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"Goodnight, Jake," I said and walked out of the room, leaving him standing there.
I went back to my house and shut the door. What the fuck was I doing?
I'd been attracted to him before but this was ridiculous.
I kicked off my shoes and stripped out of my dress and got in the shower. The hot water washed away the scent of Jake from my skin and the memory of his hands.
When I was done, I dried off and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.
I climbed in bed and grabbed my phone. Becca and Laney had already left messages in our group chat.
Becca: You two are cute as hell.
Laney: Can't wait to hear all the sordid details tomorrow!
Ugh. I groaned. I wish I could tell them the complicated truth, but I couldn't. They could wait until tomorrow. I turned off my phone and rolled over.
What the hell had I done?
The next day, I was sitting on the porch drinking coffee when Laney and Becca showed up.
"Spill it," Becca said, flopping down into one of the wicker chairs across from me.
"There's not much to spill," I lied, and took a drink.
"We want to know how it all started," Laney said.
"Okay," I said and recounted the story we had told Sara at the coffee shop.
Becca wrinkled her brow and shot Laney a look before saying, "I call bullshit."
"Why?"
"Because you wouldn't go for him. You've hated him since you moved here."
"I wouldn't say hated."
"Molly, come on. It was obvious," Laney chimed in.
"Okay, but it wasn't personal. Our disagreements were purely pedagogical."
"What?" Becca said.
"He likes standardization and I'm more free form."
"Who cares about that?" Becca interrupted. "Have you slept together? And what's the deal with the dating profiles? I heard from a few people that he messaged them, asking a bunch of weird questions and then ghosted them."
I chose to skip her first question. "Like I told you the other day, those are fake accounts."
As they pressed for spicy details on me and Jake, my mind wandered to his mysterious ex-wife who had abandoned him and young Hailey years ago. I knew little of what happened.
"Enough about us," I interjected, straightening up. "I want to know more about Natasha, you know, Jake's notoriously flighty ex-wife who ditched town?"
Becca and Laney exchanged raised eyebrows. "Ooo, digging into the family history already? Brave!" Becca teased.
I rolled my eyes but leaned forward eagerly. The bits and pieces I knew suggested there was more beneath Jake's surface bitterness whenever Natasha arose.
Laney sighed. "Honestly she was kind of a spoiled ballerina mean girl type, like Becca but without a heart.
