But that was enough. I was done arguing.
I didn’t need Cooper’s permission to get this done.
I looked through my suitcase for my strappy heels, and instead of holding on to Cooper’s shoulder while I pushed my feet into them, I held on to the wall.
Cooper watched me. “Those shoes look like torture devices.”
“That’s your guy privilege talking.”
“You will one hundred percent have blisters, a sprained ankle, or a missing toe by the end of the night.”
“But high heels are all aboutbeginnings.”
“Isn’t doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result the definition of insanity? Why do you keep doing this to yourself?”
I gave Cooper a look. “We’d need a semester-long college seminar to answer that question.”
“I’m begging you to wear sneakers.”
“And that,” I said, “is why you’d flunk my seminar.”
I stood up and admired my look in the mirror.
Maybe shoes like these were the definition of insanity. But I just didn’t care.
For a second, I hoped we were done with the Finn conversation.
But Cooper wasn’t. He revved back up. “Look,” he said. “I see your eyes glazing over when he talks to you. I see the boredom rising off you like steam. You’re so focused on what you think you’re supposed to want that you can’t feel what’s real. Is that how you want to spend the rest of your life—bored into a coma by a man who can’t appreciate you? Stop selling yourself short, JoJo. Raise your standards!”
But that just made me mad. “My standards were just fine when I was about to marry Pearce Richmond. But you had to fly across an ocean to shut that down, didn’t you?”
“Pearce Richmond was a total wanker,” Cooper said. “Not one cell in his body was good enough for you.”
“But that’s true of everybody, Cooper. According to you! Nobody’s ever good enough for me! Have you ever liked even one person that I’ve dated?” Asking the question made me realize how true the answer was. “No. You’ve hated them all. You’ve mocked them and you’ve picked on them and you’ve fixated on what was wrong with them untilIfixated on what was wrong with them.”
“Only because—” Cooper started. Then he regrouped: “Only because youweretoo good for any of those guys. You need to be with somebody who gets you, and who admires you, and who makes you laugh, and who looks after you. That’s what you deserve, JoJo—and you shouldn’t ever settle for anything less.”
But I’d just made a really good point. Cooper had torn down every guy I’d ever tried to date. I might have spent my life as adumper, and maybe that was on me, but Cooper certainly hadn’t been helping. I felt a surge of indignation as a flash montage of all the men I’d rejected churned through my head.
Next, I leaned toward Cooper until we were eye to eye, and I lifted my brows like a challenge, and I said, “Got any suggestions?”
Cooper looked away.
“I’m serious. Name one person—anybody—who fits your standards. I’ll marry him right now. I’ll marry him tonight.”
Cooper turned to meet my eyes, and there was a funny pause where I had the weirdest feeling like Cooper might nominate… himself.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he just said, in a much quieter voice, “Don’t go tonight. Stay here.”
But I walked toward the door. “I’m going.”
“Why?” Cooper asked as I pulled the door open.
And then I suddenly had this feeling like I needed to give Cooper a real reason.
I wanted him to understand.
