It was a good thing I had a hand pressed against the wall, because I almost stumbled backward in shock.
ChapterNine
Kendall
A few nights later
I’m a virgin.
I actually said that.Out loud.To Jude.Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod
That played on a loop in my brain following Jude’s shocked face.
“Oh, my God.Oh, my God,” I muttered aloud to myself as I scrubbed the toilet.
I had decided to do my absolute least favorite chore because I needed something—literally anything—to do with the restless energy coursing through me.
Of course, I’d made matters worse after I’d blurted out the truth.
“I don’t even know why I told you that,” I’d groaned.Jude most certainly didn’t need to know that about me.
Because now he was going to freak out.I hadn’t even given him a chance to say anything else.
I practically ran into my apartment and slammed the door in his face.
“Kendall?Kendall?”His voice had filtered through the door.
I’d ignored him because he was too polite to get pushy about it.Jude wasn’t that kind of guy.Part of why I had a crush on him.
I hadn’t even really let myself think about my feelings for him in high school.I’d figured there was absolutelyno wayJude Silver would look at me like that.
“You are such an idiot,” I muttered to myself as I scrubbed furiously, moving on to clean the tile shower.
For reasons that remained mysterious to me, someone had gone all out with a tiled shower-tub enclosure in this tiny apartment in downtown Willow Brook.It was really nice.I loved it.But cleaning tile was a pain in the ass.I kept on scrubbing, pouring my frustration into the effort.By the time I finished, the entire shower gleamed like something out of a commercial.
I leaned back on my heels and dragged my elbow across my forehead, wiping the sweat and errant curls away.
A glance at my watch told me it was past midnight.My tiny apartment was now officially cleaner than it had ever been, probably since I’d even moved in.For fuck’s sake.I’d worked up enough of a sweat that I needed a shower now.
I stripped out of my clothes and hopped in, starting with the water cold before switching it to hot.Afterwards, I stood in my bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror and studying my damp curls, my freckled cheeks, my big eyes.When I was little, they had always seemed too big for my face.
“At least I grew into my eyes,” I muttered to myself.
This was what Jude kissing me had wrought.I was a hot mess.
With a groan, I spun away, tugged on a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, and put on my favorite fluffy socks before crawling into bed to read.Of course, the moment I reached for a book from the small stack on my nightstand, my brain registered the problem.Reading romance was one of my favorite escapes, because I didn’t ever figure I’d have a romance.
That wasn’t my life.I wasn’t the kind of woman who fell in love.It was safe and easy to lose myself in those stories.I took a shaky breath and plunked the book on my knees, dropping my face into my hands as I let out a sigh.That’s how bad it was.
I was heaving dramatic sighs all by myself in bed.When my hands fell away, my brain clocked the T-shirt I was wearing.Jude got it for me a few years ago.Fur Real Friends – Paws, Claws, and Endless Lovewas scrolled across the front.He’d said it was perfect for me.
My head thumped against the headboard.“Why?Why?”I groaned aloud.Why did I tell Jude I was a virgin?
Huge mistake.Epic.
I looked down at my book and nodded in determination.This was a great historical romance, one of my favorite types of escape.It wasn’t even set in this era, so I didn’t have to worry about how realistic it was.Same went for sci-fi romance.I didn’t believe in instalove, but it totally made sense on another planet.That worked for me.Paranormal?Also worked to forget reality.They could be fated mates, and it could truly be love at first sight.
But in the modern era?I would question everything.
