“Yeah, he’s just really overworked so it takes him forever to get through everything he has to do,” she replied, toying with the bottom of his shirt. “It’s not a big deal,” Jordyn added but was caught off guard by his next words.
“Yes it is. I’ll change them for you later today.” Steve pushed away from the door and headed toward her bedroom to get dressed.
“You don’t have to do that.” Jordyn bit her lip and followed him down the hall. Clearing her throat, Jordyn paused in the doorway to watch him pull on his jeans. “It’s okay, really,” she insisted, moving to her dresser in search of clothes. Keeping her eyes focused on the drawer in front of her, Jordyn pulled on a pair of underwear and shorts before rooting around for one of her own shirts. If he was set on leaving it was only polite to give the man his shirt back.
“I don’t want him coming back here bothering you,” he said, watching her take his shirt off.
“I’ll keep the chain on the door until it gets fixed,” Jordyn replied while pulling on her own shirt and turned to face him, his shirt in her hands.
Steve moved toward her, putting his hands over hers. “I don’t like it.”
“What?” Jordyn forced her eyes up from his chest because it was hard to try and not stare at all the colorful ink. If she could only get a few undisturbed minutes just to look at him and see what was what, but now wasn’t the time, not when he was getting ready to leave. Plus, there was the irritating matter of discussing how to best keep her ex out.
“Him. Coming back here and messing with you. I don’t like it,” he said, looking uncomfortable admitting it.
“Steve, it’s jus—” she began, but he kissed her. Jordyn’s lips parted under his attention, but a second later she frowned at the distraction. Steve, it seemed, was not playing fair. “No fair,” she muttered when he let her go.
Steve winked at her and backed her up against the dresser. “I don’t like it. And I’m coming back here tonight after work, and I’m changing the locks, Jordyn.” His tone made it clear that he wasn’t asking, he was telling, so she nodded.
“Thank you, Steve.”
Chapter Eight
Jordyn staredat herself in the mirror, turning her face first to one side and then the other. She leaned forward, hands going to the side of her bathroom sink, and stared hard. She didn’t normally spend this much time staring at herself, not if she wasn’t putting on makeup or doing her hair, and if it wasn’t the morning after such a big night for her, she wouldn’t be doing so now.
She pushed back from the sink and turned away leaving the bathroom and shutting off the light on her way out. Of course she didn’t look any different, it was just sex. Even if it had been for the first time, there was nothing to give away what she had finally done for herself. Yes, she wasn’t a virgin anymore, and she wasn’t taking Alex’s shit anymore, but she was still the same woman that had been in the mirror the morning before, and all the mornings before today.
She entered her bedroom, dressing quickly, but she paused at the foot of her bed, flats in hand and took in the rumpled state of her bedding. She normally made it neat and orderly every morning, but she didn’t this morning. Jordyn liked knowing that she hadn’t spent her time there alone last night, that Steve had been in it with her, that he might...be in it again before long. Maybe even tonight. Steve had said he was coming back, hadn’t he? And if he was coming back, she was not going to pass up another night with the man---anyone that did would be out of their mind and Jordyn was, for once, in full possession of herself.
And besides, another night with Steve would be well worth the trouble Alex had caused this morning. She slipped on her flats and headed for the door, snagging her purse and jacket on her way out. It was the weekend and that meant two things—two reliable things—she could count on on a Sunday morning.
Brunch and Dora.
Dora was her best friend, her oldest and closest friend, and she had never liked Alex. They’d been friends since high school, and for all of Jordyn’s trust and love for Alex, Dora had never been fooled. She would, no doubt, be ecstatic over the wild ride her life had taken in the last twenty-four hours. She locked her door and paused there, fingers flexing on the door knob in her hand as she blew out a deep breath.
“What the hell is even going on?” She whispered, forehead coming to rest against her door for a second before she turned on her heel and set off for her car. She crossed the length of the breezeway and then down the two stories of stairs to the parking lot. Just a day ago her life had seemed so sure and safe, all of it planned out. But, now? Now nothing was certain. And yet, it didn’t scare Jordyn in the way she had thought it might.
The chaos of it was exciting. It made her feel far more alive than her carefully planned future with Alex had ever given her, and she wondered what else she had turned herself off to in her relationship with him.
The drive to Dora’s house only took a few minutes, and when Jordyn arrived, she grabbed her phone to fire off a text letting Dora know she was there.
‘Broke up with Alex. I need pancakes.’
A minute or two passed before Dora's front door flew open and her friend ran out toward her, an expression of glee on her face. She raised her hands over her head, jacket slipping down her shoulder as she sprinted down the sidewalk towards Jordyn’s car.
“I can’t believe you broke up with that dipshit!” Dora howled, throwing herself into the car and hugging Jordyn as hard as she could. “He was a fucking tool, you know,” she added as she buckled her seatbelt and tossed her purse onto the floorboard. “Where are we getting pancakes? I’m starved. Tell me everything.”
“I know.” Jordyn raised her hands to the steering wheel and leaned forward, forehead touching the steering wheel in front of her. “What did I see in him? What?” She groaned.
“You got taken in by those choirboy good looks and seemingly perfectly pious personality,” Dora replied blithely, hands coming in front of her to press together palm-to-palm. “I knew he was a snake from day one.”
Jordyn raised her head from the steering wheel and sighed. “I feel like an idiot,” she muttered and started up her car.
“Why do you feel like an idiot? You were in love and believed him.”
Jordyn drove down the street, fingers clenched on the steering wheel. “And he lied to me. I was stupid to believe him. I should have—”
“What? Known better?” Dora waved a hand in front of her. “That’s not what love is, and even though I never trusted him or liked him, because best friends have good shithead radar,” Jordyn laughed at that. “That doesn’t mean that you have to feel stupid for taking his word at face value. That’s what you do when you’re in love. You trust, Jordyn.”
