Crystal Eyes: Chapter 3

When Jimmy parked his bike  under a shade tree ridiculously close to the entrance gate to the local temples, it felt like I was being torn in two. Part of me didn’t want to release the near-death grip I had on his very firm chest but another part was desperate to be on solid ground again. 

Despite the wails of my inner fan girl, the need to be on steady not-moving ground won out and I flung myself off of the bike to lean against the tree. The rough bark under my arm was a welcome distraction from the roiling of my stomach. My face still stung from the wind and even though we’d stopped, it felt like the wind would never stop thundering in my ears.

Distantly, I heard Jimmy set the kickstand and wheel lock on the bike, then his deep voice wafted over my shoulder. “Hey, Lisa. How’re you doing?” 

I suppressed a groan, took a deep breath and slowly stood. I looked up at him through watery eyes. “I’m… going to live.” I sighed. Honestly, living was the best I could do. 

He looked adorably concerned, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Maybe drive better next time? My brain screamed, but outwardly I said “Water would be nice.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out a couple yuan. I passed them over to him and pointed to one of the little snack shops. “Over there, they probably have cold water. Get yourself one too. About three quae each. If they want more than that, don’t bother.” I sat down on the low brick wall around the tree. “I’ll be here.” I leaned forward and rested my head in my hands. Through slitted eyes, I watched him waver then head off to the little shop. 

My fan girl told me I was dumb. I just had Jimmie Crystal run an errand for me. Like, seriously? But my more practical side argued that since he was the one responsible for my current feeling of ick, then he could damn well be the one to make me feel better. 

There are many ways he could make you feel better, my fangirl chimed. I quickly glanced around as if someone could have heard that licentious thought. Mentally I smacked my fangirl for being so raunchy, even as I couldn’t help but fantasize just a little.

All too soon, he was back and handing me a gloriously cool water bottle. I held it to my forehead to soothe the headache brought on my over tense muscles.  He waited patiently until I felt a little more human. 

I quirked a smile up at him “Sorry about that. I’m better now.” I stood and slid the half-full water bottle into my purse. “I’m not really used to moving like that.” I rubbed my head a little. 

He smiled sympathetically, “Yeah, that was a little rough for your first ride. The scooter that took up two lanes was definitely not expected, and probably not even legal.” 

In hindsight, the memory was amusing, at the time it had been terrifying. I snorted, “yeah, I’d really rather not go through that again.” I waved a hand towards the gate, “but I’m feeling better now if you want to get started?” 

He nodded and gestured for me to walk first. We pushed our way through the crowded courtyard. We lingered over a stall selling tasty egg wraps, but Jimmy shook his head “I don’t think my stomach’s quite up to eating anything yet.” 

    We paid our entrance fee and got our guidebook from the harried older woman behind the counter who reminded us that “inside, no picture”. We assured her that we understood, but it didn’t lighten her scowl. 

    Inside the gates the temple was a tad bit crowded, but still beautiful. It made me smile that Jimmy stuck pretty close to my side and just let me lead him around. I pointed out my favorite statues and read fun tidbits from the guidebook. While I was reading off the history of one of the larger statues, I noticed Jimmy glancing over his shoulder to where a small group of five teenage girls were huddled whispering to each other and staring at us. 

    Jimmy’s beautiful face scowled, “Why are they staring at us?” He spoke quietly so those around us couldn’t hear. His voice rumbled near my ear and I repressed a shiver. 

    “They probably just don’t see foreigners very often. And you’re good looking for a foreigner.” I shrugged, trying to ease his nerves. But I lied to him. I knew why they were staring. His movies were a huge hit here and they most likely recognized him. I could feel my brain rev up into overdrive trying to figure out how we could get out of here without dealing with the crowd. 

    He quirked a smile at me, “Good looking am I?” He tilted his head to the side and gave me a look through his sunglasses. 

    My face flushed an unappealing bright red. I know, because I could feel it. I looked anywhere but up into his face. I gathered my courage and shrugged, “Well, yeah.” I glanced up at him out of the corner of my eye, “you are. I’m sure they noticed.” 

    He smiled, a real one, “I hope they’re not the only one.” 

    I swear, I felt like a fish. I just stared up at him in shock. Was Jimmy Crystal flirting with me? No way. I must have gotten confused somehow. But he kept looking down at me and that smile just grew bigger. I have no idea what would have happened next because before my brain could catch up, I felt the touch of a stranger’s hand on my arm. 

    The stranger turned out, unsurprisingly, to be one of the giggling teenagers I’d been trying to avoid before I got distracted. Despite her big smile and generally cheerful appearance, her grip on my elbow was as immovable as a vise. 

    She turned me towards her and held up her phone and showed me a picture of Jimmy Crystal in all his shirtless glory from “Midnight Circus” then she pointed to Jimmy and said something. I have only a basic level of Chinese fluency, so I was able to understand the words ‘he’ and ‘beautiful’ and ‘picture’, and that was it. Luckily, it was enough for me to understand what she meant. 

    I hesitated a moment, before I turned to Jimmy, “They think you look like Jimmy Crystal and want to get a picture with you.” 

    The moment I said his real name out loud, he flinched. Indecision played over his face, I could only guess that he was trying to decide if he should admit who he was or not. He frowned at the phones that were being held in his face, “What’s the best way to get them to go away?” He asked, his voice strained. 

    Unfortunately, the best way was not the one he wanted to hear, “Honestly, you let them take a picture or two then you walk away as quickly as possible.” 

    The sight of one of the temple administrators headed our way gave me an idea, so I hurried on in a rush “But they can’t take any pictures right now because there’s no photography allowed in here.” 

    Relief flooded his face, but then it quickly transformed into the deepest, most sincere regret I’ve ever seen. He looked at the girls and pointed to himself “I am not Jimmy Crystal.” He spoke slowly and clearly with just a little stress on the no, “and no pictures inside.” He waved his hand to indicate the temple. 

    Disappointment flooded a few of the faces, but others were still adamant about wanting to get a picture. Thankfully, just as the phones came up to take a picture despite what he’d said, the administrator reached us and spoke to them sternly in chinese, gesturing at their phones. They tried to argue, but he was implacable and ushered them towards the exit like ducklings. 

    Without even having to discuss it, Jimmy and I walked into the shade of one of the large pillars so we’d be out of way and hopefully fade from attention. There were still some looks being thrown our way, one adventurous American teenager wandered over. 

    “What was all that about?” She asked, then popped her gum. Her voice was overloud due to having headphones blaring in both ears.

    I just shrugged her off, and waved a little at Jimmy, “They thought my friend here looked like a celebrity. Unfortunately it happens all the time.” 

    Ssss-pop went the gum again, “Oh. Ok. Cool.” her eyes glazed and she wandered back over to where her parents were examining a tapestry. 

    I snorted, “She’s obviously sooo interested in everything around her, huh?” I glanced at Jimmy to share my amusement, but I felt my smile die. He had taken off his mirrored sunglasses and he was looking at me, a strange expression on his face. “What?” I asked as I self consciously ran my hand over my lips “Do I have something in my teeth?” 

    He shook his head, when he spoke his voice was thick with confusion, “Do you really not know?”

    I gave him a puzzled look, “Know what?” I was pretty sure I knew what he was talking about, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. I widened my eyes and blinked up at him. 

    He shook his head and put his glasses back on, “Never mind. Let’s go look at something else.” 

    I stared at his retreating back in confusion. Shouldn’t he have pushed harder? Seriously, my lie to those people was not the best and I know that I am soo not an actress. So why didn’t he ask the question I know he’s thinking?

    I followed behind him, my thoughts roiling in confusion, but he just continued the tour as if nothing strange had happened. I decided to push my confusion to the back of my mind and just focus on the here and now because I knew this day was definitely not going to last forever. 

    We stopped for lunch in a small noodle shop nearby where we ordered by pointing at the pictures of what we wanted on the wall behind the cashier. There were plenty of looks as we sat down, the people who frequent these types of establishments aren’t used to seeing foreigners, but thankfully no one pulled out their phones to take a picture. After a few minutes of staring, we were left to eat our lunches in relative peace. 

    Jimmy tucked into his noodles with gusto, eating adeptly with the chopsticks the restaurant provided. 

    “I take it you’re feeling better?” I smiled and nodded at his already half-empty plate. 

    He looked down at his plate, then over at mine where I’d barely made a dent in the food, and chuckled. “Yeah, my head is feeling a lot clearer. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve felt this good in weeks. Maybe longer.” His face turned dark for a moment, then he shook his head and went back to his food. 

    I nodded as I finished my bite of my pasta. The sauce was tomato based so it was sorta like the spaghetti I used to eat back home,  but that’s really where the similarities ended. The spices were wrong and I didn’t know of anyone who put pieces of potato in their spaghetti sauce. “I bet it’s the sunlight doing you some good. Today is a remarkably clear day. The air isn’t usually this good.” 

    He glanced outside to where the sun was shining off of a riot of colored umbrellas. He half shrugged, “Could be. I’ve been working a lot lately and haven’t really been taking any breaks.” He looked back at me “The weather’s been like this pretty much since I got here. This isn’t usual?”

    I snorted, “not at all. Sunny days are actually rather rare. Usually the sky is some variation of grey depending on how bad the air quality is. I can tell how bad the air is by how far I can see out of my window in the morning. This morning, I could see pretty much to the horizon so I knew it was going to be pretty good. Some days, I get up and I can’t see jack crap. Nothing but white outside the windows.” I took a drink from my bottle of water. “Those are the days where you’re supposed to wear respirators and stay inside as much as possible.” 

    He quirked an eyebrow at me and my heart did a backflip. “Supposed to wear a respirator?” 

    I flushed, “Yeah. On bad air days it’s a good idea to wear a respirator, but I really really hate that feeling of something covering my nose and mouth.” I used my hand to show the average coverage of a respirator, “It makes me feel like I’m not getting enough air.” I lowered my hand and shrugged, “On those days I just stay inside as much as possible.” 

    I tapped the table in front of him with my finger, since pointing chopsticks at someone was the height of rudeness, “You’ve been really lucky.”

    He smiled, “I know I have been, I met you didn’t I?” His blue eyes sparkled as he stared at me. 

    My vocal chords froze, then I flushed a bright red and ducked my head, giggling like a little girl. When I got my courage back and could look up at him, he was smiling and sitting back in his seat looking very proud. 

    I wagged my finger at him playfully “That was well done sir. Very smooth. I’m impressed.”

    He chuckled, his deep voice rumbling from his chest. “Thank you.” 

    “You’re welcome.” I picked at my food self-consciously now. I still had a little left on my plate where his was empty. In an attempt to distract myself and him, I asked “So, what do you want to do next?”

    “What are my options?” 

    “Well, we could go to the zoo, or to the amusement park downtown, or we could wander through the shops downtown. There’s always KTV.” I rolled my eyes and smiled a little. 

    He gave me a quizzical look, “What’s KTV?” 

    I playfully bopped myself on the forehead, “Karaoke. Sorry. It’s karaoke, they call it KTV here. It stands for karaoke television, so they mean exactly the same. But, it can be a little different.” I pushed my plate away, there was no way my nerves were going to let me eat everything on my plate. 

    “I don’t know what it’s like in the UK, but in the States if you want to sing Karaoke you pretty much HAVE to go to a bar and sing in front of everyone there. Strangers and all. Here, you can either stop by one of the KTV stations that people set up on the side of the road, you’ll see a bunch of them if we go by the downtown shopping center, or you can go to one of the big KTV places and get a room all to yourself.” My mind drifted for a moment, daydreaming about sharing a KTV room with Jimmy Crystal and the way that could possibly end with an amorous encounter on their luxurious couches. I shook my head to refocus my thoughts, “If you want to do KTV, you might prefer the rooms.” My inner fan girl swooned, “since if we sing at one of the little stations we’d end up drawing attention just because we’re foreigners. And they probably won’t have too many songs in English, though sometimes they surprise me.” 

    Indecision warred on his face, “I like the idea of the roadside stands but I’m not sure I should…” his voice dwindled as his thoughts turned inward. I couldn’t be certain, but I was pretty sure he was debating if the fun was worth the possibility of being discovered by a fan. I leaned back in my chair and glanced down at my phone to give him at least the illusion of privacy. 

    I winced as I realized I had missed a few texts from my friends who were wondering where I was. We’d had plans to do movies at their house today and I’d completely forgotten. I texted back “Srry. Something’s come up. Throw some popcorn for me.” Of course, immediately they all messaged wanting to know what had come up that was more important than MST3k night. There was no way I could tell them the truth of course. I frowned down at my phone. Well, maybe I could tell them part of the truth. My fingers flew across the keyboard as I told them I’d met someone last night and was spending a little more time in his company. The emphasis on the ‘his’ made sure they all thought the same raunchy thoughts. I got a few “Ooh Girl!” and “Get him!” texts before they left me alone. I shook my head as I locked my phone and put it face down on the table next to me. They were good friends, but after all the time I’d been here they didn’t know me all that well. I was definitely not a one-night stand kind of girl. 

    I glanced up through my eyelashes at Jimmy, who was looking over his shoulder at the waitress,  though for him, I probably could be. My inner fangirl agreed enthusiastically. 

    Jimmy glanced back at me and smiled, his blue eyes sparkling. He pointed with his chin at my phone, “You’re incredibly fast at that.” 

    My brain took an extra moment to decode what he was talking about “fast at what?”

    “Texting. It takes me forever to write a text, but you were just like lightning.” 

I ducked my head and half shrugged “I have a lot of practice, I guess.” I sat up and looked him in the eye, surprised at the squeeze on my heart, “So, did you decide what you want to do next?”

    He took a breath then nodded, “Yeah, I wanna go see downtown and be a tourist and buy stuff and maybe,” he stressed the ‘maybe’, “do some streetside KTV after it gets dark.” 

    I couldn’t resist the grin that spread across my face, “I can’t wait to hear you sing. I’m sure you’re going to be great.” 

    He half shrugged, “I’ve been told I’m not bad, but who really knows.” 

    The fan girl in the back of my head jumped up and down waving her hand in the air yelling ‘I know! I know!’. It’s a really good thing he couldn’t read my thoughts. Outwardly, I just said “Tell ya what, I’ll be the judge after I hear you sing. How does that sound.” 

He smiled shyly, “I like the sound of that.” he stood up and gestured to the front door. “Shall we?” He held out his elbow like a gentleman from the movies. 

My heart hammered in my ears as I wrapped my arm around his, “Yes, let’s.” and together we walked through the door and back out onto the street.