Noah want
s
me.
Not Ol
ivia.
Not Claire.
Just Jennifer.
So
I let Noah show me
just how badly he wants
me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
From way up here on happy cloud #9, things were finally starting to look up. In fact, I got pretty confident that there would be only good things in my future, no more bad. How could it really have gotten worse, anyway?
But alas, things can always get worse. And, for the record, I've noticed that they tend to get worse just when you start to observe that they couldn't possibly do something like that. Never tempt fate or challenge God or whatever you want to call it. Just don't. Because what they say is true: when it rains it pours.
If only it
was
raining t
onight
, it would have been perfect. Like one of those frickin' movie scenes where the heroine's life all implodes right in front of her very eyes and there's not a damn thing she can do about it. The hero walks away, leaving her in the rain, holding the dog's leash or something. Wilted flo
wers, maybe. Anyway, there's no rain. And besides, I’m
indoors so it would
be
totally irrelevant
even
if it were raining.
Focus, Jen, focus.
So
a
couple of weeks
after my amazing night with Noah,
I
’m
just minding my own business, typing away on my pa
per. I’m
getting really close to the end, just a few pages left to go and then I c
an
write a killer conclusion, edit the crap out of it, and probably pass it in a few days early. Rock on. So I'm typing, no one's around. Even my parents
a
re out
for the
night, which never happens. Maybe I should have been suspicious, just based on that fact alone.
I answer
the door and
get the
shock
of my life when I
see Sean standing there. Not drenched from the rain, of course, but standing there looking emotionally drenched. If there is such a thing.
"Jen," he sa
ys
, pushing past me into the room. I d
o
n't recall inviting the man who fell for my imaginary personality and thus my sister into my home, but here he
is. Sitting on my couch? Why i
s he sitting on my couch?
"What are you doing here, Sean? This isn't a good time for me, okay?" The last thing I want
i
s to be alone with him in my apartment.
I’m with Noah now, no more time for stupid high school games. But looking at him, the wound still smarts.
And to be frankly honest,
I just d
on
't trust myself when faced with him, yet. He
’
s so handsome and look
s
so sad,
like a little Pound Puppy toy or something.
"I don't have anywhere else to
go! She left me, Jen," he sighs
,
apparently
near tears. "You have to help me get her back."
"You came here because of Claire?"
"Claire?"
Oops. Cover blown. Lucy ha
s
some 'splaining to do, that's for sure.
"Um... Olivia, I mean."
"Who the hell is Claire?"
"That's just what I call Olivia. It's a..." What was that word? "A nickname. It's a nickname."
“Whatever,” he sa
ys
, getting comfortable. He stretche
s
one arm along the back of the couch and gesture
s
for me to sit with him. “Come talk to me.”
“I would really prefer it i
f you just left. Now,” I cringe
. “I can’t help you with Olivia. We’re not speaking anymore.”
“Really?” He does
n’t seem very disappointed, mostly just interested. “Why?”
“It’s a long story, but we had a big figh
t over something stupid.” I ca
n’t ex
actly tell him the truth, now can
I? Sean’s ego
i
s already big enough for about three men, so w
hy on earth would I ever
give him more of a reason to th
ink he was God’s gift to women?
“Was it about me?” He asks
, almost playfully. Be
neath the flirty grin, I detect
a hint of honesty. See? He really d
oes
have a huge ego, after all. And having him sit there, looking at me as though I were an all-you-can eat b
uffet table, I suddenly realize
how stupid it was for me to try to get anywhere with a guy like this. How
i
s he any different than Tom?
“Of course not,” I answer
too quickly. He resp
onds
with a knowing grin, patting the couch again for me to join him. “I’m good over here. Standing.”
“Suit yourself.” He stretches
out, curling his arm up and tensing the muscles. Ass.
Get off my furniture. I cross
my arms and tr
y
to stare him down as evilly as I possibly c
an
.
“Can you please leave?”
“Not until I get your advice,” he sa
ys
, dropping the macho act. “Olivia said she couldn’t be with me anymore and I need you to help me figure out why.”
I stare at him.
“So I can get her back.”
I
sigh
. “Fine, Sean. Talk.”
He tel
l
s
me some elaborate story, whereby Olivia—or rather, Claire—
went
on a few dates with him, never put out, wouldn’t even let him kiss her, and then suddenly, called
it all off. Sean i
s surprisingly detailed in his acco
unt, despite the fact that I’m actually a woman and do
not care about how “Olivia was showing off her tits” on the second date.
“So that was it,” he thro
w
s
his hands up. “She just said that she’d gotten what she wanted and it was all over. That was that. Done. I haven’t heard from her in about two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” I blink
, mulling over all the information Sean ha
s
just dumped onto my couch cushions with the grace of an elephant dancing ballet. “This happened two weeks ago?”
“Yeah… Is that impo
rtant?” He si
t
s
up. “Do you know why she stopped talking to me? Was it her period or something?”
I groan
audibly before opening the door and holding it for him. “Come on, out with you. Playtime’s over. Out!”
“What’s going on here?”
I blinked a few tim
es just to be sure Noah i
s really standing in my doorway.
“Um…hi,” I muster
. “Sean was just leaving.”
Sean stan
d
s
up from the couch then, careful to push his way right in between Noah and I. “Trainer Nolan, right? What are you doing here?”
“It’s Noah
,” I say
through gritted teeth, trying to push him out of the way.
“What’s going on here, Jen?” Noah ask
s
, stepping to the side so he c
an
see me. “Is he bothering you?”
“No, it’s fine,” I sa
y
, hands on my hips again. “Right, Sean? You’re leaving now.”
“All right, all right!” He ho
ld
s
his hands up. “I’m gone. Just… tell Olivia I stopped by.”
“I
will do no such thing.” I slam
the door in his face.
“Everything okay?” Noah says
, taking my hand to lead me to the couch. “What was he even doing here?”
“Trying to get to Claire…er, Olivia
.
I guess
some things never change
. But, as you know, I can’t exactly help him on that front.”
“I don’t know why you would even if you were talk
ing to Claire right now,” he says
. “Is this something you’re well practiced at?”
“Guys have always come to me to get to Claire. That’s why I thought you…
That day you asked me to dinner and I…
”
“I was never after Claire,” he sa
ys
, leaning in for a kiss. “I only had eyes for you.”
“Aww, cute,” I say
, straightening up. “You know, he did say something odd though. About what happened between him and Olivia.”
“Claire.”
“Right. Sorry.” And I t
e
l
l
him about their fake relationship, with no physical contact at all, and the abrupt end two weeks ago. “It’s like she was up to something.”
“I think you should call her and tell her that he came by h
ere,” he offers
, stroking my hair.
“She’s not going to talk to me, Noah.”
“How can you be so sure? It sounds to me that she was doing for you what you did for her with Tom.”
I push my left hearing aid in a little further and grimace at him. “Huh?”
“Think about it, Jen,” he says
, thoughtfully. “You set her up with Tom and she takes off. The next thing you know, she’s retaliating… or you think she’s retaliating… by hijacking Olivia’s profile and taking Sean’s attentions away from you. With him out of the way, think about how much you’ve been able to grow and start doing things for yourself.”
“Like you?”
“Well, I suppose yes, you’ve been able to start doing me for yourself. But I wasn’t going to be so crude as that, Jen. My goodness.”
I laugh, giving him a kiss on the cheek. But I
consider his words
, because after all the years of knowing Claire, it seem
s
like exactly the type of evil scheme she would
concoct
in that deranged hea
d of hers. And the timing works
too.
It was two weeks ago that Noah and I first spent the night together.
Now, it would be a little creepy if Claire knew the details of my sex
life that intimately, but she isn’t stupid. And she has
ways of getting information. It might be that she knew Noah and I were spending time together outside of the gym and, that being enough to convince her that I’d moved on, she let Sean go. Out into the wild, she would’ve said. To torment other women of the world, and leave her sister alone.
I guess it was all just a matter of how you looked at it, but my gut told me that Claire was trying to clear a path for me to find myself, Noah, or maybe just a new social life outside of my computer habit. What a good sister she was, after all.
“I think I do need to call her,” I sa
y
, sitting up straight.
He smiles
at me, but it ha
s
a mischievous edge to it. Noah lean
s
in to me, his lips lightly brushing my neck and collarbone. “Do you have to call her right this minute?”
I sigh deeply, leaning back into the cushions of the couch, and let his fingertips move underneath my t-shirt and across the skin of my stomach. I even f
i
ght the urge to suck it in. With Noah, there
’
s no point in keeping up appearances. No point putting on airs. He already kn
o
w
s
what I looked like at my heaviest, without makeup on, and sweating buckets through my shirts.