Page 42 of Cinderella Screwed Me Over
He grabbed my hand. “For nothing, you sure seem upset.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I pulled on his hand and headed toward his car.
Seeing Allen had put a damper on the whole night. I’d managed to avoid him for eight years. Why did he have to pop up on the one night I was starting to rethink my stance on relationships? If I would’ve just let Jake take me to Boulder for dinner, I wouldn’t have run into Allen.
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
Jake drove the couple blocks to our building, the ride passing in silence. When we got into the elevator, I was half expecting him to push my floor and drop me off. Instead, he chose the button for the twentieth floor. With no others lit, we buzzed up fast enough that my stomach lurched when we stopped.
Jake led me past several doors to the end of the hall. As we stepped inside, he flipped on the lights. He wasn’t kidding about his lack of decorating. A black couch sat in the middle of the living room, and a giant flat-screen TV—on a tiny side table—was opposite it.Typical guy. Huge TV and nothing else.
The far wall had floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.
“It’s kind of plain right now,” Jake said.
“Lack of decorating is better than bad decorating, in my opinion.”
He walked into the kitchen and took a couple bowls out of his cupboard. “I did a little homework, and according to the people I talked to, when you order dessert, you go for chocolate.” He grabbed a pan off the top of his oven. “So I made brownies.”
“You made them?”
“I’m a pretty good cook, actually. When you have a chef roommate, you pick up a few things.” Jake grabbed a carton of ice cream from the freezer and took some chocolate syrup out of the fridge.
I leaned against the cool granite countertop of his island, which was about twice the size of mine. “And what else did everyone at Blue say?”
“That you come in a lot—or used to before you met me, apparently. You have client meetings there, you’re always friendly, a good tipper, and that you would never go out with me. They said you’d stopped dating since your last boyfriend…” Jake stopped, looking like he wanted to take back the last sentence. He scooted one of the bowls toward me and handed me the syrup.
The staff at Blue could’ve only been talking about one guy. “That’s the problem with sticking to one place. People start to know too much about you.”
“Everyone likes you. They actually told me they’d be mad if you stopped coming in because of me—or Mindy did, anyway. She’s the only one bold enough to tell me something like that.”
We covered our ice cream in syrup, then headed over to the couch to eat dessert.
What a night.I run into Allen, plus get a reminder of what happened the last time I let myself fall.
I knew Jake and I would have an awkward pause eventually. At least I had the brownie to keep me busy during it. Jake didn’t have a coffee table, so when I finished my dessert, I glanced around for a place to set my empty bowl.
“Here,” he said, taking it from me and sticking it in his. He headed to the kitchen, and I walked across the room to the giant windows. The moon peeked out between thin gray clouds. Down below, tiny headlights and taillights moved up and down the streets. I wondered where all those people were going, what their stories were.
Jake came up behind me and put his arms around me. He was warm and solid, and I was starting to like the way he always enveloped me in his arms. His breath stirred my hair. “So, what was up with that guy in the bookstore?”
I ran my fingers across Jake’s forearm, over the coarse hair and the raised veins on the back of his hand. “He’s a mistake from a long time ago. Also known as why I don’t date liars.”
Jake’s lips brushed my temple. “I remember you mentioning that. After you thought I might be one.”
“I’m still not sure you’re not a liar. The problem with liars is, you never really know they’re liars until you catch them.”
“What did he lie about? Something big, I’m guessing.”
“It was pretty big.” I sighed. “Allen was married while we were dating. I should’ve seen the signs. I just…didn’t.”
Things were getting too deep. This was more than I wanted to tell him, and I couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t simply sidestepped the question. I moved away from the window, pulling free of Jake’s arms. “I should get going.”
“Oh, that’s right,” he said. “We’ve got to keep everything light.” There was a hint of frustration in his words.
I leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “I’ve already broken enough rules for one night.”
Chapter Thirteen
