He studies me. Jude is ridiculously intuitive, to the point that it’s almost creepy. I used to think I just lacked the ability to have a poker face, but I’ve seen him read other people just as well, so it’s not only me. He tilts his head a little. “You turn twenty-six soon. You should not only want a social life, you should have one. And be dating. A lot. I swear the entire sorority is in some kind of spinsterhood competition.”
I’d be insulted, except it’s amusing. When I was growing up, he used to tell me and my sisters we were too ugly and annoying for boyfriends, and then when we had them, he’d try to scare them away. Now he’s worried we don’t have boyfriends.
“Yeah, you caught us. The person who dies alone wins,” I quip and roll my eyes.
“Well, it looks like it’s going to be a three-way tie,” he jokes back as I glance at the clock and grab my purse off the chair in the corner.
“Two-way. Winnie technically has Tyson,” I remind him and grin. “And in the event of a tie the person with the most cats is the victor.”
He laughs and follows me out of my room. As we walk down the hall toward the elevators I glance over at him. “I want what Mom and Dad have.”
He looks over at me, his eyes searching for any hint of levity like I’m somehow going to turn this into a joke. I look back at him with serious eyes. “They met each other and they just knew. And the universe knew, and everything just fell into place for them. It was perfect, and because of that it was easy and simple.”
Jude looks like he just smelled a fart. “In the words of my future wife and the mother of my unborn child, oh Mylanta! That’s a load of crap.”
We reach the elevators. I press the Down button and he presses the Up. “How do you figure? They got married three months after they met, and they’ve been together thirty years. They’ve had fights and financial and emotional ups and downs, but neither of them had to give anything up or suffer because they wanted to be together. The stars aligned.”
“Dad picked up and moved to Canada—illegally—to be with Mom,” Jude reminds me. “They got married quickly so he could stay legally. Yeah, they loved each other, but that wasn’t the ideal way to get hitched. And Dad’s parents weren’t thrilled with him just leaving Detroit and his family like that. Things were tense between them until I was like eight. I remember it because I could feel it every time we went to visit them. And Zoey and I are soul mates and the perfect couple.” I glance over as he grins at his own lack of modesty. “We have the perfect love affair, but it’s not the perfect story, technically. She was married and in the middle of a vicious divorce, and I was trying to hide from all the women I’d banged. And then I knocked her up less than a year in, and we’re not even married yet. Sounds crazy to anyone you’d tell it to, but yet, we’re perfect.”
“She’s perfect. You’re perfect adjacent,” I reply as his elevator arrives and he steps inside.
“All I’m saying is don’t look for someone who doesn’t require sacrifice,” he tells me. “Look for someone worth sacrificing for.”
His words settle inside me all heavy and warm. He’s fucking brilliant when he lets himself be, but I can’t acknowledge that in front of him, so instead I smirk. “Have you been memorizing fortune cookie messages again?”
He rolls his eyes so hard it looks like he’s passing out. “Another bonding moment down the shitter.”
My elevator doors open as his close. I step inside next to two guys in golf wear and let Jude’s words roll around my head. I wish this dinner tonight wasn’t happening. I wish I could stay away from Eli long enough for us both to figure out if this is really as serious as it feels and what to do about it.
I’m supposed to meet Tom before the winner and Eli get here. He wants to go over some questions about the contest so he gets the details right in his story. The bar is fairly busy but I can see Tom at the end of the long polished oak bar. He’s with Vinnie LaMarche and Eddie Rollins. I walk over but stop a few feet away to ask the bartender for a Pinot Grigio. I hear Eddie laugh at something, and then I hear Vinnie tell Tom, “He has a girlfriend. You could ask him about that.”
The bartender slides the full wineglass across the bar. I scrawl my room number on the bill and walk over to the guys. “Who has a girlfriend?”
“Oh, hey!” Tom leans in and hugs me, which I wasn’t expecting and, frankly, didn’t want, so I kind of freeze up. When he lets go I pull back so abruptly some wine slops over the side of my wineglass. He doesn’t seem to notice my reaction. “I was just asking Rollins and Marchie for ideas on some questions for Elijah,” he says as I take a sip of my wine.
I swallow the wine in my mouth so quickly I’m surprised I don’t choke. “He has a girlfriend?”
“I think so. He mentioned her when he was here for that charity event,” Vinnie explains.
And I feel myself slipping into panic mode. Is it me? Was he talking about me? Oh God, do they know it’s me? Wait, he thinks I’m his girlfriend? I want to smile at that thought, but then I realize Tom can’t probe him on it if it is me. “We don’t usually let reporters ask about personal lives, unless the player brings it up first.”
“You can be subtle about it,” Vinnie suggests, and I want to toss my wine in his face. “Ask him if he knows a Julie. That’s her name.”
Wait…what?
Tom laughs. “I don’t think that’s subtle, Vinnie.”
“Ask him about college. He’s got some wild stories about college,” Eddie adds and sips his light beer. “Like having an affair with a teacher’s wife!”
“What?” It flies out of my mouth before I can stop it, and it’s hard and judgmental.
Vinnie glares at Eddie. “I told you you couldn’t tell anyone, Eddie, you dick.”
Eddie shrugs and smiles at my still horrified face. “Relax, Marchie. We all have secrets, right, Baby Bra—”
I step between Vinnie and Tom and right up into Eddie’s face. “If you call me Baby Braddock ever again I will grab you by your tiny dick so hard you never have a Baby Rollins.”
“You can’t talk to me like that!” he replies, offended.
