Page 120 of Playing My Rivals

“If you’re leaving, I should get going.” Dori reaches for her purse.

I sigh. She can't avoid me and this conversation forever. I won't let her.

“You just ordered another glass of wine.” My stomach tightens at the thought of her drinking if she’s pregnant, but it’s my only leverage.

She brings her thumb to her lips and chews on her fingernail. Her eyes stay on her other glass of wine as she considers something.

“Yeah, Dori. Stay and drink your wine. I promised Jami a night out and since I’m ditching him for someone else, you can take my place.” Melanie fixes her makeup with a small powder compact. “Or leave if you want. I can always stay with Jami and reschedule my night with Luke.”

The corners of my eyes bunch together. “Luke?”

“Yeah. That’s his name. I saw his name tag.” She snaps her powder case closed and glances at Dori.

Dori sits straight and nods at Melanie. “I’ll stay with Jami. You go have fun with Luke.”

We make small talk while we wait for Luke. Once he drops off our drinks, he whisks Melanie away.

I turn to Dori. “We need to talk.”

“Jami, I should get going.” She picks up her phone and checks something on it.

“You just told Melanie you would stay here with me. Why tell her that if you were planning on leaving?”

“I wanted her to have a fun night and she would’ve stayed if I’d gone home.”

“Mhm. And hanging out with me wouldn’t be fun?” I raise my eyebrows in question.

Her gaze darts across the table. “I don’t know. Do you guys have fun when you hang out?”

“We do. I enjoy hanging out with her. Why else would I have asked her to meet up tonight?”

Dori’s eyes meet mine. “Oh. I didn’t realize that’s something you would’ve wanted. I thought you came here for me.”

“Would it bother you if I came here for her?”

I’m going to get her to admit why she sent Melanie away. Knowing Dori would be jealous may seem juvenile, but I’ll take anything I can get at this point.

She blushes. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do.” I stare into her soul-gripping eyes.

They make me want to stop all this bullshit and just take her home. My heart constricts knowing I can’t do that, so I’ll take the next best thing.

She dabs the corner of her eye with her thumb like she’s holding back a tear. “Jami, you know how I feel about you, so why hang out with my best friend?”

“You don’t seem to have a problem hanging out with Hunter, so why should I worry about how you feel about me being out?”

My spite is showing and I know better. But I’m so hurt I can’t separate my emotions from being rational.

“I don’t intentionally try to hurt you. You know how much I care about you. Why do you want to hurt me?”

I have her hooked now. She’s invested in our conversation and I can get to the bottom of what I want to know.

“You say you love me, but any time you’ve said that to me, it’s been prefaced or followed with ‘I have feelings for Hunter too and I won’t lie to you about that.’ If you think that doesn’t hurt me, you don’t understand how much I love you.”

The last part just falls from my lips. It seems my heart has a mind of its own and wants to talk about this first. All this time of holding that in and it just pops out of my mouth.

Smooth, Jamison. Real smooth.

---