‘I’m not sure that Ben’s the player he makes out to be,’ Jess said. ‘He flirts a lot with our members, but as far as I know he hasn’t taken it further.’
‘I doubt that,’ I jumped in. ‘I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen him surrounded by women. The other day I even saw one of them give him her number and he lapped it up. He’s one of thoseperformative males.’
‘What’s that?’ Maddie frowned.
‘It’s men that sit around pretending to read books just to pick up women,’ I explained.
‘That’s actually genius!’ Celeste said.
‘It’s notgenius,’ I said. ‘It’s disingenuous and deceitful. He blatantly admitted that he hates romance books. Yet when I walked into the library, I saw him pretending to read with a swarm of women around him hanging on his every word whilst he gushed about how much he loved romance. Gross. And they fell for it! They even started boosting his already ginormous ego by saying he was the total package, book hero material. Ugh. It was pathetic.’
‘Well, hedoeskind of look like a book hero,’ Maddie said sheepishly. ‘Just saying…’
‘Yeah! And I bet he fucks like one too!’ Celeste said. ‘Rest assured, ladies, that when we bang, I’ll give you a blow-by-blow report. Ha!Blow. See what I did there?’ She cackled again.
Kara and Maddie laughed along, but Jess, Jane and I didn’t.
Jane was loved up with Jackson, so she wasn’t interested in discussing another man’s appendages, and from the way Jess was wincing, she didn’t want to think about her brother-in-law in that way either.
And as for me, well, the last thing I wanted to think about was how well Ben did or didn’t perform in the bedroom.
Truth be told, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it at all. Obviously, I’d had a mini fantasy about him on the train, before he’d said those awful things about romance.
Okay, and maybe when I’d seen him running on the beach during my lunch break a couple of days ago, a few illicit thoughtsmayhave crept into my head for one or two seconds when I saw how good his arse looked in those shorts and the way his biceps flexed when he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
And when he said that my suggestion to include a miniature beach with sun loungers in the retreat’s back garden for the readers who were too relaxed to go to the real one across the road was an excellent idea, then smiled at me (I know, right, I was surprised too), a jolt of electricitymayhave shot straight between my thighs. But that was probably because I had some kind of undiscovered praise kink. It had nothing to do with him.
I wasn’t interested.
End of story.
‘Why do you think he waspretendingto read?’ Jess added, steering the conversation back to non-smutty ground.
‘Because I’d only given him the book about fifteen minutes before I saw him, but he was holding it as if he was halfway through it,’ I said confidently, like I’d just delivered a piece of irrefutable evidence in a courtroom. ‘And like I said, he was all gushy about romance, which, as we know, he hates.’
After his encouraging comment about my writing and his offer to help with the social media, I’d just started to question whether I was wrong to label him as a twat and was thinking that maybe he might have some redeeming qualities after all.
But then I saw him trying to trick our members, and knowing that they were falling for his charms made me see red.
‘I can’t comment on how much reading he’d really done, obviously, but I’d much prefer that he showed enthusiasm about romance to our members rather than slagging it off,’ Jess said. ‘It’d be bad for business and Ben knows that. He wants the library to succeed just as much as we do.’
‘Just as much?’ I raised an unconvinced eyebrow.
‘Enough that he wouldn’t do anything to damage it,’ Jess replied.
‘Men like him cause destruction wherever they go,’ I said, hating how bitter I sounded, but it was true.
‘Hon, I know that your dickhead ex did you dirty,’ Jess said softly, ‘but not all men are arseholes. Look at my Theo and how much Jackson worships Jane. You could have that too one day.’
‘I think I’ll stick to my book boyfriends. They’re more reliable and they don’t betray me in the worst possible way.’
‘Oooh! What did your ex do?’ Celeste sat up straighter.
‘I’d rather not talk about it,’ I said, my chest tightening.
‘Sorry.’ Jess winced. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you.’
‘It’s okay,’ I said. I knew she didn’t mean any harm.
