24. Jess #2
Conor, for once in his life, looks lost for words.
Aiden winks at him. “You’re welcome.”
If Conor looks speechless, I can’t imagine how I must look right now. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…
It’s probably not a good idea to punch your brother in the face when he’s giving you free room and board at his house. Right?
I lean against the kitchen counter and clutch my coffee mug, barely aware of the radiating heat burning my palms. Aiden walks to the sink. Throws his dirty dishes in. Conor gets on his feet, too, and stacks the dishes in the dishwasher.
Aiden punches Conor in the arm playfully. “You don’t look nearly as pumped as I expected. I thought you liked Jennifer.” Then he stops, examines Conor’s scowl and laughs. “Don’t look so sour, didn’t you say you wanted to see her again? I totally remember you saying that.”
My stomach drops like an anchor. But, I fix my eyes on Conor, scanning for his reaction before I jump to conclusions again.
“I, uh—” Conor flails aimlessly. My stomach sinks further.
Aiden narrows his eyes. “Wait, did something finally happen between you and Karla?”
My jaw almost drops to the floor, but I recover just in time, my heart lurching. What does Aiden mean, finally ? As in, that’s who he expects Conor to end up with eventually?
Conor pales. “No, it’s not that. It’s—”
“Mindy, then?” Aiden guesses.
I’M SORRY, WHAT?
Conor shakes his head, and Aiden smiles. “Well, then. What’s stopping you?”
Conor looks at me. This is where we’re meant to tell Aiden what’s going on, isn’t it? But something deep inside my heart constricts painfully, a physical tightening like I’m being squeezed. Conor has his pick of a million women...
Just like Johnny did.
A familiar rush of bile fills my throat as doubt closes in. The walls slam back up around my heart. Big ones, with barbed wire at the top. And a flashing “No Entry” sign in red, neon lettering.
“Aiden, uh—” Conor starts. Then, he stops and shoots me a sideways glance.
And, all of a sudden, I know what I have to do.
“He’d love to go!” I blurt, my gaze locked on Conor. His beautiful, emerald eyes widen, and I nod, pressing on. Act first, think later, all that good stuff. I tear my eyes away to look at Aiden. “Look at you guys, going on a double date with a couple of hotties.”
What the heck am I going on about? And since when do I talk like a frat boy? Do I actually want Conor to go on a date with another woman?
No, I don’t. But, better to give him the option before he can pull a Johnny and tell me that I’m great and everything, but there’s someone else. Someone who has it together in a way that I don’t.
Dealing the first blow will surely make the impact of the metaphorical punch to the gut hurt less.
Aiden gives me the side-eye. “Uh, you okay there, J?”
I ignore him. Focus on Conor. Who’s currently staring at me, scowling. And oh boy, does he look hot when he scowls.
No! Focus, Jess!
I stare back, stony faced. Wait for Conor to say something. Come clean. Claim he doesn’t want to go. Anything at all.
But, after a bit of a staring stand-off, Conor’s mouth twists. “Sure, Aiden. Let’s do it.”
And, there it is. The truth. I’m not his girlfriend, because Conor Brady doesn’t do relationships.
He does casual dating with lots of beautiful women.
And I know we’ve gone on way more than just one date, but maybe that was simply because of our roommate situation.
Which will inevitably come to an end soon. And then what?
I try not to visibly wince at the punch his words pack. At the thought of him and Jennifer together. I push myself up from where I’m leaning against the kitchen counter, unable to stay here a minute longer. “I’m going to go see Courtney.”
Aiden does a perfect reenactment of The Exorcist head-swivel—he’s even practically foaming at the mouth. “Courtney, as in, my next door neighbor Courtney?”
He says “next door neighbor” like it’s a string of curse words. I almost forgot that they hate each other. I still don’t know why. But, as I am angry with Aiden for setting up this stupid double date, I smile at my brother like I’m blissfully unaware of the feud.
“Yes.” I put my mug next to the sink, purposefully sloshing coffee over the edge and onto the counter. I’m gratified to hear Conor practically gasp.
Extreme pettiness, thy name is Jessica Shaw.
“Why?” Aiden’s slack-jawed.
“Because she’s my new bestie. And, because she’s setting us up on our own little double date for tomorrow night.”
But she isn’t.
She really, really isn’t.
WHAT AM I DOING?
Aiden shakes his head, looking as dazed as if I’d just told him that I was going on a date with a little green Martian with three heads and octopus tentacles. Conor, meanwhile, looks like he’s carved from stone. Beautiful, sculpted, and completely unwavering. What’s he thinking?
“Great,” Conor suddenly speaks, his voice a little too casual. He moves towards the sink and wipes up the coffee I spilled. “We should all go together, a quadruple date. It’ll be cozy.”
“NO!” Aiden and I yell in unison.
“That’s not happening,” I add.
“Why not?” He looks at me evenly, his voice flat. “Is there any reason you’d like to share, Jess?”
“No. No reason whatsoever.” I grit my teeth. “In fact, I don’t know why I was so hasty in saying no. A quadruple date is a fantastic idea.”
Aiden, meanwhile, is still on the Courtney train.
“She likes you?” Aiden demands, scratching behind his ear. “She hates me.”
I smile sweetly. “Isn’t the feeling mutual?”
“Well, what better way to bury the hatchet than a big, group date,” Conor says with way too much enthusiasm. I resist the urge to stick my tongue out at him.
Aiden’s still scratching his ear. “Won’t that be… weird?”
Yes.
“No,” I say instead. “Not at all. I’ll leave it up to you guys to make reservations—Table for eight tomorrow night. I’ll tell Courtney now!”
Then, I high-tail it out of there before Conor can get another word in.
* * *
At Courtney’s house, I seek refuge under a huge, pink patterned quilt and two enormous balls of fluff that seem to think they’re lap dogs.
Coutney sits opposite me in an armchair, tapping her fingers against the armrest like she’s the Godfather or something. “So, let me get this straight. Your brother came home. Almost caught you and Conor making out. Then, you lied to him, and told Conor to go on a date with someone else because…?”
“I don’t know,” I moan, burying my face into the golden, hairy back of Butch—or is it Cassidy?—and letting out a distinctly pirate-like, “argggggggggggh.”
Courtney takes another bite of what looks like a brownie and chews thoughtfully. Swallows. I wait for her words of wisdom.
“You’re ridiculous,” she volunteers. “I hope you know that.”
I throw up my hands. “I just freaked out. Aiden said something about Conor getting together with Karla, and I couldn’t help myself.”
Courney shakes her head and brushes stray crumbs from her lap. “Conor doesn’t want that redhead. I told you, he never looks at her like he looks at you.”
I sigh, my fingers tightening in the golden dog fur.
Butch, as if sensing my anxiety, turns his head to lick my hand.
“Yeah, well how do you know the same is true for Mindy? Or for Jennifer? How do I know that he’s any more serious about me than all the rest of these women in his life?
That’s what players do, Court. They date everyone and commit to no one. ”
Courtney tuts. “Well, did you give him the option to commit to you? Because you just told me that you practically forced him to go out with someone who wasn’t you.”
I frown. Open my mouth, then close it again.
“Did you even think to ask Conor if he wanted to go out with Jennifer again? Or did you just assume based on what Aiden said?”
I feel a little bashful all of a sudden. “No… I guess I didn’t.”
“Well, maybe it's time to start using that noggin of yours.” Courney gets out of her chair and taps the side of my head with her knuckles. None too gently. “Hellooooo, anybody home?”
I bat her hand away. “So, I may have overreacted a touch.”
“A touch?” she yells. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re almost worse than your brother in the overreaction department. And he put a ‘For Sale’ sign on my car after I accidentally blocked him in.”
Despite myself, I snort with laughter. “He what?”
Courtney’s pretty blue eyes flash with indignation. “I got twenty-seven calls in half an hour!”
“And all you did was accidently block him in?”
“Well, I mean, I did leave him that fake parking ticket. But, as a good-humored neighborly joke, that’s all.
” Courtney waves a hand dismissively, like this detail doesn't matter. “Anyhow, my point being—you overreacted. Tell Conor that you don’t really want him to go on the date, and I’m sure he’ll tell you he doesn't either. Simple.”
“Um, it’s not quite that simple.”
“Why not?”
“There’s just one teeny little detail I haven’t told you yet,” I admit.
Courtney flops next to me and slings an arm around my shoulders. “I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t handle. What is it?”
“Well, I told Conor you were setting me up on a double date tomorrow night, too.”
“WHAT?” she squawks.
“It gets worse.” I brace myself for her inevitable explosion. “I told him and Aiden that we’d all go as one big group. Know any single guys who’d be up for an octo-date?”
Courtney lets out a colorful string of curse words that any sailor would be proud of.
I pull the quilt over my head.