Page 39 of Slow Burn (The Boston Beauties)

DREW:She’s super shy but clearly very talented

JESSA:and beautiful

DREW:Yeah, she is, but she’s not you! So, stop wherever your mind is going

JESSA:I love you.

DREW:I love you more, chat in a bit.

I checked in with Jessa on and off all evening via text, as I typically always did. Breton knew who I was chatting with; there was only one person I had a silly grin permanently plastered on my face for, and he knew me well enough. Because of this, I needed to be careful around Zoe, she was too perceptive.

‘What’s she up to?’ Breton asked me, nodding to my phone.

I looked up to him and shrugged, ‘She’s reading and trying some new recipe.’

‘God, she’s intense with this cooking shit,’ he rolled his eyes. ‘When I saw her a few weeks ago, she was all about trying to make healthy banana bread, like, what the fuck! It has a fruit in it, what more do you want from a bread.’

I laughed but was surprised he mentioned so casually he’d seen her, and recently. ‘Where is she?’ I leaned in asking in a low voice.

‘Apparently, if it has any sugar, carbs, taste, or air, it's not healthy enough,’ he moaned. ‘And of course, she insisted I test each one and report back. Do you know how nasty some of that shit was?’ he shook his head. ‘Made me want to get back to the camp in the middle of the desert where we were on rations at one point.’

I looked up to him. He was drunk, he had to be, he was talking so freely, but sat up when Lana came back. He was a bit more cautious, yet he still talked about Jessa. ‘And reading has become like an obsession for her. She’s into this series on Facebook or some blog, she stalks the site all day until the next chapter is released and don’t get me started with her addiction to the forum chat about the chapters.’

Lana giggled, ‘She could set up an alert.’

‘That’s all she needs, more encouragement.’ Breton rolled his eyes and caught himself, knowing that he was openly talking about Jessa. However, it wasn't like anyone knew who we were talking about. Likely, if they were listening in, they would have figured Breton had finally gotten himself a girlfriend.

‘Let me guess, you’re reading it too?’ I asked Lana.

She blushed and couldn’t look us in the eye. I laughed at her, I’d read some of the chapters out of curiosity, to see what all the fuss was about. It was blush-worthy, for sure.

‘I think everyone is reading it, even Colleen and my mother are reading the bloody thing.’

I laughed at him, ‘I see you have truly been around a bunch of bloody Brits too long.’

He hit me. ‘There’s vampires, I’m sure there’s blood.’

I shook my head at him, then turned back to Lana, ‘Is it really that good?’

She shrugged, looking a bit embarrassed again. ‘I guess, I like it. There’s some talk about it being made into a movie, but that’s the inside scoop, nothing’s been confirmed yet.’

CHAPTER 12

DREW

I stood at the train station in Manchester staring at the screen, willing it to change and tell me what platform I needed to get to. With any luck, it would be one of the close ones. I’d hardly had any sleep in the past three days; Arab weddings were long busy events. It had been amazing spending the past few days with my best friend Ali, and seeing his family again, but I was exhausted. I arrived tired after a summer of all work, no play, and little sleep. This weekend only added to it. If there was a state past shattered, I was well and truly there.

All I wanted to do was get on the train, drop the bag I was carrying around and pass out for a few hours before a final night of partying with my other friends in London. A few hours of shut eye is all I really needed. It wasn't like I was hungover as Ali and his family didn’t drink and the wedding had been a dry event. So at least there was that. But knowing my friends, my liver would be making up for it later tonight.

I looked at my phone to see if there was a message from Jessa, but there wasn’t. I wanted her to join me for the wedding, but she said it wasn’t a good idea and traveling wasn’t a smart move for her.

She had been rather absent this past weekend. I hoped it was just that she was giving me my space to spend time with my friends, but as I pointed out repeatedly, she never had to take a back seat. If she wasn’t there in person, I didn't want her to be silent either.

She said she was busy, but I always worried about her. I broke down a few weeks ago during one of our phone calls and asked her if she was seeing anyone. She laughed for a full minute, then called me a dumbass. ‘Seriously, how could I even entertain the idea?’

‘It’s just you’re doing all this self-discovery, I’m wondering if you’re...you know?’

‘If you are asking if I’ve hooked up with anyone, the answer is a flat no,’ she informed me. ‘I may be working on finding myself, but my heart is complete. I don’t need to explore that any further.’

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