Chapter 5
Chapter Five
K arel was handsome. He seemed nice.
And that was all the qualification I needed to have sex with him.
The date had been going pretty well, out at a nice sushi restaurant with a bar downtown.
Frankly, the most appealing thing about Karel was that he wasn’t Jesse Wi?niewski. That made him practically irresistible.
I was waiting for Karel to come back with our drinks when someone in a tight pink miniskirt stopped by our table.
To my shock, it was Taylor.
“What do you want?” I asked.
I had seen her plenty over the last year. She had been everywhere with Jesse. They had looked like the perfect golden couple. Both stunningly tall and attractive, stylish and compelling. You couldn’t take your eyes off them.
And I had watched her TikToks with a burner account. The cute little dances, the fit checks, the Valentine’s Day gifts.
Jesse had bought her diamond earrings and a ski trip to Aspen.
From the outside, it had looked like the perfect relationship.
Taylor slid into a seat across from me and looked me up and down like she had that day Jesse broke up with me. But today was different. This time she didn’t have that superior look on her face, that curl in her lip.
Today she looked like she was sizing up a rival.
“You are beautiful,” she said. “I didn’t see it before because you weren’t dressed great. But now, yeah, ok, I see it.”
It looked like she was barely repressing a you bitch to the end of that.
I glanced down at my tight red dress that clung to my curves and the way my breasts were lush and overflowing in the tight bodice.
“I do look good,” I said. “What do you need, Taylor?”
“Can I ask you a question?” she bit out from behind a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
Her face looked brittle, like she might shatter into a million pieces.
“Sure,” I replied, forcing my hands to calm, not fret around the stem of my glass.
“Was Jesse cheating on me with you?”
I’m sure I was unable to hide my total astonishment.
“No, he wasn’t,” I said evenly. “Why do you think that?”
“Oh, you know,” she said, sliding her eyes down, and when she fidgeted with her purse I realized she was nervous. Around me.
“I just—I just knew when he broke up with me that he was going to try to get back together with you.”
“Why did you think that?” I asked carefully. “He broke up with me to get with you.”
Her perfect plump lips twisted up in a grimace. “I guess. And he didn’t ever cheat on you, if that’s what you were wondering.”
“It was emotional cheating, though, wasn’t it?” I said softly. “I know it was because he felt guilty about it. About wanting you when he was with me.”
Taylor made another bitter face. “I guess. We were casual for months and I had to work like a fucking dog to get him to commit to even officially dating me.”
I didn’t know what to make of this so I ignored it.
“And what do you mean you guess he broke up with me?”
Her lovely eyes were smudged, like she’d been crying.
“I mean he never really got over you.”
For a moment, my breath caught in my chest.
“I find that hard to believe,” I retorted, forcing myself to keep meeting her eyes. “He didn’t contact me at all.”
“Shouldn’t I know since I was the one dating him?” she asked angrily. “I knew. It was things he said and didn’t say. And he’s not as fucking subtle as he thinks he is. The stories that stopped abruptly when he realized you were in them. The fucking endless college nostalgia. The damn memories from when I used to be in the minors . It wasn’t the minor leagues. It was you . It was you he was remembering and you he wanted.”
Taylor looked angry, shredding napkins all over the table like tiny brown confetti, fidgeting with the tiny crop top over her perfect flat belly.
I said nothing.
“You hung over our entire relationship,” she said furiously. “From the very beginning . I hope Josie is OK or I hope I didn’t hurt Josie too much . He expected you to contact him,” she added viciously. “And he was fucking pissed when he found out you’d blocked him instead. I had to hear about that for goddamn months.”
I said nothing again and this seemed to piss her off even further.
“Plus, I know he was still obsessed with you because he had a secret little folder in his phone and it was literally full of pics of you. I guess he just couldn’t bear to give up any single picture of when you went to St. Petersburg. There were like 40 pictures alone of you, like, petting a dolphin.”
“That’s sad,” I said.
She was clearly expecting a bigger reaction, and her face twitched in annoyance.
“I bet you just can’t wait to get back with him,” Taylor hissed, and I could tell she very badly wanted to.
Jesse was loaded, hot, a superstar celebrity. She’d assume everyone wanted him.
“No,” I said, then I looked over at Karel, who was coming back to our table with the drinks. “I have other options.”
The naked jealousy on Taylor’s face startled me.
She was jealous of me.
“Lucky bitch,” she said. “I’ll see you around, I guess.”
She turned to leave, but just as she did, the front door to the restaurant snapped open, and Jesse walked in.
Taylor sucked in her breath sharply, but I didn’t have to wonder long why he was here.
“Josie!”
He always commanded attention, even in only a sweatshirt and sweatpants, and Jesse strode toward us, bending down to put a hand possessively on the back of my chair.
“Karel, this is my girl.”
My skin began to heat with the contact, and I shook off the sensation as the tips of his fingers brushed by my back. My dress had a deep v and the feel of those fingers on me was infuriating.
I used to be fucking weak for this man, my body so finely-tuned to his that my skin would already be thrumming with desire before he even touched me.
But if he thought he could get around me on sex appeal now, he was very mistaken.
“I’m not your girl,” I said hotly.
“What are you doing here?” Karel asked warily.
“She’s my girl,” Jesse said. “She’s always been my girl. I’m not going to just sit here and watch you take her out on a date.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to,” Karel said, cocking his head.
“Fine,” Jesse shrugged, sliding into the table directly beside us. “I’ll just wait here until you’re done.”
Taylor huffed. “Can I talk to you?”
Without taking his eyes off me, Jesse shook his head no.
“I made a mistake breaking up with Josie. She’s the woman I want. She’s the one I want to spend my life with.”
Taylor made a little scream of rage.
“I hope you’ll be soooo happy together! Did you know his cock hasn’t even been working for the last few months?” she demanded to Karel and I.
Karel suppressed a shocked snort and I glanced over at Jesse. He had two spots of color on his cheeks but he still looked steadily at me.
“That’s right. It doesn’t work. For you, Taylor.”
She gave a scream of rage.
“Oh, that’s right. Go fucking jerk off to your ex’s pics, you sad fuck.”
Huffing, Taylor stomped off angrily.
For a moment there was a frozen silence, then Jesse spoke.
“It is sad. Sad and fucking desperate.”
Something uncurled inside me at the smoldering look on his face.
Who was this man who admitted out loud he was desperate to get back with me?”
“ Go away,” I said. “I don’t want you here, Jesse.”
“I want you to see,” he said. “See that I mean what I say. I’m willing to do anything.”
He leaned forward until he was only inches away from me.
“You had your chance, man,” Karel warned, and I heard a grating noise as Jesse gripped the back of his chair so hard the metal protested under his fingers.
“I can still love her better,” he said fiercely. “Better than anyone else.”
Well, I wasn’t going to sit here and try to answer Karel’s questions about what I did for fun with Jesse looming right behind me.
So I excused myself to go to the bathroom and when I got there I crawled out the window and hightailed it the fuck out of there.