Page 114 of Bona Fide

I need to stop it with him.

We only screw when I'm in town, which has been on and off to check in when I can with Mama. And every time I tell myself this is the last time, it ends up being another and another.

“What’s up, Jed?” I answer, picking up my pace to the bakery.

“I wanted to know if you’d be my date for a Senate dinner in New York.”

My brows furrow. “Uhhh…”

“I know you hate those things but, I don’t know, we’ll be able to hang out, maybe you can show me around.”

“You know I’m seeing Enzo,” I allude. “And that’s a conversation that I don’t want to have right now.”

"Is he your boyfriend?" His question is more like an incredulous snap of disdain. He hates how I'm hooking up with someone else besides him, but he doesn't talk much about it, neither do I, but still…

"No," I deadpan. "But, it's called respect."

"Not following, you screw us both, and he gets respect?"

“You want to go on a date,” I retort.

“So, he doesn’t take you out?” I heave my purse further up on my shoulder. I’m already done with this conversation.

“Not as his date, Jed.”

“And we’ve been friends forever,” he counters. “So, if he gets jealous about something like that, Rea, I’m not sure he’s right for you.”

It’s at the tip of my tongue, burning a hole through my lips to get it out and just be done with him.

After the...thing with him and his brother, it didn’t exactly end there. The first time I came home, we banged.

Then the next time, and the next. Yeah, you get the picture.

But the more time that goes by, the more impatient Jed gets with dreams and fantasies of us getting back together. Every time he mentions it, it's like batting away a fly. I try not to hurt his feelings, but he still gets upset in the process. And he's getting worse with getting in his feelings.

I sprint-walk around a corner. “Look, I’m about to run into an appointment, I gotta go.”

“See you in two days,” he singsongs then hangs up, leaving me frustrated.

Jed may have been a person I loved once upon a time, but then it was sucked out of me by the President of the United States.

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