Page 69 of That Secret Something

I ducked my head, my cheeks tingling in embarrassment at being so easy to read. “I have no complaints.”

She jostled me. “Oh, come on, Jess. Give a girl some of the good stuff.”

I toyed with my beer. “A lady never tells.”

“Pfft. Since when?” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Spill! Spill!”

I hesitated. On the one hand, it felt good to open up. There was just a part of me that was still very surprised to talk about Rebecca this way, especially after hiding my feelings for her for so long. It made it real. I wasn’t used to it.

“Hello? Earth to Jess.” Jade laughed. “Do you want some alone time with your memories? Or are you going to share?”

“Fine,” I said, deciding to get over myself. “Anybody ever tell you you’d have a great career in journalism?”

“That is noted. Now, come on. What’s new?”

“Well…Rebecca spoke to her parents about how she was feeling, and they listened. She said it went well, so I’m happy for her. She told me they’ve been asking lots about her new job, too—so much that now she’s annoyed.”

Jade’s eyes widened. “Wow. So, she listened to you and followed through? That’s big, Jess.”

I couldn’t fight the little glow that flamed in my chest. It felt good to know that Rebecca and I could talk about important things.

Jade leaned in closer, and I admired the bold purple of her lipstick—I could never pull that off. “What about the sex?”

“Jade!” I peered around at the other customers, but nobody seemed to be interested in our conversation. Still, I wasn’t used to openly discussing my sex life, probably because I’d never really had one. At least not one worth gossiping about.

“Oh, stop being a prude.”

“I’m not a prude.” Flashes of Rebecca jumped into my mind: her mouth sucking on my earlobe; her whispering sweet nothings in my ear; feeling her hands everywhere. My face flushed again.

Jade jumped up. “There. Right there. What did you just think about?”

“Just…last night. She was a little late coming back from work, and let’s just say…she made it up to me.”

Jade smirked, nodding her approval. “Nice. Very nice.” She finished her drink and huffed an extended sigh, slumping onto the table. “Ugh, Jess, I need to get laid.”

We both burst out laughing.

“I wish I could say I was completely joking, but I’m not. Does Rebecca have any hot friends?”

“You like hockey players? Maybe she could set you up with one of them at the final tomorrow.”

“I’m busy tomorrow.” She straightened up. “But another time—yes, please. Maybe we could even double date—in secret, of course. Although, isn’t the wedding next week? When are you going to tell Lily?” She laughed. “Sorry, that was a lot of stuff at once.”

My chest constricted. Both sides of my brain fought over this topic constantly. It would be amazing not to have to hide things from Lily, especially how happy I was. I wanted to share these things with her, like I could with Jade, but was that just a pipedream? Could it ever be a reality? Lily was so weird about this stuff. The closer the wedding grew, the further we seemed to grow apart—even after our little heart-to-heart the other day. Was that my fault? Probably.

It was increasingly difficult to look into her face and not feel guilty.

Jade placed her hand over mine. “Don’t think about it yet. Just get through the wedding, and when Lily’s back from her honeymoon, you can address it. There’s no rush.”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

“Jess, you’ve not done anything wrong. You can’t help who you fall in love with.”

Fall in love with?

I opened my mouth to protest, but it was no use, and no denying it. It’d always been Rebecca. I’d never had room in my heart for anyone else. Apart from maybe Aubrey Plaza.

I looked up from the wooden table to find Jade smiling at me. She poked me playfully. “You’re in love. Soon you’ll be the one getting married.”

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