Page 11 of Infatuation

Holy Jealous Boyfriend, Batman—except, of course, that Josh Faraday isn’t my boyfriend. We’ve never even been on a flippin’ date.

“Shit,” Josh breathes before I can reply to his initial question. “What’s the bastard’s name?”

“Josh,” I manage to say. “No, he didn’t make a pass at me.” I think that’s technically true—I’m the one who made a pass at Derek. “But if he had,” I continue, “it wouldn’t be any of your business.” I let that sink in for a minute. “Derek just didn’t take things seriously enough for my taste, that’s all,” I say evenly.

“Derek, huh?” Josh says, his voice edged with testosterone.

“What the hell, Josh?” I say. “You sound like a caveman. Don’t worry about it. I’m asking for a new guy. Problem solved.” I’m suddenly pissed. He has no claim on me. I can do what I want. “I’d better get back into the room,” I say stiffly. “I came out into the hallway to take your call.”

He exhales. “Listen, Kat. I don’t want you being alone ’til we figure this shit out. Not for a minute. Okay? Jonas obviously had asixth sense here—he was totally right. We’ve got to take this seriously.”

“Yeah. Okay. Got it. Thanks. But like I said, Rodney’s out in the waiting room, and I’ll get a new guy tomorrow.”

“You promise?”

I exhale with exasperation. I’m not sure I like this caveman crap from a guy I’m not even dating. “I’m getting a new guy because it’s what I wanna do, not because you told me to do it.”

“Jeez. Touchy. I’m just looking out for you.”

Tears flood my eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m a wreck right now. Ignore me. I didn’t mean to be bitchy. It’s been a really hard day, Josh.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I know,” he coos. “Of course, it has.”

I sniffle into the phone. “I’m sorry.”

“No worries.”

We’re silent for a long moment.

“Okay, well, I gotta go,” I say. “I came into the hallway to take your call. If Sarah wakes up, I wanna be there.”

Josh exhales. “Kat, listen . . .” But he doesn’t finish the thought. “Yeah, I gotta go, too. Don’t forget to tell my brother I’m stuck down in LA, but I’ll get there as soon as I can. Please tell him, okay? I’m really worried about him.” His voice breaks. “He’s been through a lot, Kat—something like this was the last thing he needed.”

“It’s okay, Josh,” I say softly. “Hang in there, okay?”

I hear him breathing, but he doesn’t reply.

“I’m sure this is rough on you—being down there when your brother’s wigging out up here.”

He doesn’t reply for a long beat. “Kat, you have no idea.”

“Hang in there.”

There’s another long beat.

Josh clears his throat. “It sounds like Sarah’s gonna be good as new, so crisis averted. Jonas will take her to his house tomorrow and nurse her back to health and he’ll be happy as a clam. I’m sure the minute I walk through his door tomorrow, he’ll kick me the fuck out again, just like he did last night.”

I chuckle. “He kicked you out last night?”

“Yeah. I guess he wanted someprivacy, if you know what I mean.”

I can hear him rolling his eyes across the phone line.

“Well, from what I heard before you got to Jonas’ house the other day, consider yourself lucky you didn’t hear them. Yeesh.”

“Really?”

“Oh my God. They sounded like they were dying in there.”

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