Chapter 18
KENDRA
“You know I’ll be seeing you in around two hours, right?” Jenna says as she picks up my call.
“I know, but I didn’t really want to tell you in the middle of a packed locker room,” I say, flicking on the coffee maker as I stifle a yawn and wait impatiently for my first—and much needed—caffeine hit of the day.
“Well, color me intrigued. Spill,” Jenna replies as I hear the sound of a door closing on her end.
“So, the gala this Saturday … I’m not going alone.”
“Please, on all that is holy, do not tell me that you’re going with Tyler. I don’t think my sanity can take it.”
I blow a laugh down the phone. “If you think I’m that stupid, then maybe you should reconsider your choice of center back.”
“Okay, good. You had me worr …” Jenna trails off, and a couple of beats pass before she speaks again. “Wait, if you aren’t going alone and it’s not with Tyler—oh crap, you’re going with Jack Morgan, aren’t you?!”
As the coffee maker finishes its prep, I pick up the jug and begin pouring myself a steaming cup. “Good guess.”
“I wasn’t aware there was going to be a fireworks display this year, but maybe I just didn’t get the memo until now,” Jenna replies. “Like, for real? You’re going with him for real, as a date?”
This is the part where I could say yes and allow my closest friend in this city to believe our ruse. But our relationship has always been based on truth, both on and off the pitch.
Pulling myself up onto one of the stools around the island, I press my lips together and decide to go for it. “Tyler asked me to go with him, and I turned him down. He’s been a grade-A asshole lately—”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Jenna interjects, which has me nodding in agreement.
“So, yeah, after I met Tyler for a coffee, I get back to the apartment, and I’m upset but more just pissed off, to be honest. Everything with him has an agenda, and all I wanted to do was return his stuff to him and move on.
Jack caught me in the midst of my mini meltdown and made the suggestion that we go together.
That way, I’m not alone, and Tyler has to start backing off. ”
“And since then, you’ve fucked in every room in the apartment, just to test out your compatibility and for practice.”
How Jack’s kitchen isn’t wearing my coffee I’ll never know. I forcibly swallow my mouthful and burst into a coughing fit.
“Oh, come on now, Kend. You can’t bullshit a bullshitter. This arrangement is convenient for the both of you—and in more ways than one.”
“Actually, no. You’re wrong. We already went on a practice date, and we didn’t even kiss, so your theory is dead in the water.”
Silence falls between us, and I feel the mood shift from playful to something more serious. In a bid to keep my mind off the memory in the dressing room, the one where Jack explained exactly where my dress would be if we were for real, I push off the stool and head for the fridge.
“But you understand he likes you, right?” Jenna eventually speaks.
Rolling my eyes, I pull open the door to find something for breakfast. “I don’t know how many times I need to say it—Jack and I are just …” The rest of my sentence dies on my tongue when I find a jar of overnight oats, complete with my favorite blueberry compote.
Taking it out of the fridge, I see a note stuck on the outside.
Even if my girl forgot to make her overnight oats, she’d still get them.
Hope they’re not shit.
J