Page 28 of Cinderella Screwed Me Over
“Do I seem like the type of girl who can’t follow simple dance moves?” I was relieved my voice didn’t come out as breathless as I suddenly felt.
“Not can’t.” That butterfly-inducing grin spread across his face. “More like won’t.”
I did my best to act unaffected, lifting my chin and throwing in a touch of haughtiness. “Well, if you didn’t already know how to dance, I would go ahead and take the lead. But since you’re doing a good job, you can have it.” I moved my hand from his shoulder to the back of his neck, a thrill shooting through me when he swallowed hard. “For now.”
…
The elevator doors slid open, and Jake stepped off with me instead of riding up to his floor.
Now, I know I’ve gone on and on about how I don’t believe two people can work out, but I am not into one-night stands, flings, or meaningless trysts either. Some girls claim they can do it, and maybe they can. One of my former coworkers claimed she could and then she’d cry when a week had gone by and the guy didn’t call. So, I’m sure you’re asking the same question I’ve asked myself: If you don’t believe in relationships or flings, whatdoyou believe in?
I wasn’t exactly sure. What’s between monogamy and promiscuity? The basic idea was to have a string of semi-long-term, low-risk relationships. Like serial monogamy. I know it sounds impossible, but I was still working on it. All I knew was unavoidable daily awkwardness was something I wanted to stay far, far away from.
Yet Jake possessed a certain je ne sais quoi. And I’d had more fun with him tonight than I’d had in a long time.
Don’t even think about it, Darby. You see him every day. You eat at Blue all the time. Friends is the way to go.
I probably shouldn’t have flirted with him all night, then.
Or pressed my body against his.Heat wound through my core just thinking about it.And if he can dance like that…My heart jolted and my pulse pounded. Man, it’d been a long time since I’d even kissed a guy.
Remember the rules. Stick to the rules.
Shaking off the memory of how his firm body felt next to mine, I dug into my purse and took out my keys. I unlocked the door, then twisted around to end the date. “I had a good—”
Jake’s lips cut me off before I could go into why it was probably for the best if we didn’t go out again. It was a quick, chaste kiss, over before I had a chance to latch onto it, but it still sent a spike of electricity through me. He stepped away, said good night, and then headed back toward the elevator.
No words came out as I watched him. The farther he got, the stupider it seemed to yell out a good-bye. So I walked into my condo and locked the door behind me.
Well, that was about the worst preemptive breakup speech I’ve ever given.
Chapter Nine
“Tell me everything,” Steph said, stepping into my place. She’d brought a box of doughnuts to keep us sugared up for all the wedding-planning stuff we had to go over.
“I’ve got a ton of work to do and my computer keeps acting up. I’m about to throw it out the window.”
“When I said everything, I meant about Jake.”
I sat on my couch, closed my temperamental laptop, and set it off to the side. “I told you everything over the phone. We had a fun time, quick kiss, that’s it.”
“Yeah, but did he say he’d call?”
“Actually, he doesn’t have my number.” I opened the box she’d placed on my coffee table and selected a cinnamon-swirled pastry. “It doesn’t matter, though, because I was about to tell him we couldn’t be more than friends. Had he said anything about calling, I would’ve told him it wasn’t a good idea.”
Stephanie plunked her giant wedding-planner binder next to the box of doughnuts, selected a maple one out of the box, and sat back on my couch. Her red shirt matched the color of my couch so well, everything but her head and arms disappeared. “How can you just blow him off like that? You said you had a good time.”
“You, of all people, know why. Now let’s get started.”
“Since Anthony’s aunts are in a fight now, I have to redo the whole seating chart again and it’s a mess.” Steph sat up and flipped open her book. “Here you are. Ooh, look at my little pink friend Darby. And there’s still an empty seat next to you in case you want to invite Jake.”
“I’mnotgoing to invite Jake. Wedding dates are the worst.” Before she could argue, like I could see she was going to, I said, “Need I remind you what happened last time I took a date to a wedding?”
Steph’s lip curled. “Okay, so it was bad.” She scooted forward. “But that was totally different. You know Jake. Is inviting him really worse than having everyone looking at you all sad because you don’t have a date to your best friend’s wedding?”
Honestly, Steph’s wedding was going to be a hard day for me. I was worried I would lose my best friend, and even more worried she’d eventually get her heart trampled beyond repair. Once there were joint mortgages and bank accounts and that marriage certificate involved, breaking up wasn’t just a cry fest with a side of calorie binging. It was unwinding your entire life from his, one painful string at a time. But I was working on keeping from blurting out those kinds of thoughts, so I went with something else that was also true. “I’d rather be there alone, than be on a date that could go down in flames during one of your big moments.”
“I remember back when Jimmy Delfino dumped me andIwas the pessimist. You kept insisting I’d meet someone better, pushing me to date all those other guys so I could find my true love. Now I have, and you’re the one who doesn’t believe in it.”
