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“I gotta go along with Jack on this one,” I say, folding my arms and convincing myself that I can stand up straight without wobbling. But my brain is spinning, and I’m getting that unsteady feeling in my stomach that warns that systems are not stable. Still, I soldier on. “He’s been nothing but honest with me all night. Which is more than I can say for you.”
Brice snorts at this. “So you did sleep with him. Was it for business or pleasure? Maybe both?”
If this were a movie, I would slap him right now. Instead I shake my head in complete disbelief. “Hypocrite much? How do you think I ended up in this situation? I was planning to surprise you the other night after our long fight, but when I stopped by your hospital room, what did I find but this pretty, young thing bouncing about in your room?”
The nurse standing behind him goes to open her mouth, but Brice beats her to it before she can part her pretty lips. “Are you talking about Tuesday?”
“Tuesday? Is that a name?” Jack asks looking over the nurse.
She sighs and prepares a line I bet she’s repeated a thousand times in her life. “My parents were hippies. I’m just glad I wasn’t born one day earlier. No one likes Mondays.”
I’m not sure what to do with this information, so after digesting the fact that this nurse’s name is Tuesday, I turn back to Brice. “You slept with a girl named Tuesday?”
“Tuesday is my cousin,” Brice says.
“You slept with your cousin?” Jack asks.
“No!” Brice and Tuesday reply in unison.
Then Brice sighs and explains, “I haven’t seen Tuesday since we were kids. That’s why you’ve never met her. Her mom and my mom are sisters, but they had a spat and her family moved to the coast. She’s completing her nursing training at my hospital. We just happened to run into each other.”
This makes perfect sense, except one little thing. “I saw her leaning over your bed. Kissing you.”
Brice and Tuesday first look at each other, faces sharing the same confusion. Then Brice laughs. “Not kissing. It’s an old game we used to play. I guess it’s weird now that we’re grown up, but we used to have staring contests with our faces really close. That’s probably what you saw. Tuesday was trying to cheer me up because I was sure I was losing you.”
Definitely weird, but that’s not what I’m focusing on now. “You thought you were losing me? I thought I was losing you.”
“You’re crazy,” Brice says. He motions with his hands down at his body. “Look at me. I’m not exactly the manly stud I once was.” Despite how serious he is as he says this, he can’t help the half grin that lifts at the corner of his mouth when he talks about himself being a stud. “I was sure I was going to lose you. Maybe not right away, but eventually. Then I found out you were still filming and it became a certainty in my mind.”
He grimaces as he says this last part. Then he looks over at Jack.
“They were all solo scenes,” I blurt out. Tuesday blushes so that her whole body takes on a pinkish hue. “Nobody else. I told you that.”
Jack lets his head fall back on his neck, looking at the ceiling for just a second. Then he’s back, pointing at the door and saying, “That’s more than enough drama for one day. Now get out. All of you. I doubt you’re planning to stay, are you Tess?”
I’m certainly not.
While Tuesday takes hold of Brice’s wheelchair, Jack grabs my wrist and places his other hand low on my waist. “Just know that my offer still stands.”
Thankfully Brice doesn’t see this or he would go ballistic.
With a forceful pull back, I break out of Jack’s grip. No longer am I seeing the events of the past twelve hours in the same light. It’s like I’ve just broken free from an eel that had wrapped itself around me. And now that I’m not entranced by his charm, I can see how artificial and sad Jack’s life is. He’s surrounded himself with anything he could want except the one thing he truly seems to desire: companionship. I wonder, briefly, if he has even a single friend that actually cares about him, but then I turn back to where Brice and his cousin are waiting for me. I don’t know if Jack has a friend, but he hasn’t won any points with me.
So I turn my back on him and a partnership that would no doubt make my life easier. But I also know for sure that it isn’t what I need. Because I’m pretty sure I’ve already got that base covered.
Part V
The Curtains Open
Chapter 17
I’m not ready to make up with Brice just yet. It doesn’t matter that Tuesday actually has pictures of them from when they were toddlers taking a bath together to prove that they are very much relatives. It doesn’t matter that I have no rational reason to still be upset with him.
I can’t shake how it felt when I was sure he had betrayed me.
After leaving Jack’s penthouse, we start out on the long walk back to the hospital. According to Tuesday, Brice made her push him the eleven blocks to Jack’s place after his phone call with Greg. When Tuesday talks, she still doesn’t look me in the eyes. I wonder what she must think of me now that she knows my profession.
“Thanks for bringing him all the way out here,” I say. I sidle up beside her and place my hands just above hers on the wheelchair handles. “I’ll take over from here.”
