Page 55 of Someone Just Like You

Chapter Twenty-Six

After Jude rolled off me, we both lay on our backs, staring up at the ceiling and breathing hard. “Not bad, Molly Blum,” he said, rubbing the side of my leg.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, Jude Stark.” I curled on my side and studied him. His face was flushed, and a damp strand of hair clung to his forehead. I’d just had sex with Jude.Jude!It hadn’t quite sunk in yet. How had we gone from barely tolerating the other’s presence to literally connecting as one? Was he as blown away by this development as I was? “So…when exactly did you stop hating me and start…” I placed a hand on his belly. “Lusting me?”

He lifted an arm over his head. “I didn’thateyou, Mole.”

“Um hmm.” Hesohated me.

He tickled my arm. “Hate is a strong word. I didn’t like you.”

“But why?” I cringed for a second, fearing I sounded desperate and not wanting Jude to think I cared. But I did care. We were naked and in bed together. I was allowed to care what he thought of me. “We were friends and then we weren’t. What changed?”

He turned on his side to face me. “Honestly, I don’t remember much except how perfect you became…like the world might end if you messed up or underperformed.”

I ducked my head. He wasn’t wrong.

“Your general sweetness gave me cavities. ‘Letmeclear the table! No,I’lltake out the garbage!’” he said in a slightly higher-than-normal voice and with exaggerated enthusiasm. “Everyone would whisper about what a good little helper you were and then side-eye me.”

I pouted. “No one stopped you from helping too.”

“I didn’t want to help. I wanted to play!” He laughed. “And you were so put together and in control. You always knew the right things to say to the grown-ups, whereas I was always mixing up words and putting my foot in my mouth.”

My throat tickled. One time, Judecomplimentedhis great grandmother’s new hairstyle by saying the color reminded him of a “Brillo pad!” I snorted and threw my hand against my mouth. Or when he said Derek Jeter was theimpotenceof awesome instead of epitome. “Haha.”

He gave me fake evil eye. “There’s the mean flag I was talking about. But I knew how to take your confidence down a notch. Watching perfect Mollyanna get rattled and frustrated was the sweetest revenge.”

“Perfect? Who, me? You were the charming one.” I pointed at him. “Always stealing the show—at home and in school. People loved being around you. You were so easygoing and friendly to everyone. Except me. I had to meet you at your level.”

“And you did. You still do. But then you started asking my advice—”

“I never—”

“In not so many words,” he said, raising his voice. “And taking it. I don’t know.” His eyes softened. “I realized I preferred being nice to you over being mean.”

“Wow. That’s almost romantic.” I took him in again—the boy from across the street, now the man in my bed. Jude Stark was mad cute.

“And then I saw you naked through the shower curtain, and it sealed it for me.”

I shot up. “The shower curtain was see-through?”

He smiled devilishly and pushed me back on the bed. “What about you? When did you start lusting me?”

I thought back over the last three months. “I knew something was off when we searched my bedroom for Yogi and I started sweating. It got worse from there.” Mesmerized by his hands making drinks at Hillstone. The desire to nibble on his collarbone even through my fever. I bit my lip. “My sisters suspect my hate was a mask for a secret crush.”

“I always thought so.”

I shoved him.

He grinned goofily. “I mean…you kept dating guys who were poor substitutes for me.”

“You’re one to talk!Mysweetness gave you cavities, but you dated alawyerwho was too nice for her own good?”

His response was a blank expression.

“I overheard you talking to her on the phone outside my apartment the day we went to Sakagura.”

“Pfft. Coincidence.”

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