The Seduction of Suki

Suki wished with all her heart that her boyfriend would call her, but she knew he wouldn't. He really did want to move on, and moving on in life to him meant playing the field. They were both young, and like most people in their mid-twenties, he simply wasn't ready to settle down. But what was she ready for? That was something she wasn't sure of now that she and Eugene were officially over. Never one to settle, she would remain single before she would do such a thing. Settling wasn't her thing. She had always been picky—perhaps unreasonably so—but picky nonetheless. Suki was perfectly content focusing on her career for the time being. She had worked hard to become a computer scientist for the FBI, a job she knew most people would envy, right along with the pay. She had only been working at the FBI for a few months but was already familiar with several people in her building, from sketch artists to translators to agents themselves. One of the agents was a very vapid-looking woman who was perhaps a little older than Suki. Agent Hughes, she was pretty sure. At first, she hadn't noticed, but then she realized that—even though it was extremely subtle—the woman seemed like she might be attracted to her. Suki couldn't be a hundred percent sure, but each time she saw her, she found herself wondering. There was just something in the way the agent spoke and looked at her. Suki hoped her suspicions were wrong, as harmless as the agent no doubt was. Not that she had anything against other women. In fact, while Suki preferred one-on-one intimacy, she and the guy she was with before Eugene had experimented in a threesome with another woman—and it had actually been kind of fun. But just like she was picky, she had a knack for attracting those she wasn't attracted to in return. She liked Agent Hughes. She may have been ordinary-looking, but Suki admired the way she carried herself with confidence, like no one would ever want to mess with her. Suki, on the other hand, was shy and wimpy. Okay, maybe she wasn't the shyest person in the world, but she was definitely a wimp. Barely a hundred pounds soaking wet, her petite frame would be no match for someone like Agent Hughes. Perhaps that was why she worked on computer evidence while the agent chased the bad guys. One afternoon, Suki headed into the break room, which was surprisingly empty. She looked at the vending machine longingly but didn't want to get in the habit of overdoing the junk food, so she settled for a cup of chai tea. She had just sat down and taken her first sip of the spicy brew when Agent Hughes entered the room, looking like nothing she'd ever seen her look like before. Stopping just inside the doorway and focusing her brown eyes on her, the agent studied Suki while Suki studied her in return. She was dressed like a teenage hip-hopper: black fishnet hose, torn and very short denim shorts over them, a suggestive crop top, tons of jewelry, and her curly brown hair in two short pigtails. It actually looked kind of cute, the way the pigtails formed round fluffy mounds high on her head. Suki was surprised and unsure what to say. But being as bold as she was, Agent Hughes began a conversation easily. “Didn't expect to see me in this getup, did you?” Suki shook her head. The agent smiled as she helped herself to some coffee. “Well, Halloween's over,” said Suki, “so I'm guessing you were on a rather interesting case.” Agent Hughes turned and leaned against the counter as she stirred her coffee. “Yeah, tailing someone through the subway. Had to look like the last thing the suspect would suspect was surveilling him.” “I see.” Suki shyly eyed the agent. Agent Hughes was of average height and weight, bordering on slightly plump. “How are you doing today? Anything exciting in Computerville?” Suki rolled her eyes and snorted. “Not unless you want to call searching for evidence of child pornography on some sick pervert’s computer exciting.” A serious and dubious expression overtook the agent’s plain features. “Oh, yeah, I can see where that would be anything but fun.” After a moment of awkward silence, where Suki tried to think of something happier to say and failed, Agent Hughes asked, “So, how do you make up for the atrocities you have to work with all day? What do you do for fun to balance out all the negativity?” Suki shrugged. “Well, probably the same things you do. What do you do?” “Me? I hang out with my kid. Go for a run, go out to eat, do a little shopping. That sort of thing.” “You have a kid?” The agent nodded. “A daughter. Tracy's eleven.” “What about your husband or boyfriend?” Now it was the agent’s turn to roll her eyes and snort. “What about him? He didn't want to be a father. He prefers rolling around in a bed full of whores on the other side of town.” “I'm sorry,” Suki said. “I'm not. I just used him to get knocked up. Always wanted the kid but not the man.” “You prefer the single life?” “Not necessarily. I just prefer women when I'm not single.” Well, that pretty much stamped out any doubt Suki might have had about whether or not the agent could be into women. “Do I detect a faint accent?” Suki asked. “Like maybe an Australian one?” Agent Hughes smiled. “Close. New Zealand.” “Oh, it's beautiful there.” “It is.” “What brought you here?” “My family did, when I was about five years old.” Suki took a few more sips of tea. “Are your parents originally from here?” Hughes asked. “One of them is. My dad is Japanese, and my mom is Japanese-American.” A moment of silence passed as the agent studied her, then she asked, “So, you with anyone?” Suki wondered when the conversation had gotten personal. “No. Broke up with my boyfriend for now.” For some reason, Suki didn't want the agent to know there was no chance of them getting back together. “Well, this isn't something I tell someone very often, but you're a real cutie. You won't stay single for long. I'm sure you have people lined up as it is.” Suki chuckled somewhat uncomfortably. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but it really doesn't matter how many people are interested in me if I'm not interested in them back. As they say, you can't make someone straight, you can't make someone gay, and you can't make someone interested in you if they're just not.” “You definitely have a point there.” The agent poured what was left of her coffee into the sink and tossed her cup in the trash. She turned to face Suki again. “I've got to move on now. It was nice chatting with you. Hope we get to do it again soon.” Suki smiled politely, not so sure she was looking forward to chatting again. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was just something off about Agent Hughes. Even though she hadn't said or done anything inappropriate, and even though she hadn’t made Suki uncomfortable in any particular way, warning bells sounded in her head—the kind you couldn't ignore easily. She watched the agent walk out of the room, then took the last few swallows of her tea before dumping her own cup in the trash. Suki quickly forgot about her meeting with the agent and resumed focusing on her job. At the end of the day, she rode the elevator down to the ground floor and unlocked her bike in the section they were kept in. Suki didn't drive. It wasn't that she was afraid to or couldn’t afford it. She simply didn't want the expense and hassles that came with owning a vehicle. She loved bike riding. The twenty-minute ride to and from work served as her exercise for the day, not counting all the walking she did throughout the large building. She never had to set aside time for exercise because she always rode her bike and moved around a lot on the job. Because it was a particularly hot day, Suki pedaled as fast as she safely could. She worked up a sweat but figured that the faster she got home, the sooner she could enjoy a cool shower and a cold lemonade. Her roommate was in the apartment when she returned, hot, sweaty, and breathing heavily. “It's a scorcher out there, isn't it?” said her twenty-four-year-old redheaded roommate, Gia, whom she had met during training. Gia worked in the Linguistics department but in a different building. They also had different schedules, which Suki liked because it gave her the apartment to herself sometimes. “You got that right! I thought I was going to melt before I was even halfway home. I'm jumping in the shower now.” Gia nodded as she dished herself some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in the kitchenette off the living room. Suki entered her bedroom and placed her backpack on the dresser by the window. She was just about to undress when she glanced out the window and saw a figure standing on the sidewalk below, glancing upward at her second-floor window. It was only a split second before they turned and headed down the street, but Suki could have sworn it was Agent Hughes. Telling herself her overheated mind was playing tricks on her, she stripped out of her sweaty clothes and headed into the bathroom.