I’d give anything in the world to make it stop and rewind to five minutes ago when she was laughing and teasing me with the pizza on the bed.
He did this to her.
“Don’t,” I say abruptly.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to cry.” She wipes at her nose.
“You can always cry to me. You’re just going to have to understand that it drives me crazy.” I kneel down, taking her hands. “And I’m going to have to do everything in my power to make you happy again.” I stroke the tears off her face.
“Don’t go see him, Jenna. He doesn’t deserve you.”
She looks at me, her eyes shimmering.
“What? No way! My dad finally wants to get to know me. We might do, I don’t know, Friday-night dinners. I have siblings I never met. This could fix everything. I make terrible decisions in my romantic life because of the hole he left behind, and now I’m finally going to heal. He’ll walk me down the aisle.” She sounds unhinged as she babbles.
I grab her shoulders. “He’s not walking you down the aisle. I know men like him. You’re going to get hurt. He only wants to be in your life to get to me.”
“Hewhat? No, he doesn’t. God, you’re such an asshole.” Jenna’s crying again. “I can’t believe I thought—” She jumps up.
“I didn’t mean it like that. Jenna, wait. Just stop giving these men pieces of your heart. Because I want it too. You have to save some of it for me.”
“Stop lying to me!” Jenna screams at me.
“I’m not!” I bellow the words at her. “I want you. I told you, I want you to love me. Don’t forget I’m rich. That means I can have whatever I want. And I want you.”
“Well, I want to keep my job.”
“Then marry me, and you’ll never have to work.”
“I’m not marrying you,” she sputters. “I just met you.”
I don’t move. Then my fingers drift through her hair. “Will you hit me if I kiss you?”
Jenna slaps my hand away. “I know you like to play with your food. I’m not just rolling over for you.”
“I mean, you did…”
A rash of red appears on her cheeks. “I don’t care what you say. I know you don’t care about me. You’re just screwing around with my feelings.”
My eyes flick across her face. My hand drops. “Guess you know all my tells, don’t you?”
40
JENNA
The next evening, I’m wearing my nice dress, the one I wear to interviews or dates with men who have real jobs with a 401(k) and health insurance. It’s about to rain, so I decide to splurge on a ride-share from the office. My dad lives in a nice neighborhood on one of the hills surrounding Seattle. I need to impress him.
“Do you think hair up or down?” I ask Hannah nervously in the women’s bathroom before I leave.
“You need a haircut, so definitely up.”
“Maybe I should have sprung for a blowout.”
Hannah makes a face at me in the mirror. “You remember your high school graduation?” she asks delicately as she twists my hair up on top of my head.
“Yeah?” I’m trying not to sound defensive, because I’m not, you know. “Dad was busy. He had a work trip.”
“Sure, sure. Just… you bought that new dress, and we went to the mall so you could have your makeup done, and he ghosted you.”
