Page 77 of Only This Once
“You’re such a sap,” Rachel muttered. “I feel sorry for him. Jules probably stomped all over his poor, fragile heart.”
“Please tell us you let him down easy?” Heather asked, her brow creased in concern. “He’s such a sweetheart, and he’s been holding that torch for you for a long time.”
Julia flushed. “So I should have known?”
Her sisters stared at her. “You… didn’t?” Maria asked.
“Of course not!” Julia flushed as she remembered what she’d done with him in her apartment, more than once. “Do you really think I would have had sex with him if I’d known he was in love with me?” Saying it out loud made her stomach swirl like it’d been doing all week.
Heather winced.
Rachel gripped her empty glass. “Wait. You had sex with him? Did we know this?” Her eyes shifted around the room.
Maria’s eyes were huge. “I didn’t,” she murmured. “I thought they were hanging out as friends.”
“Friends with benefits,” Heather said. Their other sisters turned toward her, but she was looking at Julia. “You seemed so happy about it when you brought it up at our parents’ house. He seemed happy, too, and I figured it would be a one-time thing, like you always do.”
Julia squirmed. “It might have been… more than once.”
“Well, well.” Heather’s eyebrows lifted.
Maria’s face softened. She was going to her own utopian universe again. “Does that mean you like him?”
“It’s Jinx. Of course, I like him.” Julia blew out an annoyed breath. “But if you meanlikelike him, then no. I don’t do that.”
“Likelike? I’ve never seen you beat around the bush like this before.” Rachel’s eyes narrowed.
She shifted in her seat. “I was clear with him about what it was. I figured as long as we were both honest and straightforward, it’d work out in the end. And he… well, he needed this. At least, I thought he did.” Her head lowered to the table. Dread curled inside her. “I made a mess, didn’t I?”
“Is he upset?” Maria asked, her voice tentative.
Was he? He’d still been texting her back all week, and he’d told her it was okay. But he’d had that look, that kicked puppy look. “I’m not sure.”
“He knows you pretty well, right?” Heather asked. “And you were clear about what the sex was?”
Julia lifted her head to glare at her sister. “I’d never lie to him.”
“What you think is obvious when it comes to jumping into bed with someone might not match his expectations.” Rachel raised her hands when Julia’s glare shifted to her. “I’m not judging. I’m just assuming your experience levels are different.”
“We talked things through.” Julia didn’t feel defensive about that part of it at all. She’d been very clear. Of course, she’d also promised to only be with him once. But then there had been the lead up to it, and after the actual sex there’d been the blow job. She’d even been the one to wake him up last weekend so they could have sex again.
If she were honest with herself, she still wanted to have sex with him. She crossed her legs, feeling a definite twinge of interest.
“If you were clear in communicating your truth, then his feelings aren’t your problem,” Rachel said with a shrug.
Julia stared at her.
Rachel stared right back. “Isn’t that what you said to me when I finally admitted to no longer being in love with my husband?”
Julia couldn’t deny it. She frowned, dropping her gaze to the table. “This is different.”
“How?” Rachel pushed.
“I—” She swallowed, her head throbbing as she tried to find a way to explain. “I don’t want to lose Jinx.” That was the biggest truth. “I just got him back, and I like spending time with him.”
“Just as a friend?” Maria asked.
Julia couldn’t imagine anything else. She wasn’t the romantic type.
