Page 87 of About that Fling
“I’m so sorry,” Adam murmured into her hair. “We were newlyweds there. I didn’t realize?—”
“Don’t be silly,” Jenna said, taking a sip of her wine and trying not to notice the way the glass shook in her hand. “It’s not like it never occurred to me you might have kissed someone else before me. I have a past, you have a past, we all have a past.”
Beth looked truly contrite. “Yeah, but how often does Adam have to watch videos of you polishing some guy’s tonsils with your tongue?” She set down the remote as the camera panned to an image of Gramps passing a soda to a younger, healthier-looking Nana. Jenna watched, feeling numb as Gramps glanced around, then reached around his wife to give her backside a firm squeeze. Nana laughed and swatted him away, looking rosy and vivacious and not the least bit eager for him to stop.
Jenna took another sip of wine, her eyes fixed on the television. Had Nana been diagnosed yet at this point? Did she know what lay ahead for them?
She blinked back the tears, pretty sure Gramps and Nana were to blame.
Back in their hotel room that night, Jenna took a long time getting ready for bed. She scrubbed her face with the soft, white washcloth from the rack, hoping to soothe away any traces of puffiness around her eyes.
She was being ridiculous. It wasn’t like she’d never considered the possibility Adam and Mia had an intimate and loving relationship at some point. They’d gotten married, had a honeymoon, and stayed married for five years. People didn’t do that without some serious affection between them.
It also wasn’t like she herself hadn’t been intimate with anyone else. She’d loved her fair share of men, exchanging kisses and family stories and promises neither of them ended up keeping. Hell, she’d been engaged. She’d even conceived a child with another man, for crying out loud.
But there was something different about witnessing someone else’s affection in living color. Something about knowing the trill of Mia’s laugh, the softness of Adam’s lips.
“Jenna? Everything okay in there?”
She nodded at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, then felt silly. “Coming.”
She turned away from the mirror to open the door. She walked out to find Adam sitting on the side of the bed.
“Hey,” he said softly. “Want to talk?”
“About?”
“Oh, I don’t know—world religion? Recipes for corn bread? Child-rearing techniques of the early nineteenth century?” He held out his hand, and Jenna found herself reaching for it before she’d even made up her mind to join him. “Come on, Jenna. I think we’re past the point in this relationship where either of us can fool the other into thinking things are peachy keen when they’re not. I know that video upset you. I’m sorry you had to see that.”
She sighed and sat down beside him, her knee bumping against his through the terrycloth of her hotel robe. He wore nothing but boxer shorts, and the urge to touch his chest almost overwhelmed her urge to talk this through.
Almost.
“It’s stupid,” she said. “It’s not jealousy I’m feeling, exactly. I don’t know what it is.”
“Want me to get out one of my NVC worksheets with a list of emotion-related words you can pick from?”
She laughed and shook her head. “No, that’s okay. Tell me this, though—if you saw a video of me making out with my ex-fiancé, do you think it would upset you?”
He seemed to consider it a moment, then nodded. “Probably a little.”
“A little? Okay, how about a sex video?”
He frowned at that. “Okay, a lot.”
She smiled and edged closer, feeling something inside her start to thaw as Adam folded an arm around her. “That’s the thing about modern dating. Back before the age of technology, all you had to go on were your own mental pictures of how things were in your lover’s last relationship. A man could picture his new girlfriend’s ex with a tiny penis or a receding hairline, and it would automatically make it so.”
Adam nodded and pulled her closer to his side. “And you could imagine my ex-wife as some horrible shrew I never really loved, due in part to her grating personality and preponderance of warts.” He planted a kiss on her temple, and Jenna felt herself start to melt. “Doesn’t work out so well when the shrew is your best friend.”
“Or when there’s video evidence to the contrary.”
She snuggled under his arm, content to just settle there with her feelings, whatever the hell they were. She might not be able to name them, exactly, but there was something reassuring about discussing them with a guy who acknowledged they were there.
“So about that sex tape,” he said, kissing her neck this time instead of her temple. He planted another kiss behind her ear, his breath warm and soft against her skin, and Jenna shivered despite the heat of the room. “Was that just an example, or is there really an illicit video floating around out there?”
“Oh, it’s not floating,” Jenna said, closing her eyes as Adam kissed his way down her throat and pushed aside her robe, baring her shoulder. “It’s in a box under my bed, along with two hundred unsent wedding invitations and a bunch of sex toys that wouldn’t be appropriate to use with other partners, but I’m not sure what to do with them. Seriously, is there a recycling center for adult artifacts left over from past relationships?”
“Mmm,” Adam murmured, peeling her robe further off her shoulder and baring the tops of her breasts. “Are you trying to make me jealous?”
