Page 24 of Mostly My Girlfriend
“Jessica.”
“No, the other one.”
“Marjorie?”
I shook my head. “Not who I was thinking of. Kari?”
“She was Victoria’s Secret, not swimwear.”
“Oh that’s right,” I said, bumping into his shoulder playfully when what I really wanted to do was knock him off his chair. “It’s hard to keep track with Ethan when he dates so much.”
I smiled over at Alaina to see if my description of Ethan as a serial supermodel dater garnered any reaction, but her expression was completely blank. She obviously didn’t have a problem with Ethan’s dating history.
“You two have known each other a long time then?” Roger asked.
What? Really? A question directed at me from Roger? That would be the first of the night. But noooo, I wasn’t bitter.
“I met Jules our first day of college.”
“Oh, so you both graduated from Harvard,” Roger said as he sipped his wine. “I’m a Yale man myself.”
Was it wrong that I suddenly wanted to killhimnow with my death glare?
Ethan laughed and put his arm along the back of my chair. Then, as if sensing the possessive nature of that gesture, he removed it. “Oh, I didn’t graduate. Dropped out after the first year. But I couldn’t convince Jules to come with me.”
“Really,” Roger said, obviously taken aback. “A man of your business acumen a dropout? I had no idea. And you’ve never thought about going back?”
That made me laugh as I reached for my wine. At leastitwas delicious. “I think Ethan’s got enough on his plate, what with the whole jet slash airline revolution. And it’s not like he needs the paper to prove how successful he is.”
Wait. Was I sticking up for Ethan? Just one more thing to be pissed at him about. For making me not like Roger enough that I’d stick up for Ethan even though I was pissed at him!
“Don’t be sad, baby,” Alaina said, reaching across the table to pat Ethan’s hand. “I didn’t even make it through a semester of community college. There was so much reading.”
Yeah, but who needed to read when you had a body like Alaina’s? Nope, not bitter at all.
“Reading can be a challenge, Alaina,” Roger said thoughtfully. As thoughtfully as one could when he was full of shit. “Fortunately, you’re so talented in other areas.”
“Awwww, that’s so sweet of you.”
“Yes, Roger,” Ethan snarled. “So sweet. What do you think, Jules? Isn’t Roger the sweetest?”
“Yep.” I reached for my wine again, smiling in the least genuine way I knew how. “That’s why I agreed to go out on a date with him.”
Just then the waiter brought us our fourth and final course. Dessert. All the dishes were named. I was having the Chicory, Ethan the Soufflé, Roger the Manchego Curado and Alaina the Chocolate. I watched as she rubbed her belly.
“Oh my goodness, I couldn’t. I’m so stuffed from everything else.”
“Perfect,” I said as I reached over the table and grabbed her plate. “Two for me.”
After all, a girl had to get her satisfaction in some way and it wasn’t looking like it was going to be with Roger tonight.
* * *
Therapy
Julia
“And it wasn’t just that one time,” I told Carol. “It was him calling me with sudden emergencies any time I was on a date with someone he perceived to be a threat. The only reason CJ and I got as far as we did was because you were spending all that time in Europe.”
