Page 51 of The Other Room

“Y-O-U are what is wrong with her tonight, dumbass! She’s crazy about you!”

I choked on the sip of beer I’d just taken, almost spitting it out in her face, but I managed to gulp it down. “What?” I gasped.

Jenna tapped me on the forehead with each word. “Are. You. Stupid?”

“No. I’m not... what? What the hell do you mean she’s crazy about me?”

The bar spun around me while I tried to digest her words.

“Jo is in love with you. She’s been in love with you forever. And you’re in love with her. It’s like, HELLO!” She flicked me on the head. “Dumbass.”

Jo is in love with me?

Impossible.

“No way. Jo thinks of me as a friend. Only a friend.”

Jenna shook her head. “You really are as dense as a door. Jo pretends to think of you like a friend, the same way you pretend to think of her only as a friend.”

Was it that obvious? My feelings for Jo weren’t a secret? Desperate to keep up the ruse I’d been playing for the better part of my life, I shook my head.

“No. We’re just friends, Jenna. You’re way off.”

Crossing her arms, she shook her head. “Nope. I’m not off. Not even a little. I’m dead freaking on.”

“Jo doesn’t like me like that.”

With the roll of her eyes, she placed her hands on my shoulders. “Do you know what I do for a living?”

“Um, yeah. You’re a wedding planner.”

“Do you know what that means, Matt?”

“Um, that you plan weddings?”

Where is this going?

“It means that I spend every day, day in and day out, with couples who are in love. I know love. And I can determine with 100% accuracy which couples are going to make it and which ones will be having a date in divorce court based on one thing.”

“What thing?”

“The way they look at each other. The energy that moves between them. It’s palpable. And you and Jo?” She scoffed. “I could do a freaking polka on the connection between you. It’s there. And it’s real. Even if you dumbasses won’t admit it.”

She flicked my head again.

“Ow! Stop it!” I laughed, swatting her hand away.

“I’m telling you; I know what I know. This is my skill. My gift. My superpower. And I’m telling you that my superpower is certain you and Jo are totally and completely in love with each other. I’m never wrong. If I was a baseball player, I’d be batting a zero.”

I arched a brow. “A zero? That means you suck.”

“What? Oh. I thought zero meant the number of times I struck out.”

“No. Zero means the number of times you hit the ball. I think you mean you’re batting a thousand.”

“Oh. Well, whatever!” She tossed up her hands again. “Then I’m the batting a thousand player. I kick ass at this.”

“I... it’s not possible, Jenna. She doesn’t like me like that.”