Page 35 of Players Love Hard
Shannon: You have a lot of explaining to do…
Me: Give me 5 mins. Meet me at Broad Street Beans. Please.
Shannon: Fine. Don’t be late.
I snicker at her text. When am I ever late for anything? Five minutes isn’t enough to state my case, but I have to try. I don’t want to lose Shannon. Not when I finally found someone who’s good for my life. Someone I’m starting not to want to live without.
Chapter Fourteen
Shannon
My eyes are tricking me. There’s no way Jamie would do this to me. I stare down at my cell phone, confused where I went wrong. Where we went wrong.
“Maybe it’s a misunderstanding,” Jordan says, rubbing my arm. “Jamie’s one of the good ones.”
I glance up from the screen, my mouth still open wide in shock. “I thought so, too.” Holding the phone in front of Jordan’s face, I say, “Who’s this? Do you know her? I’ve never seen her before.”
“Her name is Cecelia Carmichael.” Jordan shrugs against the headboard we’re leaning against. “Never heard of her.”
This morning Jamie stopped by the house, and I pushed him away for no reason. He’s been acting differently since we got back from the Christmas break. There’s awkwardness between us I didn’t understand until now. Jamie has been standoffish, and the feeling of closeness we had before the holidays is no longer there. At least now I know why.
Cecelia Carmichael is to blame.
I screen capture the picture of Jamie kissing her and send it to him as a text. We go back and forth, my anger seething through me until I agree to meet him this afternoon at Broad Street Beans. I don’t even want to give him the five minutes I agree to. But I might as well hear him out.
A single tear falls from my eye, and I swat it away. Jordan notices and pulls me into her arms, running her fingernails down my back to soothe me.
“It’ll be okay,” she assures me. “For your sake, I want to believe Jamie is a good guy. I’ve always liked him.”
“Me, too,” I confess. “You want to know the worst part? I think I’m in love with him. Or at least, I thought I was falling for him. Now, I don’t know how I feel. My heart feels like it’s split in two.”
“My sister just went through this drama with the Kane twins. Everything turned out okay for her once she heard Trent out. Hear Jamie out. It might not be what you think.”
Jordan’s never been the understanding type. In fact, I had expected her to say I should tell Jamie to fuck off. Instead, she’s on his side. She might be right. The picture of Jamie kissing that girl could be a misunderstanding. But I have a hard time believing he fell onto her lips.
Slipping out of her arms, I slide off the mattress and fix the cranberry sweater dress I borrowed from Jordan along with a pair of UGG boots. At least I could afford the black tights I have on underneath.
I’m sure the girl in the picture with Jamie doesn’t have to borrow clothes from her friends. She looks like a million bucks with enormous diamonds dangling from her ears. How can I possibly compete with her? She’s part of his world. Why else would she have attended the conference with him? Were they together? It sure looks like it from the pictures The Queen posted on her website.
What The Queen said about me hurts most. She called me a sorostitute, a derogatory term for a sorority girl who sleeps around. This bitch thinks she knows me. At one point, Jamie said he was looking for her. I might be angry with him, but maybe he has a lead on her identity.
I want to destroy her.
* * *
Two hours later, I find Jamie in the back of Broad Street Beans alone with his elbows propped up on the table. A sad expression crosses his adorable face as he stares out the window to his left. He looks so handsome, so peaceful all by himself.
I pull out the chair across from him.
He turns to face me. “You’re here.” Jamie sighs. “Thanks for coming.”
I cross one leg over the other, keeping my hand on my knee to calm my nerves. “How could you, Jamie? I trusted you.”
“I know how it looks, but I didn’t kiss her.”
“Don’t lie,” I shout without meaning to, now lowering my voice to a normal volume. “I saw dozens of pictures of you and her. Did you accidentally kiss her?”
“No, she kissed me. But it’s not like that, I pulled away from her. You didn’t get to see that part. She used a moment of weakness for my family to take advantage of me.”
