Page 122 of Love & Other Disasters

The next morning, Violet was curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee watching television when a knock came at the door. He was still in the shower upstairs. She was wearing only J.P.’s T-shirt, so she wrapped the blanket around her and peered out. A girl stood on the porch; Violet opened the door a crack.

“Where’s J.P.?” asked the tall, blonde, skinny, young nightmare standing there holding a wrapped up plate.

“In the shower,” she answered, loosening the blanket so the fact that she was wearing his shirt peeked through. Petty move? Maybe. However, if he’d slept with this girl while they were apart Violet aimed to clarify that it wouldn’t happen again. “What can I do for you?”

“I was, uh, bringing J.P. some muffins.”

“Oh, how sweet. I will tell him you stopped by,” she said, about to slam the door in this girl’s face when J.P.’s arms wrapped around her.

“Hey, Cassie, what brings you by this early?”

Cassie’s eyes dropped to his arms around Violet and a pained expression crossed her face. Violet’s heart went out to her, a little bit.

“She brought muffins,” Violet said, since the girl wasn’t speaking. Cassie held out the plate, and Violet took it. “Nice to meet you, I’m Violet. Thanks for the muffins.”

“Yeah, thanks for the muffins,” J.P. said.

Cassie nodded. “Nice to meet you,” she mumbled and scurried off the porch.

“That’s nice of her,” J.P. said after Violet shut the door. He headed toward the kitchen.

“Did you sleep with her?”

J.P. froze. Why did Violet ask him that? She thought he’d sleep with that girl? He didn’t find Cassie attractive.

“No. She’s just a girl who lives down the street with her parents.”

“Obviously, it threw her off finding me here.”

“I didn’t sleep with Cassie. She’s too young.”

“We were broken up,” Violet said, sitting the plate down and picked a mug of coffee up off the table, and settled on the couch, pulling a blanket over her bare legs. “You were a single man; I was a single woman. I wouldn’t have the right to be mad.”

“Jesus, Violet, I haven’t slept with anyone else since we met. She offered to help me get over you, but I wasn’t about to take her up on that. I didn’t want to ever get over you.”

Violet smiled and nodded. “I believe you.”

“Good.” He stomped into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. Violet’s voice rang back in his head—she was a single woman… didn’t have the right to be mad. What did she mean by that? Had she slept with someone else? He’d interrupted the end of her date, but he didn’t think that was anything serious. Violet was a sexy woman and other men would find her attractive.

If she had slept with someone else during their time apart, it wasn’t his business, and he didn’t have any right to get upset. The thought of another man touching her made his blood boil. It would drive him insane if he focused on that. What was wrong with him? He wasn’t the jealous type.

J.P. took his mug to the couch and dropped next to Violet.

“Did you sleep with someone else while we were apart?” he asked, before he could stop the words from leaving his mouth.

Violet threw her head back and laughed a loud, hardy, full on belly laugh.

He stopped with the coffee half way to his mouth. “What’s so funny?”

“That I would have slept with anyone.” She wiped tears from her eyes.

“You’re hot, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”

She stared at him for a beat. “You interrupted my one and only date… and I didn’t even want to be on that one.”

“Then why’d you go?” he asked, reaching over and sliding his hand under the blanket and over her warm thigh.

“You were gone and the consensus was that I should get over you.”

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