“I think she’s going through something right now. For the most part, Jade has always beenprettycool.
“Are you friends with Jared and Cale?” I ask. Obviously, they’re friends. Cale said so, and why else would he have met up with them last night? This whole awkward conversation is not quitenecessary.
“Yeah, they’re my buddies. The area isn’t too big around here, so everyone kind of knows everyone, and we grew uptogether.”
“They’re both very nice,” Ioffer.
“Until they try to play matchmaker, yeah.” He looks at me with a sheepish glare until it dawns on me what he meant by that. They were trying to set Liam upwithJade.
“Ohhh, they wanted you to—withJade.”
“She’s just not my type,” he says with a sigh and a raised brow. He means the overbearing, just dumped her fiancé, drunk college girl, can’t hold her own, type. Yeah, I can understand that. “She wasn’t looking for anything either, though, so we sort of became friends ... but her nightly routines have gotten old over the last fewweeks.”
That kind of explains last night, kind of,still. . .not.
“I suppose Jade requires a certain type of man,” I say, not exactly sure how to respond to thiseither.
“Yeah, that’s not me,”hesays.
Normally if a guy were talking about his “type,” I might be intrigued enough to ask him what his type is, but Liam is a good-looking man who I work with, and has an obvious asshole side to him, so, no, I’m not goingthere.
Iwill not complainabout my first day because I can’t do anything to change it now. The stomach acid burning a hole in my gut is making it clear how wrong this decision was for a “fun” summer job. The temptation was too hard to resist, and now I’m going to pay dearly for skipping town to avoid becoming a full-fledged adult. The worst part is, today wasn’t an actual first day because there was no child tocarefor.
I pull into Jade’s parking lot and gimp up the stairs to the second level of apartments. I hear her singing at the top of her lungs, which means she’s most likely in the shower. I try the door knob, finding it unlocked. Of course, she wouldn’t think to lock her door while in the shower. Growing up in a small town where farm animals were our neighbors, neither of us realized how lucky we were to feel safe while walking around at night, not until we got to college and found out real quick that you don’t leave your doors unlocked unless you want something stolen.This town does seem fairly safe, but I’m not sure I could ever get myself to trust as easily asshedoes.
I knock on the bathroom door. “Jade, I’m here. I didn’t want you to freak if you heard mecomein.”
She kicks open the door and the burning smell of hair fogs the air around me. “How was the rest of your day?” She smirks at me in the mirror as she irons a strand of her unruly,coarsehair.
“Just as great as you might imagine with that jackass.” I limp over to Jade’s pullout bed andplopdown.
I hear the straightening iron fall into the sink with a loud echoing clunk as she bursts through the door to look at me. “What happened to you? Why are you limping? Oh, my God,thatkid. . .”
“What kid?” Iquestion.
“The boy you’re caring for . . . Dylan, isn’t thathisname?”
“He wasn’t even there today. Do you know something about him that Idon’t?”
Jade flips her head over and fluffs her hair around, but as she whips her hair back, I only see a look of puzzlement on her face. “No, I don’t know much about him at all.” She reaches behind me and snatches a short dress that was draped over the side ofthebed.
“I thought we were going out for dinner tonight?” I ask her as she pulls the tight, hot pink dress overherhead.
“Yeah, we are . . . why wouldn’twebe?”
I glance down at the clothes I’ve been wearing all day. My blue leggings and white short-sleeve blouse can hardly compare to her fashion statement. “I guess I’ll be your underdressed date for theevening.”
“I knew you’d show up like that.” She walks around the other side of the bed and pulls another dress out from under her rumpled sheet. “That’s why I pulled this one outforyou.”
“I’m three inches taller than you and if this dress fits anything like yours does, my ass will be hanging outofit.”
“And that’s a bad thing when you’re single?” Her brow raises as a sinful gleam teases herglossylips.
“Speaking ofwhich. . .”
“No,” shestopsme.
“What happen withChip,Jade?”
