Page 100 of Never Ever Getting Back Together

I study him. He kind of looks like his puppy’s just died. “Are you still in love with her?” I ask.

“Maya, don’t start this.”

“I’m not starting anything! It’s a genuine, empathetic question, Jordy. Have you ever heard of that? Empathy?”

“Terrible condition, I’m yet to be struck by it. And no, I’m not still in love with her. I’ve re-met someone else.”

“Have you, now?” I ask with a laugh.

“Yes, and I’m contractually obligated to not tell you who, so don’t try to get it out of me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I say. “But, um… I’m sorry that happened. It really sucks, getting your heart broken.”

He glances at me, then back to the ceiling. “Like I did to you,” he says casually.

I pull the throw blanket around my shoulders to cover a chill. “Yeah.”

We sit in the silence until it weighs a little too heavy. Then, to my surprise, Jordy cracks first.

“I’m sorry,” he says, shuffling on the couch to face me. His voice is serious suddenly. “I was just a stupid little shit who thought I could take whatever I wanted if it was available to me. It wasn’t cool.”

I look at him in surprise. Of all the things I’d expected to come out of his mouth, “I’m sorry” wasn’t one of them. Even though he’dbasicallyadmitted it at dinner—by not correcting me when I said it—it’s different to hear him come out and acknowledge that he cheated on me.

After all this time, hearing him insist over and over and over again that he hadn’t done anything wrong, hearing him admit it is… strange.

The thing is, I’d actually figured that he’d convinced himself he hadn’t done anything wrong. You know how you can twist conversations in your mind until you remember them going another way? I could’ve sworn that was what Jordy had done to himself. Rewritten one of our conversations in his mind until it became a breakup, so he could convince himself he was actually the good guy in the situation.

But he hadn’t convinced himself of anything. He’s known the whole time that he cheated on me. The whole fucking time.

And he told everyone I was lying about it anyway.

“What?” he whispers gently as I stare at him, a smile teasing the corner of his mouth.

I blink myself back into focus. “Thank you for apologizing,” I say.

I am going to get to the end of this show. And I am going to crush him.

He brushes a strand of hair from my eyes. “I should’ve done it earlier,” he murmurs.

Yes.

Too late.

I lean into his hand, and he runs his fingertips around to the back of my head and pulls me in. As our lips meet, I ignore their size, and the taste of his mouth.

It’s Skye,I tell myself.

She pulls me to my feet and leads me to her bedroom, where we tumble onto her mattress. I crawl on top of her, my knees on either side of her body. Closing my eyes, I lean down and kiss my way down her neck, scraping my tongue lightly along her skin until she groans in the back of her throat. She snakes her hands up underneath my shirt, and I ignore the sudden roughness of her fingers, going back to kiss her full on the mouth instead. I kiss her again and again, harder each time. I can’t get enough of her. She pulls me down farther, grinding her hips against me.

“Maya,” she pants, and suddenly, she’s Jordy again. My name doesn’t belong on his lips, so I kiss it off them, long and deep.

Then I extract myself delicately, and climb off the bed.

He lets out a cry of protest. “Where are you going?” he asks between heavy breaths.

I saunter to the doorway then stand in it, leaning against the frame. “As long as I’m one of many, I’m leaving it there,” I say silkily. “I’m pretty set on monogamy, these days.”

He huffs at me in a mixture of humor and frustration. “You aren’t really gonna leave me—” he says. He doesn’t get any further, though, before I shut the door and head to my own room to sleep.

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