I sighed and wrote it down, because I knew there was no way I was getting out of it. “There. Are you happy?”
Jax smiled proudly, clearly satisfied with herself for winning. “Very. Okay, next one. How many one-night stands or flings have you had?”
“None.” I would have been embarrassed by this, but I didn’t sense any judgment coming from Jax.
“I thought that might be the case. I’ve always taken you as the relationship type of girl. I respect that. I really do. On the other hand, no-strings-attached fun can be very satisfying. How do you feel about it?”
“I’m not against it as long as it’s safe.” I didn’t believe it was necessary to want to marry someone to have sex with them. I just never felt confident enough to put myself back out there after Marcie broke my heart.
“Perfect. Another one for the list.”
I didn’t hesitate before writing this one down. Jax might have to help me figure outhowto meet this fling, but I wasn’t against it. God knows I could use an orgasm that I didn’t give myself.
After some more discussion and a little bit of arguing, Jax convinced me to add skinny dipping and attending a music festival to my list as well. She promised to go to the music festival with me and also promisednotto join me for the skinny dipping. She was trusting me to be honest with her about completing that one.
“Halfway done,” Jax said when I had those two written down in my planner. “Maybe we should take a brain break before we think of more.”
Normally, when I started something, I had to finish it, but since this was all in an effort to be a new Carter, I agreed with her. I flipped my planner back to the upcoming week, so I could plan it out while I waited to get back to our list.
After a minute, I felt a set of eyes on me and looked over to find Jax staring at me. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“Just planning out my week.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Aren’t you off this week?”
I nodded. “I have four more weeks off.”
“Then what are you planning?”
“Meals, clothes, goals. Things like that.”
Jax sighed loudly. “Sinceyou’reclearly not taking a break right now, flip back to your list. I have another one for you.”
What Jax didn’t understand was thatthiswas my form of a break. Still, I listened to her without complaining and opened the page with the list. “What is it?”
“Spend a whole weekend at home, in pajamas, doingnothingproductive.”
That item definitely seemed to be in contrast to all of the others. How in the hell did Jax’s brain go from music festivals to staying home doing nothing? “That doesn’t really seem to fit theexcitingtheme we’re going for.”
“It’s exciting, because it’s something different for you. When I say you’ll be doing nothing productive, I meanabsolutely nothing. That includes planning out your week.”
I had to hold myself back from gasping, because I honestly couldn’t imagine starting a new week without a plan. “The only way that’s going to be the slightest bit possible is if I complete that one before I go back to work. It’s going to be hard enough to keep myself from planning out one of those weeks. There’s no way I could go into a work week without a plan.”
“Noted.” Jax held her hand out toward my planner. “Could I see that?”
I reluctantly handed it over to her. I could only imagine her messy scrawl was going to stress me out, but I needed to get over that.
I watched as Jax wrote exactly what she had said next to the number six. She covered up her words and continued towrite, then held the planner up so I could see what she added. The words were the complete opposite of what I just told her. Right there, written beside the “do nothing” item were the wordsMust be completedAFTERstarting job.
I shook my head. “I told you I couldn’t do that once I started working.”
Jax sneered as she handed the planner back to me. “I know. And that’s exactly whyyouneedto do it then. This is all about branching out and doing things that make you a little uncomfortable. You need to trust me when I tell you that taking a break willnotkill you.”
I threw a hand over my forehead. “It might,” I said, adding as much dramatic flair as possible to really get my point across.
“You just gave me an idea for another adventure. I’m going to assume you’ve never bought something on a whim, right?”
“If you mean grabbing a candy bar or a bag of chips while I’m waiting to check out, I’vetotallydone that.”
