If you don’t mind, I can help you take her inside.” I offered politely.

The woman smiled and nodded her head. She turned to look at Vinny, but that weasel was long gone. She looked confused about his sudden disappearance, but she didn’t ask about it. “I am Silvia, by the way.” She asked me. “Are you sure you want to help? I can take her back inside myself, Jasper.” She added.

I glanced down at Aria, who passed out with her head on my shoulder. She was muttering something in her sleep. Under the moonlight, I could see her face more clearly. Her cheeks and nose were blessed with soft freckles. She felt warmer than a person is supposed to be. Her small nose had turned pink. She looked innocent sleeping like that. If only I didn’t know she had passed out after taking drugs, I would have liked this girl. “It’s fine. I can help,” I said and picked her up in my arms. She weighs nothing.

Silvia guided me to the other side of the resort. We were walking to where we got our rooms. Sophia was already resting in the room assigned to her. We walked past the lobby. I was expecting the staff to stop and look at us, or at least pass worried glances at Aria, but everyone around was walking and working as normal. I realized that this is their normal. This is probably nothing new for them. I looked down at Aria as I walked with her in my arms. She was snoring softly.

Silvia guided me to the room at the further back corner of the resort. It was a room with no good view and it also looked smaller than the rest of the rooms. Even when this room felt like an outcast, it was beautifully decorated. Silvia waved her hand towards the bed, “Please just put her in the bed,” she gently asked.

I did what she said. I walked to the bed and slowly put Aria down. She still had her arms wrapped around my neck. After I placed her down, I tried to free myself from her hold, but she wasn’t letting me go. Silvia tried to untangle me from her.

While I was trying to get away, my face got a lot closer to Aria. She slowly opened her eyes and lazily blinked. Her eyes bored into mine before she glanced down at my nose, cheeks, and finally my lips. She softly chuckled. “Hi,” she barely whispered before she finally let me go and she tossed to her right and went back to sleep.