“Let’s go.” He walks beside me as we head for the exit and I send a quick text to my other friend, Elise, letting her know I’m leaving.
“What do you drive these days?” I ask as we step into the warm South Florida night.
“A very boring SUV,” he responds, pulling some keys from his pocket.
Sure enough, he leads me to a big, black Escalade.
“That’s pretty big but not necessarily boring,” I agree, chuckling.
“It gets me where I need to go and has some fun bells and whistles.” He opens the passenger side door for me.
Like we’re on a date.
Can’t he just go back to being a jerk?
I sink into the leather seats and close my eyes. I’m suddenly exhausted. I don’t get out much. Between work and school and family obligations, I don’t have time for a social life. Tonight was an anomaly—one that almost went very, very wrong.
And like my own personal Lauderdale Knight in Shining Armor, Jordan was there when I needed him.
I hate him for how much he hurt me but there’s a tiny part of me that remembers how much I loved him. How good it was. How sweet and gentle and loving he was—until both of our worlds blew up.
That’s ancient history, though, and I have to keep that in mind.
“You remember where I live?” I ask after a moment.
“Still living with your parents?”
“Er, yes.” I nod, heat flooding my face even though I have nothing to be embarrassed about.
“I remember.”
He says it dryly like it’s a bad memory.
For him, it probably is.
Of course, he has no idea of the hellacious aftermath that rained down on me, and my family, after he walked away. That part wasn’t his fault, though.
I stare out at the busy Fort Lauderdale evening. It’s only eleven thirty on a Friday night, so there are cars and people filling the streets, shops, and strip malls. There’s almost always something going on—I’m just usually too busy to notice.
I pull out my phone and see a text from Merrill.
MERRILL: Where did you go? Ginny said you took off with some guy. LOL In all the time I’ve known you, you have never taken off with anyone. What’s the deal?
I close my phone and slip it back in my purse.
I’ll talk to her tomorrow, when she’s sober.
Tonight, I don’t want to talk about Jordan.
Especially not when he’s right beside me.
I’d forgotten what it was like to feel…protected. He might hate me but he’s still fundamentally the same guy he’s always been. Just a little older. And hotter. And more muscular. More everything I fell in love with in the first place.
Still can be an asshole, though.
I sigh, battling disparate emotions and wishing I’d never left the house tonight. It would have been so much easier to curl up in bed with a good book. Instead, I’m heading home after a disastrous evening, rescued by the one person whose name still makes my father’s face turn red.
He’s going to lose his shit if he recognizes Jordan.
