After telling Deacon there was nous, the night before, he left without saying a word. She thought that was it. Stick a fork in it. Done. Over.
She waited for a call to pick Blake up, like they’d planned. But instead, he’d used the driver he hired for her to take her daughter home, so she hadn’t had to go out again, because of course he did.
Blake arrived home fifteen minutes later, very amped about everything that had happened at the gala, they debriefed until about ten-thirty and then Jenna insisted they go to bed. She’d tried to sleep but she couldn’t shut off her brain. At eleven thirty she got a text from Deacon. It was one instruction. One very simple instruction.
Deacon
go shut your bedroom door and lock it
At first, she’d been so shocked, she’d just stared at the message. But then, sixty seconds later, another instruction came in, this one telling her to remove a piece of clothing, and she found herself complying. Sixty seconds, another instruction. Thirty minutes and thirty texts later, she’d had one very quiet, very hot, orgasm, and the final text read now go to sleep, and the crazy thing was, she did.
She woke up to a text that morning at six a.m. with instructions waiting for what she needed to do in the shower, not only what to do but also what to think about while she was doing the things he told her to do. She’d followed those instructions as well.
As she sat alone in her salon scrolling through her sexts, she knew she should delete them. The problem was, as she read them, it was like he was there with her. She could hear his voice in her ear, she could feel his hands on her.
Maybe they didn’t have to be together/together to have a secret sexting relationship. Could she have a satisfying sext-a-tionship? Was that a thing? Would he be down for that?
A bell dinged, intruding into her fantasy. Jenna’s eyes flew up, and so did the phone. She saw her bestie Tianawalking towards her as her phone tumbled in slow motion in an arch away from her. She scrambled to catch it as Tiana lifted her hand defensively, trying to avoid being beamed in the face with Jenna’s iPhone. Her bestie’s George Kittle moves served to block her face as well as intercept Jenna’s phone.
Oh no, no, no, no, no. Tiana absolutely could not see just how high Jenna’s freak flag flew. The second Tiana’s fingers wrapped around the device, Jenna snatched it away faster than she could say Hot Potato.
“Sorry,” Jenna apologized automatically, not exactly sure what she was expressing remorse for.
Tiana looked confused, which was totally understandable. “Oh, it’s okay. What was—who was that?”
“Nothing,” Jenna lied. “It’s just my um…financials.”
Financials? Why would Jenna care if Tiana saw her financials? Jenna had actually asked Tiana to look at her financials before. This is what being dickmotized did to her. It made her dumb.
“I was looking for you to say goodbye last night, but I couldn’t find you,” she lied. Again. Why did she keep lying?!
Tiana looked equally guilty as she fumbled out a stuttered, “Oh, yeah, I had to, um… I left.”
Okay, good. Jenna could work with this. It was Niko’s fundraiser, so hearing that Tiana left was something she could work with.
“Youleft?”
“Yeah.”
Clearly, Tiana didn’t know about the whole Jim Vargas of it all—which Jenna now knew was his name because Blake, Rayna, and Angel found out who he was, and his company and were boycotting him—or she would havesaid something by now, and she was stumbling over words, so she must be hiding something, too. This was good.
“I was just going to ask what happened last night. You looked, I don’t know…stressed. Upset.”
Shit, maybe she did know. “Last night?”
"I saw you in the hall with Deac?—”
“Oh, no! That was, um…” If Tiana saw the videos, she would want to talk about Deacon’s expression of murder and ask what was going on between them, and she’d be able to tell if Jenna was lying. “That was a misunderstanding.” Not wanting the focus on her, she played a conversation Uno Reverse card. “What about you? Did you talk to Niko? You sat with him, right?” She’d seen her bestie at Niko’s table seated beside him.
“We did more than talk,” Tiana admitted.
Thank you, Kevin Williamson. Anygoodplot twist in life she attributed to Kevin Williamson, writer/creator of the best comfort show on earth,Dawson’s Creek.
“I like the sound of that.” Jenna figured if she got her friend talking aboutherlife, they could skip whatever freaky textual Fifty Shades shit she was contemplating. She checked her watch, hopped off the stool, rushed to the front door, locked it, and turned the Back in Ten sign. “I have fifteen minutes before Eleanor comes in for root touchups.” She hooked her arm through Tiana’s, dragging her into the back breakroom and flopping down onto the loveseat. “Tell me everything.”
Tiana took a deep breath and looked like she was about to throw up. “Niko told me he loved me last night.”
Jenna wanted to stand up and do a backflip. ShelovedTiana. There weren’t many people she knew who had childhood’s harder than hers, but Tiana’s was. And now to have Niko Costas, who, despite being wealthy, was averygood man, declare his love for her, Jenna wanted to cry, throw a party, and declare today a national holiday. “Tell meeverything. I want every last detail. Don’t leave anything out.”
