Page 7 of Unrealistic Expectations

That string of names seemed to ring a bell, probably because he’d hooked up with three out of four. “Jessica?”

She pressed the tip of her finger to the side of her nose and winked at him. It was kind of flirty, but she was allowed to flirt now and then. There was absolutely nothing wrong with flirting now that she was single. And if it lifted his mood around the defamation of his dick, all the better.

“You’re not going to tell anyone about this, are you?” he asked. Jessica felt a pang of guilt about her earlier intention of gossiping about Galvin with her friends. He wasn’t a client, but people came to her with problems all the time outside of a therapeutic relationship. Although she’d used some heavily anonymized anecdotes in her book, she would never reveal someone’s private business if they didn’t want her to.

“I can keep a secret—unless your dick murdered someone or intends to cause someone imminent harm.” Jessica chuckled when he looked puzzled. “I’m a therapist. Mandatory reporter.” When he still looked befuddled by the words coming out of her mouth, she said, “Never mind.”

“A therapist, really?” He looked impressed rather than disgusted, which was good. She didn’t know why she was so relieved that he wasn’t in the “therapy is for the weak” camp. That camp had been shrinking for decades, but she was always surprised how often she came across someone who wanted to debate the merits of her life’s work. “You were always a great listener.”

Jessica’s skin heated as she took in his words. She never thought that he’d noticed her. Even though her looks had never been an issue, she’d always been pretty reserved in social situations, preferring to linger around the edges and observe than be the center of attention. And Galvin had always been right there, in the center of attention, with center-of-attention girls. So the fact that he had paid attention to anything about her was disarming.

He kept looking at her and he rubbed his thumb across his bottom lip before speaking. “If you haven’t seen the video, I kind of don’t want to tell you what happened. I don’t want to change the way you’re looking at me.”

Her internal temperature increased by about a thousand degrees. Jessica shook her head, trying to dissolve the frankly impure thoughts she was having about someone entirely inappropriate—whether she was in a relationship or single. Galvin Baker would eat her alive.

She was reserved with her heart because she knew how fragile hearts could be. And some people might be into casual hookups and could prevent themselves from having feelings, but that wasn’t for her. She knew her strengths, and her ability to create emotional distance only extended as far as her office door. The most disheartening thing about being newly single after a long relationship was that she was going to have to play the games and join the apps for the first time. She knew that it was just how things were done, but it made her want to crawl into a hole and never emerge.

She especially didn’t want to face the highs of meeting people she could see a future with, quickly followed by the lows of getting ghosted over and over again. She talked to people riding that roller coaster every day, and it hurt her emotionally even though it wasn’t happening to her. It might have been the reason she’d clung to the contentment and relative safety of her relationship with Luke for so long. Because she was susceptible to the romantic dreamy outlook that had completely derailed her mother’s life—and hers. She just knew the consequences of having unrealistic expectations of what a real relationship would look and feel like. And she refused to fall for the Hollywood paradigm for love and relationships.

She actually really needed to know about the contents of the video that seemed to bother Galvin so much. She needed for the video to reveal something awful about him so she wouldn’t be attracted to him anymore. If she could get the “ick,” she could stop thinking about his dimples, his bottom lip, and the way he smelled. If she didn’t nip it in the bud right now, she’d end up having a crush, and that would be truly stupid of her.

“Tell me about this video.” Jessica put on her most empathic expression. “Obviously, I’m not your therapist, but I can try to be a friend.”

—

Jessica Gallagher was really pretty. Like, really pretty. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t remembered who she was when she’d walked up to him. She hadn’t seen the video, which meant that he might have had a shot with her if he hadn’t fucked it all up.

Though, she was pretty, but she wasn’t really his type. Never had been. She was way too smart to get involved with someone like him. Even when they were eighteen years old, she’d seemed to have her shit together. And no interest in him. But even though he knew that he didn’t have a shot now, he couldn’t help but notice that she’d gotten better with age. Her long, brown curls and eyes that toggled between brown and an earthy green hadn’t changed since college, but he specifically remembered that she’d always dressed really conservatively, in dark colors, as though she wanted to disappear into the background.

Now, however, she dressed to emphasize her curves, and her whole energy was different. Like she was at home in herself. She’d even been flirting with him. The one time he tried to talk to her in college, she’d glared at him over a copy of a textbook that she’d been reading while her roommates were getting ready to go out for the night. Tonight, she’d winked at him.

He was the one who hadn’t changed much since college. Sure, he’d gotten older and had the patina to prove it. But he hadn’t changed his behavior. Until the video, he’d been dating and hooking up as though feelings weren’t really part of the equation. He never got in deep—had made it a point to keep things shallow—and now he was flirting with a therapist?

She’d asked about the video, but he didn’t want to tell her. He wanted her to keep looking at him with compassion. But she could Google search it easily enough if he declined, and it was better that she heard the story from him.

“So I was dating this influencer, Kennedy Mower?” Jessica didn’t look like that was ringing any bells, either. Jessica was probably so self-contained that she didn’t even have social media. “Her dad is Benjamin Mower, the movie producer?”

The recognition dawned on Jessica’s face. Of course she knew of the Oscar-winning producer. She was probably the type of woman who only watched Academy Award–nominated films. Though she’d been as sweet and awkward as the female main character in a romantic comedy a few moments ago—which he found charming for some reason when it was her—she probably thought that rom-coms were not worthy of her time and attention.

“Oh yeah, his daughter sells detox teas on Instagram now, right?” Jessica asked, clearly not impressed with his choices.

Galvin nodded. “Yeah, we met at a party for James Fahereghty.” Her eyes got wide when he mentioned the movie star. “Not my usual crowd, but I designed his new house.”

For some reason, he didn’t want her to think that he hung out with Hollywood people in his everyday life. The more he thought about his relationship with Kennedy, the more embarrassed he was by the whole thing—not just the ending. He’d never felt comfortable hanging out with her and her friends, and he hadn’t liked the feeling that every moment with her could be caught on camera and dissected by people on social media.

Sure, he’d been in magazines before because of specific commissions—the Architectural Digest spread about James’s house included—but he wasn’t famous. People didn’t know him by name outside of a relatively small community of architects who worked in high-end residential real estate. In the larger world of architecture, his parents’ firm—which only designed commercial projects—was much more well-known.

He was just beginning to break out. Or, he had been before the debacle with Kennedy. No one had fired him, so he was still busy for the next two years. His parents already didn’t approve of his choice to go into residential work, and they’d already made it clear that this level of notoriety was “an unacceptable embarrassment.” It pained him to think of getting the “I told you so” that his parents were dying to give him if his career petered out because of his association with Kennedy.

But Jessica wasn’t looking like she was judging him. Of course, this was probably just her professional face. She might be judging up a storm behind those almost-hypnotic eyes. He felt drawn to her in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time. He wanted to stick his face in the space between her neck and shoulder and commit her scent to memory. It wasn’t just that she was pretty. She was compelling and layered, like a bottle of Burgundy from a very good year.

He resisted and forced himself to tell her the rest of the story. “We weren’t ever that serious. I don’t usually do serious.” That last part left him with a little bit of shame. He’d been thinking about the fact that he didn’t do serious and the reasons why since his breakup. For the first time in his life, he’d been forced to do actual self-examination. Other than disagreeing with his formerly very supportive parents about his career, he’d had it easy his whole life. And now, he was falling apart at the very first sign of struggle. “But she thought we were going to get engaged, and I broke up with her. I thought she took it well, but she went home and made a video saying that I never made her come.”

Jessica’s eyes got big at that part, and it made it even more painful to tell her the story. The one thing he’d always tried to do was to be honest, even when it hurt. Which was sort of what had gotten him here, with his reputation in tatters. Maybe if he had let Kennedy down more easily, they both could have moved on.

Or maybe he really was trash in bed, and that part made him feel shame and took a sledgehammer to his confidence. He’d never worried about that before. He knew where the clitoris was, and he’d always thought that he knew what he was doing with one. But Kennedy’s video had brought it into question. He’d never been interested in a long-term commitment, but he’d always thought that his casual relationships were mutually beneficial. If they weren’t, if he’d been lying to himself, he felt like a real asshole.

“Well, is that true?” Jessica asked, surprising him. Most people believed Kennedy, and Galvin frankly didn’t blame them. But he’d slept with plenty of women who were effusive in their praise of his willingness to do anything for their pleasure, though he didn’t quite feel confident that they were telling the truth anymore.

---