Page 39 of Mr. Big Shot

His eyes widen with horror. “No.”

“Okay…”

He sighs and rubs the back of his neck, mumbling, “Forget it.”

That’s impossible. The more he doesn’t want me to know, the more I have to press. It’s human instinct.

“I’m just trying to understand your side of it,” I say, trying to be helpful.

He toys with the handle on his coffee mug. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Is it the time thing? Like I said, I understand how you might have felt like you weren’t—”

“No, Scarlett. Jesus, just…I don’t feel like we mesh well together.”

“What?”

I resist the urge to add, Speak up. He’s talking so meekly. His shoulders are slumped and he’s leaned forward so that his mouth is aimed at his legs, not at me.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s—”

“It’s what?” I prod impatiently. “Just say it.”

“I feel like we’re not compatible.” He looks up, resigned now. “That way, you know? I mean god, I hate to say it like this. I feel like a complete ass, but sometimes it just felt a little—”

“What?”

“Boring. In bed.”

I freeze. Blink. Process. My anger drew the words from his lips, and I can tell he regrets them the second they’re out there, plunked down between us like a living, breathing thing.

I feel the color drain from my face.

Sex with me is boring.

He’s been bored.

I’m baffled enough that I don’t immediately do anything. I sit and I stare at him, trying to sort through this new font of insecurity he’s just dumped on my head. I’m boring in bed. Boring. BOREDOM.

“I…”

Nothing comes after the first word. I just let it dangle there before I start to scoot out of the booth in a trancelike state. I’m walking away before I realize I forgot my purse. I turn back and grab it, toss down a few dollars for my coffee and wasted breakfast, all while Jasper fumbles over his words, trying to reach out and take my hand. I won’t let him. He thinks I want him touching me?

“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings, Scarlett. That’s not what this is about. I just, I’d want someone to tell me.”

Oh my god. He thinks he’s a hero! He thinks he’s doing a great act of service or something! “Someone had to tell her.”

I close my eyes to try to push my anger deep down inside me. If he keeps talking, if he keeps digging himself deeper into this hole, I truly will lose it.

“I get it, Jasper. Seriously. Say no more.”

“You can just be a little uptight.”

“Oh my god. SHUT UP.”

He could have just let me break up with him over a short stack. We could have cut into our hash browns and plowed through some crispy bacon like civilized adults, but now I have about thirty years of therapy I need to be getting to, so if you’ll excuse me…

“Scarlett,” he pleads as I walk away. He’s delusional if he thinks I’m turning back.

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