Page 25 of Roommate Wars
Our past was in the past, but it still irked me to watch another woman get all up in Jack’s business.
And I needed to get over that.
There had to be some way to make myself immune to him. Which was why I’d attacked the mission of finding a date tonight like a marauding Viking. Nothing like moving on with someone else to help you forget the past. Granted, having your past help you find someone to move on with was twisted, but what could I say? Jack and I didn’t do things the normal way.
That was why I was so upset over the fake-dating thing; it went in the opposite direction of my moving on.
“What are we supposed to do if we’re together and we see her? Because given our luck, we’ll run into Thalia.” The frustration in my voice was clear.
The taxi stopped at the curb, and Jack opened the back door. I scooted in, and he climbed in beside me, man-spreading, with his thigh nearly pressed against mine.
“There’s nothing we need to do.” His tone was low and intimate now that we were inside the confines of the taxi. He gave the driver directions to our building. “I’ve made it clear I prefer working with her at the office. I doubt she’ll come by the apartment. Besides, now that she knows I have a girlfriend, she won’t continue to hit on me.”
I snorted. “Sure, she won’t.”
“What was that?” he asked as a loud horn blared.
“Nothing—” I said, my words cut off as I braced one hand against the side of the car and the other on Jack’s toned thigh while the driver made kamikaze moves to get us through downtown traffic. I glanced up, and Jack was watching me. A spark of awareness made my senses snap.
I quickly released my hold and looked out the window, flushed and disconcerted. “I’m just saying, I hate lying. I don’t want to have to do it in the future.”
“Understood.” He looked over sheepishly. “Thanks again for tonight.”
I made a disgruntled sound. “That was the one and only time, Jackson. I’m serious.”
* * *
Not forty-eight hourslater and Jack was on my last nerve, asking me to lie for him again.
He stood in the doorway to my bedroom, where I was eating corn chips and scrolling social media. “I need your help.” His wavy hair was extra poofy, as though he’d run his fingers through it a few thousand times, and his face was lightly flushed.
I sat up and brushed crumbs off my chest. “What’s up?” Jack was a chill guy. He wasn’t the type to embarrass easily or get flustered—the incident with Thalia notwithstanding—so I was concerned.
“There’s a society party I need to go to tomorrow night, and Thalia will be there.” He squeezed his forehead, let out a deep sigh, then looked straight at me. “There’s no way you’d be willing to be my date, is there?”
My jaw dropped. “Are you kidding me?”
He held up his hands. “Hear me out. Thalia thinks you’re my girlfriend. I could go by myself, but…well, I think I need more than one time with you to bring the point home that I’m off the market.”
“You don’t think she believed you the other night?” Of course she hadn’t. Or at the very least, she wasn’t ready to give him up yet.
He glanced away. “Thing is, she’s a shark in business, and I’m getting the sense she might be in dating too.”
I sighed. “You’re just now figuring that out? I could have told you that the other night. What the hell, Jackson? Tell her you’re not interested.”
He favored me with a dry look. “She’s not the type to take no for an answer. Ask me how I know.”
“How do you know?”
He threw up his hands. “Because these women gravitate to me like flies on shit!”
I smiled. It was a funny image, and entirely possible. He was cute and sweet and successful. What wasn’t to like? “I see your point. But if you know this, and you’re used to women behaving this way, don’t you know how to deal with it?”
He crossed his arms. “Clearly not. My track record isn’t stellar. I haven’t gone out with anyone in over a year because I’m fucking paranoid of repeating past mistakes. I also don’t want to hurt Thalia’s feelings.”
“Back up. Did you just say you haven’t dated ina year?”That was a long time. And it would mean I had been the last person he’d… No, couldn’t be. He’d probably slept with many women since that night. Just not dated them.
He lifted one shoulder. “What can I say? It’s been a long dry spell.”
