My heart hammers uncontrollably. I hate her. I hate her with every fiber of me.
“He said she won’t last a year without him—she’s a realnut. She even thinks— Well, never mind. I shouldn’t air his dirty laundry. Trust me when I say she’s a crazy bitch, though.” She straightens the tips of her razor-straight hair, and the saccharine smile returns to her face.
“I need a potty break.” I shoot off the couch, suddenly suffocated by Jesika.
Her gaze returns to the screen, and for one very brief moment, I feel remorse for plotting the ultimate revenge. We’re the unlikeliest of pairs, but there’s something about it that amuses me.
Once I reach the bathroom, I stop at the mirror, opening the medicine cabinet and yanking Dean’s little blue pills off the shelf. Without a second thought, I dump all of them into the toilet and then flush. I think about dumping out the blood pressure medication but then realize he must have another bottle of backup pills with him. I could easily slip something in Jesika’s faux rosé the next time I come over for movie night. If I have to sit through another romantic comedy with Jesika munching on Funyuns, either she’ll need drugs or I will. I chew my gum as I think, and then the pettiest payback comes to me. With a dark grin, I chew a few more beats and then take the gum out of my mouth and ball it into a perfect round shape and then smush it with all my might under the most stylish copper sink I’ve ever seen in my life.
I bend, taking the time to pack the gummy white ball into the crevice where marble meets copper. It will probably go unnoticed for a while, maybe forever, and that gives me a sick sense of satisfaction. I walk out of the bathroom a moment later with a little extra bounce in my step. My small act of disobedience has turned this boring and bland night around. If Jesika asks me to stay overnight with her again, I don’t know if I could resist the opportunity to fuck with Dean’s life a little, but if it weren’t for that, I would be a hard no. For as glamorous as she is,Jesika is just as boring. I then realize her life isn’t fabulous at all right now because she’s pregnant. She’s whiny and emotional and not booking jobs, and she won’t be for at least another nine months. I frown, realizing I’ve met Jesika just as the bottomless well of fabulous fun has dried up.
“Up for another movie?”
I suppress a groan as I walk back into the living room.
“I’m pretty tired. I don’t know if I’m up for another movie.” I flop onto the sectional next to her. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty great. This little demon baby isn’t torturing me anymore, so that’s something.” She holds up her phone and angles it for a selfie. At first, it’s just her and her nonexistent belly, but then she flips her wrist, and suddenly it’s me and her, side by side on the couch like best friends. “Smile for Dean!”
“No!” I gasp, yanking a pillow in front of my face just as she snaps the photo. Her screen goes blank, and Jesika pouts like a kicked puppy dog.
“It died. Damn. Can you take a photo of us and send it to Dean? He asked for it.”
“He asked for a selfie of us?”
“Yeah. He misses me. Isn’t that sweet?” She’s busy searching for her charger, and when she finally plugs it in, the screen powers on. She searches for her most recent photo and finds that it’s not us—the battery died before the photo saved. I’ll have to be more careful. That was a situation that could have spiraled out of control quickly.
“Here—say cheese!”
“No! I mean, I don’t really take photos. Please don’t.”
“Oh.” She scrunches her nose and then smiles for her own selfie. “You know what I do for a living, right?”
“What do you mean?” I move across the sectional from her, suddenly no longer trusting her with that camera.
“I work in the fashion industry. Photos are my life.”
“Oh. Well, I’ve pretty much shied away from photos all of my life.”
“Why? You shouldn’t be insecure. You’re beautiful. Great cheekbones and full lips. The camera would love you.” She’s typing out a quick message and then sets her phone down next to her. “You should let me shoot you sometime.”
I laugh. “Maybe.”
It occurs to me that this friendship has an expiration date. She’s already talked about having Dean text me or me texting him. It seems innocent, but in the blink of an eye, my cover could be blown. If I have any chance of continuing this game, I’ll have to get a new phone number. There’s no other way around it.
Jesika’s phone buzzes then, and she rushes to answer it. “Hey, baby.”
I nearly throw up. It’s him; it has to be.
“I’m good. We’re having fun. Lots of girl talk.”
I can hear the deep cadence of his voice on the other end of the line. My heart aches to talk to him, aches to feel the familiar weight of him in the bed next to me again. She doesn’t know how lucky she is because she’s the kind of girl that gets handed everything in life. She’s never had to work to find a relationship, and at some point, she’ll discard Dean for the next hot object of her fantasy. And meanwhile, I’ll be here, still pining over the man I put so much work into. I molded him, made him mine, and now he’s hers.
My resentment builds when Jesika turns and starts to murmur into the phone. She’s giggling softly, and I can just imagine all the lovey-dovey things he’s probably saying to her. Things he never said to me. He’s different with her. He’s hiding who he is, because the Dean I know would normally be in bed by this time of night, watching cheap porn on the internet andmasturbating himself to sleep until he’s snoring so loud, I can’t help but think about suffocating him with a pillow for my own sanity.
He’s hiding his true nature, all right, but not for long. I’ll make sure of that.
Chapter Twenty-One
