Page 115 of Electric Touch

“I thought we were here to play poker, not listen to you waxing poetic,” Adam says, tossing more chips on the pile.

“Dude, you get it. You feel the same way about Jen.”

“Don’t need to be telling everyone about it at poker night,” he points out, sitting back. “I’m not sure Alessa would agree with half of the bullshit coming out of your mouth.”

“Exactly,” Dylan laughs. “I’ve been on the receiving end of Alessa’s disapproving stare. That shit sticks.”

“Nah,” Jordan drops his foot. After looking at his cards, he groans and presses them all together, dropping them on the table. “She can be tough and sometimes I get my wrist slapped, but we understand each other. It’s like you and Jenna,” Jordan goes on as if he doesn’t have a pissed off lead singer glaring at him for daring to talk about his fiancée. “You fit like puzzle pieces. You can be a little, temperamental,” he receives another glare. “We all know how to handle it, cos we’ve been round you for years. A lot of people think you’re being an asshole, but that isn’t who you are, dude. You’re a private guy, live inside your head a little too much. Sometimes all you focused on is music, until Jenna. Jenna gets you,” he taps his temple. “Plus, she’s an absolute legend. I bet she could beat all of us in a fight without breaking a sweat.”

“I’m going to fucking punch you in your face if you don’t shut up. It’ll be me doing the fighting.”

“I love you too,” Jordan smirks. “You know I’m right. She held off a guy who was trying to kill her,” he frowns, reliving what must have been a scary moment for those who love Jenna. “She’s a bad ass literary agent. She reads the filthiest books. Ask my man Nick. He reads that shit religiously.”

I glance at Dylan. Adam looks like he’s about to blow a gasket.

“Her mom is the best, too. Totally bonkers and mad talented with a paintbrush. We’ve got a bad ass businesswoman in Elsa. She’s taking over the damn world too. Which may not seem interesting to us, but I’ve seen people begging her to work on their campaigns. And the icing on the cake is, she keeps Nicholas happy. She supported him through some of the worst things a guy could go through, and she didn’t need to.”

“Why the hell are we talking about this?” Adam asks.

“Because these guys need to know that it’s okay to be with someone weird.”

He pointedly looks at me. I curse and turn my head away. So this is all for my benefit. This is Alessa, telling Jordan about the status of my relationship with my ‘weird’ girl. Alessa has tried to call but I haven’t answered. I catch Adam’s eye. He may be irritated with Jordan, but seems he’s just letting him go on with his nonsense.

“Point is, my friends, safe is boring. The pretty girl on your arm who looks the part, but has no substance. Who wants that shit? Hero worship is even worse.”

My mind goes to Riley when he says that. It was only after we broke up I saw the exact characteristics he’s referring to in her.

Jordan interrupts my thoughts again. “Give me the girl with passion, the girl with a heart that beats for me. She is a bad ass independent boss who could get by perfectly fucking fine without me. The girl who makes me work for it.”

“You still working for it.” Alessa appears behind us, making at least three of us jump. She’s like a fucking ninja. I didn’t even hear the door open. Jordan must have seen her coming in and didn’t say a damn thing.

“And I hope I always am, because I don’t want to settle for anything less than a challenge. For my whole life.”

Alessa whacks the back of my head. I duck away from her, pushing my hair back. It didn’t hurt, but it shocked the shit out of me.

“What the fuck was that for?” I think I know.

Dylan is pissing himself laughing.

“Well, this night went down the fucking toilet,” Adam says, dropping his cards. He gets up and heads down the hall to the bathroom.

Alessa reels off a string of Ukrainian that has even Jordan looking perplexed. Pretty sure I’m getting called many bad words. Dylan gets up and walks over to the couch, taking a seat and watching. Fucker pretends to eat popcorn. Jordan’s eyes bounce between me and his girlfriend.

“You are an idiot,” she finally speaks English.

“Stay out of it.”

“No,” she crosses her arms. “I have stayed out long enough. You are fool. And why you no confront Riley about her photograph?”

I will not sit here and listen to this. I go to get up but she puts her hand on my shoulder and pushes me back down into my seat. For a tiny thing, she’s fucking strong.

“You let her break you up? With that picture?”

“It’s more than that, Alessa. You need to back off.”

Jordan sits forward and I glance at him. He doesn’t look as if he finds this amusing anymore, but he says nothing.

“It’s not about that damn picture,” I grit out between my teeth.

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