“Jade.” Reeve turns me to face him. “Come on, girl. Don’t cry.”
But his voice is so soft, it only makes me cry harder. I’m so embarrassed. I hate crying in front of my own mother, but I’d sooner break down in front of Sam and his girlfriend than in front of Reeve Dalton.
He bends so he’s eye level with me. “Him? All these tears for him?”
I still can’t speak. I wish he’d just go away.
“I knew you broke up with a guy, but him? I was imagining some big swinging dick with full-body tattoos and a Harley, not someone who tucks himself into bed in a beaker every night in the chem lab.”
I laugh, though the sound comes out as a distinctly unsexy snort-sob. He smiles, but it’s kind, and he hands me a bar napkin from his pocket. I do my best to dry my face and wipe the makeup from under my eyes, but I’m sure I’m a puffy, blotchy mess. Reeve stands there patiently, watching the traffic on the street behind the patio, until I finally stop sniffling and shove the balled-up napkin into my bag.
I take a deep breath. “Sorry.”
He ignores my apology. “Why would you be with that dude?”
“He never used to be such an asshole.”
“No, I mean, he looks like a total dork.”
“I get it, we’re a mismatch.” Sam once told me how intimidated he’d been at first by the alt-girl image I give off when I’m really on my gamewith my style.
“Damn, how attention hungry are you? You really need me to say it?”
“What are you talking about? Say what?”
He hesitates, his gaze on the street, before he turns and settles those bright eyes on me. “That you’re beautiful. That you’re really damn sexy.” I wait for him to follow up with an insult, but none comes. “What I mean is you could have any guy you want.”
Somehow his saying it makes it seem possible, despite all evidence to the contrary. I shake my head, caught off guard by his compliment. For the first time, it occurs to me that maybe he doesn’t look at all girls the way he looks at me.
“I’m just saying, you shouldn’t be so hung up on some dork like that.”
I roll my eyes as Reeve’s charm disappears into thin air. “I’mnothung up on him. But it’s hard seeing how much he’s changed from the guy I dated.”
“What was so great about him?”
“Everything.”
“I said him, not me.”
I ignore him and dab at the makeup that’s surely smeared under my eyes by now.
“Well? Can’t think of anything?” I appreciate that he’s not treating me like I could dissolve into tears at any second.
“Fine. He’s intelligent. Thoughtful. Romantic. He was always thinking of ways to make me feel special. And he worshipped me.”
Reeve waves that off. “That never lasts. The longer you know someone, the less there is to worship.”
I nod. Finally something we can agree on.
Reeve leans back against the wall and looks up at the sky. I follow his gaze. There’s nothing to see, only a few dim stars peeking out from behind the patchy clouds.
“Was he good in bed?” He turns to me but I don’t take my eyes off the sky.
“Yes.” His gaze is heavy on me. I tell my body not to care, but it doesn’t obey, my skin flushing warm.
“How good?”
There’s an answer to this, but I can’t remember it because Sam is suddenly far from my mind. So I say whatever I think will provoke Reeve the most.
