Is that what we were? Friends? I barely knew the guy, and yet, that wasn’t how I felt when I was around him. Jack made me feel safe. I hadn’t known until I met him that I even needed to feel that. After all, I was a strong, independent, self-made woman who didn’t need a man. And I didn’tneedJack either. But I liked how he made me feel. I liked the way he looked at me, the way he smiled at me, the way he made me laugh. I liked how it had felt when he’d held me. Ireallyliked that. He gave me goose bumps, in the best possible way.
‘I see nothing’s changed,’ Ray commented from the hallway, through my ajar bedroom door.
I frowned at his intrusion, tempted to kick the door shut in his face. ‘What?’
‘You’re still as messy as you always were.’
‘I amnotmessy.’
He stared at the clothes scattered across the bed pointedly.
‘That’s not mess, and I’m going to tidy it up later. Go away.’
‘What are you trying on all your clothes for?’
‘None of your business.’
He waited.
‘Fine.’ I sighed. ‘If you must know, I have a date. Sort of. Not really a date, more of a meal between friends kind of situation.’
‘Which friend are we talking about?’
‘Does it matter?’
‘Humor me.’
‘Jack.’
‘Ah.’
‘Ah what?’
‘Nothing. I’m glad he took my advice and asked you out.’
‘He didn’t ask me out just because you told him to.’
‘Eh, believe what you want.’
‘He didn’t.’
He pulled a face.
‘Oh God.’ I sank to the bed. ‘He did, didn’t he? This is all your fault.’
‘It’s notallon me,’ he said. ‘I just gave him a subtle little nudge.’
‘You don’t do anything subtly, Ray. It’s not in your nature.’ I surveyed my pile of options. ‘I guess it’ll just have to be jeans and a top.’
‘You mean the same thing that you wear every day,’ he said. ‘Like you’re off to a casual funeral. That’s typical of you, make no effort at all.’
I threw the black top I had picked up back down onto the bed and scowled at him. ‘That’s it, I’m canceling.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I have nothing to wear, and because I refuse to go out on a date with a guy thatyouset me up with.’
‘I didn’t set you up. Like I said, I just gave him a nudge in the right direction.’
