Page 6 of Mess With Me

“Her name’s Sasha,” Jude says, reaching the core of the apple. “I can introduce you if you want. Nora invited her because she’s obsessed with Reese’s music.”

Nora. Jude’s girlfriend.

Then it hits me. I met this woman. Sort of. That’s why she looks familiar. It was in a movie theater in London, where Nora was screening her documentary last year. She kept sashaying in and out of the aisle in front of me while I was trying to watch the movie. I had to physically move her out of my way. I wasn’t rough about it. I just lifted her up out of the chairs and set her down in the aisle so she could leave me in goddamned peace. Her indignant face had made me want to do it again.

It had also taken my breath away then.

“Nora’s friend,” I say.

“Yeah,” Jude says, speaking slowly like I’m a five-year-old.

Sweat springs to my palms. Sasha brings a hand to her mouth like she’s going to bite her nails, but instead she rests a couple of fingers on her lips for a second, causing me to stare at their pink plushness a moment too long. To my fucking horror, I feel my dick jump.

“What’s her deal?” I ask, looking at my brother to keep my shit in check.

“What do you mean?”

WhatdoI mean? Am I wondering why she seems agitated under that bubbly demeanor? Or am I asking if she has a boyfriend or husband or something? I make the mistake of looking back right when she laughs. Her loose waves bounce around her cheeks in a way that makes me wonder what they’d feel like between my fingers.

It takes me a second to realize I haven’t answered Jude’s question, and he’s staring at me, his lips curling. “Wow, Griffy, you like a girl!”

I grunt. “It’s not—I’m not—” Shit. I turn away, grabbing the water jug and refilling my glass. It splashes on my hand. “Fuck me.”

“That’s what she said,” Jude says.

“Jesus, would you stop?”

He ignores me, tossing his core in the trash. “I’ve never seen you stare at a woman like that. Makes me think you have real human urges or something.”

I glower at my brother.

Jude strides over to a mirror standing up on a tallboy table next to a few grooming supplies. He tucks his long hair behind his ears, smiling at himself in the mirror. “I’m going to set you up,” he says self-satisfactorily.

“The fuck you are.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not.”

“Where’s your open mind, Griff? She just moved back stateside, and she’s smart as fuck—has a degree in English boinking—”

“What?”

“Like, porn for proper English people in the olden days.”

“The hell are you talking about?”

“Erotica,” Eli says, looking up from his vows.

“I never want to hear you say that word again,” I say.

Jude snickers. “Yeah, something like that. Anyway”—he inspects his teeth in the mirror—“Cap loves her as much as Nora, so you know she’s awesome.”

Jude goes a little swoony-eyed just mentioning his girlfriend. Then he frowns. “Just don’t meet her family.”

“What’s wrong with her family?” Eli asks, suddenly invested.

“They’re rich and snobby, apparently. They think she’s the black sheep being all normal and not a society girl or whatever. Which is fucked, considering who her brother is.”

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