Page 28 of All Jacked Up

I had to call Jellie and tell her about all this. Swinging my gaze to the clock on the oven, I realized she’d still be at work. I’d call her later. Right now, I thought I needed to open a bottle of wine. I did not care that it was only four in the afternoon. Slipping off my shoes, I went to get the corkscrew from the cabinet where I kept the bar items displayed.

The ding of my phone, alerting me of a text, however, had me turning back to pick it up.

Ransom: You follow the distillery’s Instagram account.

I bit my bottom lip and leaned a hip against the counter. How had he figured that out? They had over two hundred thousand followers. Had he looked me up on Instagram? Deciding not to be weird about it, I’d respond the way I would have before he came waltzing into my apartment last weekend. We were the same now as we had always been.

Me: I’m worried about all the spare time you have.

I smirked, then hit Send. There. That was the me he expected. Not the one who was slightly giddy over the idea that he had looked me up on social media. And not Juliette Romeo, the author. But me, Noa Raines. My personal Instagram had about twenty followers, and I had shared maybe fifteen pictures since opening the account five years ago.

My author account was run by me, but also by the marketing team at Wilson Roe. They posted way more than I did. I’d not used it to follow anyone in my personal life. I kept the two separate.

Ransom: Are you accusing me of slacking?

Me: How else would you know something so trivial?

Sure, I’d caught his gaze a few times when he looked at me while we sat across from each other at lunch, and the interest in them had sent my heart racing. But he did not once flirt. He’dbeen very blunt about what he thought about my body, but after that, he had kept everything friendly. It was clear that he wasn’t going to change things. And I understood. If we began to flirt, it would threaten the friendship we had. I could lose him.

Ransom didn’t keep women he slept with. I was the only one he had kept in his life because I was the one he hadn’t slept with. But, ugh, it was unfair too. The one man I’d fantasized about since I had been a teenager was the one I could never experience. And it would be good. No, it would be mind-blowing.

This was Ransom. Girls had talked about how hot he was and panted after him like dogs in heat when he was in high school. Apparently, he had a big dick with a piercing. I’d hung on every word in class one day when two girls were whispering about it. One had given him a blow job in the locker room and made sure everyone knew.

Ransom: Just doing a little research.

Me: Is that what we are calling stalking these days?

Ransom: Ah, if I were to stalk you, you’d never know. This is just curiosity.

I let out a laugh at the thought of Ransom actually stalking anyone, then took my phone and went to continue my quest to open a bottle of wine. Although, like it seemed to always do, just hearing from him and going back and forth made things seem better.

“Oh, the power you wield over me, Ransom Carver,” I mumbled to myself.

Ransom: Have you thought about hairless cats?

Me: No, but I know because I had to research it for a book once that hairless cats are not an answer for those with cat allergies. It’s not just the air people are allergic to. The allergens are still found in their saliva, skin, and dander.

Ransom: Damn. What about birds? You could get birds.

I pulled out the cork, then set it down beside the bottle.

Me: Why would I get birds?

Taking down a glass, I filled it up, then carried the wine and my phone over to the sofa.

Ransom: I’m working on my mental image of you. Bringing it back to where it was, but it’s a struggle. I thought if you got a bird obsessionand started wearing a stained terry-cloth robe, it might help.

Giggling, I took a drink, then set my glass down so I could respond.

Me: I hate to let you down, but I won’t be doing either of those things. Birds actually terrify me.

I hit Send, then caught a glimpse of myself grinning in the mirror across the room. There were butterflies in my stomach too, I realized.

Ransom: Could you just lie to me about it then? You had no problem lying about your career and relationship status.

Me: Hey! We talked about why I did those things.

I knew he was teasing, but this was fun.

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