Page 46 of Play With Me

“Last night, dummy. Laila booked you and Jude train tickets.”

My stomach lurches. “No.”

“She did!”

“You said you’d go with him on his trip. Laila did some weird back-end magic to move his existing ticket so he could travel alone with you, give Cap and his mom some alone time. Jude was so happy he picked you up, Nora. Swung you around the room like you’d said yes to his marriage propos—”

“Sasha, that’s insane.”

“Yeah, it is. But I was so proud of you.”

I lower my phone, trying to scrape the dull fuzz in my brain to remember what had happened. I did remember some of it. Barely.

But it’s coming back to me. Jude, spinning me around the room. Everyone laughing. Me, sliding down his body after all that weirdness in the kitchen, actually excited about this trip.

“How—” I begin.

“You guys were talking about how you’d have to say goodbye today. Something about picking Jude’s son up and having only a few minutes to hang out before you don’t see them again for—”

“Six months,” I whisper. I remember. Jude told me how the timing of where Farrah’s place was meant there wouldn’t be much time to hang out before they caught their train. I didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want the night with Jude to end and I didn’t want to have only a few minutes left to see Cap before who knows when. “The summer!” I’d said, nearly in tears. I knew it was the two glasses of wine that were making me weepy, but Jude had said something like “it doesn’t have to be like that,” and Sasha had been there, ears perked. Then somehow, she had her sister on the phone.

“Laila said her booking agent was going to kill her when she got home for waking her up at five Connecticut time to book everything,” Sasha says, sighing as she leans against the doorframe, practically swooning. “But we told them how romantic it was and—”

“Romantic!”

“Ladies,” Murray says, appearing like some kind of ghost next to us.

“Jesus, Murray! Don’t do that!” Sasha exclaims, standing up.

“I really must ask you to keep it down; this is the holidays—”

“And I really must ask you to quit eavesdropping!” I say, walking up to him so fast he stumbles backward.

Murray sputters, then turns on his heel and heads for the stairs in a huff.

Sasha’s hand is covering her mouth when I turn back to her. “I’ve never seen you like this, Nora!”

And I’ve never been so frazzled, thanks to Jude. “So you’re serious?” I ask, my hands shaking. “You got your sister to book train tickets to Switzerland for us?”

“You were excited last night! You kept talking about this video you were going to do—something about romance…”

My memory ticks forward. My thesis project. I had been planning on using my videos I was taking of the seniors and their stories. But last night I’d had a lightbulb moment about making it on Eleanor instead. I didn’t have quite the unbridled enthusiasm of last night, but it lit me up, I had to admit. Still, going on a trip with Jude would just protract this weirdness between us.

I shake my head. “We have to cancel the tickets.”

“What? No way! Besides, it’s too late.”

“I’m sure Laila can figure it out, right? Jude can just take his original ticket and—”

“Nora?”

The sleepy male voice comes from down the hall. Both Sasha and I turn.

“Holy shit,” Sasha says under her breath.

Jude is standing in the hallway in his shorts, a confused expression on his face. The whole view of him from thirty feet away is just as delicious as up in his arms. Almost. His long, lean form is strong and sleek and…pretty much almost naked.

“He has no idea how incredible he looks, does he?” Sasha whispers.

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