Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
QUINN
Ifucked up.
It’s the very first thought that plagues me when I wake up. Not even Dolly purring and wanting snuggles can distract me from how badly I messed up.
Checking my phone proves to be a fruitless effort. No messages. No red numbers signaling a notification. There’s no point in texting or messaging him on the app. He doesn’t want to hear from me. I’ve sent him a few messages since the gala.
The only messages I’ve gotten since are from my lawyer. Nothing new on that front, which doesn’t do anything to improve my mood.
Because I keep picturing Jasper as he left.
God, I wish I could get the look on his face out of my mind.
Maybe if we didn’t meet so suddenly I could have come up with a plan to tell him I knew who he was.
“Dolly, I really stepped in it.”
She purrs against my leg, curling up next to me.
It’s a dreary day, rain pattering against the skylights in my bedroom. I don’t have the energy to get up. Thank God for the automatic feeder for Dolly, or she’d be mad at me too.
Glancing at my phone, I realize it’s still early. Hoping my friend is awake, I tap her phone number and wait for her to answer.
“Why are you calling me so early? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but I need my friend.”
“Okay, when you say it like that, I’m worried,” Claire whispers.
“Can I tell you something and you not yell at me?”
“Why would I yell at you?” she asks. I can hear the confusion in her voice.
“Because I didn’t tell you something and I don’t want you to get mad at me. Someone is already mad and I don’t know if I can take anyone else being mad at me right now.”
“I won’t yell.”
“Promise?” I ask.
“Promise,” Claire confirms.
“I met someone.”
“You met someone?” she shrieks over the phone. Based on the groan that filters through the phone, she’s in bed still.
“Yes. On a dating app.”
“You met someone on a dating app?”
“Not just anyone. Jasper Hayes.”
“Why does that name sound familiar?”
“He’s the hockey player we met when I did—”
“You met Jasper Hayes on a dating app?!” I hold the phone away, her voice increasing by at least five decibels. “I’m not yelling at you. But you met him? The guy I said you should totally get his number?”
“One and the same.” I wince.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was scared.”
“Scared I’d be mad? Hang on.” I wait a beat before my phone buzzes in my ear. She’s video calling me.
“Why in the world are you video chatting with me so early?”
I rest the phone against my other pillow and curl up against my own.
“Because this is a conversation we should be having over wine, but it’s too early for that. When did this all start?”
“A few weeks after everything went down with Eric.”
Claire shakes her head. She knows exactly when this was. “Eric dumps you and you decide to get back out there on a dating app and then you discover that Eric has been stealing from you for years. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to tell me you found someone new?”
“It’s why I didn’t tell anyone,” I confess. “It’s not like Jasper has access to my bank accounts, but I was still nervous.”
“And? How is he?”
“How is he what?”
“In bed!” Claire shrieks again. “If you’re calling me this early, I hope it’s with details.”
“The only details are I figured out who he was and I didn’t tell him who I was. And we just so happened to bump into each other again last night at the Knights gala.”
“Does he know who you are now?”
I wince again. “He does now.”
“Why does that look like a bad thing based off your face?” She rests her phone against the wall and starts making coffee.
“Because he thought I was lying to him by not telling him I already knew who he was. He was mad, Claire. I couldn’t even get a chance to apologize.”
“Shit.” She drops a pod in her machine and rests on her elbows to look down at me. If only she were here and could make me a cup. I don’t even have the energy to call for delivery.
“Yeah. We’ve been talking for months and he kept wanting to meet, but I was worried.”
“Worried he wouldn’t believe it was you?”
“Yeah. It’s not like I was lying to catfish him or something.”
“But it was still a lie of omission,” she says.
“Ugh. How am I going to make it up to him?”
“Is he worth it?” Claire asks.
I blink at the camera. Blink again. “Would I be calling your ass this early in the morning if he wasn’t?”
“Okay. Fine. Just wanted to make sure.”
“We’ve been talking for months. I know things about him he’s probably never told anyone else.”
“Like?” she fishes.
“Nope, not telling you.” I shake my head.
“Well, maybe one of those things is going to be how you get back into his good graces. Send him an apology. If he won’t talk to you, that might get his attention.”
“But how would I get it to him when I don’t know when he’ll be there?”
She rolls her eyes, harder than usual…like to get me to see it on the tiny square camera. “Good thing you know where he works.”
I smack myself on the forehead. “Of course. Now I just need to think of something good enough.”
Something that shows Jasper I really know him. That I’m sorry and I wasn’t leading him on.
“See? This is why you called me. I’m the genius.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.”
Her coffee starts streaming down into her cup. “Coffee’s ready. I’m going to go wake up the hubster, and in the meantime, text me any ideas you might have to win back Jasper’s heart.”
“I will.”
She shakes her head, sipping from her mug. “I can’t believe you let me prattle on about how well you and Jasper would go together and you knew him the whole time.”
I point a finger at her. “He didn’t know who I was then.”
“My point exactly. If you have that much chemistry with someone who didn’t even know who you were, then clearly you two are a fit and I called it.”
“Can you call it when I was already messaging with him?”
“Let me have this one.” She laughs. “And maybe if you go to a game to win him back, you can take me to the boy aquarium with you?”
She waggles her brows at me.
“You said you wouldn’t call it that anymore.”
“I get one more.” She holds up her finger. “Consider it your payment for lying to me.”
“You said you weren’t mad!” I scoff.
“I’ll pretend to be if it means I can call it that.” She winks.
“I’m hanging up now. Goodbye.”
“Love you!”
I tap the screen to end the call. Sitting up, I pull Dolly into my lap and start to scratch behind her ears.
Whatever I do, it has to be good. And include Zucchini.
Which gives me an idea. I only hope it means Jasper will talk to me again.