Page 39 of Lies Like Love

Jude isn’t mine.

Shaking the thoughts from my head, I turn back to Sage, trying to stop myself from imagining whatever Jude might be saying to make his perfect, blonde girlfriend laugh.

It was only a few days ago Jude was scaring off any guy who looked at me, but I should have known better than to let false hope creep in.

Sage draws the cigarette to his lips again, not breaking our stare as he takes in a long drag. His gaze strips me to the bone, and I fear he sees every emotion rolling through me as he holds the smoke in his lungs.

“Those will kill you.” I tip my chin at his cigarette and try to distract him from whatever he’s reading on my face.

“Something’s bound to.” His words curl out with the smoke.

He looks irritated by my comment. Or maybe he’s amused?

Sage is impossible to read, and even if I’ve spent plenty of time at the shop these past couple of weeks, he usually avoids me. They all do—except for Echo.

Only right now, Sage is hyper-focused on whatever he’s reading from the fact that I’m standing outside the parlor window.

“Jude never mentioned you,” Sage says, taking another drag of his cigarette. “Been friends with that guy for a decade, and I never even knew you existed.”

“I’m not surprised.” Even though it stings a little to hear it.

While Jude never left my mind, I get the impression that when he walked away, he never looked back. He reinvented himself and moved on, clearly never expecting to see me again.

“I’m not sure what happened between you two back then, but it fucked him up good if he’s never said a word about it.”

“Clearly.” I roll my eyes, and they land on Brea once more through the window before I look back to Sage. Jude’s so torn up that he’s working his way through ring girls to get over it. “He gets no sympathy from me.”

Sage’s eyebrows pinch as if he can’t figure out what to say. Or maybe he knows exactly what he wants to say, but he won’t because he’s Jude’s friend. Either way, the silence is pure tension until his gaze once more moves to the window beside us.

Brea’s leaning forward now, almost spilling out the top of her dress. Her eyes dart up long enough to see me watching them, and a grin tilts her smile in a challenge. Pursing her lips, she silently gloats when Jude’s gaze drops to them. A sickeningly obvious attempt for her to get a rise out of me.

It shouldn’t work as well as it does.

Her hands grip the counter, and it pushes her shoulders forward. She giggles, while Jude watches her. And when she finally looks back at me, the reality of the situation knocks me in the stomach.

There’s no winning against girls like Brea.

I don’t belong here.

As Brea lets out another laugh, Jude breaks his stare on her, and his gaze drifts until it lands on me through the window. Through the skeletons painted on the glass, and the flickering neon sign.

I should look away, but he doesn’t, and I can’t seem to either. I hold his gaze and find something in it I didn’t see the other day. Frustration? Rage? His eyes narrow as his stare moves between me and Sage.

To Jude, I’ll always be a possession. His belonging, even if he can’t have me. It should make me feel better when my own jealously claws at my throat. But deep down, it just makes us sick for wanting what we shouldn’t.

“Fel,” Sage’s voice pulls me back to this moment. “You gonna go inside?”

As if Jude hears it too, he breaks our stare and turns back to Brea, who’s now glaring at me through the window.

“Actually, would you mind just taking this in?” I hand Sage the baggie with the barbells Echo asked for. “I have somewhere to be, and I’m already running late.”

Sage looks between me and Jude. I’m not fooling him, but he doesn’t call me out on it.

“Thanks again,” I say, stepping around him and walking away.

My feet can’t take me far enough, fast enough because even before I hear him—I feel him following me.

I can run, but he’ll always chase.

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