Page 3 of Unofficial

"Please don't hate me," Lena says, her brown eyes filling with tears. "I feel terrible."

Why is she the one crying? "How long have you two been seeing each other?"

"This is our third date," she says, a few tears spilling down her high cheekbones. "We met at a bar a few weeks ago."

"O'Reilly's?"

Her curtain bangs stick to her wet cheeks, and she nods her head. Jess finds herself annoyed at how pretty the woman still looks crying. Jess ugly cries, and this supermodel looks like she just popped off the screen of a rom-com movie.

"Seems to be a pickup spot for him," Jess says and pushes her annoyance of the woman who had no idea Jess existed out of her mind. "That's where he and I met. He took me back to his place on our third date, too."

Kade sighs. "I met her one of the nights you were working late. But since we weren't a couple, it wasn’t a big deal. I thought we were both dating."

"Yeah, I was dating. I was dating you," Jess says. "How many others are you seeing?"

"Jess-"

"No, I think I'd like to hear this one, too," Lena says.

Looking at the ground, he shakes his head. "I'm not dating the entire city."

"You're quite the wordsmith, aren't you. As far as we're aware, you're not into guys, so you can't date the entire city. Only the female population," Jess says, glad her snarky side decided to come out to play.

She should be crying. Sobbing and falling to her knees at the betrayal, but she's not. Lena's taken half the role Jess should be playing, and it seems redundant to follow suit now. Besides, Lena has many assets Jess doesn't currently have, so why show off how ugly she can cry next to the should-be movie star?

"I’m not dating a lot of women," Kade says.

"How many?" Lena asks, her tears gone.

After a long pause, he seems to understand the situation. Neither woman is willing to give up, and he's standing naked with a pot covering his modesty. "A couple?"

"Besides us?" Jess asks. "Or including us?"

"Does it matter?"

"I guess not," she says. "I'd take my soup back with me, but I don't know that I'd be able to eat it and keep it down. You can have it. I made it for you, so I guess I'll just be going."

Lena grabs the rest of her things in a huff. "Me, too."

"Come on," Kade says, readjusting the pot as he takes a few steps towards them. "No one's going to stay?"

"You are," Lena says with a sinister smile. "Have fun playing with yourself. Oh, and lose my number because the moment I'm in my car, I'm blocking yours."

"You can just call one of the other couple of women you're dating to help you out," Jess says and walks to the door.

Kade follows them as they walk outside, his body hiding behind the large door. "Lena! Jess! Come back here!"

He called out for Lena before her. That tells Jess everything she needs to know, and she hurries to her Benz before she says or does something she regrets. Like actually stay.

Chapter Two

Jessica walks into her house and climbs the stairs to her bedroom. Climbing being the key word because the sobs that took over the moment she pulled out of Kade's parking lot have her hunched over and require her to use her hands and feet to reach the second floor.

Her entire body aches as the pain continues to flood through her. How could she be so blind? So blind and so stupid? Kade saw other women the entire time they were together. Does she need to go and get tested? No, they were safe. Maybe she should make an appointment just in case. It would be the smart thing to do.

He never gave her any indication they weren't exclusive. Sure, they never had the talk, but they spent every free moment they had together. Why would she ever believe he entertained any other person, let alone another woman, besides her? Even when they weren't together, it felt like they were in constant communication. When did he even have time before tonight to bed multiple women?

She knew almost everything about him. The difficult workers he dealt with daily as a construction manager. How one of his men desperately needs rehab but refuses to go, even after his wife left him and took the kids because he always chose alcohol over them. How worried Kade is that the man will cause an accident, but HR won't allow him to force an ultimatum of either rehab or his job.

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