Page 54 of One Bad Idea
Chapter 21
Sitting in the quiet restaurant, I took a deep breath and just asked what I'd been dying to know. "That thing last Monday – what was that about?"
Jaden said, "What thing?"
"Oh come on, you know what. At my apartment, there I am, outside talking with Stuart whenyoushow up – out of nowhere, I might add – and scare him off."
"Was that a problem?"
I studied his face. Weird, he looked genuinely curious.
And, as far as his question, I didn't have a good answer. Finally, I murmured, "Well, itwasstrange."
"Yeah? You wanna know what's more strange?"
"What?"
"Him. Calling the cops for something he could've handled himself."
Now, I didn't know what to say. Obviously, he was referring to the fact that Stuart had reported me to the police.
"Yeah, well, I didn'tknowhe actually called them. I mean, hethreatenedto, but I thought he was bluffing."
Jaden gave a low scoff. "No, you didn't."
"Oh, so now you're a mind reader?"
"I don't need to be," he said. "It was obvious."
"By what?"
"Your face."
Feeling suddenly self-conscious, I reached up to touch the side of my cheek. My skin felt excessively warm, but that was completely irrelevant. "What about it?" I asked.
"I'm not talkingnow," he said. "I'm talking when you showed up at the house. You kept looking at the truck, like you were waiting for trouble."
"I did not," I protested.
"And," he said, "once you got inside, you kept looking toward the front door, like you were waiting for the swat team to bust through it."
I tried to scoff. "No, I wasn't."
"And," he continued, "you looked scared shitless."
Okay, now that was just plain insulting."I wasn't scared," I told him. "I was annoyed."
"Yeah." Again, he looked ready to laugh. "Withme."
Whatever the joke was, I didn't get it. I gave a hard nod. "Exactly."
"But me, youweren'tscared of."
It was simple statement. And it was true. Ihadn'tbeen scared of him. I'd even marched into his house and – my face suddenly felt a few degrees warmer – destroyed his lunch, too.
But he totally had it coming. And plus, I'd been too annoyed to be scared.
Across from me, Jaden said, "It was a dick move."
