IVY
Five minutesafter I’d shot off that text, Jamie responded, saying he was happy to help, and that’s how I ended up with a crew of six people pre-drinking at the apartment on Saturday.
Besides Zoey, Sophie, and I, there were two of Sophie’s friends from camp that I hadn’t met before—Erica and Shel—and Zoey’s lab partner from Biology—Morgan—who’d come by our place a few times.
“I got champagne,” Sophie announced, pulling out a bottle from our fridge. She had done a booze run earlier. I had no idea how she’d managed to buy it. “Your favorite, right, Ives? How fucking bougie of you.”
I’d never told them why I liked champagne. It wasn’t the taste of the aggressively bubbly liquid that appealed to me. It was simply the drink that most reminded me of Oliver.
“Let’s start with something else,” I said, giving her a nonchalant smile. “Save the good stuff for later.”
We made a few gin and tonics and cracked open a bottle of wine but Zoey and I drank only enough to avoid protests from the others. Her reasons for staying sober were obvious. Mine were almost entirely anchored on a desire to not make a fool of myself in front of Jamie.
He’d agreed to meet us outside the club to make sure we got in without any issues and to say hello to a friend that managed the place. I kept checking the time on my phone, growing increasingly more restless as the minutes ticked closer to when we were due to leave.
“All good, Ivy?” Zoey asked while I was putting some finishing touches to my makeup in my room. “We haven’t really talked about you asking Jamie to arrange this whole thing. How do you feel about it?”
Putting a layer of light lipgloss on my lips, I shrugged at the mirror. “He’s our best bet for making this evening work. Plus, we’ve made peace. It’s fine.”
She gave me a curious look, leaning her shoulder against the wall by the mirror. “Why do I sense there’s something you’re not telling me? Does this have anything to do with step one of your plan for moving on from Oliver?”
I hadn’t told Zoey about coming to terms with my attraction to Jamie, or the fact that in the past two weeks, I’d been giving her suggestion about him very serious consideration. Given I hadn’t had the time to do anything about seeing him again, it had seemed pointless to get into it. But now that we were about to meet him… My friend always managed to read me a little too well. “Maybe. I’ve been thinking about what you said about him.”
Her mouth formed an O. “No way. You’re really considering hooking up with Jamie?”
“Maybe,” I repeated. “You think it’s a bad idea?”
“No! I’m just kind of surprised by the fact that you’re about to dole out some poetic justice to Oliver. How insane would it be if you and Jamie ended up together?”
I snorted. “Trust me, I’m not looking to date. And I’m not doing this to piss off Oliver. Given that he and Jamie are clearly not on good terms, I don’t anticipate Oliver ever finding out. I sure won’t be the one telling him anything.”
“So you’re doing this because you actually like Jamie.”
“I’m attracted to him,” I admitted, “but if anything ends up happening—which it very well might not—it will be completely casual. Just a hookup, nothing more.”
Zoey rolled her eyes. “You never know what might happen.”
“With our history? No freaking way.” Zoey was getting way ahead of the situation. I still wasn’t confident Jamie was even a little into me. Sure, there was that incident on the dance floor, but that was two weeks ago. For all I knew, he’d started seeing someone by now.
“Oh, hand that to me,” she said, snatching the blush I was holding from my palm. “While you remind yourself of all the reasons why it could never work, I’m going to fix your face. You’ve got a rock star to seduce tonight.”
Twenty minutes later, we were piling into two Ubers, ready to hit the road.
“What’s this place called again?” Sophie asked, her voice louder than usual. We remembered to open the champagne after we’d called the cars, and Sophie had practically chugged half of the bottle.
“Eden,” I answered, sending a text to Jamie to let him know we were on our way. His response came quickly—a thumbs-up emoji.
I didn’t have much of a plan. It’s not like I’d done this successfully before. My last admittedly sloppy attempt at seduction had ended with Jack leaving me alone in a botanical garden. Still, nervous excitement spread through my belly at the thought of seeing Jamie again. I’d just have to wing it.
We pulled up in front of a nondescript wooden door with not a sign in sight. For a moment, I thought maybe I’d gotten the address wrong.
Then, a familiar silhouette moved into the light of a single elegant sconce hanging over the door. I exhaled in relief. “Let’s get out.”
Climbing out of the car first, I walked toward Jamie, my feet unsteady in a pair of heels I wasn’t used to wearing. As I got closer, my breath caught in my throat. I wasn’t expecting him to look likethat.
Jamie was a feast for the eyes, and I’d arrived absolutely starved. I couldn’t get enough of him. He wore fitted black jeans and a simple light-blue button-up with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. The precise tailoring of his clothes highlighted his muscular physique to perfection. Whoever had made that shirt for him deserved a lifetime achievement award. His jacket was slung over his shoulder. He looked like he’d just walked off the set of one of those moody cologne commercials. Effortlessly sophisticated. Brutally sexy.
He turned his head in my direction, and as if on cue, my heart began to pound against my ribs. I needed to calm down, because my reaction to him felt way too intense for someone I was just hoping to sleep with once.
