Chapter 16
You’re probably thinking that, by now, everyone moved on with their lives and forgot the details of the night, right?
Well… you could say yes. Except for Robbie, who cornered Jasper five more times throughout the morning, lunch, and the poolside barbecue. And of course, except for my butt.
Which, up until now, seemed to be doing just fine, thank you very much.
Here I am, finding a lounge chair next to Cordelia, who’s been napping face-up in the sun for half an hour while some podcast about gratitude and the beauty of life or whatever blasts through her earbuds.
Here I am, stripping down to my bikini, spreading my towel on the chair, putting on sunscreen like I should’ve done from the start.
Here I am, enjoying the Cancún sun, the water, the ocean, the thrill of being in a different country, in a totally new place, actually feeling… on vacation. Like this week was supposed to have been from the beginning.
And here is Jasper Hassmann, in the pool, staring at me.
Why the hell is he staring at me?
His eyebrows are raised, like he’s trying to tell me something he can’t say out loud. Obviously he can’t! He can’t speak to me in public unless it’s something extremely necessary.
Or extremely offensive.
He finally seems to give up, because he rolls his eyes and starts swimming. In my direction. Toward my side of the pool. Then he climbs out, pushing himself up with one fluid motion.
His wet, tanned body rising out of the pool right in front of me.
This asshole does not make my life easier!
But he does an incredible job pretending I don’t exist. We’ve been doing this for ten years. Just because he’s near me doesn’t mean anything to anyone else.
It’s just a coincidence.
Jasper stops about a yard away, and I immediately hold my breath.
He runs a hand through his hair, sending droplets everywhere…
Jesus Christ! Why does he have to be so freaking handsome?
And why do his muscles have to glisten even more in the sun?
And why does the water have to slide down his body like–
“Put your shorts back on,” Jasper mutters through his teeth, pretending to dry off.
“What?” I blink, not sure if I’m dizzy from his presence or if I just misheard him.
He glances from me to Cordelia – her eyes closed, earbuds in – before continuing, “Put your clothes back on. You’ve got a handprint on your ass.”
Yeah, I’m definitely not understanding it correctly.
“A what?” I blurt, already twisting my body to look when he cuts me off.
“Don’t look. Just get dressed.”
I grab my shorts. Jasper runs a hand through his hair again. I put on my shorts. And I realize he’s positioned himself right in the way, like he’s trying to block anyone passing by from seeing whatever he just saw.
Great.
As if it weren’t enough that I’m limping, now I’ve got rough sex souvenirs on my skin.
I said that slap was going to leave a mark!
I lower my head to fasten the button, and when I look up, he’s gone again.
Creepy vampire from the depths of hell!
“Interesting,” I hear Cordelia say beside me, and I nearly jump.
Please let her be talking about something in the podcast. Please, God, let her be reacting to the podcast!
But then she turns her head toward me and those big blue eyes open wide.
Yeah. Not the podcast.
“Please don’t tell anyone,” I beg immediately.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s completely humiliating.”
“Humiliating? With all that screaming? Everyone would just be jealous.”
Well, if I had even a microscopic shred of hope that we were talking about different things, that hope is dead and buried.
I take a deep breath. Sit on my lounge chair so I can whisper as quietly as possible, praying no one else hears.
Things are already hanging by a thread without people hearing it.
“Look, it was an accident!” I hiss. Then shrug, forcing myself to admit, “A very good and sexy accident, but still an accident. So if you could keep quiet and pretend you don’t know anything…”
“I have to tell someone, Julie! It’s the best gossip we’ve had in ages!” she squeals, and I’m nearly on my knees begging when she asks, “Can I at least tell Tony?”
Well, if it’s Tony, that’s the least terrible option.
“Tony already knows,” I say. Cordelia arches her brows in confusion, waiting for me to explain. “I kind of told him last night after Madame Ximena’s tea.”
“Last night?” she gasps. “Exactly how many accidents have happened, Julie?”
“More than I would like, that’s for sure.”
Cordelia lets out a low whistle, looking at me like she just uncovered state secrets, then gives me a silly little smile.
“I actually think it’s cute,” she says. I groan in disgust. “I mean it. J and J. You guys even share the same initial.”
“I share the same initials with Josef Stalin, what’s up with that?
” I snap, but Cordelia just keeps laughing.
“And anyway, it’s just sex, and it’s ending very soon.
Actually, it’s already over. So if you would please erase everything you heard and never bring it up again, I’ll be eternally grateful. ”
“But what if someone asks me directly? I’m terrible at lying.”
I close my eyes for a second, breathing deeply.
“No one is going to ask you directly, because never, in the history of the universe, would anyone imagine Jasper and I doing anything together, much less that.”
Her gaze shifts from my now-covered ass to Jasper, and we find him circling toward the grill before turning back the second Robbie corners him again.
“Robbie is determined to investigate.”
“Robbie’s not going to look at my butt,” I answer instantly. And more importantly, Robbie will never think it was me.
He’d suspect his own mother before he suspects me.
Not surprising, given the things Brenda said about Jasper last night.
“And besides, Mr. Hot-Shot-Lawyer will never crack. Nobody can tire him out.”
“I know,” she says, laughing again. “I heard very clearly.”
“No, you didn’t! You were passed out with your face in the toilet until sunrise.”
Cordelia giggles.
“Kinda, yeah. But the rest of the house… the rest of the house heard very clearly.”
“The rest of the house doesn’t know what you know.”
“But the rest of the house wants to know. Especially after that whole tarot thing and–” she stops mid-sentence, her jaw dropping, “Oh my God, was the psychic talking about you?”
“I don’t remember the psychic saying anything about wild and purely casual sex between two people who hate each other, Cordelia.” She squints suspiciously. “I don’t think there’s a card for that in her deck, so she had to improvise.”
She nods, still giggling to herself, but says nothing else.
Spends the rest of the day giving me that smug little smile of someone who knows my secret, but says nothing else.
Meanwhile, Robbie – God help me – if he doesn’t stop with this obsession, I’m not waiting for Jasper to find creative ways to avoid the subject.
I’m going over there myself to punch the guy in the face.
Then he and Mila can get married with matching black eyes.
“You brought a woman here last night!” Robbie shouts, pointing at Jasper again.
“I didn’t bring anyone,” Jasper replies, unbothered.
I keep walking toward the food, because if I can’t wear a bikini, can’t swim, can’t do anything except eat, then that’s exactly what I’m doing.
“If you didn’t bring anyone, then she was already here!” Robbie concludes. Then stops to think. “You wouldn’t hook up with Aunt Abby… would you?”
Jasper rolls his eyes.
“Gemma likes the same kind of stuff you like,” Robbie continues. “So that leaves Elise and… oh my God, it’s Suzi!”
See what I mean? I’m not even an option.
He’d put his own mother’s name on the list before mine.
Which he absolutely would’ve done if I hadn’t accidentally clattered my fork against the metal tray, loud enough for half the house to hear.
Jasper glances at me. In that way he always does when he’s pretending he doesn’t see me.
Robbie looks too. Except his eyes are huge and they’re the same shade of blue I stared at in panic a few minutes ago with Cordelia.
Blue and terrifying.
“It’s not Julie, right?”
The two of them stare at each other, and, for a second, I freeze. My heart hammers, clawing its way up the familiar path to my throat.
Goddammit, this man is gonna put me in the hospital with a heart bypass.
So here we are. My heart in full cardiac arrest. Robbie with his eyes wide, staring at Jasper. Jasper staring back. And then, both of them burst out laughing.
Never, in my entire life, have I seen Jasper laugh like that.
Robbie has to lean on the counter so he doesn’t tumble over his own feet.
“Go fuck yourselves!” is all I manage to say.
And now I can’t swim, can’t wear a bikini, can’t even walk around the house without a) getting indecent side-eyes from Cordelia and b) being deemed so unattractive that no one believes I could possibly be the sexual partner (the polite term) of someone like Jasper Hassmann.
So what do we do?
We certainly don’t stick around waiting for the humiliation to escalate.
We go upstairs and become hermits for the rest of the day. Me, my solitude, and whatever’s playing in my earbuds.
But not even that brings peace, because the first time I go into the bathroom to pee, the doorknob starts turning.
The doorknob that faces the hallway by the stairs.
So I’m both shocked and irritated when the person trying to come in is Jasper. Out of pure spite, I pull out my phone, sit on the toilet, and decide to wait him out. He apologizes, but five minutes later he tries the door to his bedroom.
Five minutes after that, he knocks again.
“Julie, you still in there?”
“Yep,” I grunt, thoroughly uninterested.
“Any idea when you’re coming out?”
“Nope.”
“Jules…” he begins, softly. Soft and manipulative in a way only a scheming bastard like him can be.
“It was a joke,” he says. Then pauses before adding, “I had to say something. What did you want me to do?”
Maybe not burst into hysterical laughter at the mere thought of being with me last night?
But I’m not saying that. I’m not giving him the satisfaction. Silence is safer.