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“Jake, I can’t. I need to get this stuff packed up and then get home.”
“That’s fine,” he stated, “I can always whip up an omelet there.”
“Jaaaake,” she drawled out.
“Cee, face it, you’re stuck with me. I’ve never been the one-night stand type of guy and I’m certainly not gonna start with you.”
Stacey laughed, “You’renota one-night stand kind of guy? You’ve got to be joking. That’s your entire reputation outside of football.”
“It’s what the media portrayed but it’s not the whole story. Most of the girls they say I’ve slept with I’ve never even met.”
“Still don’t you need to be getting back? I mean with all the problems there were getting you here I’d assume you needed to go back, for practice and all.”
“Ha ha, Cee, you know very well that training camp doesn’t start for months, and the only reason I was running late was due to the rain delaying the commercial shoot,” he said pulling her onto his lap as she moved past him to grab her clothes.
“Ooh, a commercial, really?” she asked sarcastically, stopping herself from doing what she wanted so desperately to do.
“Cee,” he growled at her.
“Sorry.” She closed her eyes trying to shake off the desire to kiss him back into the bed. She wiggled enough to slip off his lap and sidestepped his outstretched arm when he tried pulling her back to him. “Last night, this morning,” she conceded, “was amazing and completely unexpected but I can’t do this Jake. I’m sorry if you got the impression that we could continue on for the rest of the day, or night as it is, but I have to be at work bright and early in the morning. I can’t spend the night here, plus I need to get Em’s dress ready to go to the cleaners.”
He laughed walking towards her until she bumped into the back of the couch. “Scaredy-cat.”
“Jake, it was…interesting, seeing you again, and I hope you understand when I tell you that last night, well, it was last night. Blame it on the shock of seeing you in a church at a wedding, seeing you for the first time in eight years, or even on too much champagne, I don’t care, I just can’t let it go anywhere.”
“Why not?” he asked placing his arms on either side of her and leaning down his lips barely a breath space away.
“Because you live somewhere on the East Coast, while my life is here.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” he argued, “you once wanted a life with me in Georgia, in a tiny little house, working at the car dealership with my dad, so why can’t your life change again?”
“Because I don’twantit to,” she said angrily. “I found a place where I’m simply Stacey. I’m not Jake’s girlfriend, the person holding Jake back, or the girl he left behind. I’m good at my job, I enjoy my job, and I have Emma here.”
“And you can’t incorporate anyone else into this life? Is that why the dates end at five,” he probed.
“No, I don’t…fine, maybe I do end relationships, if you can even call them that, fairly quickly, but it’s because I know exactly where it’s not heading,” she said excusing her actions.
“Ah, so you can immediately look at someone and know what the future holds, can you? I didn’t know you’d gained psychic powers with the move.” He laughed ticking her off even more.
“Stop laughing at me,” she demanded, getting angrier at the smirk on his lips. “I may not know exactly what will happen but after a few dates I’ll know whether or not I can see myself with them in the future and the answer is always the same, no.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” she asked. “Why is it always no? Let’s see, half of the time I catch them in lies, small ones and big ones, and the other half of the time there’s usually nothing there between us.”
“So, lying is a deal breaker?”
“When the lies are about important things yes. I don’t care if they say they like my shoes or dress when they really don’t, but when someone claims that they’re single and you run into them with their wife and three kids the next weekend, yeah, it’s a deal breaker.”
Jake laughed at the idea of Cee with a married man before turning serious and asking her, “What do you see in our future?”
Stacey was aware of what her body wanted, he was still so close, it would only take a fraction of a movement for them to meet mouths and that was all she could think about as they stood there.
“What future?” she finally ground out. “You’re going to leave in a few days, and I won’t see you again.”
“Not likely. There’s going to be birthday parties, anniversaries, christenings, and many other occasions I’ll be needed for.”
“You’ve never been to one before,” she said raising her eyebrow.
