Page 44 of Love to Prove You Wrong

There. Now I was ready.

I zoomed in on my target and approached him. When I was close enough, I cleared my throat. “Excuse me, can we talk?”

Justin’s eyes nervously flicked between me and the man he was talking to. “I’ll be right over. Why don’t I meet you outside in five?”

“Perfect,” I said, and took my breadsticks with hummus dip outside.

I positioned myself on one of the loungers next to the pool. The spot gave me a great view of Justin, who kept glancing at me with a suspicious expression on his face.

That’s right, Kermit the Frog, I’m going to tell you something you’d never thought possible.

A couple of minutes later, Justin shook the man’s hand and gave him a curt nod. Finally, he was on his way to me. I sat up straight, my palms clammy from the anticipation of what was about to go down.

“What’s up?” Justin asked.

It was like nothing had happened between us. How could he remain so cool? Then again, he was an actor, which meant he was probably an expert at hiding his true emotions.

I patted the spot beside me. “Come and sit.”

He reluctantly sat down. His arms were crossed, which only drew attention to his unbuttoned shirt. Did he really need to shove that delicious ripped chest in my face right now?

“Jussie, is this a date?” I asked.

Instead of answering, he countered with a question. “Are you drunk?”

I blew out a puff of air and pointed a bread stick at him. “Just answer the question, Jussie.”

“You are. You’re drunk. When did this happen?”

I frowned. I wasn’t intoxicated. Maybe a bit, yes, but notdrunkdrunk. “I. Am. Not.”

“Well, I can’t tell for sure. And that means that I can’t have this conversation with you. Not when you might say things you’ll regret later.”

This was ludicrous. First, he was mad because I ran and hid inside a pantry, and now he didn’t want to talk to me when I made it crystal clear that I finally wanted to? Men! Unbelievable.

My nostrils flared at this unfairness. “Fine. We won’t talk.”

“Maybe we should go home,” he said. “This entire night has been a disaster from start to finish.”

“But we haven’t even had cake yet. You can’t do this to me. I’m sure Alicia will have ordered the best cake ever.”

“Cake? That’s what you’re concerned about?”

I got up, ready to run, but then realized I had nowhere to run to. Unlike Justin, I didn’t have a helicopter on standby that I could summon whenever I wanted to.

I plopped back down into my seat. “Whatever. We can’t go. It’s rude to leave a party this early and I hate rudeness. You should know that by now.”

“Fine.”

He turned his head away, his gaze anywhere except on me.

“Maybe we should do something that doesn’t involve any talking,” I said. “I heard someone mention a foosball table in the entertainment room. Can you believe Alicia’s got an entertainment room? My living room is hardly big enough to fit a television, and she’s got an entire space dedicated to—”

Justin spun his head back in my direction. “You’re babbling. I thought we weren’t going to talk.”

I got up and threw him an expectant look. “Shall we go find that foosball table?”

He got up as well, so slow that he looked like a ninety-year-old man with knee and back problems. His mouth was a hard line. Had I broken his playfulness? I didn’t like his change in behavior, even though I couldn’t blame him. I owed him an apology for sure, but I also needed time to process my thoughts and feelings.

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