Page 85 of Just Friends
Okay, no, Pierre wasn’t as tall, handsome, or as muscular as Jax. And I’m pretty sure the French accent he put on was a little too over-the-top to be authentic. But at this point, I needed a good-looking distraction.
Why? Because I’d just confessed my feelings to Jax. And what was his response? Nothing. He simply sat there and saidnothing at allwhile I bared my heart and soul. I was surethat was the same look—staring like a deer in the headlights—he gaveeverycrazy chick he banged who ended up madly in love with him and tried to wring a committed relationship out of him.
The only difference between those girls and me? They at least had the excuse of sleeping with Jax, which explained the conflicting, messy emotions that came afterward. I’d onlykissedhim before I’d gotten hopelessly attached.
Pathetic.
Ugh,I felt so dumb.
“Poor thing. Your shoulders are so tight,” Pierre said in a hushed voice. His healing hands did their their best to persuade my muscles to loosen. “What do you do for a living?”
“Good question,” I said with a defeated sigh.
Ainsley—whose boyfriend was the Devils’ enigmatic goalie, Tanner Vaughn—laid face down on the table to my right. She spoke up on my behalf. “She’s an entrepreneur.”
“An entrepreneur,” Pierre gushed, impressed, yet I felt only shame. “No wonder you are so tight! You must have quite a bit of stress in your life.”
“Yup,” I agreed.
You don’t know the half of it, Pierre.
“What kind of business do you run?” he asked.
“Well,” I murmured, “I guess you could say app development.”
Although that was a total failure, so now I’m mostly just unemployed.
“Don’t make it sound so boring, Piper,” Austen, on the far left, said. She was Dane DeHardt’s fiancée. “Tell him about your big project!”
When I failed to explain in a timely manner, Emma Hathaway took the lead. “Piper just created a dating app all on her own. It’s called Soulmate. Ever heard of it, Pierre?”
“I have not,” he said, “but I must say, that sounds very impressive.”
“Are you single, Pierre?” Austen asked.
“I am,” he coyly admitted.
The girls went,oooo.
“Then maybe you should get Soulmate,” Emma suggested.
“No, Pierre, don’t,” I said with a cynical snicker. “It’s not worth your time.”
“Not much of a saleswoman, are you?” he joked.
“That’s definitely putting it mildly,” I said, sighing at the memory of the disastrous promo. “Anyway, Soulmate didn’t really pan out the way I hoped, so I wouldn’t bother with it if I were you. You won’t find anybody on there because nobody uses it.”
“That is not true!” Ainsley said defensively. “Peopleareusing it, Piper. When Soulmate first came out, I told all my girlfriends back in Kansas about it and got them to sign up. One of my best friends back home just had her third date with her number one match, and from what she tells me, they’re really hitting it off.”
“Really?” I asked doubtfully. I found it hard to believe anyone was still using Soulmate after the promo backfired, much less having success with it.
“Yeah, really!” Ainsley said. “It’s funny, because she wasn’t sure about him going into their first date—he’s so different from the other guys she’s used to dating. She’s a painting major, so she’s used to dating art school boys. He’s your typical fraternity-type ‘bro’ who’s majoring in business and accounting—in other words, acompletelydifferent mold than what she’s used to. But she liked the idea that they were a good match personality-wise, so she gave it a shot.”
I snickered. “Huh.”
“And like I said, right now, she’s just smitten with him. Actually, I’ve never seen her this excited about a boy before. And heseems like he’s really into her, too. He’s only ever dated sorority girls, so he’s stepping out of his comfort zone with her, too.”
“Wow,” I said. “Well, I’m gladsomeoneis using it, I guess.”
