“I just want to hear you talk,” he says.
“A fur ball.”
“That was terrible.” He laughs. “You know a lot of cat jokes.”
“I figured I’d need them to impress you. And Zucchini.”
“You know, she’s not going to believe I met you. She might be jealous.”
“Your cat is going to be jealous of me?” I ask.
He nods. “Yes. I might have divulged a lot of our relationship to her. She’s a very good listener. Not judgmental at all.”
“I’m excited to meet her.”
He pulls out his phone and passes it over. “Does this mean I can finally get your real number and have you over?”
I smile, punching it in and texting myself. “Yes.”
“I feel like I can’t stop smiling,” Jasper says. “It’s weird that tonight of all nights we met.”
His hand closes over mine as I pass his phone back. There’s that spark again. It’s an innocent touch, but charged and full of tension.
It’s what has the words escaping my lips before I can stop them.
“I’m so glad you finally know.”
His brows furrow.
“Wait, finally? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit. How am I going to get myself out of this?
“Did you know who I was?”
Jasper pulls out of my hold, an arctic chill filling the space.
“Not at first.”
“At first? Are you serious?”
I’m fidgeting again, twirling the ends of my hair. Is there any way I can backtrack out of this?
“When you said you played hockey, and then told me your name, it wasn’t a leap to put two and two together.”
He starts to pace in front of me, a frenetic energy pulsing off him.
“Instead of telling me that you knew who I was, you just led me on.”
“No,” I say, louder than necessary. “That wasn’t it at all.”
“So, what? Just seeing if you could bag a hockey player?”
“Jasper,” I scoff. “I didn’t know it was you at first. But everything I told you was the truth. I never lied.”
He stops, resting his hands on his hips. The same hands that were just on me. Ones that I wish were still there.
