The Gym Leader

Jesse faced her opponent on the gym floor, considering the situation. Soonasu had been no help against the Persian, but maybe Arbok could beat him. She threw the Pokeball. “Arbok, bite!” she yelled. Arbok did bite, and the Persian was out of the battle.

A smiling black-haired man reached over to shake her hand. “Another great battle. Consider how few Pokemon you have, I’m really impressed by your accomplishments. Would you like to come speak to me in the office for a while?”

Jesse glanced over at James. He shrugged, and she followed the gym leader into his office.

When she came out, she was smiling. “Karl says he might have a job for me! This could really change things!”

“Doesn’t he know you’re a Team Rocket member?” asked James.

Jesse shrugged. “He suspects something, but this isn’t a League gym yet, so that shouldn’t matter much. Anyway, Giovanni has a gym; why can’t I work in one?”

James nodded. “Good for you. I only wish I could find a job too. I want us to leave Team Rocket together. Giovanni can’t want to waste too much time trying to keep us from quitting.”

Jesse gave James a sharp look but said nothing. James looked at her questioningly, but she said nothing else.

She was still silent as she, James, and Meowth ate dinner. Meowth made a few smart remarks to try to get her to talk, but she just ran into the bathroom after dinner and stayed there for half an hour. When she came out she was wearing a slinky silver dress and extra make-up.

James looked surprised. “Jesse, you didn’t say we were going out. I’m not even dressed.”

“I’m going out with Karl, James, he… wants to talk some more about the job.” She left and shut the door.

James stared at the closed door, stunned. “Yeah, right,” he muttered. “She put on a dress like that to talk about a job.”

Meowth looked at James sympathetically. “I know I’m supposed to pretend I don’ know you like Jesse, but … don’ worry about this. It’s nothin’, you know how she loves to overdress for the occasion… she’s just tryin’ to impress her new boss.”

“I thought I finally knew what was going on,” muttered James. Then he went into his room and slammed the door.

He had cared deeply for Jesse for as long as he could remember, but she had always made him feel he wasn’t good enough for her. He had always loved to hold her and touch her, and after a long time he had even stolen a brief kiss from her on a few occasions. She had just tapped him with the fan and laughed. He had begun to hope.

Then two weeks ago they had had a chance to go out to dinner by themselves, without Meowth.

They had gone to a decent restaurant for once, and James started telling an elaborate joke involving the twerps failing out of Pokemon tech. Jesse laughed, especially at the part where Pikachu put on Ash’s hat and tried to take an exam in his place. When they got home, Jesse still looked happy and relaxed. Meowth was already asleep.

James had stood in front of Jesse in the living room, and without daring to think, he had kissed her on the lips. She had responded by putting her arms around him and kissing him back. He couldn’t believe it; all he could think of was to tell her he loved her, but he hadn’t wanted to scare her or ruin the moment. They had just kept kissing, until finally she had pulled away. She hadn’t been unhappy though, she had smiled, and said something about needing her sleep.

James hadn’t slept at all that night. He was certain Jesse hadn’t either.

The next morning Jesse had seemed nervous, and for the sake of not scaring her James hadn’t mentioned the incident. He had thought he could wait until Jesse was ready.

A few days later they had gone to the new gym to practice and met Karl. James hadn’t thought a thing about Karl’s interest in Jesse. Any man would notice that Jesse was a beautiful woman, and Karl seemed mostly interested in a professional way. But now James was frightened that by waiting he had ruined everything.

Jesse came home early that night, which made James relieved. He decided to say nothing more about it. If Jesse thought he was trying to control her life she would never forgive him. Maybe Meowth was right after all, and he had nothing to worry about.

But the next night Jesse dressed up and went out again, and James sat home and worried until she came home after midnight. He followed her into her room while she took her hair down.

“What’s going on with you and this gym leader, Jesse?” he asked. “I think you owe it to me to tell me!”

Jesse just faced the mirror and didn’t answer. James winced at the sight of her beautiful hair tumbling around her shoulders.

“What do I owe you? I can date my boss if I want to! What if I married him, that would really be something, hmmmm…. I’d probably be a gym leader too… And he’s very rich, you know.”

James sat there, shocked. Surely she was joking? She couldn’t want to hurt him this badly.

Finally he spoke. “After what happened two weeks ago, I can’t believe you’d say something like that.”

“It was just a kiss, James.”

“It was more than just a kiss, and you know it!” James was beginning to lose his temper. “I suppose you’ve done more than just kiss Karl!”

“What are you trying to call me, James?”

“Well, you make it sound like you’re practically engaged!” said James. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at whatever might happen between you.”

“We’re not practically engaged, and what you’re implying isn’t true! Not that it’s any of your business!”

“Is he making you go out with him in exchange for the job?”

“Of course not! He’s a gentleman,” retorted Jesse.

James knew Karl too; he really wasn’t the kind of man to take advantage of a woman because she needed work. Jesse wouldn’t let that happen anyway.

Finally James spoke again, this time in a small, scared voice.

“Do you love him, Jesse?”

“Get out of my room,” said Jesse.

James left, and once again didn’t sleep all night.

Jesse hadn’t said anything about definitely leaving Team Rocket, but she had gone to work at the gym for the next two days. She had stayed home at night, but James had gone out by himself to think. He couldn’t believe that after all these years it wasn’t going to be him and Jesse. He began to hate Karl, even though he knew Karl didn’t deserve it. He couldn’t hate Jesse, even though he thought she probably did deserve it.

The third day of work Jesse did go out at night again. James didn’t even bother asking if it was with Karl. He just sat home with Meowth.

He looked in the refrigerator. “Why don’t we have any beer? I should get drunk,” he said bleakly to Meowth.

“I wouldn’t do dat, James, ya need all da brain cells ya got.”

“I can’t believe she would do this… marry for money. Even I didn’t do that.”

“It’s not the same situation, James. But hey, she ain’t close to married yet. Dere’s still time to do somethin’ about it.”

“Like what? Try to beat Karl up? Challenge him to a pokemon battle? Either way I’d lose badly, and Jesse’s never felt sorry for me when that happens.”

Meowth shook his head. “I dunno, James, I always thought Jesse liked you better than dis too. I just dunno.”

Suddenly the door opened and Jesse came in. She was crying, and she threw herself down on the living room couch.

James went over to her. “Jesse, what’s wrong? Did something happen with Karl?”

“I told him I couldn’t see him anymore.”

James put his hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t touch me! I didn’t do it for you!” she shouted. She ran into her room, still sobbing.

Meowth was staring at a wall, but he turned around long enough to say, “Go after her, idiot.” James followed Jesse into her room.

She was sitting on her bed, still crying. James came over and put his arm around her, and this time she didn’t push him away.

“You must think I’m pretty trashy, going after a rich gym leader…” she muttered.

“Well, it wasn’t exactly like me marrying Jessiebelle, heaven forbid,” said James. “You had some respect for him. I just can’t understand why you didn’t have any respect for me.”

Jesse nodded. “I didn’t do anything right. And I lied about kissing him.”

James froze. Jesse looked at him. “No, I mean I implied that I did kiss him and I never had. Then tonight, he tried to kiss me, and I just couldn’t somehow. I kept thinking about you.”

James felt relief and happiness. But Jesse still looked miserable.

“Jesse, this is a good thing? Isn’t it? Why are you so sad… did he fire you?”

She shook her head. “No, you know he wouldn’t do that. I quit, but I don’t care about that so much. I’m sad because I thought I could control my feelings for you and I can’t.”

“You don’t want to feel anything for me? I’m not so bad, Jesse, even if I don’t have a gym.”

“That’s not fair. I just thought I could stop caring for anyone, and it doesn’t work that way and that scares me.”

James pulled her close, and finally she didn’t resist.

“I wouldn’t hurt you, Jesse,” he said.

“I’ve already hurt you,” she replied. “Would you really have just let me walk away from you like that?”

“Could I really have stopped you? I wanted to try, though. I was going to go out with Officer Jenny and see if it made you jealous, and if that didn’t work I was going to send Weezing in to completely wreck your wedding.”

“One way or another you’d have wound up in jail,” replied Jesse.

“And you wouldn’t even have come to visit me,” replied James with a fake pout.

They both started laughing. Finally James turned to her and said, “I love you, you know.”

She nodded, and didn’t reply. But she kissed him, and that was more than good enough.