Page 68 of Bookworm
Her eyes went wide. “You told him?! Why’d you tell him that?”
“Because,” I snapped, maybe a little too harshly. “Adam and I don’t keep secrets from each other.”
My face heated and the business card O’Macklin gave me burned against my palm. I clutched it and the copy ofPride and Prejudicetighter.
Jasmine inhaled a shaky breath. “You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just… it’s going to hurt him. I don’t want to hurt him.”
“Look, " I said, "I know Adam had some sort of thing for you. I mean, look at you! Who wouldn't? And I don't know why you turned him down back in the day or whatever, or what your history is with each other, but you can’t let the guilt of that?—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa… wait a minute,” Jasmine said, waving her hands about in front of my face. “Adam told you thatIturnedhimdown?”
I blinked, startled by her outburst.
“Well, not exactly. He didn’t have to tell me anything. It’s obvious…”
I didn't know how to tell her that Adam hadn't really mentioned her at all. This was all just guess work on my part.
“Trust me,” Jasmine snorted. “Nothing is obvious.”
“You’re really going to stand there and tell me that you didn’t turn Adam down?”
She nodded. “That’s right.”
“Bullshit,” I snorted.
Beside us, a studious girl with glasses way too big for her face walked past us. She gave Jasmine a wave. “Hi Professor.”
“Hi Katelynn,” she smiled at the girl and waited until she was out of earshot before taking my elbow and walking me toward a corner near the ladies room. “Believe me, don’t believe me, it doesn’t matter. But I am telling you the truth. Adam and I were really good friends in grad school. I fell in love with him the dayhe offered to walk me home in a snowstorm. I took his arm and then he proceeded to fall half a dozen times. I laughed so hard I cried. This nerdy, cute guy trying so hard to be chivalrous, but then I basically ended up walking him home that night. After a year of being friends, I got tired of waiting for him to ask me out… so I took control. I asked him out… and he said no.”
I couldn't quite understand what I was hearing. Adam turned Jasmine down? “I’m sorry, what? He said no?” I repeated. “Is heblind? I mean, look at you!”
She gave me a sad smile. “He wasn’t available,” she said.
This was getting even crazier. He never told me about another girlfriend. “He had a girlfriend?”
“No girlfriend.” She shook her head. “He wasn’t availableemotionally. I should have known. He talked about you constantly. It was alwaysHarper this, andHarper that. Even though he would swear on his life he didn't still love you, I knew better. But I always thought that if I could just get him to go on a date with me I could, I don't know…"
“Change him?” I offered, finishing the thought for her.
Never in my life had I wanted to change Adam. He was perfect just as he was.
Jasmine shrugged. “Or at the very least get him to forget about you. He almost did, too.”
Ouch. That hurt like a knife to the gut. “He almost forgot about me?”
“Well, not exactlyforgot,” she said, trying again. “But just a few weeks ago, I finally had gotten him to agree to go to dinner with me. Then he canceled on me and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why.” She paused, looking at the floor. “Then I saw you arrive here and it all fell into place. The moment you were back in his life, he canceled.”
My grip on the book tightened, the business card crushing in my fist as the edges of the heavy cardstock bit into my palm. Iforced myself to relax. “Jasmine, you are literally one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life. If this is all true, why are you wasting so much time on a guy that you have to convince to go on a date with you? You could literally have anyone you wanted.”
She gave a soft, but sad smile and glanced at Adam’s closed office door. “Not anyone.”
“Fine. Almost anyone. Don’t get me wrong, Adam is an amazing guy, but there’s a lot of great guys out there?—”
“You’re right. Adam is an amazing guy. He’s special. I have guys falling all over me. I go out to bars, get hit on, drinks get bought for me, men ask me for my number. But it's all superficial. They don'tseeme. They don't ask about my Advanced degrees, or discuss politics with me. Instead, they ask what sorority I'm in and where I get my eyebrows done.”
I winced. “That really sucks. I'm sorry.”
“Adam isn’t just a good guy. He’s thebestguy. And he deserves to be happy. So if you’re not in it for the long haul with him?—”
