Page 20 of Jaeda

I shoved him off. “Fuck you. We both wanted this one, but I let her have it.”

“How chivalrous of you.”

“You know what that word means?”

He shoved me back. “Fuck outta here. I’m about to leave you to cupcake since you want to insult my fucking intelligence. Good luck with your lady, man.”

“Thanks, T. How about you go make up with Mia so we can double date.”

“Bye, Quaid.”

I laughed as he slammed my door. One thing was for sure: I never wanted to be like the two of them.

Tuning back into my conversation, I opted to call Jaeda instead of texting. She answered on the second ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey, are you busy?”

“Not at the moment. What’s up?”

“You wanna grab a coffee?”

I could hear the smile in her voice. “Um, . . . sure. Where were you thinking?”

“There’s this bookstore downtown that serves coffee and small bites to eat. It’s called?—”

“The Velvet Spine?”

“Right. You familiar?”

“I’m a very loyal customer. What time were you thinking?”

“How about noon?”

“Noon is perfect. I’ll see you there.”

“See you there.”

I smiled as we disconnected the call. This was going to be interesting.

I’d gottento The Velvet Spine around 11:50. Since I lived downtown, it only took me five minutes to get there. I took the extra time to search the shelves for a few new reads while I waited for Jaeda to show up.

I smelled her before I saw her.

Her scent had imprinted on me the day I saw her at The Joy Factory and again the day she had me snatched up. I turned to see her standing behind me dressed in a graphic tee, rippedskinny jeans, and a fresh pair of Vans. Her hair was slicked into a sleek top knot, and minimal jewelry completed the look.

“Hi,” she said, smiling.

“Hey, beautiful.”

I extended my hand, and she slipped me her palm. Pulling it to my lips, I kissed her knuckles before leaning in to kiss her cheek.

“Thank you for joining me,” I said.

“No problem. Did you find anything good?”

“A few things.” I showed her the books in my hands.

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