“Ah, now you catch on.” Stephen’s lab rat eyes twinkle, and his lips twist with a smirk. He takes an object out of his pocket and puts it in my hand. “Everything’s recorded.”
It’s my cell phone.
“You stole my phone?”
“Pretty easy, since I was one of the crew members who mingled at the Sail Away party.” He giggles like a mischievous kid. “Clever of me.”
He takes my arm, and we continue strolling as if we’ve not a care in the world.
I try not to cringe, and as much as I want to hurl at the news, I need to keep him talking so I can cure myself of my Jordan obsession.
I should have trusted my first instincts. Jordan’s dishonest. He plays pranks, and he enjoys embarrassing people.
If only my silly heart would stop twinging and fluttering at the way he kissed me and the false sincerity in his face as he gave me advice on being myself, on trusting my feelings, and all that hooey-pooey new age stuff.
“What exactly was Jordan’s role in all of this? What exactly is his job title?”
“Glad you asked,” Stephen says. “Jordan’s my fixer, the guy I call whenever I have a problem. He’s the one who gets his hands dirty so I can come off smelling like a rose. He’s been behind the scenes from our very first date. Remember that stalker who wouldn’t leave you alone? Jordan took care of it. Or that time a porn star tried to blackmail me. He’s been cleaning up after me since we roomed together in college.”
“How come I never met him before?” I know I’m asking a dumb question. Of course, he wouldn’t have introduced us, because he needed Jordan to be on the down low so he could weaponize him against me if needed.
“You had no need to know, or you would have been on guard.”
“You played a trick on me.” I swallow bitter bile, hating myself for being the fool.
“Actually, I killed two birds with one stone.”
“How so?” I try to yank my hand away, but Stephen keeps me corralled as we saunter past other couples out on the deck.
“I was testing him, too,” Stephen said, squeezing my hand hard enough to hurt. “I suspected he had the hots for you. I put you two in the same cabin. I told him it was okay for him to press you for sex. In fact, I would give him a bonus if he brought me proof. I incentivized him to get you to fall in love with him. But when you decided to move out of his cabin, I knew you were mine. A bird in the hand.”
“No, you don’t get to mix metaphors.” I stomp on his foot and twist my wrist from his grasp. “You killed two birds today. I’ll never be yours. Ever. Post that on social media and rack up your sympathy points.”
