Gemma
I'm guessing it wasn't greasy?
She giggled because she'd just used one of his word aversions.
Jude
Gemma!
Gemma
I'm sorry. I try not to use my knowledge of your word aversions for evil.
Jude
Try harder.
She was still giggling.
Gemma
Good night.
Jude
Good night.
Her phone pinged and she checked it eagerly. More from Jude? No, from Chaz. He'd sent a glamour shot of himself holding a hamburger bun.
Chaz
What did the bread say to the baker?
Gemma
I don't know. What?
Chaz
You knead me.
She texted back cheerful words, even as a voice inside her pointed out an uncomfortable truth. Jude was the one she'd needed a connection with tonight. Jude was the one who'd brought her genuine amusement just now.
Jude, who wasn't destined to be anything to her,ever, other than her fake boyfriend.
* * *
Two nights later, Cedric still hadn't contacted Gemma.
Though snuggled under a throw blanket on her sofa at home, a spot which should have mellowed Gemma's spirit, she was battling a restless, discontented mood.
Maybe Cedric hadn't responded to her text about her boyfriend because he'd thought better of his terrible plan to sell trade secrets. Maybe Cedric was so oily that no law enforcement agency would ever be able to grasp hold of him.
Yesterday Jude had texted to say that if much more time went by without contact from Cedric, he'd ask her to follow up with her cousin. But he was willing to wait longer before taking that step because he preferred to let Cedric initiate.
That businessy text was no match for the living connection of his voice over the phone. One of those things was a feast, one of them a saltine cracker.
Rain drummed against the roof and pattered the windowpanes. Gracie's cardboard box of mementos waited next to the sofa and Gemma lifted the stack of letters off the top of the contents. Placing them in her lap, she gently untied the pale pink ribbon. She could do nothing about Jude and Cedric at present, but maybe there was something shecoulddo for Gracie. Best to funnel her thoughts toward the letters.
