Page 39 of Agony

“Think about it,” he said turning left when the arrow turned green. “It’s a brand new relationship and you’re already having lunch with another guy. You’re not responding to text messages. Not to mention you’re a beautiful girl, Neve. Who wouldn’t be jealous?”

Oh.

My face turned bright red. I looked out the window as the streets went by. We were only three blocks away from home and I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got there.

“You can pull into the driveway in the back,” I said to him, pointing to my small apartment building.

No sooner did Jareth pull in and put the car in park, did the front door of my apartment fly open and Adesynne walk out. She put her hands on her hips and started to tap her foot impatiently.

“Just like a mother,” I said to Jareth rolling my eyes. “I’ll tell you all about her on Monday. Thanks for lunch. And for the ride.”

“No problem. If you want, I can go inside and introduce myself to your boyfriend. Kind of put him at ease you know,” he offered.

“That may not be a good idea. I don’t know. Sadly, I don’t know Arsen well enough to know what a good idea is,” I replied with a laugh.

“Well, if he’s upset, give him my number. I’ll talk him down for you,” he said with a lopsided grin.

“Thanks, Jareth,” I said, getting out of the car.

I had to get out. Immediately because that was the first time I saw that lopsided grin and it almost knocked me over.

I walked over to Addie who looked like she was ready to strangle me. I turned and waved at Jareth as he pulled out and drove off.

“How much trouble am I in?” I asked her quietly.

“With Arsen? None; he went home two hours ago. With me? There’s hell to pay. Get inside,” she said, stepping aside to let me in.

I sighed heavily and walked into my apartment, dropping my purse by the door. I went over to my couch and plopped down, tucking my legs underneath myself and Addie sat down across from me with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Tell me all about him!” she squealed suddenly with a big smile on her face.

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“Is he even hotter when you’re that close to him?” she asked, leaning forward.

“Wait a second, before we wander off into Jareth Land, is Arsen mad?” I asked her.

“No. He was just worried really. When we pulled up and he saw Jareth he asked me if that was him and when I said yes, he gripped the steering wheel so hard, I thought he was going to snap it. It was like instant jealousy. I told him he has nothing to worry about, but I don’t think he was listening,” she said.

“Then what were text messages about?”

“OH! He was just asking me a million and one questions about your previous relationships. Like why they ended and stuff. Then when I finally got to the point where I was going to rip my hair out, he called Max and launched into a game of fifty questions about Jareth.” Addie looked at me uneasily for a moment before she spoke again. “I, uh, I think Max offered him some work at the end of their call. Arsen said something like, ‘No thanks. Some other time. I don’t need any money’ or something like that,” she said.

I stared at her for a moment. Arsen turned down the opportunity to screw some chick while I was out for five hours with another man. Impressive.

“Hand me my phone please?”

Addie reached for my purse and fished out my phone. She tossed it to me and sat back.

I opened my recent call log and pressed on Arsen’s name.

“Hey, baby doll,” Arsen said when he answered.

“Hey! What are you up to?” I asked cheerfully.

“Just laying here watching TV,” he replied. “How was lunch?”

“It was okay. I got the low down of what I’m going to be doing. I have to be at the studio at four in the morning on Monday,” I said.

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