34 JANIE
JANIE
“So, how exhausted are you?” Harper asks quietly.
“Have you hid from him in a closet yet? Taken a long shower?” A voice yells from behind her, not quiet at all.
“Steven?”
“He’s the one who switched to FaceTime. You know how he gets,” Miles sighs over Harper’s shoulder.
They’re all hovering around the Roasted Chestnut’s register.
Steven has a tangled string of lights and Miles holds a wreath made of chestnuts that looks like it should have been retired to a dumpster maybe a decade ago.
“It was Harper’s idea!” Steven tries to defend himself.
I start to say I doubt that when an unmistakable old Jamaican voice pipes in, “Listen, she said she was texting you and we took over. Little miss Harper here had no chance.”
“Uncle Tyrone? Is the whole town on this call right now?”
“Prettymuch!” Yells a voice from the café, right before another voice yells something in Spanish. I think Mrs. Keller, the town librarian, just asked where my handsome husband is.
“I guess you all have been following our travels online,” I grumble.
“Si!” Steven gushes. “How is Mexico City? Is it sexy? It seems sexy.”
I chuckle, “I think you mean Benedict is sexy, wherever he is.”
“You said it, honey,” Steven snaps. “Yo Queiro!”
“Just a reminder that you are not, in fact, single,” Miles rolls his eyes.
“Shut it! I want to hear about the hiding in the closet.” Tyrone’s voice cuts through the noise.
I straighten up, proud, “I’ll have you know I’ve done zero hiding.”
“Really?” Harper almost gasps.
I shrug, “He’s the one meeting and sight-seeing all day, not me.” I see multiple faces frown so I go on, “I’m enjoying four star resort room service alone most of the time.”
“Bitch, I am so jealous right now,” Steven huffs.
Miles smirks, “Same, actually.”
I laugh at that as I nod, “I get it. It’s pretty awesome. Working on my laptop on this balcony,” I move my phone around to show them the amazing views. “Then in the evening I join Ben wherever he is for dinner or sometimes dessert.”
“Wait. You’re leaving your room in the evening?” Harper teases and everyone piles on.
I shrug, “I am by myself all day. It’s like, since I get to recharge with the sunshine and my numbers for eight hours, I don’t even mind going out at night.”
At this, Harper balks. “Okay,” she grabs her phone from wherever it was propped. “Besties only, you guys go decorate something.”
“Bye!” I say as she switches the view on her phone to herself. She’s walking through the kitchen to her back office.
“So,” she says, plopping herself into her tiny desk chair. “Is that the truth? He’s not sucking the life out of you?”
I offer her a sad smile, “So far, it’s been great, truly.
Steven’s joke about the closet…I get it,” I inhale, remembering how it used to be.
With Theo, mostly. “But Ben doesn’t seem to care that I want to be in the room doing nothing.
He hasn’t teased me about it or pressured me.
In fact, I had to invite myself to dinner after I’d been alone two days straight. ”
“What about at night,” Harper whispers the question while wagging her eyebrows.
“Well, it’s the week. No funny business on weekdays.”
She shakes her head, “You and your rules.”
“I know. Benedict hasn’t said anything but there’s been a lot of…” I change my voice to sound like him, “ oh, sorry, just used to walking around naked, darling, you understand. ”
Her eyebrows try to hide up in her hairline as she screeches, “That man is walking around naked in front of you and you’re still holding out?”
“I almost caved. Twice.” She relaxes a bit as I go on, “I’m only human. He knows he’s getting to me too. But I started returning the favor and after a bunch of heavy sighing and fist clenching, what do you know, he remembered how to keep his clothes on.”
She laughs, “Sounds like you both have met your match.”
I smile but it dims when I think about our situation, “For now.”
“Look me in the eye and tell me you haven’t caught any feelings for him.”
“I can’t look you in the eye over FaceTime.”
“You can’t look me in the eye because you’re a terrible liar and we both know the truth. You’re falling for him, Janie.”
Still refusing to look at my phone I shake my head as I tell my sweet friend the truth, “I can’t, Harp. I can’t fall for him. He will get bored and he will move on.”
“Just like the others,” she finishes my thought.
“Exactly.”
“And has he been like them so far? Showy and smarmy and pushy? Disingenuous? Shallow?”
I look at her. “He’s a British billionaire playboy.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
I snort a non-reply.
“My timer is about to go off. Before I leave you to think about how right I am, what’s next?”
My eyes go wide, “We meet the family.”
“In Mexico?”
“No, we’re headed to New York. The Clark Industries Christmas Gala is on Saturday, but before that, Friday evening we have dinner with the family.”
“Wow. Showtime, huh?”
I nod, “Yup. His dad will be there but also Samantha, that’s Skye’s younger sister.”
“Oh yeah, she’s the sweetheart with a big mouth, right?”
“Right. She will blab to her sisters the second dinner is over. Heck, she’ll probably make us FaceTime Skye before the appetizers come out.”
A buzzer goes off and she looks away for a beat before she says, “I know you’re worried about how well Skye knows you and that she’ll sniff out the truth but I don’t think you need to worry at all.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. The truth is the two of you are crazy about each other. You don’t have to be a genius at reading people to see it. You just need a set of eyeballs. I gotta go.” She whispers, “If you finally have actual sex you better text me!”
She ends the call before I can answer her that that will not be happening.
I know Benedict now. I truly, really know him.
And I know it will be hot and life-changing, sure, but it will also be sweet and intimate and beyond confusing.
Blow jobs and make out sessions scratch the itch.
It’s what we agreed, even if we never got into the specifics.
By now I know he’s onto me and the fact that I’m not willing to cross that line.
I won’t.
Sure, he’s gorgeous and wonderful and has somehow become the sexiest man I’ve ever seen. I’ve never wanted anyone like I want him. I have sex dreams now. I’m so sexually charged all day long I’ve had to relieve the pressure once or twice a day. Always envisioning him while I do it.
But I’ve made this a rule now. Unspoken, but a rule all the same.
And I don’t break my rules.