“Thanks, I really can’t handle puke,” he whispers.
“Oh, yeah. No problem.” It is though, actually. She’s his girlfriend and he told her he loved her last night, he should be able to hold her hair back when she needs him to.
I head for the door, feeling awkward and suddenly sweaty.
“So, you and Dex, huh? You guys are a thing?” The words explode from his mouth in a quick accusing tone.
“Me and Dex?” Yes, I think I’ll just play stupid. It’s none of his business anyway if he’s in love with my perfectly, flawless best friend. I fix my eyes on his and say nothing.
“Yeah,” Nate says frowning. “You know, him staying over at your place, making breakfast… so you’re sleeping with him? You two are together?”
“Oh, that. No, we’re just—well, we hate each other, really.” I smile at myself when I think of how we called a truce, like we’re five years old. I can’t help it, but a giggle bubbles out and I shut it down immediately by sucking in my lips.
He stills. His body stiffens. “So you usually have people you hate stay over for breakfast?”
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he sounded jealous.Why does he sound jealous?And he looks so perfect, even with his hair all messed up and a sleepless night behind him. Why couldn’t we have just stayed at that game? Why didn’t he just ask me for my name or out to dinner? Why couldn’t I have him? “Well?” he asks again. I watch the bob of his Adam’s apple.
“It’s not like that with me and Dex,” I say in a quiet voice.
He rubs the back of his neck and laughs. “You both looked pretty comfortable at the costume party together.”
The insinuation pierces into my heart and rips across my chest in a fiery jagged line. “There’s nothing happening right now between me and Dex Vanstone.” My words are growls and tears burn humiliatingly at the corners of my eyes.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes, positively sure. That was just—”
“I didn’t like watching it. I hated seeing it.” His lips curl up into a snarl.
My body freezes in place and my chest feels as if it’s about to cave in on itself. “Yeah,” my voice cracks on the word, “well, I’m sure it must have looked horrible.” I certainly don’t look like Julia under my clothes. I look actually human, too human, with every flaw blaring at anyone who wants to peek.
He shakes his head curtly. “No, it’s not that. It was hot. It was incredibly hot. It was so hot that when I came back with Julia and we slept together, it wasn’t Julia I was thinking about. It was you bent over in that gothic get-up and the way your face looks when you cum. And it’s tearing me apart inside.”
My heart explodes. I’m dead. I can’t breathe.
“It’s tearing you apart? No, it isn’t. You’re just not in your honeymoon phase anymore, that’s all.” I need to get away from him. I want to run to him and throw myself out the window at the same time. “Isn’t that what happens in relationships, isn’t that a normal thing after the newness of stuff wears off? You saw two people having sex and it was arousing.That’s it.” I back out of Julia’s apartment and rush down the hallway into mine. Nate rushes after me and pushes through my door.
“That’snotit, it’s way more than that, Jane. It’s not normal to think about your girlfriend’s best friend as much as I think of you,” he says in a whispery voice.
In my kitchen, Dex drops something with a tremendously loud bang.
I clear my throat, but the words still sound full of emotion and want. “I think you need to go, Nate.”
He leans forward, close enough for his lips to brush against my ear and his words come quick and whispery. “Jane, I’m sorry. I don’t mean anything by it. I would never do anything to hurt either of you. I just needed to tell you and I shouldn’t have, I’m just—I’m still a little drunk from last night—and all the puke.”
I nod numbly and close the door when he walks away.
Chapter 18
“Your boobs look amazing in that shirt.” It’s Monday morning after the dinner party and Julia is clutching a travel mug of herbal tea to her chest while staring down mine. “They look enormous. What did you do?”
I groan and cover my face with the copy I’m revising. “I didn’tdoanything, Julia,” I whisper scream at her. “I just have on a tighter shirt.”
Her eyebrows hit her hairline. “Your boobs are that big? Really?”
There’s a quick motion to the right of me and suddenly Dex’s face is rubbernecking at the collision between Julia’s eyes and my breasts. “Did someone say something about boobs? I personally love boobs.” His lips curve up into a mouthy grin and he gives me a wink. “Honestly, my love for breasts knows no bounds.”
“What do you want, Dex?” I ask, rapping him on the head with the pages I hold in my hand. I figure, we have that kind of friendly relationship now, right? The one where I can whack him in the head with things and he won’t call HR on me.
