Page 90 of Burn With Me

“You’d actually like it,” I say to Tripp.

His ex-fiancée left him months ago because he has a specific preference in the bedroom for certain things, and she made him feel ashamed of it. Désirer would be a perfect place for Tripp to get to do the things he wants to do without fear of anyone judging him or even knowing it’shimbehind the mask.

“Uh, yeah. It sounds like I would. So, buddy, tell me why you’ve been keeping it a secret?”

“It was on my list of things to do. I had to okay it with Scott first.”

“Like he would have said no! Disappointed in you, Jackson. For not inviting me to play and for tricking your littlelady. You’ve been talking about how she’s so different, so why are you lying to her about your identity at the club?”

“Not only that, Jackson, but what were you going to do when your relationship with her progressed? You can’t keep it from her forever,” Stacey supplies.

“I know! Don’t you think I know all of that already?” Slamming my hand on the top of the desk, I feel slightly bad when it startles her, causing her to jump in her seat.

“Falling for her was the last thing I expected when this whole thing started. I thought I could get away with never telling her.”

Both of them look at me with shock written on their faces. Tripp’s mouth is opening and closing like a fish out of water, and if the topic weren’t serious, I’d find it comical.

“I mean, I kinda figured you’d really fallen for her, but hearing you say it out loud is weird.” Stacey is the first to recover.

Tell me about it.

“Yeah, well. I’m at a loss. I don’t know what to do now. We didn’t see each other at the club Saturday night—she called out. Am I just supposed to wait until Friday to comfort her at Désirer? That’s days away. I don’t know if I can wait that long.”

“Have you tried contacting her since Saturday?” Stacey asks.

“No. You don’t understand. When she asked me to do…what I did, I didn’t hold back. When it was over, I was afraid I really hurt her, and she made itveryclear she didn’t want anything to do with me after that. She said we were done.” Dropping my head to my hands, I press the heels into my eyes to stop the foreign emotions that have been pestering me lately from surfacing.

“She’s probably just hurting. Or freaked out. The first time I did…that…with Emily…” Tripp trails off as a shudder wracks his body.

I remember how much of a mess he was when shewouldn’t call him. Just as bad as I’d been all week. However, instead of drowning my sorrows with my friend, I chose to stay at my apartment alone with P-Kitty and Claudia checking on me every so often.

“Maybe you should just apologize. Simple. To the point. Tell her you respect her decision to end things and leave it at that. Put the ball in her court. She cares about you, Jackson. She may just need some time,” Stacey says.

“I don’t even know what to say to her.”

Tripp grabs my phone off the desk and hands it to Stacey. “She just told you what to say. But here, Tace, you do it. That way, he doesn’t fuck it up any more than he already has.”

Stacey takes the phone with no hesitation. “I hate it when you call me that, Tripp. Here, Jackson, I’ll put what I think you should say in a note, and you can choose whether or not you want to send it to her later. Deal?”

She doesn’t wait for an answer as she starts to type furiously, her fuchsia nails scurrying over the screen with well-practiced agility. It takes her less than a minute before she’s handing it back to me to look over.

I know you don’t want to talk to me, but I wanted to tell you how truly sorry I am for what happened this weekend. I respect your decision to end things. You won’t have to worry about hearing from me again.

It’s simple and to the point. I don’t know how I feel about it. What if Ginny never responds? If I say she doesn’t have to worry about hearing from me again, I should stick to that, right?

As if Stacey reads the questions on my face, she says, “See what her reaction is on Friday at the club.”

“I thought we weren’t condoning him lying to her? You know how I feel about liars,” Tripp asks.

Another thing his ex left him with. After telling him for weeks that there was no one else and that she just didn’t love him anymore, he found out that was a lie and that Emily had, in fact, been dating someone else on the side. What made itworse was that this guy was a complete jackass. His family came from money, and he rode his father’s coattails without doing anyrealwork.

It had crushed Tripp.

“I’m not condoning it,” she says to him before turning to look at me. “I disapprove of you lying to her. You need to end things at the club or come clean. It will be so much worse if she decides to speak to you again and later finds out you lied.”

Tripp’s phone goes off, and he gets up after he checks it, pointing to me before heading to the door. “I gotta get back to my floor. Keep me in the loop, got it?”

“Yeah, I need to get going, too. Let me know if you decide to send the message, okay?” Stacey says.

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