Page 5 of It's Complicated

With a flash of challenge in her eyes, Lori leans into me, whispering in my ear, “Not even if I left wet towels on the bathroom floor?”

It’s been years since she’s been so close. Years since I’ve wanted to kiss her so badly. I push her back and turn her around, gently shoving her toward the couch. “Come on, Bridget Jones… enough with the smart talk.”

Lori sags on the cushions, pouting. “I prefer to picture myself as Julia Roberts inMy Best Friend’s Wedding.”

I raise my eyebrows at that and drop down next to her—but at a safe distance. “Didn’t she lose the guy in the movie?”

“At least she fought with honor. Me? I haven’t done a single thing to stop this dreadful wedding from happening.”

“Would you really want to jeopardize Aiden’s happiness?”

She unzips one boot, kicks it under the coffee table, and moves on to the other one. “You want the honest answer or the politically correct one?”

The second boot joins the first, and she sits on the couch in a butterfly pose.

“You know you can be your horrible self around me, Lola.”

Lori throws me a pillow and exhales a long, hard breath. “Honestly, I don’t know, Jace. I have nothing against Kirsten personally, but she’s so… I don’t know… shiny?”

I scowl at her. “What’s wrong with shiny?”

She laughs. “Nothing, I’m just saying she’s like a shiny new toy. Come on, did you see her shoes the other night?”

I can’t help but laugh, too. “Her high heels are the least of Aiden’s problems, Lola.”

I hate how eager her face becomes. “Why? You have some dirt on her?”

“Nope, just agreeing she errs on the high-maintenance side.”

“So why does he put up with her?”

“Because he loves her?”

Lori hurls the remaining pillow at my head. “Now you’re just being vile.”

I shrug. “Oh, you know me. I’m always the villain in every fairy tale.”

Lori rolls her eyes. “Yeah, that’s why we get along so well.”

I glance over at her and recognize the sadness in her eyes that she tries to hide with humor.

Lori smiles. She’s even more beautiful when she does. But the smile doesn’t reach her eyes, she’s only putting on a brave face. And I wish I could be the one to make that beautiful smile reach her eyes, the one to make her happy. That’s when I realize how badly I want to kiss her—again. Proximity isn’t good for me.

I want to press my lips on her neck and wipe that heartache away forever. I want to drag my mouth up along the curve of her jaw to whisper in her ear how special she is, how badly I want to kiss her, but there’s no way she’d reciprocate.

Struggling to keep my impulses in check, I scoot further down to my side of the couch. Lori steals back one of the pillows and settles down, a hand on her chest as she hugs it for comfort.

“Thank you,” she whispers, looking at me with Bambi eyes.

“What for?”

“You’re the only person in the world who could’ve made me smile today.” I want to tell her I can see through her fake smiles, that I know I’m not who she needs but wish with everything I have that I could be.

Instead, I do what I always do. Keep quiet. Keep my feelings to myself. Play aloof. Always the villain never the hero. “Careful there, or my reputation will get a hit.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell any of the ladies you’re not really the dangerous bad boy they want you so hard to be.”

I chuckle, but the sound is bitter. It grates on my throat. None of the women I’ve been with have ever meant anything.

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