Page 80 of Passenger Princess

"And you've gotta be ready to go in." He looks at his watch. "Forty-five minutes." I roll my eyes, knowing we don't have to be at the speed dating event untilat leastan hour from now. "Meaning I don't have time to fuck you now."

My lips tip up, even though I think that's a crying shame.

"But you in your little robe and whatever you're wearing under it," he says of the cream silk robe and the matching silk and lace bra and underwear set I'm wearing to get ready in, "are making it really, really hard for me to make the right choice."

I smile at him, reach for my coffee, and duck under his arm that's braced on the wall.

"Well, it'll just have to wait until after, won't it?" I say with a laugh, moving back to the bathroom, where all of my makeup and hair products are sprawled about.

"Is that him?" Jules asks as I pick up my still-warm curling iron, fixing my bangs one last time.

"Yes, that's Jaime," I say, taking a sip of my coffee before grabbing my primer and starting the process of putting on my makeup base.

"Jaime!" Jules yells from my phone. I turn to him, standing ten feet away from me like a deer in headlights. With a makeup sponge in hand and the straw of my coffee between my lips, I smile at his shocked, panicked face. "Come here."

"Jules, you're going to scare the man," Harper says under her breath. "We need him to like us when she brings him home." Something about that warms me, my friends wanting the new man in my life to like them.

"You've been summoned, Big Guy," I tell Jaime.

"Oh my god, you call him big guy, I can't even."

"Come here," I say to Jaime, tipping my head toward the bathroom.

"I don't think—" he starts, but Jules hears him and jumps on it.

"I don't bite, not through a phone screen at least," she says.

"You reallyaregoing to scare him off, stop, Jules!" I fully turn to him and fight the laugh at seeing him standing panicked in the other room. "Trust me, it's easier on both of us if you just come here and say hi to them." He stares at me, and I lose the battle of my smile, letting it take over my face. Then he sighs and walks into the bathroom to a round of cheers from me, Jules, and Harper.

"Oh my god,he's even hotter on FaceTime," Jules says under her breath.

"Jules!" Harper shouts.

"Tell me I'm wrong. Do it. You can't!"

"Hi, Jaime, I'm so sorry, please ignore that one. I'm Harper, Ava'ssanefriend."

"Fuck off," Jules says. "I'm Jules, the much more fun one. It's great to meet you. Is our Ava treating you well? Giving you lots of head?"

Now it'smyturn to turn my head to my phone, a blush coming to my cheeks. "Jules! What the fuck!"

"Oh, don't eventryto tell me you haven't given that man head. Justlookat him."

My face burns, and Jaime nods at the disaster that is this interaction and starts to turn away.

"On that note, I'm gonna go," he says.

"No! No, don't go!" Jules yells.

I reach out, grab his arm, and look at my phone screen. I want him to stay, chat with my friends, and spend just a few more minutes with me. It's all I want lately: to spend time with him doing nothing but hanging out, like he'sreallymine and we're not in this very strange arrangement where lines between work and pleasure are much too blurred.

I just want ahintof normalcy. A taste of what this could be in a few months.

"If you behave and stop being such a nudge, he'll stay, right?" I say, looking from my phone to Jaime's face in the mirror.

"I promise I'll be good! Nothing weird or anything. I just miss my girl, and she won't tell me any of the juicy details, which probably means sheactually likes you, and I want the inside scoop. But I'll stop being a pain if you hang out with us."

Jaime sighs. He looks at me, then at the screen of my phone, then moves further into the bathroom, sitting on the closed toilet seat.

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