Page 108 of False Evidence

He spoke with confidence and authority. He had her dream job. And she couldn’t help but notice he was handsome. Even better—probably her favorite thing about him—was that he didn’t direct every statement to Alex. He barely even looked at her.

No. Brent Forbes only had eyes for Kendall, and it was a heady feeling. She wasn’t second best.

Within minutes of introductions, Alex winked at her and wandered away. Kendall really loved Alex, but in that moment, her appreciation for her best friend might have been at the pinnacle. Alex played the dumb blonde at times purely for entertainment value, but she didn’t have an unintelligent cell in her body.

Kendall turned her attention back to Brent, for once not wishing she had Alex’s curves, hair, or brains. No. This handsome, successful engineer was interested inher.

Before she left the job fair, they had plans to meet at a bar in Bethesda for happy hour to talk about internships with Talon & Drake.

Brent Forbes could be the answer to her dreams. But the best part might be that she wouldn’t have ramen for dinner that night.

Three weeks later, Kendall was certain she was in love. It didn’t bother Brent that he was twelve years older than her, so why should it bother her? For once, she was dating aman. A man who wasn’t trying to use her to get close to her gorgeous roommate.

The sex was exciting too. She’d had her share of lovers, but it had never been as good or exciting as it was supposed to be. Orgasms had been few and far between.

But with Brent, she’d finally found a man who knew how a woman’s body worked and cared enough to get her to the finish line every time. He pushed her boundaries in the best ways. She’d never imagined being so uninhibited.

It didn’t hurt that he had a real job and took her out to dinner in restaurants that didn’t give you a number to place on your table when you ordered at the counter.

It was wild to her that he spent hours in her apartment and didn’t even seem to notice Alex. He only had eyes for Kendall.

She’d told Alex she was in love before, but Brent Forbes wasthe one.

Tonight, she faced an important relationship test. Brent’s friend, another Talon & Drake employee—anexecutive—was coming over for pizza and a movie.

Russ Spaulding could make or break her shot at an internship. Plus, he was senior to Brent in the office hierarchy, so she needed to impress him. Brent was counting on her to be the kind of girlfriend who’d be an asset at dinner parties hosted by executives.

And someday, she wouldn’t be just the girlfriend. She’d have her master’s in civil engineering and a real job. She and Brent would host the dinner party, and the bigwigs would come toherhouse. Maybe the owner of the company, who was a US senator, would be among the guests.

Okay, the fantasy was over the top, but it was fun.

To impress Russ Spaulding, she’d opted to make a homemade pizza instead of having it delivered. She was busy kneading the dough when Alex got home and went straight to her room, mumbling something about black hole thermodynamics.

Kendall finished the dough, then set it aside and washed her hands as she rehearsed what she’d say to Alex.

After a cursory knock, she opened the door to see Alex sitting on her bed reading a book. She glanced up, her nose and eyes visible above the hardback. “What’s up?”

“Tonight is pizza night with Russ Spaulding—the Talon & Drake executive I mentioned. I was hoping you could join us? I really want to impress Mr. Spaul—Russ—because an internship at Talon & Drake would be amazing.”

“I really need to study. I have a paper due?—”

“You also need to eat. Just a half hour? Please? Everyone is always impressed when you start talking about black holes.”

Alex laughed. “You mean it makes people shut down and tune me out. You know, I just string together random words to see if they’re pretending to be interested.”

“Of course they don’t understand. No one understands. I’ve been your best friend for six years and I’m still not sure what theoretical physics is.”

“We’re really studying the angular displacement of antiquarks and the gravity of Avogadro’s number as it relates to the Big Bang.”

“Uh-huh. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on Bose-Einstein condensates.”

“Youdounderstand this game.”

“Live with you for six years, and a few random words are bound to osmosify with my brain.”

“Now, now, osmosify isn’t a word.”

“And yet you knew exactly what I meant.”

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