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No answer that time, either. But on this third—and, honestly, not even final—viewing, I noticed something more interesting than the shock on Jack’s face.
At minute 8:03, just in the wake of her kiss attempt when she’d pulled on his T-shirt, as Jack turned back to the camera, his shirt was askew. Kennedy Monroe had pulled it forward and shifted the collar down.
Which revealed his leather necklace for the first time.
I zoomed in a little on his face, letting my eyes savor him for minute. Why not? A victimless crime.
And that’s when I noticed more than just Drew’s necklace.
Hanging from Jack’s neck, right there—colorful and defiant and unmistakable—was my beaded safety pin.
I DIDN’T EVENhave time to react to the sight of it before there was a knock at my apartment door.
I looked through the peephole, and it was Robby, still wearing his sunglasses inside, like a douchebag.
“Go away, Robby!” I shouted through the door.
“I can’t hear you!” Robby shouted. “Soundproofing!”
I cracked the door to shout Go away! again, but, as I did, Robby wedged his toe into the crack.
“I need to talk to you,” Robby said. “Let me in.”
“I’m not letting you in,” I said. I looked down at his shoe holding my door open.
Robby stepped back. “I really need to talk to you,” he said, taking the sunglasses off and glancing over at Taylor, stoic as hell.
“Talk, then.”
“Inside.”
“You’re not coming inside.”
“Look,” Robby said, glancing sideways at Taylor again. “I know that when you were out on the ranch you were in Jack Stapleton’s clutches, but I’m hoping now that you’re free, you can think a little more rationally.”
I kept my eyes level. “I was never in anyone’s clutches, Robby. Not even yours.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I’m in the middle of something, so—”
“I knew dumping you was a mistake as soon as the plane landed in Madrid.”
I paused. “So you went after Taylor.”
“I was sad! I was lonely! I was rejected!”
“You dumped me!”
Robby glanced over at Taylor, and then decided to keep talking, anyway. “I didn’t even like her, okay? She was just… there.”
I felt a glimmer of empathy for Taylor’s ears, hearing that. “You realize that makes it so much worse.”
“At a hard time in my life, she was better than nothing, okay? That’s all she was.”
Did it feel good to win like that in front of Taylor?
Undecided.
